Hi! I would have posted sooner but I didn’t have Internet access until now. So here’s the story of how I got here:

I flew from Minneapolis to Washington D.C., arriving in D.C. around 4:30 p.m. Friday. Then I had a quick half hour before my flight to Kuwait City was boarding. It was kind of fun to see the size differences of the planes. The plane to D.C. was tiny, it had two seats on each side of the plane. The plane to Kuwait City was HUGE, there were three rows of three seats. It was pretty nice too, they served us dinner about an hour and a half into the flight. I then had some time to watch a movie until I tried to go to sleep, and there were so many movie and TV choices that I had a hard time deciding! (I went with “Friends with Benefits,” and it was worth it!) Then I tried to sleep — tried being the operative word. I wasn’t very successful because there was some turbulence here and there and I just couldn’t get comfortable. Then when there was about two hours left in the flight they served us breakfast (which I don’t know if you can call it that because it was a hot turkey sandwich, so I went with just coffee).

By the time we were landing it was 5 a.m. Minnesota time, but 1 p.m. in Kuwait. It was beautiful and sunny, and the view of the city was awesome! After landing I had to figure out where to go to get my visa. There was a take a number station, then when my number was called a very nice girl helped me. We both laughed at the fact that her birthday is just three days from mine, same year and everything! Finally I had to find my way out of the airport past customs to find my military guides, Sgt. Hoke and Spc. Brown.

When we stepped outside it was raining! Very slightly raining, but still! I come to the desert and it’s one of the three days that it rains. Anyway that made for some beautiful weather, overcast and 70s and windy. I had fun looking at all the sights from the drive from Kuwait City to Camp Buehring, which is northwest of Kuwait City. We think we saw one camel, but we’re not completely sure. Also, people do not follow any sort of driving rules at all, so the trip was interesting.

Once we got to the base it was about 4:30 p.m. Kuwait time (or 8:30 a.m. Minnesota time). There was a bit of a mixup with the paperwork at the base gate, and it took quite a while to get it all figured out. Then we had to get the key to my housing, which is one part of a long trailer of little rooms. There’s four bunks in my room, and I met my roommate who’s an interpreter for the Department of Defense!

Then it was time to hurry to the chow hall before it closed at 8 p.m. (There’s other places to buy food on the base at any time of the night, but the chow hall is the only place it’s free.) I had spaghetti and it was really good! Then I tried out the shower facilities, which are conveniently located right across from my trailer. The only thing interesting about the showers were the signs that say “Every drop is trucked in so conserve water.”

Now here I am posting this blog and getting really tired! It’s about 9 p.m. here and I think I’m going to hit the hay before a big day tomorrow. Sneak preview: The Vikings’ cheerleaders are here and will be putting on a dance at 7 p.m. tomorrow!

Check back for more soon and thanks for reading!