Back to Germany!

Eric left for Germany January 29th. How nice that his company pays for this stuff. I am currently attending classes at NMSU so I will be flying out Feb 9th. I'm in a strange town, in our new house, all alone and with no license! What a strange predicament. I have to take a cab to school which is really only a few miles away. I'll have to take one to the airport in El Paso. I hope it's not too expensive. I don't care and I can't wait.

Last Days as a Soldier

Nov 1st 2003

I haven't written in a while. I guess I have some explaining to do. Sometime in May I went in to see my doctor. They told me I have to go through a medical board and they would decide my fate as a soldier. From that day, until now has been a lot of depression and anxiety filled days. Not really just for me, but for all the soldiers that remain here. There aren't many of us. Maybe 5 now. There's no one left on base. The commissary is closed and the shoppette has hardly any food. Not to mention the terrible heat wave. AC's don't exist here. Shame has gone out the window as everyone has to hang out in the barracks in their underwear. it's unbearable. I know the rest of the unit has it worse. They're in Iraq now. I've only been there for 2 weeks total and not at once, and I can say it's pretty bad, and I don't just mean heat. I can't imagine what they're going through being there for a year almost. I guess that's where some of the depression comes in. We want to be there with them. It's why I signed up. I want/need to be soldier.

Berlin Again

May 24-26

Hey I got a new roommate... and I like her! She actually lived 4 doors down in Parker's room. But Parker plays the same songs over and over. Who wants to live with that? So invited her to my room. We get along pretty great!

After a whole lot of no free time and the serious lack of traveling done by the new guys I decided to take Briere, SGT Strickland and her 2 kiddos to Berlin. We have a holiday coming up anyway. Monaco could fill in for us seeing as how we've been covering for her for oh say... 2 years. pft.

Oktoberfest

Sep 20-23 2002

Eric and I had just been to Munich not too long ago, but he really wanted to show me Oktoberfest, and I really wanted to see it. He tells me a lot of stories of when he went with a few other soldiers that have moved on already. He seems so excited.

Berlin Germany

July 3-6 2002,

Wow what an awesome week this was! Eric and I took a train to Berlin this time. There was a long and painful walking tour around most of the city. We saw places Hitler had stayed. The coolest was seeing parts of the Berlin Wall and Checkpoint Charlie. We each bought a piece of the wall for a souvenir. Sometimes I forget I'm here doing this stuff. It's so unreal.The streetlights are very cute. The little green and red men for walking have these neat hats.

Munchen (Munich) Germany

June 14-17 2001

Munich is probably the 3rd famous city I've heard of before. We hopped on a train from the Mainz hauptbahnhof down to Bavaria. The first notable place we visited was called Residenz. It's a Bavarian palace that our soldiers bombed in WWII. They started construction right after the war, and now it's a museum. It's filled with treasures that are centuries old. I just love seeing things like this. It's impossible to see this kind of history in the USA.

France Day 4

May 27, 2002 - Disneyland Paris

Being from California I've gone to Disneyland a few times as a kid. Evans is from Florida so he's been to Disney World. What better way to spend our last day in Paris than to go to Euro Disney? It's kind of far out of town so we had to take a train. I'm so exited about this trip. I wish I could have brought my family here. We're all Disney nuts.

France Day 3

May 26, 2002

Today we did our own thing. No tours. Just us and a map.

France Day 2

Evans had a great idea and signed us up for this cab cruise type of thing. It involves a tour of Paris in a cab, dinner, boat cruise, and some live show.

France Day 1

Paris is one of those places you only dream about visiting. I've often wondered what it was like. In the movies there is often a violin playing gently in the background while everyone around is holding hands. I just got back from the best 4 day weekend in Paris and I can safely say... it is EXACTLY like that! Except with the addition of hot dogs and horrible yet funny drivers.

Evans took me to a travel agent where we booked the train and hotel for us. I couldn't believe this was happening!

Castles and Dates

We finally got some time off together. Guard duty is slowly dying. We're now doing 12 hours on and 12 hours off with a 2 day break after 4 days of work. Pretty nice :)

Mainz in March

Not much going on over here thanks to Guard Duty. The other units are pulled out already and have paid civilians guarding there territory. Not us! Our First Sergeant decided to volunteer us to keep doing it instead of our actual mission. We also have the opportunity to get new furniture in the barracks like all the other buildings. Nope. We have guard duty.

1st German Christmas

There it is! My first Christmas away from home. I have a pretty optical tree from Ikea. A lamp with a pillow case on it that turns the room red. And some Christmasy scented candles. This actual day I'm kind of alone, but it doesn't bother me. Jay stopped by to watch an episode of the simpsons with me for half an hour. That was nice of him. :)  Evans and everyone is either on guard duty or working. Since I'm sitting here with a shattered ankle bone I'm useless. I'm enjoying my day chillin here on my bean bag chair.

Post Sep 11 in Europe

What we, as soldiers, are doing in Europe

We found out that night the guy responsible was some guy named Osama Bin Laden. Who the heck is he? A lot of people want him dead. We're not in a war yet but I wish we were. How does a country allow a corrupt man to rule them? Will they be happy if we kill him? Or will they want revenge? From what I gather the majority will rejoice when he is dead. Same for Hussein. If I spelled that right.

War?

I think there's going to be a war.

I was at work today in the vans. (Not actual vans). We have a tv in there, but the only channel we get is news. It's something like CNN or BBC World. So we're sitting there and the crew goes to people in New York where a plane had just crashed into one of the trade towers. What a horrible accident! We keep watching and there's another plane. I'm thinking... no way.... stop... did that really happen? They send me to tell someone or everyone. So I go to the other vans and people just don't believe me. I'm like "Hey, the US was attacked" and they just sit there. They'll figure it out later.

Fun So Far

I freaking love it here! We take a little green van called The Mystery Machine to work which is like 45 minutes away in Mainz. It's totally hidden where no one can casually find it. I love the people I work with which just to happens to be the people I live with. Everyone's doors are open and you can come and go as you please. People are so friendly. We only get a few tv channels in English. Somewhere we got free cable in all the barracks so we wont tell anyone about it. At 1800 The Simpsons comes on for a few hours and you can walk down the halls with everyone's room door open and hear it from every room. It's funny stuff!

Happiness from Sadness

Since I've joined the army I've had a tough time. Strangely enough not from the Army itself. I'm doing better than I thought. It's the events that are happening during this time that make me struggle. But I have this paper with quotes I wrote in high school. They are actually pretty helpful.

Life is not the way it's supposed to be. It's the way it is. The way you deal with it is what makes the difference.

Wiesbaden Germany

WOW!! You know, I'm still kind of in shock. Every once in a while I stop and think "Hey, I'm in Germany." and I still don't believe it.