Waiting in the IZ.

We are still in Baghdad, probably leaving on the 15th for Camp Speicher, a little ways north of here. We had breakfast at the Al Rashid, acrss the street in the Green Zone. $20 for a plate of cold food. Yum. Christian is out in Ramadi, he wrote to tell me his laptop died and he’s got to buy a new one at the PX. It just made me think that it won’t be long before there is a freaking Apple Store here. I remember all the crap i brought with me for the first trip when there wasn’t a darn thing available to buy here. If it went down and you needed it, you were screwed. And we had to walk uphill to the chow hall, both ways, in a snowstorm…

Bad news/good news on the cell phone front. Both of the Iraqna SIM cards we brought were dead. It also seems that Iraqna is changing their system and it’s hard as hell to get recharge cards. However, we
did manage to get an Iraqna SIM card from a helpful guy at CPIC and some recharge cards across the street at the Al Rasheed so we have at least one local cell number. I pulled my Nextel SIM card from my US phone and put it in an unlocked Nokia and found that it worked! Until we can luck into another Iraqna SIM, I guess I’ll use my Nextel.

Sleep has been an issue. Since we had been up for the oh-dark-thirty flight from Kuwait to BIAP, then for the similarly timed Rhino ride into the IZ, I’ve been sleeping from 4pm to 11pm. Not fun. I’m going
to have to go pharmaceutical to get back in line.