Time to go home

My year is up... its time to go home. I flew from Balad back to Baghdad on Wednesday and I am spending today on Camp Victory waiting for my flight out of the country.

Its been a very long and rewarding year. I'm happy with my decision to come here -- I've learned a lot professionaly, I've had my eyes opened to many things in life, and the financial reward cannot be overlooked either. I'm finally out of debt and I'm hoping to stay that way for many, many years.

The photo above was taken during my blackhawk flight back from Balad on Wednesday.

Signing off,
-- Joe

Time at the Zoo coming to an end

I'm all packed. My flight out of Baghdad is scheduled (although I cant say when). By the end of this week I will be settled into Balad in my new office to live out the remaining two weeks of my tour here. Its the end of an era for me. But since it means that I'm that much closer to coming home, its a welcome end.

The photo above is the IT staff in front of our building over the weekend.

Down to 45 days

We are scheduled for our move to Balad sometime this month ... the day keeps fluctuating but it seems like it is going to be a reality. Our desks are gone, most of our vehicles have been taken to be shipped, and our IT team has wired the new facility up for internet. We're just awaiting final word from the military that our facility is ready for us to move into.

It will definitely not be a good time leaving. Some people have been working on this contract here for five years, and the compound we are in now has been home to this support contract since the war began in 2003. For me, though, it will be uprooting my home here and moving it for the last month of my time. Its strange looking back to say that I've lived in Iraq for almost a year... in some ways I feel like I have been here for an eternity, and in others I feel like I just left home. One thing's for sure, though, and thats that I'm looking forward to going home and leaving this country as a distant memory. It's treated me well financially, and I've made some friends here, but I can't really think of much more that I'd be able to say I got out of this country other than some gray hairs, heartache, and a new definition of miserable living to take with me.

The photo above is a photo of our logistics bay that I took with a 24mm tilt-shift lens, which, when shifted and focused properly, gives the appearance at looking at a miniature version of the photos subject.

Moving this summer

We got word over the weekend that our company's operations here will be moving to Joint Base Balad, which is north of Baghdad. The US military is looking to start turning significant tracts of land back to the Iraqis, and our compound is high on the list because we are right next to Iraqi neighborhoods already.

Fortunately for me it seems like this will be occurring in the June/July timeframe, which is right around when I will be coming back from vacation. Because of this, I will only have a manageable 45-60 days at the new site... I will be able to cope with any inconvenient situations because of this (read: having a roomate). We'll see.

In the meantime, I now have a newfound sense of urgency to get out and photograph all the palaces here again. I just got my new tripod in last week... a carbon-fiber setup with a gimbal-type head. Im hoping to get some beautiful shots of the palaces to share with everyone.

Chugging along

3 weeks back from PTO and Im getting back in my groove. How do I know I'm back in my groove, you ask? I wake up every morning not knowing and not really caring what day of the week it is. Once I hit that phase the time starts flying and it seems like every other day I wake up is a Friday. Its pretty nice actually.

Life here has gotten very repetitive since I last posted and its been getting very hard to come up with things to blog about. Im working on it though... I just dont think that a post will come every day anymore.

Back from vacation with a new role

I got back from vacation earlier this week - to watch my only sibling get married... yay Christine :c) - and I've been full throttle trying to get caught up on the goings-on here, getting over my jet lag, and adjusted to my new role. I was asked to spearhead the planning and development effort for the next major version of our application, and Ive spent the last several days feeling my way out around here to determine how much time I'm actually going to be able to spend doing this while continuing to support and maintain the existing system thats already in place.

Ive decided to refocus my time here on education, both professional and personal. While I won't be taking any formal training, I've ordered several books on photography and travel that I fully intend to hit hard and learn as much as possible and put into real-life situations here, even with my limited opportunities. Additionally, I've dusted off some programming reference books that I'm hoping to learn cover-to-cover and absorb as much as possible about the languages I'm using here. Software development, for now at least, is my bread and butter and I don't want to fall behind on things because I'm getting distracted with other things. Hopefully I can maintain my focus and keep on it.

The photo above is a photo I took of the Lincoln Memorial while I was home, and is one of my new favorite photos I've taken. More Iraq photos to come soon :c)

Surf's Up!

After I'm done here in Iraq, I plan to travel the world. For how long, I have no idea. Maybe just a few weeks. Maybe a few months. I have an itch, and I don't know how long it'll take to get to the point where I'm not waking up every day wishing I was waking up in a small town in Europe, a beachside resort in Asia, or on a wildlife preserve in Africa. But I do know I need to get out and travel, and I can't stop thinking about it.

While doing some research into traveling cheap, I came across a pretty awesome concept -- communities of travelers that are willing to take in others for a night or two on a couch or spare bedroom. There are several websites out there that support this, but the best I've found is CouchSufing.com. I've already created an account there, and looking forward to seeing what the community has to offer.

The photo above is of yours truly, and was taken by one of the Local National Program Managers (they manage all the Iraqi citizens hired as linguists for GLS) while I was teaching her about depth-of-field and aperture in photography by the pond on our compound.

Guess who's back...

Theres a few ways to interpret that question... the first is that I'm back. I've finally caught up enough on work here to refocus on my photography and blog, so for those of you that havent completely abandoned reading this you should expect to see me back to my regular tempo.

Someone else who's back -- the Pittsburgh Steelers. They won their sixth Super Bowl around 6am this morning, right around sunrise. It was a marathon night, but worth the time spent. And of course I'm happy for the Steelers fans out there, especially Amanda and her family. I figure that my vacation home later this month stands to be a lot more pleasant with the Steelers winning.

Lastly, our rodent friends have made it back as well. The last week or so we've seen a few of them wandering around our building, at it turns out that its most likely the result of some poor decision-making by someone here. Apparently they didnt like the cats that had been making a home here, so they had the cats removed. Of course now that the cats are gone our rodent population is going to explode. Lovely.

The photo above is one I took of Eric (foreground) and Steve during a game of pre-Superbowl pingpong.

The impact of change

Watching President Obama's inauguration earlier this week had a huge impact on me. Not only because of what he has promised his administration will bring - transparent government, strong foreign diplomacy, a focus on science and technology, and economic changes that are sorely needed - but also because as he spoke of Iraq I realized that a change in policy here means a change in my job here as well. As military units begin to leave the country, so will the site managers that support our linguists in the field and even the linguists themselves. I hope that the need for my services last as long as my desire to be here, but if I leave early for that reason it can't be all that bad right?

President Obama's portrait above, taken by White House photographer Pete Souza, was taken using the same camera that I just ordered for myself -- the Canon 5d Mark II. If its good enough for him, its good enough for me too.

Cats and dogs

It poured here yesterday. All night. It was probably the hardest I've seen it rain in quite some time -- probably harder than it rained in Barbados on my cruise. That's definitely saying alot when you're in the desert. From what I've heard its been quite dry out here and the Iraqis have been desperate for rain for their crops, so I'll take a day of poor weather to help folks out... even if it means I had to deal with poor satellite reception as a result for the Giants-Eagles game last night.

Back in action

Yesterday was my first day back at work here after a 16-day holiday and its surprisingly good to be back. Don't get me wrong -- I enjoyed being home and seeing everyone and I absolutely had a great time on my cruise and wish it could've lasted another week, but it wasn't easy being away from work when there is a lot to be done and money to be made. Plus, to be honest, life is a lot less stressful here than having to deal with real-world stresses like relationships, commuting, and figuring out what to do tonight. It's all kinda neatly wrapped up for me.

Anyway -- I'm back for a month and a half before I depart again for home for my sisters wedding... good times!