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.

Touring Irbil

Being in Irbil is like an out-of-body experience for anyone thats spent time in the rest of Iraq. The people here are friendly and the security situation allows us to not have to wear body armor or helmets when traveling through the city. In fact, my day yesterday was pretty much like any day I would have spent in any other city in the world. The guys here asked if I wanted to see downtown Irbil on our lunch break, and I naturally had my boots on and camera in hand before the question was even finished.

The first place we visited was the Citadel, which is a settlement in the center of the city. This settlement is one of the oldest continuously occupied in the world, with estimates of around 8,000 years. As I later found out, the buildings themselves are not actually that old - each group of people built on top of previous settlements, which is why the settlement is on top of a 100-foot hill. I found an interesting story online that his some great information about the citadel on MSN.

After the Citadel we went to a very large mosque downtown. I had hoped to have had the chance to walk around but the gate we were at was closed and Havel, the Kurdish employee taking us around, didnt know about the open gate on the back side. I at least got some photos from the outside though.

After the mosque we drove to the outskirts of the city to a medieval castle that was built by a princess of the British Empire. Its small by most standards, but beautiful nonetheless. The area around the castle is ringed by small hills leading up to mountins a 5-10 miles further away - a beautiful vista for sure.

The photo above is a view of the Citadel in the center of Irbil.

Made it to Irbil

I took a convoy from Mosul to Irbil last night and got in late. I stayed up even later to watch the Giants take a win over the Eagles and I'm seriously regretting it -- I'm pretty exhausted today. The house I'm in is very nice... its in a quiet part of Irbil, which is in Kurdish territory. The Kurds do a good job of policing and have kept all the infighting outside of their territory. Its safe enough, in fact, that we dont need body armor to walk around the city.

The photo above is part of the neighborhood that I'm in.

One more stop

I've got one last stop on my scenic tour of Iraq - I'm going to Irbil, which is in the Kurdish territory of the northern part of the country, for a few days. From what I hear the city is quiet and not opposed to U.S. presence there, so it sounds like my kind of town. Hopefully I'll get some good photos and have some good stories to tell, aside from being able to get my work done of course.

The photo above I took in Kirkuk while I was waiting for my room to get opened sometime in the middle of the night. The nighttime sky out here is pretty incredible, and I couldnt resist the chance to get out the fisheye lens and get a shot of the sky.

Tonight would have been perfect if...

If I weren't in Baghdad right now. The weather is just right... high about 85, currently 75. Just a tad chilly but you dont even notice it unless you think about it. Im wearing shorts and a t-shirt and feel just fine, if I were going out jeans and a polo would be the attire for the day.

In addition to the temperature, I was walking with a buddy of mine here on the compound and came across the spot where two brick walls blocked out all the lights and the nighttime sky suddenly became clear. I couldve easily spent the night there looking up, not just because I enjoy stargazing but because aside from my time in Thailand I'd never seen some of these stars before -- the southern sky is totally different from the northern sky and I'm just starting to see both where I am. And... I saw a shooting star. It was a slow-mover... green at first and faded to whitish-yellow. First time I'd seen one in some time, and hopefully I'll be able to catch the next big shower in November.

The photo above I took tonight across the street from my building. I'm facing the airport and you can see a bridge in the foreground that crosses the canal. The brick wall separates us from Camp Stryker. There is a dirt road on the other side and when vehicles drive by it kicks up dust and dirt, giving that beautiful look in front of the light. Hopefully I'll get my tripod here and be able to get a crisper shot than I took -- this one was braced up against a sign post.