Update

Hey everyone, sorry I haven't written in a while, I just got back from Afghanistan.  It's been a long week  Lots of inprocessing and stuff to do.  I was there for 6 months, and though I was the one that volunteered for the deployment and was really excited to go, mostly to see the country I'd studied so much about, and practice the language with the natives, by about week 3, I was ready to leave.

This is an excerpt from one of my weekly emails home a few weeks before I left:

"Have I mentioned I can’t wait to leave?  It’s not that life is terrible here.  Not anymore anyway, since the last rotation of people left, taking she-who-must-not-be-named (see the note below) with them .  Everyone’s getting along just fine, I have a place to sleep and food to eat.  Not great food - it’s been chicken wings, hamburgers, corn dogs and mini frozen pizzas every day; no fruit or desert and hardy any vegetables – but food nonetheless.  I just think they stopped caring.  There isn’t any one factor in particular that makes me want out.  I’m just restless and yearn for some freedom, the beach, hiking in the mountains, regular clothes and an actual weekend.  I want to hang out with people who aren’t in uniform.  I want to do something outside of this monotony.  I want to be able to jump the rails of this fixed route I must take, stop having to carry this rifle around, stop having to throw myself to the ground in the middle of my night due to an impending rocket attack because some asshole insurgent decided he’d spend $800 on a rocket to shoot at us instead of using that money to educate the next generation of kids who know nothing but war and to whom “making it in life” means selling opium or becoming a corrupt government official."

Note: The unnamed lady in the excerpt was a female supervisor who took an intense dislike to me from the very start and made my life hell while I was there, the single biggest factor in making me good and ready to leave by the end.  She was a very unpleasant person, and just to give you an idea, think Naomi from the movie "Waiting..."  

The personality resemblance was uncanny

Though, other than the perpetual scowl and cigarette smoking, she didn't look much like her.  Plus, she was about a foot taller than Naomi, making her not just mentally but also physically imposing.