hey guys.. so nothing too exciting going on here. had today off which was really exciting. i finally got the drivers training i was waiting for so im ready to get my truck back. i still wont be able to drive my own truck for a bit because i have to drive the rear truck for a couple more days. hopefully sometime soon ill be back with my team. we go to fiji at the end of this week for either a week or 2 weeks? someone said 2 but i dont really know. it should give us some time off.
times moving pretty quick, feel very settled in already and weve only been here for 3 weeks. weve been doing a lot of cooking out around the grills, a whole lot of fun to just hang out sitting around the grill. weve already gotten to know each other really well just from that. i really wish i had more to say but all these days kinda run together an nothing too exciting has happened this past week. missing auburn, and of course missing home. i enrolled in a couple of online college classes, trying to knock out about 6 hours in the next 2 months. the classes are only 8 weeks.

easter sunday

sooo it was really good to see so many people today. im sorry the connection was bad but i did get to see yall! wish i could have been there to celebrate easter with everyone. today was a good day, we got to sleep in because we had the day off. i went with a couple of my buddies to church this morning, it was the gospel service. a little different than what i am used to but it was good. it was nice to have the chance to go. im not sure when my next chance will be, they gave us today off for Easter but i expect to work most sundays. i was suposed to go to class to get licensed on a different truck today so i can rejoin my team buuuttttt i got hung out to dry. so i have another week in a different truck with a different team. they are good guys, i dont have a problem working with them but i am ready to get back to my team.
were starting to settle into a routine here, this past week we had a bunch of downtime because of our work over at the Iraqi Police (IP) academy. they only need 6 of us each day and its 5 days. gives us some time off and some time not in full combat gear which is always a major plus. we spent the last 2 days on the road (even though one of them was a complete waste because we got a disabled truck and couldnt go to the station).
I hope everyone had a great easter!

sooo im really sorry for not having written more. we have been soooo busy. like, they told us we would have a bunch of long days, especially until the company were replacing leaves. i had no clue how true it was though. the last 4 days have been atleast 12 hours long. and that doesnt count waiting around afterwards to find out whats going on the next day. like last night i went to bed at 10 and got woken up 3 times during the night. to tell me when to be awake in the morning and to try and figure out some of the logistics of stuff going on around here. its 1045 right now and i dont know what time im suposed to be awake. so its def. long days here. it will get much better once the other company leaves and we settle in.
weve rolled on missions for the last 4 days. theyare kinda boring. my squad is assigned 3 ip stations so we have gone to them a couple times. weve also checked out the closest coalition support (other fobs.. we generally check those out around chow time and the dfac os where we do most of our recon) to our stations. basically trying to get familiar with the area while the 340th is still with us.
the missions have been boring actually , which i know everyone is excited about. were very much like police over here, we just kidna drive around and check things out. we could get hit but were much more likely to not get hit than we are to get hit in our area. the area we work in is very westernized. i told mom it kinda surprised me, most of the people walk around in jeans or those soccer kinda sweat suits. there are hotels and b6 or 7 story buildings. like it could pass for a city in the states in places. other squads are in worse areas but were not in a bad spot at all.
theres more to tell obviously but im going to try and crash, hopefully ill have a better chance to update later. im sorry. and im sorry for everyone i havent been able to talk to much, time is crazy over here and normally when i have any kinda quiet time its while youre asleep or im trying to get to sleep as soon as possible. i love you all though and it will get better soon.