My Home Away From Home

Let's just say this blogging thing may prove hazardous to my health in that I may stroke out with all of the technical issues I've been experiencing.  I've been unsuccessfully trying to upload pictures to go with this post for the last day and then the blog popped up in Arabic and trying to log in proved somewhat challenging.  It's sort of strange for the web page to be right side justified...

Anyway, I'm living in a dorm (image picture of unimaginative rectangular tan building).  It's a 2 story, hardened facility that is right across the street from the hospital, making for one of the shortest commutes I've had in a while.  I think just about everyone who lives here works in the hospital as well.  There's four of us in the room, which, let's just say it's been a while since I've had roommates other than Greg.  Actually, it's not that bad.  One of the drawbacks is that everyone in the room is on a different schedule so someone is usually asleep in the room.  I feel like invariably I end up bumping into something or dropping something and making a lot of noise.  And, there's the swishing noise made by my PT pants every time I move...

         The water here isn't potable, so there's bottled water everywhere (imagine photo of palates of water outside of the unimaginative rectangular building).  When I first got here, I even used the bottled water to brush my teeth.  However, after several trips back to my room because I forgot to bring the water with me, I decided that the bacterial load from brushing my teeth would probably be just enough to give me some relative immunity without making my completely ill.  So far the theory is working out okay...

         As you can tell, the room isn't terribly fancy, but it's my own little space.  (Image photo of room with tiled ceiling, off-white textured drywall, linoleum tiles, and particle board furniture.)  I've got a bed, which with my pillow topper (yes, the hardships of being deployed) is relatively comfortable.  Note the wool green issue military blanket (imagine standard issue Army green wool blanket with US printed in the middle).  I think that's a design that probably hasn't change much in the last hundred years.  I've got some pictures from home to remind me about the good things in life and everyone whose cheering me on.  For those of you concerned about my education, I've been reading about Pediatric Surgery (image picture of cheap office chair with Volume 1 of Grosfeld) in my spare time - getting ready for the Boards in September.  The closet here is considerably smaller than the one at home, but since I pretty much have only two outfits to choose between, it's more than adequate.

         So, going back to the water, even though the running water isn't potable, there's still a limited supply here on the base which means we have to take "combat" showers - translation - a limit of 3 minutes of running water.  For those of you who know me well, this may be the biggest hardship of my deployment.  We are also responsible for maintaining the cleanliness of the bathroom, so we rotate the cleaning detail on a daily basis from room to room.  It works out to about once 9 days or so.  I have to confess I was dreading this before I got here, but since I was the last person to arrive in the room, the only thing left for me to do was clean a few mirrors and a few sinks.

         Well, it's not home, but it's really not bad, and trust me it could be a lot worse.

(If I can ever get the pictures to upload, I'll be sure to share them with you.)