What Is An Expat?

Is it ever going nuts around here! The call has gone out for people for work in Iraq. It’s not part of the current contract I am on but with other sides of the house / other companies. Given the pay difference and some of the silly bullshit going on here, several people have already left, and it really only started around the beginning of this week.

It’s kind of a dilemma for me: there’s more to this place than “just some other country” to me. I’d let my Russian go to crap, and am just now getting it back. It’s a slow process overall but I feel like it’s accelerating a bit. I’d feel bad about dropping it again. On the other hand, the pay sounds truly obscene. I have to keep in mind the main goal ($$) but at the same time there are secondary goals as well. How much importance should be placed on them? At what point does the main goal advance fast enough to throw the secondary goal away? Thinking about this, could I go with the main goal, and have some way to somehow get back here after? I wonder what it will be like as people leave in great big jolly batches — will not directly affect me workwise, since I am my own department but newly found friends are all thinking of their futures.

Too much to think about. It would have been easier never knowing. Who knows, maybe there are no positions. We’ll see. Then the decision comes…

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Ok, so it’s probably not a fascinating thing to write about, and in fact that’s not what I’m going to write about. So there. I’ll have a number 7 plain with cheese, please.

I’ve been a little beatdown the past couple of days. Real tired, and I am going to lay it at a little disease I was exposed to that I call cowpox. I guess it’s better than having smallpox, though. 3 days ago I actually had a headache. Fairly unusual for me. I just dragged through the whole day from about 11ish AM on. Tired and weak, I barely made it. Hit the cot, fast asleep by 8PM. Get up in the morning at 6ish to do the shower run. Typical early morning slowness to move. Standing in the shower, not feeling so good, and SUDDENLY IT’S A LIGHTSHOW! THAT’S RIGHT KIDS, I MEAN GREEN AND RED AND ORANGE! WHAT’S THAT GODDAM BUZZING NOISE? OOH PRETTY LIGHTS! Mr Sensible had the foresight to grab one of the cross bars so I did not fall. Hey, important to breathe! Must…not…pass out…in shower! Read the rest of this entry »

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…and boy, do I need to get out of here. It’s affecting my mind — of course one never can be sure with someone like me. (sigh )

So I’m not sure if I am flying on the planelet to Tashkent or if the new bus service will be active by then. To be honest, the thought of a 7ish hour bus ride does not appeal to me. It also could potentially mess with my fuckoff time in Tashkent, both going up and coming back. I’ll definitely be motivated to get out of here, but if I get bumped on the way back maybe I don’t mind so much. Overpriced Sheraton aside, of course.

Here in a nutshell is my basic plan. I’m flying out of Tashkent the 10th to Dublin via Frankfurt. 3 nights in Dublin, wandering around, and then head down to the Dingle Peninsula. I don’t expect them to have berries, as it is reputed to be beautiful down there. Among other things, they have a friendly dolphin you can swim with. Yaay! Dolphins are cool. Hey! This is a great time for me to go back to something else, not really changing the subject per se, but switching gears a lil’ bit, as I like to do. Read the rest of this entry »

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Well, kind of a lot is happening this week, huh?

Started off the week with the malaria tablets. Haven’t had too much in the way of problems with that except for some rough dreams that seem to have gone away. Add to that my smallpox poke on Wednesday and I wasn’t much of a happy camper. The Z Monster came up and perched on my shoulders like a lonely vulture. Soothingly it whispered, “just close your eyes, it’ll be okay…all that stuff can wait. Sleeeeepppp…” From about 2PM on I was beat, among other things. “I will watch over and protect you, just rest your weary head…” But nay! The wanderings must go on! “Why? Why do you do this? Just a lil’ break…” Supper was uninspiring. That is to say, I simply couldn’t eat much. The food itself was probably fine. “Ah yes, after a meal, they always fall apart! Victory is mine!”

And it was. By 7:30PM I was a cot-confined individual. Just fine the next day. My blister looks like it is starting to raise up. Soon it will get nasty looking — I’d take pictures, but my camera died, sent back to the states for repair and those sorry bastiges won’t have it back to me before I leave on R&R most likely. Then it becomes a delightful scab before falling off in the third week to crawl away and attempt to infect other unwary souls. It’s not actually smallpox you get, but some live cowpox. Afterwards you are protected from smallpox, cowpox, and…monkeypox. Remember kids, it’s always a bad idea to consort too closely with monkeys. Sure they’re cute and all, and look like beloved members of your family, but they carry disease and throw shit. Nobody needs that. Read the rest of this entry »

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So day before yesterday I’m hiding out in my office. It’s the 4th day in a row that I have actually been busy. I go about 3 months filling up my day working and working (on the internet) and working (visiting) and working (wandering) and it’s like all of a sudden people realize they have computers and problems and an IT guy. Hey! A match made in heaven! Of course, as always it was all silly stuff, but that didn’t stop me having to move back and forth across camp all day long. It is a definite change to go from “I make myself busy doing things” to “I am very busy, how am I going to work in those other things?”

Quick side trip here: I do more before 9 AM than you do ALL DAY! That’s because, you know, your 9 AM is my 9 PM. Ha. Sigh…this is a tough audience.

Anyways, earlier in the day I had been conversing with some folk, and we talked about getting off base, even if there isn’t much to see. Even if there isn’t much to see, there aren’t endless seas of tents and this crappy rock surface to see. That works. So later a party unrelated to that conversation pops his head in the door and mentions going to the airport, do I wanna go? Can I get a Hell Yeah?