So, I fill out the little bits of paper that they require--multiple signatures in triplicate and all that jazz... then the guy hands me a map and gives me directions to my trailer... the map is relatively simple, but deceptive in its simplicity--because it is wrong, and what seems at first glance to be a compass pointing north is actually just a smudge on the photocopy that is several generations from the original. I figured this out after searching around the area for about 25 minutes before I found it.
The problem is, these trailer parks are similar, in this respect, to the houses in my neighborhood; they all look alike. The "yards" all look alike--gravel on the ground and a t-wall for a fence (a t-wall is a largish, 15 ft high, cement barrier that is used to wall off everything on base--literally). The CHUs (containerized housing units--we are NOT trailer trash despite what my wife might call me... maybe CHU folk--similar to hobbits only bigger and less hirsute...) all look exactly the same too, a small metal stoop, a door a window and an AC unit... they are lined up in unending rows, row upon row, then all grouped together in clusters, and then in super-clusters--a universe of CHU super-galaxies, that is what Iraq has become...
I finally found the damn CHU that was mine, despite the lack of signs, numbers, etc that might have helped... The room is pleasant enough, but all my stuff is back at work and in the transient tent... so, I need to go traipsing around the base in the dark (walking in the dark of Iraq is another post entirely) dragging and carrying and rolling my "stuff"--I am so glad the Narmy issued me so much equipment for my deployment so that I can carry it from place to place and never use it...
I throw all the stuff down--now I am REALLY tired, and it is late (10pm), but I still want to watch the movie... At this point, when I want to eat an ice cream, I don't think twice about it--I am in a freaking war zone! So, I stayed up past my bed time and watched the movie... The movie was pretty good--oscar-winner, right? But, I am not convinced that I saw that same movie that everyone else has, simply because this was a third-hand pirated movie from the local "movie shop" on base... the copy was of reasonable quality, I could see and hear everything except for a bit dead-center left to right and 1/3 the way up from the bottom where there clearly had been a couple text lines that were blurred out--they lasted for the duration of the movie. And some of the edits between scenes were quite rough--not something I would have expected in a finished product. These things make me wonder--so, now I will have to get the movie when I get home, just to see if it is different or not...
In one day, I get a trailer and get to watch an oscar-winning movie... I am having a lucky future!!
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