Out of town

So, even though I am in a foreign country I am still surrounded by US personnel. There is a very large US presence here. However, I spent a few days recently on a detachment to another country. There was almost no US here. Most things were not translated, making it difficult to get around and to communicate with others. I really feel for foreigners now, who don't know the language and can't read the writing. The people working in the hotel were great helpers though, and it only took a day before I could at least say "thank you" and "hello" in the local language.

Here's a large, outdoor strip mall we found. There were numerous signs in english here. I think it was probably for brand recognition more than anything.

I had to take a picture of some of these signs. This restraunt has a crazy looking pig, and the next one down has another character, heck if I know what it was. If you like fish, eel, squid and whatever else comes from the ocean, and the entire body, head and all, you would love the local food.

Went to a local market and found this, among many other things. I've seen lobster and crab before, but squid was a new one. I should have taken pictures of the numerous other items I saw. They had buckets filled with flounders, eels, rock fish, sea cucumber looking things, you name it. Heck, we even saw dried rays.

So the last two pictures are from the plane, one is right after leaving the ground, and the other we are probably around 800 feet up after taking off. The land was beautiful. I wish I would have had more time there, I would have gone exploring the countryside.

Big fish

It's been a long time in coming, but I finally managed to work 1/2 a day, so a group of us took the opportunity and went out in town. First we drove north to visit a brewery. Not really as good or exciting as the crew had hoped, but such is life. I was able to get a free drink from it though, a cherry juice soda.


Here is a particular style beer offered. Finally, a beer that tells the truth.




After that we went to the aquarium. Pretty impressive over all, but I still like the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta better. Here are some pictures from it. The whale shark was HUGE! I think the tank in Atlanta was bigger but I'm not sure. Either way, the sharks are huge, as were the rays. It was fun, I'm glad I went.

Poopy days ahead

Seeing Jennifer isn't putting in updates I guess I will for her.

She currently has family visiting. Her mom and brother are in, along with her grandmother, and now her sister, nephew and cousin.

The other evening the downstairs (main level) toilet became clogged. Try as she might, Jennifer could not get the water flowing again. The stubborn clog was resistant to all her methods, plungers, snakes, hands (OK, maybe not hands, but you get the idea). She told her grandma, who is sleeping in the room right next to the bathroom, not to use the bathroom that night. Her grandma brought up the point she might not be able to make it up the stairs in time, so they compromised. She could pee in the toilet, but no pooping and no flushing.

At the crack of dawn the next morning Jennifer was awakened by her grandmother telling her the downstairs toilet was flooding. Jennifer ran down stairs to take care of business, but was not prepared for what lay before her.

Keep in mind, Jennifer's grandmother had to climb up a flight of stairs to get to her bedroom. This is not a quick feat by any means. Let's just say the toilet had a head start.

Poopy water was flowing over the edges of the toilet. Some great home designer put carpet in 3/4 of the downstairs bathroom, so the carpet was getting soaked and the toilet had no intentions of stopping. Finally Jennifer was able to stop the brown fountain, get some towels to spare the carpet more punishment, and began the wet, dirty and stinky job of cleaning.

This was no job for the feint of heart. She knew she must break out the big guns, so out comes the carpet cleaner. Five tubs of dirty water later the carpet did not squish when stepped on, but you could not consider it dry either. Numerous attempts have failed to remove the odor and carpet removal may be the only viable option.

A plumber bill of $300.00 later resulted in a new toilet seal and enlightenment on the cause. It seems a Capri Sun juice box was flushed down the toilet. After lining up the kids and grilling them about the juice, one finally fessed up. The culprit admitted to drinking the juice and not wanting to get in trouble, so they disposed of the evidence down the toilet.

Work

So, seeing Jennifer hasn't put her numerous updates online (trust me, there has been a lot going on with her and the kids) I figured I would post one.

Here are a few pictures from work recently. We have been flying quite a bit lately, and somehow managed to end up on the night shift. We've been going out and flying all night long, hundreds of miles from the nearest land. One cool thing has been watching the sun rise each morning.

First, you can feel your body waking up with the sun.
Second, it is a pretty awesome view.
Third, you know it is almost quitting time!

In the second photograph there is another P-3, our relief. They were just taking over and we were about to head home. I took the second photo, but was flying during the first, so a flight engineer snapped it for me.