Extreme Sleep Deprivation Part II

So I may not have been tired on my way through Manas this time around, but I started off on the wrong foot to continue my journey in the same manner when I got to the Bishkek commercial airport at 5 AM having gotten no sleep whatsoever.

The whole day was a textbook description of experiencing reverse-culture shock. I was constantly barraged by the extreme cleanliness of the Istanbul airport and the restaurant attached to the hotel I stayed in in Germany. Did you know the Istanbul airport is full of nothing but women? It's true! Because I was used to there being practically no women downrange it really seemed like they were everywhere I looked (and this continues to be the case as I write this while I am currently visiting Israel). Anyway with a relatively long layover in Istanbul, and a shuttle from Frankfurt to Sandhofen, just north of Mannheim, I was very ready to pass out and did.

Being back in Sanhofen was also very strange, but in a way unrelated to the reverse-culture shock. Firstly, CTC is no longer storing people in the Weber, it's all about the Adler hotel, now. There are good things and bad related to the change, anyway it was only for one night. Also, being in the same place first in summer, and then again seven months later was interesting to see. 

After my out-processing in Coleman Barracks, which consisted basically of my filling out some forms and giving my opinions on how the program can be improved, I was on my way again back to the Frankfurt airport. Hearing Israeli's speaking Hebrew on their way back from a trip to Italy in the Rome airport (which coincidentally was also full of women) was like music to my ears.

Alitalia is very concerned over the people nearing their 40s who still play their original gameboys.

By the time I got to the little hotel near the beach in Tel Aviv that I was staying in it was 5 am again, and I had a hard time sleeping. By Saturday night, I had gone since Wednesday morning with nothing more than 10 hours of sleep total...

It's good to be back, civilization.

What do I even do all day?

Good question! Every day, I usually wake up between 7:30 and 8 in my tiny little room at the weber hotel here in Mannheim. I'll postpone getting out of bed as long as possible and then go down to breakfast (which is automatically getting paid for so I feel obligated to eat it.).

Don't be fooled, it's smaller than it looks.

Many different cheeses.

At 8:30 Ladell Heath (the deployment coordinator for CTC) picks up everyone to go to work at Coleman barracks a couple miles away.

Thanks for schlepping us around, Ladell

Work, sweet work...

In case you forget whose fire escape this is.

We spend the morning training in the training room and then go to the DFAC (Dining facility) for lunch which costs $4.25. This includes everything - basically like in a college dining hall.

See our rag-tag bunch of trainees in the training room.

Devin, deciding to get the ice cream for dessert.

So something the DFAC has that I find fascinating is the POW/MIA table. It's constantly set for one on a raised platform and everything on the table is meant to be symbolic of something involved with the experience of being a POW/MIA (Prisoner of war/missing in action). For instance, the slice of lemon on the plate represents the bitterness of their experience, and the salt on the table represents the tears of their loved ones... it's really powerful and a constant reminder that while we are in a peaceful place here in Germany, it's still very much a part of the military.

The caption below the silhouette of the POW says "you are not forgotten"

Some time between 4 and 5pm we leave. I've started going to the gym on base when I can and then walking the little over a mile back to the weber hotel. Home sweet home! In the evenings I spend time in the lobby where we get internet (no internet in the rooms), and find someone also with ctc to go to dinner with. There are a bunch of places that are the standard places to go for us around here. There are Italian, Turkish, and German places all nearby.

And that's basically what I do every day. All of this I wrote while Shakira lounge musak is playing over the hotel lobby speakers.

The hotel lobby.

The Hotel Lobby Soundtrack:

This weekend I think the plan is to take another day trip like we did last weekend.

Surprise! Army Training!

OK. Up to speed: I flew from Cleveland to New York on Friday (after having seen Harry Potter the previous night at midnight) and had a long layover waiting for my Singapore Airlines flight to Frankfurt. Quick shout-out to Emily Hart who is currently the very best complete stranger I've ever met before/during a flight or otherwise. We became friends. Singapore Airlines is famed for their service and it didn't disappoint. They had a great selection of movies and gave us this little tube of toothpaste that was picture-worthy.

Told you it was picture worthy.

Got to the meeting point, made arrangements to meet with Emily and her Chemistry studying friends to meet in Heidelberg for trivia Monday night which sounded awesome because I love trivia night! Took the shuttle to Mannheim where I checked into the hotel. 

Now up until this point I was nervous about arriving on Saturday and planning on starting my training on Monday because I didn't think I would know anyone or meet anyone. Ladell Heath (the deployment coordinator) told me the others would be around the hotel looking out for me but that's no guarantee. Anyway, they were in the lobby and two of them were just then going for a walk to see some of Mannheim. I was given a chance to ask them some of my questions about what their lives in training have been like and stuff like that. We made tentative plans to see HP7.5 the next day because I'll see it again, what they hell, right? 

The hotel isn't much. It's like a small dorm room although I hear that other rooms are nicer than mine is. After a little bit of sightseeing I get back to the hotel and fall asleep really early, probably doing more harm than good to my sleep-schedule. The next morning I check out the breakfast included with the hotel and it's pretty nice and European. Lots of sliced meats and cheeses. The milk was considerably cold which was a concern because in Europe they don't have cold things as much as I'd like. I run into some more people working for CTC and we make plans to meet in the lobby around noon to go to see the special Harry Potter showing in English.

Now for the surprise. We're all meeting in the lobby, right? Two large groups. One of the groups is heading out to Harry Potter, the other group is all packed up and ready to go to IRT training which is this mandatory training for anyone going "downrange". It's in this base across Germany and you dress up in protective gear and do a hike and a Humvee flip-test which is where they flip over a humvee while you're in it (but not while it's on the road it's attached to this big machine). They are all ready to go to IRT and we are all about to leave for HP. Enter Ladell Heath who I had not met up with until this point. He asks if everyone is ready to go to IRT and they say yes. He reads off a list of names and then says "...and Josh". Me: "What?" Ladell: "Yeah, you're going too." In 25 minutes I was back in the lobby checked out of my room, all packed up again and ready to go to Grafenwoehr, where there is a large US military post. 

After a few hours of driving (half of which time I'm still reeling from being squeezed into the training last minute) we arrived yesterday evening to the post and checked into this little hotel they have in the base. It's much much nicer than the one in Mannheim, I guess they know what Americans expect in a hotel and try to cater to that here. This morning we registered for the training and today and tomorrow we take a bunch of classes and do the physical portion of the training. I still haven't even gone into the CTC office!

Sorry I can't make it to trivia, Emily!