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.

Women

As far as I understand it, women do not like to be stared at. They're not much different from men in this regard. This fact being a given, women must have it rough here. Keep in mind that women are outnumbered by men by a very wide margin, and also keep in mind the (sort of) ban on sexual relationships in the region, which adds a forbidden fruit angle added to the situation. Women are like unicorns here - if you see one it's hard to look away. That is not to say that women need to be treated like Selma Hayak in any one of her roles as seems to be the case.

When walking with some of the ladies of the Education Center I've gotten an idea of what it must be like to be a woman on base from the perspective of a woman walking (or someone next to that woman walking). Turns out it is really easy to detect the watchful eyes of everyone you pass. Perhaps they could be a bit more subtle, but when it's coming from all directions, I doubt that even if more effort was put into discretion it would much change the plight of the women.

I do try my best to not fall into the habit of staring, but it's hard.

There's a famous photograph taken soon after WWII of an American woman walking down an Italian street. The photo is called "American Girl in Italy", and I think it captures the status of women here on KAF very well.

Picture might as well be titled "Any Girl in any Setting in Which Men are not Afraid to Get Caught Staring"