christmas

i probably won't get to say this too often, but today was a good day. i had the day off so i took full advantage by only doing 45 minutes of work. i know you're all probably thinking that's 45 minutes too much, but after almost 2 weeks of 14+ hour days, 45 minutes might as well be nothing.

here in xost (usually spelled khost) province, we're in a bowl between mountains. the elevation is lower than the rest of the country which makes the temperatures warmer. according to weather reports today was: High 53 °F 12 °C. Low 37 °F 3 °C. it certainly felt warmer than that with the sun shining down on my pasty white skin though. i ended up getting pretty warm playing volleyball for 2.5 hours. it's funny, you couldn't get people in the u.s. to play on the court we were on, but we kind of work with what we have around here.

the chow hall served their first decent meal since i've been here. you'd think with all the money they pump into this place, they'd serve decent food all the time...but no. i'll be thinking fondly of today's meal for a long time. at least the coffee shop puts out a consistently good product. actually, they're fantastic. they have coffee, 2 kinds of chai (both come in hot and cold varieties), hot chocolate...i think they even have cider; i'll have to verify that. anyway, i think chai will be my drug of choice for the foreseeable future. does that come in i.v. form? put me on the drip doc.

i even made it to the recreation building they have on post. i watched national lampoon's something christmas. it was terrible, but it killed an hour or two. an hour or two that i'll never get back...ever. i noticed quite a few others sleeping though it. i should have joined them. hindsight: who knew.

even the artillery was relatively quiet today; i only heard maybe 5 shots all day (you tend to lose track it's so common). of course, that's probably because there were fewer people in missions today, but i'll take what i can get. less fighting = maybe the people will like us more...maybe.

one more night blogging. one more night on the other end of the world. one more holiday that didn't feel like one, but was a good day nonetheless. i hope you all ate a ton of food for me. i give all the good homework assignments, mhmm.