I finally got some sleep yesterday. We arrived in Baghdad from Kuwait via C-130 on Monday night (actually, early Tuesday morning.) We spent several hours in the "terminal" at Baghdad International Airport before convoying by bus to the Green Zone once the sun came up. I say "terminal" because in reality the place they drop off incoming soldiers is on the other side of the air strip from the actual terminal. It's little more than a couple of tents, a PX in a trailer and some port-a-potties. There were phones there so we could call home, as well as a couple of big screen TV's. I got to watch the Red Sox beat the Yankees in 14 innings on Russ Ortiz's bloop single, so I was pretty happy.

Once the sun came up we loaded up on buses and drove to the Green Zone. Evidently there's no travel during the day if possible, as we seem to be consistently flying and moving in the early morning hours. Nobody has actually stated that as a policy, but it's either that or we have the intinerary from hell. Once there we did some basic inprocessing (more forms) and then moved to the Presidential Palace.

You should see this place! Chandeliers, alabaster stair cases, foutains. The first grass I've seen since I hit the middle east *lol* Quite the hang out. Once we got to the palace we unloaded our bags and got settled in to the temporary housing, which is basically just a festival tent with sand bags stacked up outside along the perimeter for protection. It's an open bay, but there's beds and showers and electricity, so not bad all in all.

We got done about 2:30 PM and I just crashed. I layed down and fell fast asleep. I hadn't had more than an hours sleep here and there since I got off the plane in Kuwait early Sunday morning. Between jet lag and all our traveling occurring at night, I hadn't had a chance to sleep for a couple of days aside from the little cat naps I caught here and there. Surprisingly I didn't feel tired or run down, but when they finally did let us go, I crashed. I slept for about 6 hours, got up and ate some midnight chow, then went back to bed for another 5 hours or so.

It finally hit home this morning that I'm really in Baghdad. Being in Iraq didn't make much of an impact on me yesterday because I was busy taking it all in, rushing here and there, unloading and moving baggage, etc. As I was walking to the shower trailers this morning it just seemed so surreal to be walking around the Iraqi Presidential Palace in downtown Baghdad. Who would have ever thought! It just all seems so cool. To be honest (and I know this sounds weird) this all seems like one great big adventure. How fun!! Eating dinner in Saddam Hussein's dining hall, walking his court yards, taking pictures of his architecture. I'll tell you what, if my deployment keeps going the way it's gone thus far, I'm going to have a good year.