Its all relative

So, I overheard a conversation the other night, apparently one of the soldiers' girlfriends caled him and told him that the month before she had gone out, gotten drunk, and slept with a guy, and now she was pregnant. I guess my little problems with loneliness aren't really on the map compared to some.

Nonetheless, it is surprising how lonely it is in fobland. There really isn't anywhere to go or anything to do when you're done with the day. On Victory, there's a couple places to go and hang out, there was this annoying guitar player who would come out to the greenbean and play (not very well), but looking back, there was something pleasant about it. At least it felt like a real place to hang out, like a coffee shop back home. Plus, the camarederie on the last team was a lot better, we actually did stuff with each other when we were done with work. I put some of that down to the dynamics of this team, but its also a limitation of the place in which we find ourselves here.

On a lighter note, its amazing how quickly pogey bait goes here. (For those who don't know, a "pogue" is a fatbody or other person who doesn't stay healthy* - thus pogey bait is the generic term for junk food, soda, or other non-healthy food items consumed by soldiers). The first week I was here we got like six packages of tastee cake stuff, those were gone in a week. I got a package witha bunch of snack cakes, those are gone. We had some M&Ms and other candy bars, all gone. I try and limit myself to one package of snack cake and one soda a day, so someone else must be tearing it up. Not a big deal, I tell people when I get it "Just don't eat the last one" Cause it really sucks when you want a soda, or a swiss cake roll, and you get back to the office and it's gone. Then you're craving it for the rest of the day, or longer if its chocolate since chocolate is rarer than gold here.

* Correction 2/20 - a pogue is a similar term for REMF, not necessarily someone out of shape. My introduction to the term seemed to be based on general slovenliness, apparently my interpretation of the statements were wrong, there's a paper in there somewhere