Pictures from the Desert!

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My guess is straight outta' high school and in to the desert?
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I'm 24 years old, now. I served in the Army National Guard for six years, and got three years of college under my belt. I was on my way to Qatar a week after my ETS date last year.

Don't let the baby-face fool you. I'm well on my way to becoming a non-traditional student. :D

The bathrooms in Qatar were utterly FILTHY. Inch of water on the floor (not so much, but you know...because they use the spray hose, not the toilet paper), crap on the floor/walls, it was always about 100* in them, and humid as heck. And then you'd have the bored underpaid Bangladeshi cleaning guy staring at you... :uhoh:

As for the signs. My guess is that since Arabic doesn't translate directly into English, there are always going to be problems. Lots of mis-spellings, and many signs were extremely literal. Whereas in the States a service station might be called "Joe's Serice Center", in Qatar it'd be "Al Noor Petrol Station And Automotive Technical Services".

Salons were called "saloons", which I found amusing, given what we think of when we hear "saloon".

And you wouldn't believe the number of people that thought if you said it slower and louder, people who don't speak English would understand you...
 
One thing I do have to say is that Doha itself is a beautiful city. The architecture is just stunning.

Also, note the interesting...bathing apparatus...in the bathroom photo. You couldn't leave the spray head clipped to the wall, to use as a shower, either, as it sprayed at a 45* angle and would hit the wall that way.

Took me awhile to figure out how to use that thing...
 
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Welcome back!

That toilet is still found in deferent places around Europe. You are not supposed to stand but squat over it. If I have to go in a public restroom I would much rather do it in one of those. They are much more hygenic than sitting on a toilet seat - only thing that comes in contact with anything in there are the bottoms of your shoes.
Trying to go and yet not sit down on a regular toilet seat that has who knows what on it is also a whole lot less comfortable and less sustainable than squating over a hole in the ground.

I don't know about the no toilet paper thing though...that would be tough.

Well, Nightcrawler sorry to stear this into such a toilet direction. By the way you have got to make one of them toilets part of one of your stories - aah the possiblities :scrutiny:

Nik
 
It took us longer than I'd like to admit that the TCN's (3rd Country Nat'ls -- local contractors) didn't use TP. We kept complaining to the ones who spoke english that they didn't put paper in the port-o-johns, and they just smiled and said "OK Boss, NO problem!" They kept leaving half full bottles of water in the urinals, too, I guess that looked like a good place for their wash water :confused:

it's a different world over here...
 
And you wouldn't believe the number of people that thought if you said it slower and louder, people who don't speak English would understand you...
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Yes I would, then there's the ones that think their idea of broken English will do the trick.:rolleyes:

Kind of reminds me of the time I had to go into some small Japanese town to a service station and get a fan belt for one of the small boats. A Japanese mechanic who doesn't speak English does not understand the term "fan belt" but he DOES understand when you draw a picture of a motor complete with pulleys and draw in the fan belt. :D
 
Welcome home Nightcrawler, glad your safe and sound. Looking forward to some more of your stories when you get settled in. :)
 
They kept leaving half full bottles of water in the urinals, too, I guess that looked like a good place for their wash water
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Is THAT why there was always a half-full bottle of water left in the porty potties? I thought it was because since it gets like 140* in the things during the day, people bring water with them so they don't pass out. Huh.

Always plenty of TP to be had on the base I worked at, though. Enough so that I rarely had to buy any for my villa... :evil:

Anyways, thanks for the support folks. I must say, getting back has been more of a chore than being gone! My car's costing me a thousand bucks to get fixed (apparently five months under a snow drift is bad for a car).

I went for a run this morning (see the aforementioned post about weight). Hours later? Ankle's all swollen up and sore. I sprained that ankle almost four months ago now. I guess it didn't heal all the way yet. :mad:

And, to top it off, the college. I told them I want to live in a certain dorm, the "adult" dorm where you don't have a roommate and have to be over 21 to live there. They tell me it's full, they can't squeeze me in, I signed up too late (though apparently they can accomodate some non-traditional students simply because they're in their forties), and they want me to live down campus. You know, in a 12x12 room with some other dude, probably (knowing my luck) some 18 year old teeny bopper trying to get me to buy him beer.

I don't freaking think so. So now I've got to find a place to live near the campus, in addition to everything else! :banghead:

Who would've thought dropping everything and leaving for a year could cause so many complications? :scrutiny:
 
One more

The mandatory gun & knife photo. My issued Beretta 92FS (weren't assigned a pistol, we just drew one) and my Gerber combat folder.

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The pistols had night sights, and were usually in horrid condition. Most were mechanically sound, but suffered from years of abuse. Rust, pitting, finish wear, etc. I had one where the magazine release didn't work; the mag had to be pried out with a screwdriver.

Initially, we were permitted one (1) 10-round magazine, but that was later updated to one (1) 15-round magazine. That was for standard issue. Certain of us got more. :)

The mags were a few Beretta factory and mostly Check-Mate junk. The Check-Mate mags were so bad, half the time you'd pop the top round out of the mag and the rest of the rounds wouldn't rise up... :uhoh:
 
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I was issued a completely beat to hell SIG 229 in Iraq. Worked fine, but was hard to find mags for.

I did manage to snag a few souvenier AR and STEN mags :)
 
I'm taking it you were in Doha? I was there from Aug 04 until Oct 04. Got moved around a lot. Went to Navistar and then Arifjan while I was in Kuwait and then on to Balad.
 
I visited Doha in 95 when there wasn't much of a BX or food court. Pizza was bout the only thing besides the chow hall. My have things changed since then.

The fun part was driving dead sheep highway from Al Jaber to Doha. Wanna talk about some crazy drivers, them Kuwaiti's are nuts. ;)
 
Balad? Hey, an Anaconda boy!

We used to drop in there regularly on our cross-country runs; did you also get the guards at the front gate asking you for pr0n all the time?
 
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