Irish Genetics

Irish genetics/genes defiantly were not made for this environment. I haven’t gotten sunburned yet and surprisingly I have gotten somewhat tan. It is a farmer’s tan but a tan none the less. The real harsh part for me so far is how dry it is here. I have never had a nose bleed in my whole life and it bleeds here everyday. The blood doesn’t run out but it is so dry that it cracks and leaves giant scabs that make the inside of your nose crusty and hard to breathe tough. It would be like having a bunch of frosted flakes stuck in your nose. I figured out if I coat my nose with Neosporin or Vaseline it helps out, so I can deal with that.

The heat is the second part messing me up. It is so hot, that it smells hot. The funny thing is that because it is so dry you really don’t feel yourself sweat which is nice, but dangerous at the same time. I hope to get a picture of me holding a thermometer one of these days, it has been getting around 117 out and they tell me that isn’t as bad as it is going to get. Getting in and out of my truck is a pain. The inside feels hotter then an oven and leaving your windows down doesn’t even help with how bright the sun is. It is so hot that you can’t touch anything, they have contest to see how long people can hold there hand on the hood of the trucks, I can’t last more then 2 seconds, it feels like I’m holding a log pulled from a camp fire.

I am getting used to it though, and it isn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. Everything is air-conditioned which helps out A LOT.

On the flip side of things, I bought a TV the other day. It is pretty sweet. A 19” flat screen one. It is some off shore brand but ran me, with a DVD player, about 200 bucks. It has been an awesome investment. I have the whole series of scrubs on DVD and it helps pass the time and created nose in my hooch besides just the AC unit. Although while hooking it up I made the mistake of plugging in the wal-mart power strip I got from my mom into the wall, it just about exploded in my hand. I figured being a power strip it could handle 220V. It knocked out the power in me and my roommates place and was more then just a simple switch of the breaker. I had to stay up to like midnight waiting for a guy to come around and fix it which made the next day kind of rough.

One more thing, sorry this is so long, I downloaded a program called Skype, everyone needs to get it. It lets you call computer to computer for free and it even has a webcam feature. I can also use it to chat. It is very well put together. My name on it is:

AndrewPBentley1

Once you get it look me up. I really wanted to keep these shorter, sorry for the long windedness

The picture is of me and my Cousin John in Baghdad in front of one of Saddam's palaces. Click it to see it bigger