Changing Tides

I have successfully extracted myself from the desert, and relocated myself in another one. This time, I am happy to be here and I'm halfway around the world. Interestingly enough, a job has made my transition possible; work as a surveillance pilot has brought me to Tikrit, Iraq. This blog post is not about where I'm at, it is about my travels to get here. I caught myself feeling nervous leaving LAX, with a realization piquing that it will be quite a long time until I am on American soil again. Never do you realize the security that living in a protected nation provides more, than when you are in transit to a hostile one.

After a long international flight, I arrived in a place that I imagined incorrectly while I was at home daydreaming; the Middle East. Dubai was my introduction. It is an incredible place, mostly due to how incredibly different Dubai is to the vacation millionaire playgrounds found in the West. The culture shock hit me in my jet-lagged state all at once. While wondering the airport, all at once the world stood still, and everyone prayed to the sound of prayer piped through speakers in the whole airport. I was in a somewhat awkward situation, walking through suspended animation as an American; I stuck out like a sore thumb. It was nothing to be put off by however, that experience only wiped away all of my western propaganda-fueled preconceived notions of what middle-easterners might be like. It was overwhelming in a way that I would not have expected.

Before I go to bed at night I always think a little bit about my life and those whom are a part of it. Lately I haven't been able to: Lately I have been fronted with the reality of where I am, and how fast my life has changed. Luckily, where I am will provide me with more than enough stories to continue writing in a way I haven't been able to in the past months.