I ate way too much at Chili’s restaurant last night. It was good though. I also signed up for a trip to the mall today. I’m looking forward to that. On my last deployment we would often go to the mall at Kuwait Int’l Airport. I liked to sit at the Starbucks there and watch Kuwait society go by. It’s interesting to watch people interact, to find the differences in societal norms between the culture I’m visiting and the cultures I’m familiar with.
And there will be shopping. I think my wife is afraid I’ll spend too much money. I’m not sure her fears are unfounded. There’s a MacDonalds, a Coldstone, and a Starbucks. The food is taken care of. It sounds like I have a reasonable chance of finding a power supply for my Mac. And, as long as I’m careful and follow all the rules — no pictures of women or the Qatar flag, I can take pictures.
I spend a lot of time listening to music on deployment. More than in my civilian life. On my last tour, I listened to a lot of Jazz Fusion and discovered The Crusaders. Stayed up late last night talking to friends in the US on instant messaging which was fun. For a while now I’ve been thinking that I don’t have much Traditional Country in my music library. Last night I decided to explore some of the old school country artists and buy a few albums. Today, I went to Green Bean, got my coffee and a donut and sat down to use their Internet. For whatever reason, Green Bean seems to have the fastest internet here. I bought Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings, Buck Owens and a new Dwight Yoakum album. I also decided that, much as I love country music, I’m not a Hank Williams fan. Don’t like Hank Jr. either. I like some of their songs but not enough to buy an album. Not a Pasty Cline fan either.
I’ll tell you all my adventures at the mall tomorrow.