Long Day

I am in my room after a very long day.  I will not fill you in on all of the graphic details, but it was a day meant to prepare us for what can go wrong when you live in a war zone.  It really took a lot out of me as I was faced with some of the very real dangers that could happen living and working in Iraq.  It was the second day in a row that the reality of what I am preparing to do sort of slapped me in the face.  Yesterday, we picked up our equipment.  In a word, it is heavy.  I have a helmet, gas mask, and vest to wear.  I am pretty sure that all of it weighs more than my roommate.  I will try to figure out how to include a photo so you can all picture me wearing this stuff when you are celebrating Christmas...I will be putting mine on in Kuwait sometime Sat evening-ish.  Please don't get me wrong, I am still very excited about this opportunity.  I am also thankful for this week of training/orientation.  I just know that it is going to be very different from anything I have done before and that I am going to need to be more aware of my surroundings than ever before.  I guess that is all for now.  I will post more soon.
Love,
 Matia

PS  Sorry for the poor photo quality.  My camera was MIA and now it is simply AWOL.  When I get it back, I will take better photos.