That's How I Roll!

Excuse me, readers…do you have any Grey Poupon?

I have finally, sort of, settled down here at Camp Nathan Smith in sunny Kandahar, Afghanistan. I am sitting in a sea container that has been converted into a room with 2 beds and, once again, no roommate.

How did I get here? That’s the story of this blog post. The answer is not going to be as philosophical as you might imagine because rather than reason out why I am here I’m going to tell you how I got here…literally.

The 20 officers from across the country, with whom I have been training, and I climbed aboard an Air Canada flight bound for Frankfurt, Germany on September 10th. We were no ordinary passengers, however.

Much to the chagrin of the regular bourgeois, twenty of the nation’s finest climbed aboard AC 848 in business class met by a glass of sparkling wine and a mini kit designed to relax and refresh you during your flight (I guess).

The Air Canada flight attendants looked after us like doting mothers as we accepted their gifts and attention without hesitation. The flight was enjoyable, as I reclined in my pod seat and watched a movie and dined on beef tenderloin while sipping on the odd alcoholic beverage. Life is rough.

As we arrived in Frankfurt the plane gently kissed the ground before we taxied to our destination and de-planed. We were promptly directed to the Lufthansa executive class lounge. Am I sickening you yet?

The toughest part of the trip was the 8, turned 9 hour layover. We were forced to spend it in the lounge with free food, free beer, showers and sleep rooms. You can well imagine how well we fit in there!!

Upon boarding the Lufthansa executive class we were again met with sparkling wine and what? another mini-kit to relax and refresh. *sigh* I missed the meal (and most of the flight) due to my self administered, food induced coma

We landed in Dubai at about midnight and were met with an intense humid heat where reality decided to check us from our first class experience. We lugged our gear to a dusty, dirty bus with no air conditioning.

With the windows open for air circulation we traveled toward our Canadian Air Base smelling an unfamiliar fragrant air and with a keen sense that we had finally arrived.