New Dorm Room

Well, I’m finally settled into a new dorm room, with another American major in my career field and deployed unit, and a British squadron leader (the Royal Air Force equivalent to a major) who works with me in Future Operations as a fellow Air Planner. When we moved in we had two desks and two chairs already assembled. Most other rooms had to assemble theirs. I’m glad I didn’t have to mess it that. (I assembled enough furniture for our Germany house to last me awhile.) We don’t have our wardrobes yet, but I think there’s ‘plenty’ of room to spread them out in the room so we’ll have a little personal space. We’re ‘supposed’ to start getting them next week. I started collecting empty water boxes and was planning to duct tape them into a cardboard chest-of-drawers, but I guess I’ll just wait for the wardrobes. The room is approximately 9 feet wide and 18 feet long. At first, I thought it was going to feel tight or cramped, but when I laid down to go to sleep the first night I looked over at one of our piles of bags and realized how far away it was…there was 4 feet of floor space between me and our gear! In the tent, I had 3 by 6 feet of floor space my bed and the wall of the tent, and that included my 2 by 3 foot footlocker. So even with three people and lots of personal bags, the room actually feels roomy. It’s all relative, I guess. So when you go to bed tonight, look around and appreciate your spacious American accommodations (or American-like for those in Germany!). I’m not trying to make anyone feel guilty, but rather blessed for all that you have.

The new dorm buildings are on the developing, West-end of the base. Check out how much dust that van is kicking up. That’s on a paved road, but the sand and dust have built up an inch or two over it. Imagine how pleasurable it is when a vehicle passes you while you’re going for a run…I’ll tell you it’s not fun trying to breathe through all of that dust.

Here’s the view between the buildings. There’s no landscaping yet, but I’m sure tons of gravel are on the way.

Here’s my master suite, as viewed from the front door. We don’t have our wardrobes yet, so everything’s sitting out or piled up. You can’t see it, but there’s a desk to the left, behind the front bunk. I sleep in the bottom bunk to the right. We had to raise the bunk up on cinder blocks so could store some bags under there. We also have bags on the one upper, empty bunk. My American roommate sleeps in the bottom bunk to the left. He brought black shower curtains and sheets to enclose his bunk. I guess he’s pretty serious around blocking out the light so can sleep (or develop film photography).

And here’s the view from the back of the room. There’s our second desk, although my American roommate has taken up that desk with his stuff. I thought I had too much stuff—I have a total of five bags, but he has even more stuff than I do and it’s more spread out. My stuff is packed or stacked in three neat piles right now. My British roommate only has two bags. Of course, he’s only here for four months (and still gets a mid-tour leave, but that’s another story).