Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to everyone out there! I hope everyone celebrated appropriately and wish all the best in 2010. New Year's Eve was pretty uneventful out here. The dining hall did have an excellent dinner, with some nice roast beef and grilled chicken. Then the coffee shop had some music playing, but most people gathered at their 'NSE'. NSE stands for National Support Element. Most countries have a small office space, a few containers or a tent of some sort for personnel from that country to gather. Most of the time it consists of a lounge area, maybe a dart board, music from home playing, etc. However, some are nicer than others, depending on the number of people from that country and, usually, the amount of money that country allots for it. Anyway, if national rules allow it, most NSE serve a bit of alcohol from home as well. So, needless to say, that's where the majority of folks found themselves on New Year's Eve.

Of course the U.S. does not have an NSE and personnel cannot drink alcohol at all while over here. It amazes us that we can spend a whole lot of money on a whole lot of things, but we won't shell out a few hundred dollars to set up a little lounge area where people can relax.

Last night, we went down to a 'Holiday market' of sorts. Basically a few NSEs put on some food and music. The Belgiums, Spanish and Dutch offered up bratwurst, french fries (originated in Belgium), waffles, some Spanish rice medley and drinks. It was a really nice atmosphere, though cold since it was outside. Again, it was amazing to see that three relatively small NSEs put on a little something for the base; something that the U.S. would never think of or be able to do. There's so much paperwork and it's such a process for us to get money we can use to entertain personnel from other countries; it's actually quite embarassing.

Anyway, I think that's about it. I must say that getting access to this computer is getting more difficult, as we have more people in the office and have to share the limited computers. I will try to post about some random things, as I find that if I wait for a 'special occasion' (like New Years) I won't be posting much (as everday is the same here :).