Wading in

I was onboard BOUTWELL most of the day. I've been there on and off the past several days, playing reality-TV Tetris as I cram 6 months' worth of stuff into two tiny lockers and a broom-closet of a stateroom. (I'm in 2-man chiefs' berthing, because there's only one female chief, and I'm the only female officer.) I might well be flying straight from BOUTWELL to JARVIS, and it may be months before all my belongings catch up with me out in Hawaii, so I have to take everything I need for the patrol...AND everything I might need for the first several months of my new assignment. With the caveat that somehow I have to squeeze all these things into suitcases to fly out from some foreign port call, just in case.

Since we're doing so many "meet-and-greets" with foreign Coast Guards and other VIPs, we have to pack every uniform item imaginable, which takes up considerable space. On top of all that, I'm bringing skirts AND pants AND pumps AND oxfords AND stockings AND socks. More space.

That aside, today was a day of meetings.

In one of the meetings, an Iraqi professor affiliated with the Navy postgraduate school program presented a seminar on the history, political and religious background, and culture of the various Middle Eastern nations (in particular, Iraq). A similar seminar (which I was not able to attend) was presented last week by an Iranian professor. While the professor had resided in America since his mid-twenties, he had also completed compulsory service in the Iraqi army as a young man, and maintained ties to the region. It is not often that we, as Americans, are afforded a relatively unvarnished view of Middle Eastern life, and I found the professor's viewpoint refreshingly insightful, nuanced, and rational. So much of what we receive through the media is packaged for mass American consumption, much too crude, simplistic, sound-biting, and jingoistic to reflect the true "facts on the ground".

My day was almost over by the time I was able to depart the ship to start my second job - at the ISC. I feel like I'm moonlighting, except I'm only earning one salary.