It's been a wild couple of days!

we had to get up Thursday morning at 2 am to take the PT test. Of course, when you have to get up that early, you worry about not getting up on time, and you end up sleeping poorly. We were trying to get to the running track before it got too hot. But by 6:30 am it was hot and the dust was blowing. I busted out my sit-ups and push-ups to standard which was noticed by many. Even some of the men and most of the women were sagging in the middle or not going down all the way for the push-ups. lame. We ran the test and a bunch of us had so much dust in our lungs we were coughing and basicly having an allergy attack to sand. We were bused to the gym to shower and change. Then we took our test to graduate from training. I got a 100% on that and was trying to focus on recovering from the run. My face was flushed and I was still coughing hours later. By the time I got back to my apartment in the mid-afternoon, I was exhausted from lack of sleep, heat, and having a major allergy/sand attack. My eyes were swollen, nose running, wishing there was a way to "throw up" out of your lungs. I sat in the tub with the shower running for a long time. soaking, deep breathing. For some reason, I don't think about wasting water here because they "produce" the water by desalinization. Anyways, I finally took an allergy pill and was thinking about going to sleep around 6 for a nap. But then a new roommate showed up in the apartment and that took some considerable time saying hello and helping her settle in as I weezed all over the place. Then I ended up on IM with a friend, I called Mom to let her know I graduated, and then Dad, and then hours had passed at this point. So I got back on IM until finally around 9:30 pm I was truly wiped out and went to sleep.
I woke up Friday morning around 8 so that was a nice night of sleep. I felt a lot better. I had plans to go to spend the day with 2 of my classmates. We went to the Avenues Mall and a fancy lunch at a steak place. They are both weight lifters and huge guys (so of course they are hanging out with the little girl) so they had steak. I had a delicious vegatable platter and tiramisu for dessert. The guy from Honduras has never had tiramisu so that was a treat to see him enjoy something new. I had to fight them off for my share though! just kidding. There was some sword play with the spoons. They needed bathing suits so we went shopping. The guys are very sweet and make sure they walk on both sides of me. One is 5'11", 200 pounds, and the other is 6'4", 260 pounds. I'm 5'3". HeeHee. It's a sight.
We came back to my building and went swimming. We played volleyball in the water for a long time with some other people. Of course the females got more of a work out then the guys. Their arms are long and strong. They were having a good time hitting the ball out of the pool and watching me go get it. bastards. I gave them the evil eye. When I had swallowed enough water, we called the game, showered, and headed to another friends' apartment. How lucky is this - one guy likes to cook and the other guy likes to clean? the perfect pair. So we all had a cook out with steak, sausages, chicken (for me), homemade salsa by the Mexican in the group, and rice. At this point it's like 9 o'clock. We're still ready to go. Half of the group is 25 or 26 years old and the other half, 3 of us, are all 39 years old. It keeps things fresh.
You're not going to believe this but I smoked sheesha at the hooka house! We piled in 2 taxis and headed to the happening area in Fahaheel. It's not the nicest area in Kuwait but it's pretty nice and the closest hooka house to our location. Sheesha is flavored tobacco that perculates through water making the inhalation very smooth. It's legal and a traditional social custom for Arab males. It's not like a cigarette or anything else. The contraption looks like a bong and makes a gurgling noise when you suck on it. We had lemon and strawberry flavored sheesha. Lemon was better for me. You get a little light headed but the effect is short lived. However we combined the sheesha with an accelerant. The guys like redbull and monster. I had 2 cups of Turkish coffee. wowzers. We were all silly. We finally all came home about 1 am. This was actually a good thing because I wanted to stay up late, sleep in, and start adjusting to the night shift.
But my stomach didn't know this plan and woke me up at 6 am with an urgent bathroom visit. After a few trips to the head and and hour later I popped half an anti-diahrea pill. It could be the water in the form of ice cubes in the drinks, the chicken, the coffee, the dining facilities on post,... take your pick of the source, the pill still works!