My boyfriend will be home in a few days, after being deployed for seven months. It still surprises me that we've only been dating for three years. It seems too long. I think of the day we met often and it doesn't feel like three years have long past. We met in Navy Combat Training before each of us were deployed to different parts of the Middle East.
Today, I decided to get my hair cut and colored, so I look half-way presentable when attending his homecoming. While the stylist painted over my winter revenged hair with some dye, I could not shake the memory of my last mission before returning stateside from our first deployment apart.
I was in Afghanistan and went to Paktika Province with my command sergeant major to inspect some training facilities. The trip went well but naturally I still felt on edge traveling because of past attacks reported on the same roads we were on. Many of the roads were sparsely used except for the occasional bus or cargo truck. As we drove nearer to Kabul, traffic picked up significantly and I saw something that brought an immediate smile to my face.
Herr Reisen by Elizabeth Thompson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
"Herr Reisen" is a common phrase painted on buses in Kabul. Throughout my deployment, I saw a few of these buses which always cheered me up because "Reisen" is my boyfriend's last name and means "to travel" in German. I do not know the details about why there are so many German buses in Afghanistan. I only know over the last century the two countries have had relatively good relations with each other. However, each bus I saw gave me a bit of hope that I would one day get to see my boyfriend again.
It's interesting the places your mind wanders to sometimes. Three years, where does the time go?
Today, I decided to get my hair cut and colored, so I look half-way presentable when attending his homecoming. While the stylist painted over my winter revenged hair with some dye, I could not shake the memory of my last mission before returning stateside from our first deployment apart.
I was in Afghanistan and went to Paktika Province with my command sergeant major to inspect some training facilities. The trip went well but naturally I still felt on edge traveling because of past attacks reported on the same roads we were on. Many of the roads were sparsely used except for the occasional bus or cargo truck. As we drove nearer to Kabul, traffic picked up significantly and I saw something that brought an immediate smile to my face.
"Herr Reisen" is a common phrase painted on buses in Kabul. Throughout my deployment, I saw a few of these buses which always cheered me up because "Reisen" is my boyfriend's last name and means "to travel" in German. I do not know the details about why there are so many German buses in Afghanistan. I only know over the last century the two countries have had relatively good relations with each other. However, each bus I saw gave me a bit of hope that I would one day get to see my boyfriend again.
It's interesting the places your mind wanders to sometimes. Three years, where does the time go?
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