Sudden Spring Break (I take what I can get)

So this last week, we took a group of students down to the Mojave desert to help with some negotiations training. I was a little apprehensive about going so far away with for a whole week with people from my class, but now that it's over I can honestly say that it was the best thing that I've ever volunteered for in the Military. It was a great time and included the following:

Wearing an arabic man-dress to work, along with what I later found out was a controversial shiite head dress as opposed to the more acceptable suni version,
swimming in a pool for the first time since early 2004,
witnessing the price of gas go from 2.79 a gallon to 3.59 a gallon in a couple of days, score one for the Arabs,
seeing a desert sunrise for the first time ever,
spending 80 of the alloted 225 dollars on food; and by "food" I really mean milk and Honey Nut Cherios,
actually needing sunscreen,
counseling army officers that out-ranked me by about twenty years.

Overall, I'm glad I went. The week off of traditional school came at the perfect time. My arabic improved, and I had a blast doing it though I could have done without the gas price part. And, considering we worked an average of four hours a day, it really was a makeshift Spring Break. Although I did hurt my self pretty bad on the diving board. Maybe just my pride.