Trip to the Embassy...

My passport application lead to another trip to the IZ and the US Embassy.

That meant riding MRAPs... today's stagecoach for road trips in hostile territory...

An IZ drop off at Union III/Building 5--former Ba'ath Party Center. See its missing rotunda--blown off by a JDAM missile during the invasion...

A short walk to the new Embassy takes us across Kindi Street. Kindi is one of the two East-West routes in the IZ. It's patrolled by Iraqi National Forces... not wanting to end up in a car trunk, pack heat and look mean! Here's a view to the west...

Here's looking east... Those beige buildings on the right will get you inside the US Embassy. The arch off in the distance is 14th of July Street and it crosses the Tigris River if you turn right...

The old Embassy was vacated almost 2 years ago, once housed in the Presidential Palace on IZ's east end... this is now the Iraqi Prime Minister's office...

The new locale is about a mile and a half west on prime riverfront property formerly owned by the upper caste of Saddam's regime. The international media nicknamed the new Embassy, "Fortress America" due to its 100 acre size and cost, $750 million.  This complex has its own water, electricity and sewage treatment plants.

A quick walk to the SE corner of the Embassy will bring you to "CHU-ville"... my new home! Under that mortar-proof awning are a plethora of CHUs for transient billeting.

Life in boxes--bedrooms, bathrooms, and laundry... feels like a chicken coupe. Some folks spend their entire deployment living in here... joy!

Next to CHU-ville is the Embassy DFAC... not as fancy as the old Embassy's DFAC but the spread is unquestionably the best in Theater...

Toward the north side is Recreation Hall--a collection of offices and shops: PX, Embassy gift shop, post office, barber shop, Pizza Hut, Subway, Green Bean Coffee with WiFi cafe, a movie theater, a lounge (alcohol is kosher for State Department employees), a chapel, and a gym with an indoor pool...

The majority of space on the complex is dedicated to Embassy housing for full-time employees. Looks like a penitentiary... granted the lack of landscaping is obvious at this point. A work-in-progress for sure...

Here is the home of the US Ambassador to Iraq, Christopher R. Hill...

And the big building over yonder is the US Embassy...