Wow, I've been super busy with schoolwork this semester. Although I have my xbox here, and I've been starting to draw, I had to put them all on the wayside for my schoolwork. This is probably the most time I've spent on my schoolwork since I started my graduate classes.
But, this post isn't about my schoolwork, its about respecting your neighbor. The place where I "live" in Afghanistan is super-awesome. It's a room to myself, in a hard building. However....I have a neighbor above me who is only separated by a piece of plywood and some honeycomb cardboard. My neighbor to my left originally was only a locked door away. I've since put up 3 layers of Styrofoam and a 1" piece of plywood. For the most part, we all got only fairly well. There was once I had to leave a note for my upstairs neighbor who left his TV blaring at 3am while he went to the bathroom and I woke up...and couldn't get back to sleep. He apologized profusely and has since been better about the noise level upstairs. My next door neighbor, once I put up the barriers, was pretty good. Generally he kept normal hours and I didn't hear him much after hours. While I still have the same neighbor upstairs, my next door neighbor has changed. UNFORTUNATELY I believe he sold him his stereo. The first night he was in the bass was playing so loud I could feel it in my teeth while I lay in my bed at 11pm. I politely knocked on the door, and brought him into my room to exhibit just how loud his stereo was. This was a couple of days ago. This morning, however, I did not wake up to my alarm clock, but to the sound of his music blaring away and a way to early hour. I grumpily got up and got ready to start my day much earlier than usual and had breakfast. While at breakfast, I just happened to sit down to the senior NCO for the division I work for. I happened to mention my rude awakening and he immediately asked for the soldier's name. I told him I didn't know it, and I asked him not to intervene just yet...that I wanted to see how it played out try to encourage my neighbor to respect some quiet hours that are supposed to be followed where I live anyway. The Senior NCO nodded but told me that all I need to do is ask and he would step in. "Too many times do I see young soldiers not caring about their music and I've had to put a bunch in their place here and back in the states."
So this whole rant is really about respecting other people. If you want to blast your eardrums out, how about getting a pair of headphones? If you want to ride around in your pimp mobile blaring your music to extreme levels and cause yourself to go deaf, make sure it's not being done at odd hours. I can't stand the kids these days and how they just don't care about others and feel it's their right to blast their music as loud as they want without courtesy to those around them. In other news, I go home in less than a month for R&R leave, and that's very exciting :)
