A room with a view, originally uploaded by docfranxusc.

This is the view from my room in Diego Garcia, where I am for a month, covering for the Senior Medical Officer, who is on leave currently. It's a rough gig, I know, to be on a tropical island in the middle of the Indian Ocean, when it's 30 degrees in Japan and 80 here on the average day...i swear I am working!!

It does rain here and dampen (no pun intended) the mood...a little bit...it rained lke crazy on New Year's but the party...well, it had to go on...

To give you some perspective, DGar is about 11,500 miles from NY and 16,500 miles from SF. Hello. There are about 2-3,000 people on the island, including Navy personnel, Airforce people, British representatives (it is a british territory, after all), Filipino civilians who basically run everything, and a variety of merchant marine types who sit in the large lagoon that is surrounded by the 35miles of horseshoe shaped land here.

because no spouses - and i mean NONE - are allowed on the island, there are lots of things meant to keep one occupied...generally this means sportsy-type things, but it also includes drinking (what else do people do when there is "nothing else" to do) and well, other types of cavorting. Nuff said.

I miss my husband, for the record, and would be where he is in a heartbeat...and this place would be INFINITELY more fun with him here...But the Navy offers "opportunities" to volunteer, and thus, in his absence, i am keeping busy with reading and running and swimming and sailing and snorkeling. Lots of movie watching. I have a few friends and we hang out and make dinner and go "out" to the little island bar/band place. Thankfully, they are not party-ers per se, so we generally have early bedtimes (i know i know -- i'm such the life of the party)...besides, I'm practically on call 24/7.

No complaints here, though. Other than missing Justin, i am definitely getting a chance to work on things I sometimes don't in the hectic pace of clinic in Japan. it's a month here, which will fly by...and I'm thankful for the opportunity.

There are definitely more difficult places to be and everyone has been really very nice. And it took about 14.5 seconds for everyone to know who i am...so even if I don't know who they are, they know me... figures - there are only 3 female officers here...other women, of course, but the officer pool is small.

The time difference is about 11hrs from EST and thus 14 from PST, and 3 behind Japan.

If you click on the picture, there are a few more that show where we are and some of the goings on...more to come.