Kickoff

As a kid, everyone knew that if you dig a hole deep enough, you'd end up in China.  Or at least that's what we said in CA, maybe East Coast kids were told other lies.  As it turns out, I would've ended up off the coast of Madagascar (http://map.talleye.com/bighole.php)....but they don't really teach kids about places like that in 1st grade.  I guess they were trying to get across the point that its really far away.  Kind of like Afghanistan.  No seriously--after you see how far away it is on a map, take a moment to check out its neighbors.  Besides the obvious friendlies like Iran and Pakistan, you've got all of the former Soviet republics that few people could list in a pub trivia quiz (though I'm proud to say that I can).  So apparently I decided that beautiful, bucolic DC wasn't giving me enough action and I needed to go to a faraway place most people are stoked not to think about.  Granted, its only 6 months, which is nothing compared to some of our military forces.  But who knows, maybe I'll fall in love with it's enchantment and stay longer?