Life on Base

As I got situated in my new temporary home, and got rid of the jet lag, Katie and I set up a daily routine that we’d wake up, take her giant dog, Diesel, for a walk, and we’d explore the base. The base they lived on was one of three bases that were all within driving distance. Her base was the smallest of them all and was just mainly used as housing. She showed me all the old buildings that were once used during World War II, and the little elementary school whose mascot happened to be the hedgehogs.

Michael worked during the week and they only had one car, so we typically stayed on their base during the day and watched a lot of Disney movies on Netflix. Once Michael got home at 3 PM, we’d all take the 30-minute drive to the Mildenhall base (Mildenhall is the name of the town the base is in) and go bowling or see a movie. They take security very serious there. Base entrances are guarded 24/7 with military police and every time someone enters a base, you must show your identification and proof that you are allowed onto the base. For me, I had to go get a special piece of paper that stated how long I was going to be in England and who I was allowed to enter base with.

Mildenhall is only about 10 miles away, but the roads are so curvy, they take you so far out of the way that it actually takes longer than it should to drive that distance, which is extremely annoying. Mildenhall base is the biggest of the three bases and it contains several different parishes of churches, every single health care facility you could think of, a middle and high school for the American kids that live on any of the bases, little knick-knack stores, and a super market, which is called the BX and I have no idea what the B and the X stands for.

 

All the meat products that are in the BX come from America, packaged in vacuum sealed bags and pre-marinated. It’s quite possibly the worst thing I’ve ever tasted. And there is a whole aisle dedicated to local British cuisine which is honestly just full of crazy flavors of tea, crumpets and orange flavored chocolate, which is actually round and you pull the slices apart just like an orange.

All in all, life on base is just the same as life in America, the only difference is you drive on the wrong side of the road.