“What’s there to do for fun over there?”

This is one of the most-asked questions I get from friends and family members when I talk to them via e-mail or over the phone. I assume they have visions – as I did, before arriving here – of shoddy, makeshift tents crammed with dozens of soldiers sitting in a circle and using a cot for a table as they play Texas Hold ‘Em by flashlight. Contrary to their initial beliefs, I tell them there are actually much more activities available to us than there is time to participate in them all.

Starting first thing in the morning, early risers can go to the indoor gym and play floor hockey or a fiercely competitive game of dodgeball. Directly across the street is a 24-hour weight room packed with a plethora of Nautilus equipment, free weights, yoga mats, punching bags, stationary bikes and treadmills. Next to the fitness center are two basketball courts, three volleyball courts and a pair of horseshoe pits. (Picture at left: Spc. Jimmy Gartin dunks a basketball during a pick-up game with Sgt. Stephen Bantle outside the "House of Pain" gym at the 7th Transportation Company's organizational day at Camp Adder, Iraq.)

In addition to that, there are classes offered seven days a week for almost any specialty you can imagine. I’m quite partial to the abdominal class on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The instructor is a petite female soldier and former gymnast who successfully manages to make muscle-bound grown men cry for mercy and clutch their guts in masochistic agony by the end of the class – and she barely breaks a sweat. Not to toot my own horn, but I’ve been going there for three months now and have been getting pretty good at it. About three-quarters through each class, I reach what I like to call “abdominal nirvana,” where my stomach muscles are exercised to their peak and everything after that is just excess, like sharpening a pencil and seeing no more shavings fall away.

A military organization known as Morale, Welfare and Recreation is responsible for coordinating a wide array of on-post clubs and extracurricular activities. There are groups that meet weekly to play Dungeons & Dragons or Halo 2, watch Japanese animation, sing karaoke, practice Salsa dancing and listen to hip-hop, among others. Marathons, relay races and fundraising 5Ks are held with impressive regularity.

The USO, known best for Bob Hope’s appearances several decades ago, has sent several big-name bands, musicians and stand-up comedians to perform at our base – among them Grammy and American Idol winner Carried Underwood (whom I had the privilege to meet and interview). (Picture: Carrie Underwood performs a concert for soldiers Nov. 16 at Camp Adder, Iraq.)

There is a “lounge room” filled to the rafters with donated paperback books, magazines, board games and movies – and accompanying couches, tables and chairs on which to relax and enjoy these amenities.

Internet access and reasonably-priced phone services are available at several cafés throughout the base where soldiers can call home, check their MySpace pages and order stuff online (or e-mail blog entries to their hometown newspapers).

If I’m in my room, I usually spend my time watching DVDs, listening to music, playing my Nintendo DS or reading. I’m running low on 80-cent Air Mail stamps, but I also write letters to my wife or draw pictures for my daughter when I have the time. And sometimes I clean up (sorry, roomie).

I think it’s pretty obvious why there’s such an abundance of stuff for us to do during our off-duty hours. Probably more than anything, soldiers in a war zone need access to leisurely hobbies and certain creature comforts to take their minds off the stresses of the day.

Sgts. Derek Fry, left, and Cory Howland, both National Guard soldiers with the Brainerd, Minn.-based 1st Combined Arms Battalion, 194th Armor Regiment, take an afternoon break hitting golf balls at a makeshift driving range nicknamed "The Caddy Shack" March 14 at Camp Adder, Iraq.