Week 1:Training

My my! I've had a pretty lazy summer, and things are definitely not that way anymore. But I couldn't ask for anything better right now! For those of you who don't know, my travels here were almost perfection, except for the last leg. I left Chicago at 3:40 Sunday afternoon, and arrived right on time in Frankfurt at 6:50 Monday morning. I met a girl on the plane who is also doing Camp Adventure and who had been to Germany a few times.  The flaw, however, was we had to go through customs and go through security all over again. Luckily, the Germans aren't as persnickety about security, however they aren't near as efficient either. Our plane was suppose to depart at 8:00am. We missed our flight by 10 minutes. We had to get it re-booked, and the next flight, at 1:25, was full. The next one was at 5:35. A whole freaking 10 hours!!!!!! We could have taken a train or even drove in a fifth of the time (it was only a 40 minute flight). So instead of being the very first ones to arrive, we were the last.


There's an amazing group of girls here, 11 right now, another will be arriving this weekend. We are located by Ansbach, Germany, about 45 minutes from Nuremburg. We are split in half among two bases: Illesheim and Katterbach, which is where I am. They are both pretty small bases, with Katterbach being the bigger of the two. Katterbach is only 6 miles from Ansbach, so at least there is a city (even though it's still fairly small compared to what I'm use too). Our apartment is way better then what I was expecting. It's 3 bedroom, 2 baths, full kitchen, living and dining room, washer and dryer, and pretty decent closets. Fully furnished, but still kinda bare. There's a patio too where we get to watch the Army guys run every morning :) That's probably the best part!

So most people know what I'm doing, but there are still some that do not. I am a graduate intern through the University of Northern Iowa (UNI), a program called Camp Adventure. I will be working at a Child Development Center (CDC) and with elementary school age students, which is a program called SAS. My day will be split up between the two; not really sure exactly what ages yet, probably a mixture of infants through fifth graders, which I am ecstatic for! All week we've been doing training to prepare for our work. Most of it I have been through before, so it's just a refresher. Today, however, we had a lady come talk about deployment and the effects it has on the children and spouses. Not going to hold it back, I definitely shed a few tears. Many soldiers have just returned from deployment in the past couple weeks, including some just today. There were 28 planes that brought soldiers back to this base. I remember reading a Yahoo! article a week or so before I left about the last combat troops leaving the war zone. These were part of those troops. Most of these soldiers were in war zone and dropped bombs over cities. The emotional stress/strain/guilt they have is absolutely insane. We learned a lot about behaviors of children who deal with a parent being gone and how to help them through this. There is a process troops have to go through when they return home, and one of them is a special meeting type thing with their spouse about recognizing depression and anything that deals with returning home. This is a kid free event, so I am working Saturday morning to watch these kiddos. Helping these children is the reason I am here, and traveling is just a bonus.

We're only allowed to do day trips this weekend because they want us to fully become adjusted, and since I"m working Sat.  morning, that will be fine anyways. I think we might just explore parts of Ansbach and go grocery shopping finally!!

I'm still trying to figure out this blog thing, but hopefully I'll be putting some pictures up soon!!

Posted a little late . . .

So I wrote this before I left on a different blog, decided I didn't like it, so am starting over. But here is the post from before I left....I'll write a new updated one soon :)
At the time I am writing this, it is almost exactly 36 hours until my plane departs! Am I ready yet, heck no! Instead of packing, I am sitting on my bed, with a suitcase 3/4 full of clothes, and that’s not even 1/2 of what I want to take. I just stare at it and hope it will all get done itself. A girl can wish, right?!
I don’t like limits, and weight and checked baggage limits are not working in my favor. How in the world am I suppose to be gone for 4 months on one suitcase?!? You’re talking to a girl who has over 70 pairs of shoes. This task is not an easy one.
I’m looking across my room….bed full of clothes, dresser full of jewelry, toiletries, paperwork, and more clothes. Shoes sprung across the floor. It’ll all fit, right? I guess this is the time I have to decide what is really critical to live on and what I can do without. I’ve never been a person to live simply; just look at my closet! I’m leaving for STL in less than 24 hours, so I have to get on this sometime. Might as well be now!