Conference in Germany

I realized that I am so far behind I didn’t even share about the conference I was able to attend in Germany.  Of course that conference and my traveling is part of the reason I am so far behind.  

I understand I have a very different deployment then most, I have talked about that many times, however there a a ton of jobs over here that are not what everyone thinks we are doing.  We do a lot of training, a lot of helping support the economy and then a whole lot of other stuff.  And because we deploy so many people over here we do military justice over here which is why I am over here.  One of the things abut Law is similar to a lot of careers is that it is ever changing, things build, laws change new case law comes out “fixing” and issue.  As such we have to continually learn and adjust to the changes.  One of those ways is by going to conferences often called Continuing legal education.  This conference in Germany was one of those types of things.

The conference itself was very good, we learned some of the future changes in Army and Military Justice system.  We discussed some of the recent cases that have come out and what they mean for our practice.  We also met several other defense attorneys from the Europe region, I got to see old friends and meet new ones it was a great trip over all.

The conference wasn’t the only thing good, being away eating food (good food) and seeing new places was very cool too.  I had never been to Germany so I added that country to my list as well and it is a beautiful place.  I could be stationed in Europe, just for the travel opportunities alone.  Here are some pictures of my trip.

Been a while I’m sorry

So it has been a really long time since I posted and I promised it wouldn’t be that long.  Since getting back from R and R things got really busy, I moved from one case to the next and tried to keep my head on straight being here.  I don’t know how “bloggers” do it staying consistent and  keeping things updated. 

It had been two months since I posted last, but I have two months left and I am going to finish strong I have decided.  Or at least work really hard at it.

Remembering 9/11 While Serving Overseas

First off I know that it has been a few weeks since 9/11 but as is the way with my blog I write about things when I get the time and start to write them.

Most everyone remembers where they were when the events of 9/11 unfolded, I am no different.  I was coming down the stairs from my poly sci class at the university of louisville on that Tuesday Morning.  Myself and the professor and another student were coming down when the administrative assistant for the poly sci department came running out of her office and said a plane had just hit the World Trade Center.  Then she took the very small black and white TV and turned it for us all to watch the news, as we were watching the events we saw another plane hit and then the people, running, jumping and scattering.  It was shocking, it was crazy, something unforgettable.  My story isn’t much different then any one else's that day who was not in New York at the time.  Watching these crazy, unbelievable events unfold in front of us on TV miles and miles away.  

I was a sophomore in college at the time, I was and have always been proud to be an american, I get chocked up hearing that song as corny as that may be, but I do.  I was enjoying college, loving the scholarship program I was in and learning a lot about myself and what I wanted to do with my life.  That day really solidified that I wanted to do something to serve and help others.  Don’t get me wrong I never imagined or thought of myself as a Soldier (not then anyway).  But, I did know I wanted to give back, I guess I had always been that way though, I have never been about making a lot of money.

Since I was five I wanted to be a lawyer, I have no idea why but I did.  I don’t have any family who are lawyers, so it wasn’t because I saw them, and I don’t really think at that age it was because it looked like a cool job to me from TV.  I honestly don’t know why.  But this blog isn’t about why i became a lawyer or even why I joined the army neither were related to 9/11 at least not directly. It is about remembering 9/11 while in a deployed environment.

Now I need to be honest, I actually was not in afghanistan on 9/11 I was on my R and R but this year being deployed has been interesting, eye opening, and life changing.  Mostly though I have learned a lot about myself, and even more respect then I had before for those Soldiers who go out everyday putting their life in danger, looking for those we are tracking.  I’ve been in the Army a few years so this isn’t my first 9/11 serving.  It is however different when you are in afghanistan, seeing those who are fighting, see the good and the bad a lot of times, trust me the news does not portray how it really it here.  Most of what we do is mundane, but we do build relationships and try and show the locals there is a better way.   For the most part we are not out shooting up villages and breaking though things, we are just simply looking for information and trying to give show that there are better ways then living in garbage and burning whatever they can find.

Being over here serving and seeing the cause that we are fighting first hand reminds me almost daily that there are people who are fighting to for our freedoms and safety back home and how grateful I am to be a small part of that.

I am going back to a new type of family.

So I have been back on the camp for almost a week and it is like I never left for almost three weeks. I just jumped back into work, talking with people singing at church and going to the gym (although that was harder than the rest). I let off my last post talking about how it felt when my sisters left, I got homesick really, missing my family missing America. It was difficult but this time it past much more quickly.

Having someone (my friend in Italy) who completely understood what I was going through meant more to me than anything. She understood my need to relax but still hang out and my feeling even if I didn't voice them the right way. It was exactly what I needed before coming back here. At first I was kind of dreading it, because of how things were just a couple weeks before I left. But then as I was heading back here I realized I was a little excited to come back, to see my deployment family. As much as this place can be dreadful at times we are all in it together and there are those that do look out for each other. I was excited to see them again to sit outside and chill and hang out. It was weird to be feeling that way but you do make a family out here, one that can commiserate when times are bad and the food sucks.

I was ready to get back to the life that has now become normal. Walking around with a weapon, always wearing the same thing and putting my hair in a bun. I'm not going to say it is a great life it isn't but it has become normal. As soon as I put back on my uniform after r and r I Rees he'd for my weapon. I felt like I was constantly missing something until I picked it back up from the safe it was in while I was traveling. There was something comforting about getting back to normal. I was also extremely thankful that I came back to Much less drama though.




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Man did I need a break!

What a difference a couple weeks can make! I am so thankful for this r and r, I know I am saying this and I haven't even made all my travels back to my base in Afghanistan but I already feel a million times better, even if I am not looking forward to returning and have g to work.

While I was traveling I had high hopes of blogging about my travels and adventures but honestly I was so into just seeing the sights as well as relaxing that I didn't make the time. I read books and shopped and saw the sights I also enjoyed time with my family and my friend Amy.













Before I left my stomach was so messed up, I couldn't really eat, and things didn't digest well it was constantly in knots really is the best way to explain it. Even the first day of my r and r I was so stressed and worried and spun up about everything that I couldn't really enjoy not being in Afghanistan. Then I reminded myself that I wasn't in Afghanistan, and that I was away from all the mess that had occurred and was coming to a close as I was leaving. I reminded myself that I had a chance to walk away and leave it all behind for a couple weeks, and aside from a few emails that had to be sent that is exactly what I did.






I don't know if I can do all that good of a job describing what it is like after being I a war zone for over 6 months then walking away for a while, but I will try. I know I described some of this in a previous post but I am going to try and expand on it some.

First off it is a lot of the small things that really excited me. I didn't realize how much I really missed green grass and animals, and seeing kids playing and laughing. Although I could do with out the screaming kids on the plane. I saw trees and clean (for the most part) rivers and water ways and that was so nice. The last few days of my trip I sent hanging out with my friend who is station in Europe and the place she is staying had a pool so I spend three days just laying by the pool and enjoying jumping in or sticking my feet in and reading a book. It was honestly the small things, although don't get me wrong the big sights were pretty amazing too.







It was so nice to be around people who knew me before the deployment people that I wasn't meeting for the first time, I was able to spend time with my sisters who know me and my faults and just, for the most part, let me be me. Awe, finally some relaxation and the knots in my stomach started to come untied. I didn't have to worry about much of anything and it was so nice. I could just be me!

But that didn't mean it was always easy,there is still an adjustment, and I can believe even more of one if I had gone home instead of on a trip. First off I haven't had a whole lot of choice when it came to food each week our menu is basically the same, so I kind of forgot I could try new things. I know that sound strange but when you are forced in a rut it was difficult to kind of remind myself to not order a basic or a staple. Man though did I have some good food, I'm gonna miss the food.





I also kind of forgot what it was like to talk to people not about Afghanistan or life in Afghanistan. It was different for people not to look at me and know I am in the army or even that I am American. (often people would start speaking their native language and I would just act like I got what they were saying). It was also different being thrown back into civilian society with rude people who shove you and beg for money and get violent when you don't give them any. Dealing with people who feel entitled just because of who they are and have done nothing to earn it. It was different.

When my sisters were going to go through security and I began my long day at the airport waiting for my flight I was over come with a since of loneliness and homesickness that I haven't felt since really my first week in Afghanistan. I wanted nothing more than to get on the plane with them and go home to put this deployment behind me and move on. I missed them dearly in a way I hadn't missed them in several years. They were my connection to normal (because deployed life is far from normal everyday life). They were leaving to go on with their life and I felt like I was getting closer to going back to putting my life on hold again. Stopping everything again for the next 6 months.

Don't get me wrong the second part of my trip spending it with Amy was great and honestly something that I think helped a great deal transitioning back to deployment. But that is how I was feeling when they left. It was a terrible feeling.

I think that is enough for now but I will continue to update sharing stories from my trip as well as continued journeys of my deployment. Everyday I am learning knew things about myself and I am growing in respect for those that have families and children that they leave behind to serve their country.

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First part of my r and r

Wow, what a needed break! Having some time in civilization traveling away from green uniforms and weapons is nice. People aren't always on high alert and it is nice to just sit in a cafe and relax and take as long as I want eating and just sitting there. It has also been nice to put on civilian cloths and look like a real girl. I've done a little shopping too, I had to I put on my clothes that I had for the trip and they we're all too big. It was a good problem to have though, I'm not complaining.



We have honestly just toured around seen different sights and over all had a great time. Of course anytime you get the three of us together two things are guaranteed, we will laugh a lot, and we will fight some. We did both, but the fighting wasn't bad and it was over quickly.

It is different taking a trip like this in the middle of serving in afghanistan, I mean seeing things like grass and trees has been great, seeing buildings with color rather than the drab beige that we have is beautiful, and kids playing and people walking their dogs is something I didn't know that I missed but I did.



One of the hardest parts about this trip for me was, this was for my sisters, a trip away from their families and kids so they talked about missing them and being sad and there were tears for them. What I'm not sure they understood completely was this was my trip with my family so it was some times difficult but not bad by any means just a different understanding at times.


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Location:Europe

Meeting up with my sisters

So yesterday my sisters flew in to meet me which was good because they day that I got into country was not necessarily the best so I was very happy to see them.

I flew in to Paris and got on a train to get to near the airport my sisters we're going to fly into. When I got into town it was crowded and crazy, there were a ton of people wondering around and the sky was about to open up into rain. I decided to go to the tourist information building because I thought they would be able to help me get someplace to stay and tell me how to get around. Man was I wrong. The tourist lady that I went to (I had to pick a number and wait to be called to the counter) was not helpful at all and all she wanted. To do was get on to the next person. I asked her about helping me get a room for the night, I had just seen her place a call for the family in front of me and get them a room. But she told me she couldn't do it, I needed to call myself. When I asked her were I needed to go to call she said outside you can find a phone. Then I said well how would I get to this place (the hotel we were going to stay the next night) where would I go. Her response well it tells you on that paper there. Needless to say she was not very helpful.

So I went outside and went to the phones it started pouring down rain and I couldn't get the phone to work, there were two that took some sort of card and two that should have taken euros, but the money one would not take my money. So soaking wet I walked back in and went straight to another counter, I wasn't going to take a number for that kind of service. I asked the new woman about what I needed to do to make a call and she told me were to go to get a phone call, I then made it very clear to her that I didn't think they should have the woman at the end help tourist because at this point all I wanted to do was leave the city if that is how helpful the people who get paid to be helpful are.




I did take a picture of myself on the train,

Anyway, I went finally got a phone card to use the phone but the number I had didn't work, so I decided to just follow the dictions to the place and ask if they had any beds available. However the directions on the sheet were wrong so I spent almost 2 hours riding trams and walking the streets of Amsterdam before a nice local helped me find the right direction, but it didn't really matter there were no rooms. I was not having a good day and so I decided to take the train back to the airport and just go find any hotel I could. There was a room in the airport hotel so I paid way too much and just hung out there. I did go to the hotel bar and didn't have to pay a single thing for a few beers. That was nice. All in all though things got better after that. My sisters are here now and I will post more pictures and stories as we go. But my sister is also doing a blog http://mystuffytravels.blogspot.com


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Location:Europe