Let the traveling begin

So...I always thought traveling was fun; a chance to see new places and experience new things. This is different. I have been on the road (or in the air I should say) for 3 days technically but with the time difference I managed to skip an entire day. I am at my second temporary location, living out of a backpack and getting acclimated to the environment and trying hard to defeat jet lag by constantly ingesting caffeine. The tent I am living in has undoubtedly housed thousands, and I'm pretty sure the red spots on my leg that itch uncontrollably are an indication of bed bugs.

On a positive note, I have nothing to do but sit around and wait for a flight out of here, so I have plenty of time to workout, which takes me mentally away from where I physically am. I look forward to getting to my final location so I can start my mission and regain some sort of normalcy -- as crazy as that sounds.

2 WEEKS AWAY

It seems as if this training will never end. I arrived at Camp Atterbury, IN the day after Thanksgiving and the weeks have painfully crawled by. This is by far the dumbest mobilization training EVER. The strategy in Afghanistan is counterinsurgency, yet I feel like we are being trained to be insurgents ourselves. According to Camp Atterbury, every Afghan is a threat, every rock, bicycle, pregnant woman and wheel barrel is an IED (improvised explosive device), and every car on post will kick up dirt in my eyes then proceed to run me over, thus requiring me to wear a reflective belt and protective eye wear at all times. Some say rather than PRT standing for Provincial Reconstruction Team, it means Prevention of Real Training. This place is an absolute joke. Good news is, we leave for Afghanistan in 2 weeks. I never thought I would be so excited to be going to a war zone; anywhere but here.