Sunday, February 13, 2011

More International Travel

by Pa Rock
Citizen of the World


Tonight I am packing my bags and will head out for Seoul, Korea, at oh-dark-thirty in the morning.  Actually, I am going to the airport at an obscene hour so that my friends who are driving me there can make it back to the office before the bugle blows.  My plane will leave around noon for the three-hour flight to the Incheon International Airport outside of Seoul.  There I will get on a shuttle bus and be whisked off to the Dragon Hill Lodge at Yongsan Army Garrison.

The Dragon Hill is where Daniel, Kelly, and I stayed over Thanksgiving when we were visiting Seoul as tourists.  This time I am heading there as a guest of the U.S. Army for a week of training on methods to treat our troops who are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

I nearly developed my own case of PTSD while trying to make the arrangements for this trip.  I work on an Air Force Base, but am an actual employee of the Army.  I originally asked the Air Force to help with making the flight arrangements, but that was a HUGE mistake!  After a week of screwing everything up that was the least bit screwable, it looked as though incompetence (or was it obstinence?) was going to prevail.   The Army stepped in at the last minute, however, and told the Air Force bureaucrats to stand down.  They quickly got the trip back on track.

I am looking forward to this bit of international travel because it will not only provide me with some much needed tools for dealing with PTSD, but I will also get the chance to network with other social workers and psychologists from across the Pacific region.  Plus, I hear that there is snow on the ground in Seoul, and up to this point I have had a very balmy winter!

More from the road tomorrow!

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