Certified, but ready?

Five crazy days in Strasbourg, Va.,... and now it's over. We learned everything from first aid to how to react if abducted by gunmen to how to play English drinking games (the latter not an official part of the course).

I've spent this evening in at the Dulles Airport Marriott hotel re-hashing the week and trying to let it all soak in. I definitely feel like I need some time to de-compress.

The course wasn't physically intense, and it probably would have been just plain fascinating and fun if it wasn't for the fact that I knew I actually would be going to a place where the dangers -- riots, ambushes, IEDs, mines, checkpoints -- all exist. It was unsettling, of course, but also a good thing: I'm glad to have it all thrown in my face, to some extent, rather than to go to Iraq ignorant of its realities.

Some preconceptions I held were shattered. For example, in my mind I saw myself playing soccer with the local kids in a international pick-up game. That idea was thrown out the window. That won't be happening. Too much of a security risk.

But I also feel much more prepared: The first aid training was pretty intense -- we got a lot of classroom instruction follow by drills where we would either individually or as a group react to situations where several people are injured with chest wounds, arteries severed, impaled object, lost limbs, etc. The instructors were the casualties, and they role-played pretty well. It was actually pretty fun.

Last night the instructors -- five tattoo-happy ex-military Brits -- led the seven of us students in a series of English drinking games as we hung out at the Ramada Inn bar (my drinking was one beer... a contrast the instructors). I discovered my untapped talent: The ability to move a penny from my forehead to my mouth using just facial muscles. Impressed?

I'll be flying out of DC tomorrow back to Fresno. This week will take some time to mull over, and it prompted a good number of conversations with some of the other students who are also going to Iraq about whether we really want to do this. But I feel that after a deep breath and a little rest, I'll still feel up for it.