Next stop: Europe

On Wednesday I'll be boarding a plane to Poland. In case you haven't been paying attention I was invited to be a keynote speaker at the world congress on one of my disability's rehabilitation methods. I will also be presenting my book, an edited collection of my blog postings, "Never, never quit", which share the theme of my childhood experiences with Conductive Education. I'll be flying in from America, the congress is in Germany, while the book, although intended for worldwide availability is published in England. A truly international enterprise! I've decided to spend a few days leading up to the speech in Poland. It's been years since I gone home and quite a while since I got to see my parents. It's not going to be a long visit and with how wheelchair inaccessible Warsaw is and how hopeless it makes me feel it's for the better. We've decided that I'll be arriving in Poland, but I'll leave straight from Germany. The congress organizers have offered to pay for my flight and up to three days in a German hotel. The event is also three days long, my presentation is on the last one, but I was asked to be there during the entire event. Logistically it'll be hectic. I'll be staying at my uncle's in Munich the day before the congress and I will be checking out the day of my presentation. Luckily, I'll be meeting my parents there, because my flight to America is the day after. Not the most impressive planning I must say. But then, neither is my flight with layover after a layover in Charlotte and Frankfurt before Warsaw. But you would never know I'm leaving the country in two days. I have just settled a case on Friday, and I'm really glad we were able to sign the stipulation documents before I left. No matter be it a few hundred, few thousand or a few million dollar case it seems the amount of work and focus needed to go over the paperwork is exactly the same and having meetings with people always text time. I didn't even have the time to stress about giving a speech and how these people will receive me there. Anything with the word "World" in it sounds like a pretty big deal, right? So I have been frantically trying to email the local and national media to get anyone interested in the event, my role in it, conductive education and my book. That kind of exposure can help the organizers but can also help the foundation. In the meantime I have been figuring out flights to get my parents from Warsaw to Munich in a way that will not wear my dad down and be a risk factor for his heard. Having it go together with a flight I need to find for myself, that I can pay for with my credit card rewards points. Finalizing dates of the hotel. At the same time my mom has been making requests, not fully grasping the concept that I don't really have the time or means to go shopping. Her voltage transformer, a modest 17kg of weight is already taking up half of my luggage. But I'm not even at the point yet where I feel I should panic. I do grow tired of how big of an escapade international travel is. As good as visiting family may be and I'm grateful for the detour I'm not there socially. I was asked to do something by the Conductive Education community and I hope not to disappoint. I also think I have only one chance to build enough interest around it to harvest it for my disability causes in America as well. Quite frankly I'm ready to be done although it has not yet started. And I hope people who invited me will not be disappointed with what they see.  While I'm happy to do it and  in ways flattered and honored I'm still not convinced if I'm the best choice to speak about CE in a global forum. Time to throw some more things in and zip up the bags!