Some Whims and Bragging

It's 2:57 in the morning on a spooky, grey Monday in SanSe. I went to bed at 6am last night and 7am two nights before that, so my body is pretty fed up with me trying to sleep right now. But I have a feeling this sleeplessness is due to more than habit; the following rockets are blasting off in my brain of late:

• My mom is coming to Spain June 7-18, and we are going to have a fairy-tale-filled week, literally. Check out the CASTLE we're spending one night in, called Parador de Olite. I am looking forward to re-connecting with my SoCal roots while she's here; I literally haven't seen anyone from home for 5 months, and it will be an excellent rejuvenation for blasting off to Lebanon.
• Speaking of Lebanon, my complicated itinerary means that I won't arrive in Beirut until 3:30am on the 21st of June. Not my favorite time to arrive in a completely new city in the Middle East, but I'll take it. On the way there, I have a 12-hour layover in Budapest, the capital of Hungary.
• I've been thinking (REALLY?), and I've decided study abroad, or, rather, being away from "home" for extended periods of time, by nature holds the highest highs and the lowest lows of life. Like falling in love. It is, really. You are enamored and entranced and never want to leave, you are thrown off a bus with your mega-backpack, you are stuck in tear-zone wanting to just lie on the Ventura beach with your dog and an ice cream, you are two months from the end and already planning your return trip. This roller-coaster six months has given me serious heartache, but how fantastic that I wouldn't trade it for anything.
• Speaking of return trip: Molly, the best bud in LA, has decided she and I are going to live together in Europe after graduation from LMU in May 2010. Unfortunately, she is more stubborn than I am, and I am just as impractical as she is, so after the mere suggestion, I am already planning for this idea. Ways to make it happen so far: teaching English in southern Italy while she works as a flight attendant, taking Arabic language/culture classes in Granada in southern Spain while she teaches Latin, electronic journalism from a remote Greek island...okay, someone stop me. NO. DON'T! Why shouldn't it be possible? Look what we've done so far!
• Things I miss (excluding people): sunsets on the bluff, hearing American English from someone other than my closest friends/family, the LAIR (school cafeteria) of all things, Penguin's frozen yogurt, flip-flops and pajamas to class

That's all for now. I could go on for hours, but it's time to take another shot at breaking the Spanish no-sleep cycle and lying down for a bit.