the sleepless night

the clock reads 3:45 and there is a little red button in the top left corner indicating that this is AM. as i yawn, i realize this is the 4th (?) time i have been awoken this evening / morning. for some reason, i cannot sleep.

i have been encouraged by feedback from many friends and thought i'd take a moment in this restless night to briefly describe the past few and upcoming months for me.
in may, i left boston in a hurried fashion (which should most definitely be a separate posting later on - the process was incredible and not in the good way). after shipping my belongings to fargo, i flew with two suitcases to sacramento where i stayed for work for two months. i left california the first day of august to fly home to fargo. i have been here for the past 24 days doing a variety of things. in exactly a week i take off for berlin. my flight will be long and this will be the first time i am flying from mid-continent to europe. i fly from fargo to minneapolis then direct to amsterdam with a layover before arriving in berlin around 4:30 pm on sept 3. my classes at the goethe institut technically start on sept 1, but due to a wedding and flight schedules, i will be arriving a few days late. hopefully this is not a problem.

in berlin, i have arranged for a furnished apartment in the mitte district near the school. my friend, jen, has been living in berlin for some time and will kindly show me around the first night i am there. i have been to berlin before during my winter "back packing" trip in 2002. wow. it's been 6 years since i moved to europe. depressing.
anyway, i have an intensive german class for 8 weeks, ending oct 27. or is it the 24th? something like that. i plan to stay in berlin until oct 31 or so... during my time in berlin, i hope to travel to poland and other parts of germany. i am excited to be spending the last weekend of september in london for my friend's 27th golden birthday (27th birthday which happens to be golden, not the golden birthday for the 27th time). i also have a friend, michi, who is flying to berlin for a weekend from italy. it has been ... more than 5 years since i have seen her. this is the first weekend of october, so it now looks like i won't get to go to oktoberfest since i will be in london and then have a friend visiting, which is fine, but if i mentioned i might be able to meet you in munchen, it looks like now i will not.

i dont fly back stateside until thanksgiving day (nov 27), so I plan to do some traveling for the month of nov. i am hoping to visit an old friend in oslo. then i think i will fly directly to paris and take advantage of my dear friends there and use that as a base - either get to know paris again or travel from there (maybe visit a high school friend i have not seen in 9 years in basel or a day or two in reims where i went to school or i never did go see mont st. michel...). either way, around nov 14 or 17 (whatever that weekend is), i am flying with lisa to meet elaine in barcelona for a long, girls weekend. that should be excellent. after that, probably a few more days in paris and then i'll eurostar it to london for a week or so. it's been a long time since i was last in london, too... i think 5 years. i'd like to visit scotland and do some walking around in london. which reminds me, do i have a london DK book? [mental note: check]

then, i fly from london to minneapolis and then to fargo. the trip back sounds sooo less complicated than my trip out there. as of right now, i have no real plans for when i return, although i now know that i will not be spending a lot of time in fargo. it's a lot more difficult than i expected living here. again, topic for another posting later on.

well, as my brother would say, peace out girl scout.