Sleeping Awake

Today's entry takes us back to the friendly confines of Berlin. I returned from the States bearing gifts and cheap wines last sunday.

It was a great trip, to say the least. Since I left for Europe in October 08', I hadn't really seen much of my family. I'd been back once, in August for 10 days. Beyond that, both my sister and mother had made separate trips to see me last spring. When you're the sole member of the family out and aboot for a lengthy period of time, you can't help but feel like your an outsider on the group looking in.

Over the last year, my 5 year old niece has started Kindergarden, my brother has gotten remarried (to a wonderful woman I might add) and my new nephew, Reed Thomas Stanton, was born on Dec. 4th. What these events all have in common is that I wasn't present for any of them. The price I pay for living abroad, I suppose. So as you can imagine, being home for 3 weeks was a great chance for me to feel like one of the family again. I got to hang out, was taken to just about every restaurant I had missed in the last year (my stomach is still recovering), and had a great christmas. It wasn't all fun, as after Christmas, my final two weeks were consumed by graduate school applications. Luckily, I'm finished and can't sit back and relax, at least for a week (on to Fellowship applications!)

I had originally planned on being back in Berlin on January 6th, but an unexpected turn of events caused me to find myself in Orlando that day instead. I spent a week with Noel and her family, which gave me another week to relax and for once, enjoy some warm weather. I got to see high school friends I hadn't seen in years, as well as a few college buddies, Austin, who just so happen to be in Kissimmee for a Football tournament, and Joey, who just so happened to be with Austin, and drunk, which makes Joey all the more fun to hang out with. Add a zipline obstacle course that I did with Noel and he family at a State Park and it was a pretty damn good trip.

My return trip to Berlin ended up being on the 16th at noon, with a flight to JFK and about a 5 hour layover before flying on to Berlin to arrive at 10am Sunday.

Overnight Flights. Son of a bitch!

For those of you who've experienced jet lag flying to Europe, you understand the vital importance of sleeping on an overnight flight. For those of you who haven't, let me explain.

When flying international flights, you are always going to have it easier flying East to West than West to East. Going from Berlin to Detroit, for example, is never a problem. If I'm leaving Berlin, and say 9am for a flight and arriving in Detroit at 4pm, even though the flight has been 8 hours and I haven't slept a wink, the fact that it will still be nightfall by the time you reach there gives you solace that you're exhausted self will simply just fall asleep at a normal hour.

Flying West to East, however, is a bastard.

I don't sleep.....at all...on international flights. Having a 6'4' frame cramed into a tiny space for 8 hours isn't going to convince my body it's snooze time. So I get stuck being awake the entire time, watching terrible in-flight movies which always seem to be romantic comedies (in this case, "Love Happens", and "He's Just Not That Into You", both utterly garbage)

In my case, my overnight flight landed in Berlin at 11am Sunday. Which means from 10am Saturday Morning till 10am Sunday morning (berlin time), I hadn't slept at all. Common sense tells you that if you get home from something like this, best thing to do is probably just stay up. It's 11 already. Stay up and become so tired that when normal sleeping time rolls around, you're ready to pass out.

Instead, I fell asleep at 1:30pm and woke up at 8:30pm. Doh'!

My sleep hasn't been the same since. In the last 5 days, I have had sleepless nights in 3 of them. The 4th I slept a grand total of 3 hours and the fifth I somehow fell asleep at 3am and woke up at 3pm. Going through this puts your mind and body through hell, where I've had neither the energy to do anything, nor the state of mind to get anything finished. I completed and submitted academic essays for fellowships, and I barely remember doing it. Let's just hope Subconscious Josh is as good on the type as his better half.

But it feels good to be home, and for now, home is Berlin.

Cheers.