Two days from now...

I'll be in Massachusetts! Plane travel always seems surreal, doesn't it? I mean even though I know you're all over there in the U.S. reading this, it's hard to really conceive of the simutanaeity (Google says I invented that word, but I don't care--it stays!) of life. I mean, right now at this moment I'm getting ready to go to school on Thursday and all of you on the West Coast are heading to bed at 11:15pm on a Wednesday night. Who knows, maybe some of you will read this right after I post before you go to sleep.

And how many times have I been able to picture the streets of Portland so clearly I can smell the rain? Or feel the warmth of the wood stove in my parents' house on a snowy winter day? Just a glance at the clock, I subtract 9 hours and, voila!, I can put you all in your places: work, home, shopping...

Theoretically, it's obvious and logical and you're wondering why and maybe how I can write so much about it; but in reality it's mind blowing for the simple reason that it's always difficult (maybe nearly impossible) to think outside one's own experience. I mean, I can imagine it all perfectly, but KNOWING that it's actually happening right now, there's no lag time between my knowing and your existence--that it what blows my mind when I stop to think about it.

So to think that in just two days, my reality will be a different one, a much much colder one (!) and that I'll be imagining with perfect clarity the place where I'm sitting at this very moment as I traipse about New England, is just crazy. (Were you able to follow that?) This is my way of saying I'm excited!! And I guess maybe it shows that I haven't been on a plane for a full year now, right?

Oh! For those of you who have found my hidden resolutions/reflextions post, I wanted to make an amendment: I've actually managed to travel to 10 countries in 10 years, not 9. I forgot to put the Netherlands on my list! I visited my dear friend, Leah from Pacific on her study abroad in the spring of my year in Granada. :) How could I forget?!

Love from Spain... I'll post at least once from MA to fill you all in.