This is what happened: Summer 2 at 06:00

I am leaving to Europe in about twelve hours. Amsterdam, specifically.

I'm not sure if I'm excited. Am I? Yes, probably. No, I am very excited. Forgive me if I am inarticulate at the moment; I'm pulling an all-nighter before I go, so I can fall asleep on the plane.

Actually, let's talk about ways to correct jet lag. Since I'm going to Amsterdam, I'll use its time difference from the West Coast as illustrations.

It's hard for me to sleep whenever I want to if I'm not tired, so the avenue of going to sleep earlier the day before is out of the question whenever I have temporal differences. Let's say I want to sleep at 11 PM - 2300 in Amsterdam is 1500 here, so I'd have to fall asleep in 3 in the afternoon. It's not much of an option since I've been waking up around noon these summer days. Imagine getting up at 8 in the morning and trying to sleep another 8 hours at 1100. Even if I could fall asleep, I'd wake up after an hour, too rested to continue.

Another option is sleeping whenever and waking up when I want to wake up in Amsterdam. 0800 in Amsterdam is midnight here. That might have been a more intelligent route, to nap during the day and stay awake from midnight onward. But I had too much stuff to do today, nor did I give myself time to nap anyway.

So lastly, the option I opted for is to just stay awake and sleep when I expect I will in Amsterdam, as long as it's during my flight. My flight is at 1630 today - so if I fall asleep once I get on the plane, it will be after midnight in Amsterdam. Whenever I wakeup naturally will hopefully be in the morning hours of Holland. I also hope I will have slept away most of the long hours of a transcontinental flight.

It's almost 6 AM. To think, people on the East Coast are doing productive things by now.

Inexplicably, these days before this trip have been some of the most spiritually and definitely physically trying times this year. I don't know why. Maybe God is going to show me something exciting there... at a marimba festival.

Anyway, no doubt I will post an update sometime when I'm there.

See you on the other side.