Home Sweet Home

I bought my ticket to Berlin today. May 9. Non-refundable. I spent an hour building up my chi before taking the leap, and I've been feeling like I used up all my hit points, not to mention twenty-three hundred dollars, on this purchase. I'm trying to be positive — great deal on airfare! JFK to Berlin and Budapest to Paris to JFK for $618! That's less than eight cents a mile! — but here's what I can't stop thinking. Foreign language. Roommate. Foreign languages, plural. Fifty or so peers. What if I don't make friends? How do I get from Tegel to the hotel? I don't even know what hotel I'm supposed to get to.

I worry about my inability to micromanage this tour.

I was at work when I booked the tour, so I went back to my desk kind of shaken. I told my boss... I e-mailed him, even though he sits five feet away from me... I told him that I wouldn't be in for twelve days in May and, parenthetically, that I bought a ticket to Berlin. Oh my God, he couldn't have been more excited. I got the same thing from people when I went to Italy, and I'm speechless at that. "I think this will be really great for you!" "Tell me more, are you in Berlin the whole time!?" And of course, since I e-mailed him, "Oh, why didn't you tell me the good news sooner!?"

Uh... you are aware that you're not going to Europe? Right? You're gonna be stuck here, working.

But it balanced out, since I told Mom ("Oh, by the way, I booked my tickets today. And we're out of Poland Spring.") and she was noticeably less thrilled: "Are you sure you don't want to wait till tomorrow?" Thanks, Mom — after I booked the trip. Real encouraging.