I know it's only been a few weeks, 2010 . . .

. . . but I already like you a whole lot better than last year. But let's be real, that wasn't going to be a very tough act to follow.

With the new year came a realization that hmm! I accidentally moved to a different country . . . and it's real! Although it was my third time starting off the New Year with my least favorite kind of red eye (the kind that ends at Schiphol followed far too closely by a return to work), it's the first time I've been able to look farther than a month or two down the track and have the faintest idea where I'll be or what I'll be doing. So, I've taken stock, figured out what I'm aiming for this year (some things I'll tell you here, others I won't), and I'm off!

First things first: relationships. Ha! Made you look. Sorry, no dice. :-)

With this being my third year away, I will have spent as many years being a long-distance friend as an in-town friend to a good number of my friends from home. Having spent so much time overseas, I have literally changed the way in which I relate to my phone -- I think nothing of being away from it, I don't check it, and I don't panic if I leave it at home. I use it to send texts - phone calls being prohibitively expensive - and most people that I'd text with in realtime, I can just as easily reach via email, or we're spending time together in person. Nothing's wrong with that, per se, but it means that when I go home for visits, I'm far less likely to pick up the phone and call a friend across the country to catch up. Again, not that that's bad, because I'm spending time in person with people at home, but it means I spend less time connecting with my cross-country friends, which is a downside for me, particularly since my friends - like my belongings - are strewn liberally about the country. Finally, my independence from my phone means that I get ridiculously culture shocked when people whip out their smartphones. Need to brush up on Texas Hold 'Em rules? Out comes the smartphone. . . Wikipedia . . done.

So, what's a girl to do? Resolve to connect better, obviously!

Clearly the best option is an in-person visit, so I am finally, FINALLY getting to go home to California. For 2.5 weeks!! When I say I've never been happier, it's never been more true. I joke now that this is the only way I would have ever left the Bay -- unintentionally. But it's true. In theory I'm back to sort out some logistics associated with having my belongings strewn liberally about the country, but really it's a pilgrimage of sorts. Seeing old friends, eating at all the old haunts, breathing in the mix of eucalyptus trees and ocean air, soaking up the sunshine, swimming in beautiful pools, and just enjoying being outside because I no longer take it for granted . . . aah! Not to mention all the comforts and conveniences of being in one's own country. I can't wait. While I'm flying in to San Francisco, I'm also jetting down for a slapdash tour of LA at the end of April/beginning of May. Perfect time to visit -- the rains have subsided, but the hills are still green . . . I think I'll have to be dragged indoors. Heaven!

As for the other times, when there is in fact an ocean and varying degrees of continent between me and others: I will make this simple and say that I love my new iPhone more than I can express. So many things to make me feel at home here -- streaming NPR, ticking off my Whole Foods-app-generated grocery list (amazingly simple recipes using ingredients that are easy to find here!) -- not to mention the whole point, which was to have Skype on the phone. Through a rather ridiculously elaborate scheme which took me a couple of weeks to set up and now involves various VoIP and call forwarding companies, folks in the US can now reach me at one, simple number, regardless of whether I'm here or there, and I can call them - from the phone, not the computer! - at very reasonable rates. Again: heaven.

One of my other resolutions is to take full advantage of what will hopefully be my last year abroad. Europe is so unique in that it's home to so many nations within such a small space; it may never again be so easy for me to flit about a continent! (Being able to plan more than 3 weeks in advance is a rather large asset to the buying-of-decently-priced-plane-ticket effort.) So, I'm going to Poland in a couple of weeks. Krakow and Auschwitz, to be exact (dark, perhaps, but necessary, I think). March brings a girls' weekend at a spahotel somewhere in Belgium, and April/May is my trip to Cali! This summer I have my sights set on a trip through the Julian Alps to Lake Bled, hopefully culminating on the Croatian coast. And I'd really like to get to Norway to see the fjords before the weather turns icky again.

Finally, in the professional sense, looks like trial is finally gearing up for the latter half of February. I'm excited to get going and ready for the pace to pick up. In addition, I've been asked to give a lecture to a group of students from one of the military academies coming for a summer school this summer; apparently we have free reign over what course the lecture will take. We can do lectures, case studies, mock trials, hypos, whatever! I'm thrilled to pieces and figure it's a good segue to the school apps that loom on the horizon!

So again, 2010, thanks thus far. You're kicking 2009's ass. Keep up the good work.