I feel like I’m a pretty adept traveller. Put me down in a city, and I can figure it out within a few days. I pack pretty light when I’m roaming around, usually a backpack that’s it. I speak enough words in enough languages to order a taxi, beer, and dinner, pretty much anywhere Romance and Germanic languages are spoken. But the one thing I haven’t been able to conquer is Jet Lag.

Jet Lag, a definition: Your body’s ability to say “HEY! HEY YOU! Whatcha doooin? I’m awake and I want to play! Lets play!” at all hours of the night when in a different time zone.

That’s what happened last night. I attempted to compensate earlier in the evening by drinking a bottle of Barcelona’s most quality 1 Euro wine, but to no avail. Not only did the buzz not put me to sleep, but it faded almost as soon as the last glass was emptied. I think it might’ve even kept me awake longer.

So it was that I found myself wide awake and cognizant at 2 AM Barcelona time, staring at the ceiling. On the plus side you do get to do a lot of thinking in the middle of the night. Once you get over neurotically stressing over every creek and sound the house makes at night, you think about deep things. Yes, deep things like “I wonder why the Arabs that live on this street all wear green turbans. Should I research this, or will I end up on a NSA watch list?” Or “If I take a selfie of me at night without the flash, will it come out alright?” Or “I wonder if the dog needs to go to the bathroom because I’m not taking her out. Will she just pee in the living room? I’m ok with that at this point.” Yes, such is the affect of Jet Lag. It takes the brain of a perfectly normal consciousness and turns it into a randomized, erratic, stream of thought, which in turn prevents you from sleeping.

But I am determined to overcome this phantom menace. This devious self inflicted mental trick. I decided to set my alarm for 6:30, regardless of when I went to sleep. This was in part to shock my sleep cycle into it’s proper European orbit, and also because I was really concerned about the dog peeing in the living room.

6:30 came. 6:30 went. I almost thought about going back to sleep, until Taji ran into the room, jumped on the bed and licked my face. No turning back now, I thought, time to get up. Now, I sit here on my third cup of espresso, ready to face the day. We shall see how it goes.