Travel Alert

So here I am in Europe during a travel alert for Americans.  Fabulous, great, this is everything I have wanted in my travel abroad experience.  When I first heard this I, of course, was pretty tense and worried and felt very unsafe.  But, then I realized something.  Taking me home to a place full of Americans (it is America after all) would not make me safer.  Which, while slightly comforting, is also very terrifying.  Because, then, there is no place that is safe, except for maybe Antarctica.  There is no safe place here on our planet.  I'm not safe here, I'm not safe at home, and I'm certainly not safe in the Middle East.  We live in a world where everything is uncertain as far as our safety, but then again, was it ever?  I keep pondering these questions and ideas each new time someone posts the alert to their facebook, our I get an e-mail from the school.  To be fair, it is just an alert, as opposed to a warning, but an alert is all someone needs in order to spur fear and contemplation.

Other than that, I feel like I've been doing a lot of thinking lately.  I haven't really gone out much, well granted I attempted that on Friday night, it never happened, which I have told some of you about.  This past weekend as I lay in my bed drifting in and out of sleep for the better part of the weekend, it seemed that millions of questions were flooding my mind.  One that keeps coming up is that of being here.  Not whether I'm supposed to be here, or whether I want to be here, but am I doing what I'm supposed to be?  I have so much free time I feel I could build an ark (which might be helpful in this rainy weather), I hardly have work to do, I do go out to clubs or bars at night, what do I do?!?  Last week in an attempted to cease my boredom I took some neighborhood walks that I posted about, but that took up maybe an hour of my time.  So, what does Brooke do when she's bored?  She naps, copiously naps.  Those who are close to me know this all too well.  But, really?!  I have the opportunity to live in a foreign country for five months and I'M NAPPING?!?  I get sort of angry at myself sometimes, but then I think, "No Brooke, it's fine, this is just a restful time in your life.  One day you will wish for this, crave this.  Cherish it now."  And then when people are doing things, they are going out to bars, which is cool and all, but half the time I'm in getting in bed (for good) when people are leaving, so then I miss out because I was so bored I decided to go to sleep for the night.  This is just such a pickle that I feel that I am in, I could talk about it for ages in many different ways, but I won't.  So instead, I will pose you all a question.  What should I do with all my extra time?!  Answer no matter where you are.  It doesn't matter if you aren't abroad right now, have been abroad and have previous knowledge, or are abroad and can say what is working for you, I just need some sparks to the old brainstorm.  So for now, I leave you with that whilst I go to learn about remembering the Holocaust on this dreary Hungarian day.