Estoy aqui, ahora

After a week cavorting with siblings (this shot, top to bottom: Joanna, Carolyn, Timothy, Abigail, Olivia, Jeanine; the next shot: me cowering in fear of robot-Timothy (halloween costume fashioned by big brother Mars), with little sis Abigail looking on) and otherwise visiting family in California, I'm back to my Barcelona life, plowing back into this ever-elusive project of catching a language and keeping it.
To this end, I've been gulping down a half dozen cafe cortados daily to survive six hours of classes in the middle of a California night.
But the jetlag ain't all bad. This morning, after two or three hours "en blanco" (sleepless), I crept out to ride, sneaking past a swath of not-so-savory nightlife, and finding my way up to the hills behind the city in the pre-dawn full-moon hush. I finally found my way to a ridge overlooking the city. And then... Let me tell you: there should have been a soundtrack. Just then, the sun sprang. Color shimmered through the overcast sky. And as I stood there breathing, streaming sweat, happy, I thought: I'm here, now, and the rest is preamble.