I leave for Paris tomorrow, and everyone keeps asking me if I am ‘excited’. I mean, sure, I guess I am excited about it, but I am not that excited. Am I supposed to be?

I used to carry this Kiera Knightley quote around with me in my wallet, and I probably still have it somewhere, because when I found it seven or eight years ago I though “how damn perfect”.

“I don’t freak out about anything that actually warrants a freak out, it’s the little things I can’t deal with.”

My mind has been pretty consumed with everything else lately. What? I am leaving the country tomorrow for a week? Oh yeah, that whole thing. It won’t feel real until my plane touches down in Ireland, and I am wandering around the Dublin airport waiting for my next flight. The thing that I am most looking forward to? Being alone for a little while. I have always thought that I would do okay in another country all by myself, but this will be the real test.

I also started watching Homeland last week, and wow. I think I am the wrong sort of person to watch a show like that, even though I enjoy it, because I am far too…loving. That’s not a compliment either, at least not in this case, because I am an American and American’s aren’t supposed to “be loving”, right?

Oh man, that last sentence is pretty awesome.

What I mean is that a lot of us are brought up to believe that the world is big, scary and full of people who hate us because we’re American. Hate us because we’re luckier in some sense, and because we always want more. That much is obvious, because our society is very self indulgent (for the most part) and we don’t take a lot of interest in something that isn’t right in front of us. Again, I can’t speak for everyone, and these observations are entirely my own. Our enemies are our enemies because we’re told they are our enemies, and while I believe that people in this world do hate America, maybe that hate is justified in some sense.

I am treading in some dangerous waters with this topic, but the end result is the same. Homeland is an awesome show, it’s just opening my eyes to things I have never really thought about.

Okay Paris, I am ready for you. We’ll be best friends within the week.