Tag 1 (Day 1)

Yesterday I arrived in Berlin.  I left Newark airport around 6:30PM Monday, saying farewell to my parents, and setting off for my new life in Germany.  I'm writing this post already a day behind and the reality of living in a foreign land has yet to set in.  In addition to being in a foreign land, I also am sans cell phone, native speaking abilities, and friends.  I guess saying I have no friends is misleading though.  I do have 2 friends, which is a great start.  Making friends has never been that difficult for me.

Currently, I am staying with a friend who lives near checkpoint charlie (one of the old checkpoints where prior to the wall falling one could pass from east to west Berlin).  It's very central and I'm thankful for that while I try to get my bearings.  Berlin is HUGE.

After a delicious lunch yesterday we returned to my friend Henrik's house where my two friends and I chatted until I passed out mid conversation.  I guess I took a two hour nap and then woke up just long enough to eat dinner, drink 2 beers and fall back asleep for 13 hours.  Today, I am feeling much more rested.  Hopefully I just nixed the jet lag thing and lucky for me, Tuesday is apparently the only night the Berliners don't go out.  Wednesday marks the start of the weekend...or something like that.  (35 hour work weeks...yes, please!)

I think I may have mastered the list making skill, then again it may be just because I don't have anything else to do except make lists.  Today I made a list for the grocery store, the drug store, of phone numbers (yes, I have to use pay phones to call locals) and what all I need to do to get set up here.

Things I like so far:

• The food (it's delicious and cheap)
• Public transit
• The abundance of grocery stores
• The coffee (so strong)

 Things I am not loving:

• My lack of German speaking abilities
• Having to hold the shower head
• Blogspot, because the formatting is pissing me off

Goal for Day 2:  Use a complete, correct full sentence in German, in public