Thursday

I've been in Germany for exactly one month now!

This morning started off great, as I woke up to a winter wonderland!  It was showing real snow flakes, which was nice.  Even nicer, was that the sun came out by the time I left for school an hour later.

This afternoon I got a care package from my mom with a couple essentials I needed from the states - as well as my L.L. Bean slippers!!! I was/am so excited!  My feet are now nice and toasty against these linoleum floors :)  Unfortunately, Detusche Post took the liberty of opening my package to see what's inside.  It discovered my eye glasses, so they charged me an additional tariff to receive the package.  Luckily it arrived at school, so Ella (our wonderful staffer who helps us with literally everything) mediated this interaction with the post worker.  When I expressed a look of surprise that I had to pay this much extra (wouldn't you), he rolled his eyes and got really annoyed with me.  While I scrounged up some cash he stared at me with his "hurry the hell up, you dumb foreigner" look I've gotten so accustomed to seeing.  Anyway, I reluctantly paid and then devoured some York peppermint patties to recover from another rude interaction with a Berliner.

I spent a few hours this afternoon getting a head start on a paper due that's due in a couple months, because starting next weekend I'm going to be traveling a lot and don't want to have to be stressed about work then.  Hopefully it'll pay off!  All my classmates have been talking about how writing papers is going to be really difficult because our english has deteriorated... and let me tell you, that paper was so hard to write!  It's much different from the colloquial language with which I write here.

For dinner I made a mushroom/union/garlic/olive oil concoction with rice, and it was pretty flavorless because I don't know how to make things, but still yummy.  (But your recipes would still be greatly appreciated!)

On Saturday I'll be going to Hamburg, Germany with two other students.  We'll be doing a day trip, so we'll be taking the 5:18am train (it's a 4 hour ride) and getting back at 11pm.  It'll be a long day and my company will be less than enjoyable, but I'm still looking forward to getting out of Berlin, even if it's just for a day.