Hallo Berlin!

Here I sit in Berlin, in my giant room overlooking an adorable little balcony and an even more adorable German street.  I'm still having a bit of trouble believing I am here!  We (my class) left Boston at about 8pm on Saturday night.  We flew Virgin Atlantic and it was even more magical than I thought it would be!  I lucked out and sat in a row with three of my friends, so we had a great time laughing at the Virgin Atlantic ad and attempting to sleep.  I maybe have dozed of for five minutes the whole 6 hour flight...  My favorite part of the flight, however, was the meal!  Now, people often complain about airline food, but since I hadn't been fortunate enough to get any for quite a few years I was more than ready!  I chose the chicken and mash (as opposed to the beef and veg).

It was quite lovely, if I do say so myself, and was also the first of too many dishes with mushrooms.  I guess Europeans really love their mushrooms...  Another exciting on the flight was the special little package they gave us with socks, an eye mask, a pen, toothbrush, and toothpaste.  Thank you Richard Branson.

When we landed at Heathrow (after I took my first picture of Europe),

we had about an hour to get through security, customs, and to our gate.  When they told me that Heathrow was big, they weren't lying.  We spent nearly that entire hour walking through tunnels and along entirely too long corridors to arrive about 30 feet from where we started.  We finally found security, got through, walked another 10 minutes, and arrived at our gate, a bit puzzled as to the lack of customs.  We thankfully made it to our plane in time and soon found ourselves on our way to Berlin!  Sadly, Berlin was nowhere near as sunny as London, so my first glimpse of Germany came through small breaks in thick clouds.

It was also on this flight that we were given mushroom and cheese sandwiches.  Exactly what our confused stomachs were craving...

We landed after what seemed almost shorter than expected and semi-nervously waited to pass through customs, that for me consisted of a stamp in my passport (YES!!!) and no words from the agent.  Wow.  I'm in Berlin.  We were met at the airport by the people in charge of our program and made our way to our respective housing.  My first experience with Berlin public transportation was successful and I was even serenaded by an old man playing guitar and singing the Beatles' Nowhere Man.  I have already noticed many little things that are different here that help you know you aren't in America anymore.

2/3 of my host family, Marc and his 9 year old son Lino, met me at a subway station and walked me to the apartment.  My room is so much more than I had hoped!  The whole apartment has glorious high and decorated ceilings, gorgeous wood floors, and wonderful windows!  As far as I'm concerned my room is a German palace!

That beanbag chair is fast becoming one of my favorite places. ;)  I unpacked, went for a walk, watched some German Star Wars, took a short nap (shhh, don't tell), and ate dinner.  I am now ready to really get some sleep and ready myself for the first day of classes tomorrow!