Highlights

Highlights of Wednesday:
- I had breakfast with my host's friend. We also watched a couple of videos on oldjewstellingjokes.com, which were hilarious.
- At IES, we had a walking tour of Mitte, including Hakescher Markt, Museuminsel, and the Friedrichstrasse train station. About half of it was new to me, and I remembered loads from when I was here two years ago.
- I went and spoke to IES's housing coordinator, who is worried for me because I'm sort of on my own for the rest of the week. When I left, she told me I talk like someone who's already lived here for six months. :)
- I understood the vast majority of the (rather dull) German tv I watched.

Yesterday:
- Street food from Hackescher Markt for lunch. I can't remember what it was called, but it was sort of like a tortilla, folded in half with meat in the middle, then turned into a burrito with a mustardy sauce and salad greens.
- We had a meeting to talk about living with a German host. Everybody is jealous that my host has a dishwasher and a cleaning lady.
- I accidentally took the S2 home instead of the S1, which is an easy mistake to make because they arrive at the same place and their first four stops are the same. Fortunately I noticed, so I just hopped off, went one stop west around the big circle that three or four different train lines all make, and got on the S1. It probably added 20 minutes to my commute, though.
- I went to Edeka, which was described as being "very big." By American standards, it was pretty small for a "supermarket," but they had lots of things and plenty of selection, especially when it came to sausage. I just bought enough to get me through the next couple of days. Normally I'd go through and get a pile of non-perishables, but I guess it hasn't sunk in yet that I'm going to be here for a loooong time.

And today:
- I definitely have a cold. I went to an Apothecke and got sold something herbal. I'm not altogether surprised. My herbalist friend says most of the herbalism literature comes from Germany, because Germany actually studies this stuff and has standards for it.
- We had our placement test for the intensive German course. I imagine they'll tell us where to go when we get there on Monday morning.

I think I'm having a delayed jetlag reaction. I was fine for the first couple of days, and now I can't get enough sleep even though nothing we're doing is particularly tiring.