I landed in Berlin this morning without any trouble. In fact, I nodded off during takeoff while I was waiting to reach cruising altitude so that I could listen to my iPod and I awoke as we touched down with a candy bar that had randomly appeared (courtesy, of course, of the lovely Lufthansa folks). (And this was my final flight which was just an hour long, not the eight hour transatlantic flight.)
The jetlag isn't looking too bad. It's 9:15pm and I'm still awake, so it could be much worse. I'm going to unpack as much as possible and then crash. My room is beautiful and gigantic. The kitchen is not very big but it does have a dishwasher, which is all kinds of wonderful. My host, Lisa, wasn't able to pick me up today because she hurt her foot, and she was out of town for the weekend, so she's still out of town. It might be a few days before she'll be back, so her good friend Suli is looking after me. Apparently they've been told not to leave me home alone for the first few weeks.
IES dragged us around, ignoring our exhaustion, and we got month passes for public transportation and cell phones. I haven't activated my phone yet because I haven't activated my SIM card yet, because we ran out of time to do that today and they're going to have us do it together tomorrow. I'm going to try to set up my phone to work with my Google Voice account. If it works, I should be able to do call the US pretty cheap, so I'll keep certain people (like my parents) updated about this.
I'm happy with my placement and happy with the city. It's not as ugly as I remembered it being. Suli took me to a restaurant for dinner. Apparently they go there quite often, because they immediately brought out two large bones for the dog who came with and at the end, they gave us each a shot of Schnapps "from the chef." Suli and I had a great conversation and I was heartened to find I understand quite a lot and was able to express myself pretty well, especially given how tired I am.
Enjoy your time abroad!
ReplyDelete--Megan
Woot! Suli sounds great, and Lisa does, too, despite absence. Gmail now is supposed to support multiple video chat, and only supported multiple chat when I messed up yours with Mom. Sorry.
ReplyDeleteSounds great, except having to go back for sim activation class, but you're expecting a bunch of irritation, I mean, orientation stuff, right? What's their version of Cheers, or, L'hayim, or, Here's to ya when the chef sends out schnapps?
I'm glad to hear you have landed on both feet and that people are there to help you get set up and get oriented. I hope you won't be too tired. I just got home from work and stopped at Hy Vee on the way home so it is kinda late, like after 8:30 p.m. and I have no idea what day it is in Germany or what time it is. I'll have to get this figured out, I guess. I haven't looked in your room yet to see what I'm supposed to mail. But I will do it soon.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Megan!
ReplyDeleteDad-- "Prost" is the one I hear thrown around the most; in this case it was "zum Wohl."
Mom-- It's plus seven hours, so I'm most easily reached early afternoon your time.
Thanks, Eleanor. I'm home from work a bit earlier, today, but just as tired.
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