Wow! My first whole day in Germany! My host family is very nice. My host mom, Petra picked me up from the airport yesterday. Then we ate lunch and walked around Berlin for a little. I did not meet her husband til I got home tonight because he was working late and left before I got up in the morning. They are both very nice and they both speak English.

I thought somehow I would not be jetlaged because I woke up on my own at 8:00 this morning, but around 5:00 or so I just got really tired and it only got worse as the day went on. The four flights wore me out a lot eventhough I slept on three of the four flights. On two I only slept for an hour and on the overnight flight to London I slept for like 3 or 4 hours. But I am exausted now, it is almost 1 am here, so this may be a little short.

We had our frist day of orientation today, we got a tour of the school, which is very small, tried to connect to the internet, which I gave up on because I have internet where I am staying (thankfully), we had some lunch at die Mensa (the student dining hall). Then when onrintation was over, around 5:30, we tried to get cell phones, but I didn't have my passport with me, so I could not get one :( but tomorrow I will hopefully be able to get ein Handy (a cellphone). Then we went to dinner at an Italian resturaunt.

Then came the true adventure of the day: navigating the subway/train system alone in a country I have lived on for one day and I don't speak much of the language. I found my way safely and fairly easily. When I was leaving Potsdam, Libby came with me to the train station to make sure I got my ticket alright and found the right train. However we didn't have much luck knowing where we were going and a nice German man (who spoke English very well) noticed we were wandering around and helped us figure out where I needed to be. Then I just figured the rest out (I have to change trains) on the map of the S-und U-Bahn (S-Bahn = street level trains and U-Bahn = subway or underground trains). I did not end up on the most direct or fasted route, but I did not go the wrong way and it didn't take too much longer than it should have, maybe like 5 or 10 mins. Then the house is only like a 3 min walk from the S-Bahn station. It was not so hard in the morning because my host mom went most of the way with me because she works near where I was going, on a different campus of die Uni (university) and she gave me a really good map of where I needed to walk to get the the room where we were meeting. So, she only got off the train like three stops before me.

So, I am safe and everyone is very nice and helpful. However I am exausted, so I am going to pass out now. I miss you all! Bis bald! (see you soon, literally until soon)