Ich bin hier!!!

Well, here I am. More than twenty-four hours with less than two of sleep. Yeah. I'm kind of...something right now. But....here's the big thing. I'M HERE. In Berlin. BERLIN. It's...very strange. I've been here for....less than twelve hours and it already feels like home. My host family is amazing. I was kind of worried about having siblings because I never have, but...so far, alles is gut. Sehr gut.

While I was sitting in the gate at JFK, waiting to board, I looked around aimlessly, only to be greeted by the most pleasant of surprises: three other be-blazered girls. I immediately grabbed my bag and ran up to meet them. Of course, since we were boarding and were NOT, needlessly to say, sitting anywhere near each other, I barely met them before finding my seat and settling in to the eight-hour flight. The person sitting next to me was pleasant enough. It was a good flight in the end, with a surprising two hours of snatched sleep. Unexpected snatched sleep. I succeeded in getting a photo with the captain of the flight, as one of my friends and I had decided we were going to do to commemorate our flight. :)

Got off the plane, went through passport control, found the other girls waiting at the baggage claim area and huddled up, trying to get at our bags as they passed. We all failed. And in English, too. :) But luckily for us, there was a very kind gentleman who spoke English and grabbed our bags for us. One of the girls had a massive welcome party with signs and everything. I couldn't find the Weigands and Jürgen behind the signs, but they found me. :) I'm sitting next to Clara right now, typing this. Speaking Deutsch. :) Ist gut. Ich liebe es. (She just corrected me. :) ) 

We went to Berlin Zitadelle today, after I unpacked. Oh, and as a note for any and all exchange students ANYWHERE. If there is ANYTHING that you're taking that has ANY chance of exploding due to pressure, DOUBLE BAG IT. Or at least single bag. Proof:

That, my friends, is blueberry jam I did not think for a second to wrap. I have learned my lesson. I promise. Nobody gets blueberry jam now. Luckily it didn't ruin anything because it was in the stuff suitcase and most of the jam went ON the suitcase or the plastic wrapped and air sucked sweaters next to it. 

Back to the day. Berlin Zitadelle....dang. My club's namesake.....I like Berlin-Zitadelle now even more than I did before. The reason why? 

And that's only one view. There are about three gazillion other options. That's just the coolest one. :)

Und, meine Familie. :) Ich liebe Sie. :)