I (sort of) have a sense of direction!

I'm here! I'm in Berlin. Currently, I am most definitely jet-lagged, overwhelmed and running on 4 hours of sleep within the last 48 hours (if you know me, you know I complain about 7 hours of sleep/night not being enough). Multiple people have offered me coffee but I turn them down because I hate to see me on too much caffeine. Anyways, here are the highlights of my flight over:

-first flight was delayed for an hour, so I had to run to every single connecting flight after that, the one in atlanta, and JFK. In the process, I outran my way too large (47 lbs) checked-in luggage :( and it is currently in JFK and will make its way over by tomorrow I hope.
-the flights were hectic as well: 3 sappy movies were put on... greeeattt, a total of 3 puking, crying babies, 3 good samaritans who helped me put my luggage up and take it down + 1 loquacious American Mayo Clinic Counselor who was also on his first trip to Europe
-after getting off the flight an hour early, I waited around to find that my green suitcase was one step behind, then (since I had asked for contact information for the person who was going to pick me up but did not get one in time) I went to the information desk to have them page for a "Nora" who was to pick me up, luckily she showed up!

Nora and I talked about a range of topics while she took the suitcase because she insisted that she had come out of a "fresh" bed while I was jet-lagged and exhausted. Interestingly enough, I came on a long weekend, everyone is going on vacation because Monday is a holiday. This meant that all the stores were closed and I was going to starve :( Just kidding! Luckily, stores at the train station were open because they were for travel so I got a small amount of groceries to survive on until Tuesday. (When I grabbed the nutella, Nora laughed and said 'of course', she implied the American part.) She turned out to be well-traveled and very easy to talk to. She told me about Berlin and I told her about Tucson. We met up with Dr. Gotthardt, his wife and his adorable little baby (finally, a calm one who was clean!) We took an extensive walk around his neighborhood in central Berlin, he pointed out the landmarks: what stands of the wall that divided West and East, important churches, too much stuff to recollect right now... then we got lunch and ice cream!

So here is the closing of this tale for today, I am typing this in a kitchen at the lab building because my little guesthouse room has no internet, so I have to hunt for internet hotspots. From the people I briefly introduced myself to so far, I am the youngest student here (they are all post-docs or graduate students...) I also live far out in NE Berlin so I have to bus/train if I want to explore.

And the goal of the post, other than to tell you I got here, is ( I can't lie) to help me stay up until a decent Berlin time so I can wake up and be adjusted properly soon (my body is pretty confused).

Okay, nice rambling to ya!

By the way, no pictures because I didn't have my wits about to be all touristy take a million photos; I just barely had enough energy to be social and stay awake. Next time, next time.

LILY