Sweaty and tired form walking around.

Welcome to my journal. After an eleven hour layover in newjersey, and a missed flight in Frankfurt I was saved by an angelic but sassy united employee who put me on a later flight to Berlin. Once in Berlin I used the german id practiced in my head the entire trip over to hire a taxi driver who drove me through the amazing and wonderful central berlin into the heart of the not so amazing and wonderful soviet east berlin. Apparently not much has changed in sixteen years. Anyways, after dealing with the dorm office i dragged my luggage up a couple flights of stairs to my fairly spacious but rustic apartment, walked around my neighborhood, got depressed, had a breakdown, passed out for fourteen hours,woke up, bought food, traveled around on the ubahn, felt better, and now its a day later and im writing this above a dunkin donuts in the touristy Potsdamer Platz in central Berlin. Although at first my hood seemed like the projects, ive really started to appreciate it for a number of reasons. 1) its economical, allowing thousands of people to live in relative comfort within an area the size of your average suburban sprawl. 2) The germans really take care of their ghettos. Although Lichtenburg might have stark soviet architecture, its full of trees, parks, forests, and meadows. How many american housing projects have small forests? 3) Socialist housing developments were designed so that everything is in walking distance which gives the area a very communal feel with schools and stores mixed in with the aparetment buildings. Most imporantly though, although its a working class neighborhood, there seems to be very little crime and there certainly arent drug dealers lurking on every corner. However, despite its good qualities, id still rather live somewhere more interesting and closer to the heart of berlin. So right now, although i hang my hat in lichtenburg, ive spent all my free time exploring greater Berlin. Life without friends is suprisingly managable and luckily when i got home last night i was too tired to cry myself to sleep. The best part of being here is that i have no obligations until thursday, so i dont really think more than two hours ahead. Right now im thinking that i should get off the computer, so i will.