Guten Tag, Berlin!

Well, I finally got here! After almost 20 hours of traveling, including 8 unexpected hours at the Munich airport due to the snow in Germany, I arrived at my flat. The flat is in a building called Villa Elisabeth--about 100 years old and in the town of Kleinmachnow. It is a town just outside of Berlin and was occupied by the Government Democratic Republic, meaning it was part of East Germany and closed off by the Berlin Wall! It is a cute little town--very family-oriented and quaint. Hopefully, Marianna and I will do some exploring tomorrow.

My first night here, Irmgart made noodles and meat sauce and green beans, so I enjoyed that. I got unpacked and went to sleep soon after, since I hadn't had much sleep. This morning, she made us a traditional German breakfast with different breads, marmalades, milk cream, cheese, and sliced meat. She also had hard-boiled eggs for each of us and made her own grapefruit juice. It was a very nice. She said these are our "welcome meals," as we will be making our own food from here on out. Then, we hurried to run a few errands with her since all the shops close around 2 o'clock on Saturdays. We went to pick up pictures from her Christmas holiday, got some cakes for tea time, and went to another store to get her a "stepper"--a mini stair-master type thing for Irmgart's new year's resolution. Then, she took us to see the lake she loves to visit throughout the year, especially in summer. It was frozen with snow on top of it. It was beautiful!

It has been a snowy day! All the children are pulled around on sleighs and older people use ski poles for canes, as they walk around. Since our errands this morning, we have not gone out. We had tea time this afternoon with tea (not sweet tea, I'm afraid ;) and the cakes we picked out from the bakery in the grocery store. Irmgart got the map out of the United States and had us show her where we are from. Then, we gave her the Auburn shirt we bought for her. She loved it and was very pleased with a t-shirt from an American university. She likes the colors of the shirt, she said. So, the gift was a hit! War Eagle! The rest of the night we will stay in and probably have leftovers from last night. So far, so good! I'm excited to get to know Berlin better. It seems like a really great city!