Getting to Berlin

I didn't sleep well the night before but I had the stroopwafelsYulka brought from me from Germany with my parents as a parting tea-before-bed event. It seemed fitting.
Папа drove me to the airport and we checked my bag and he walked me to security. I had to get patted down, I think because of my hairclips because after I took them out the following two checkpoints went smoothly. 
My trip went from Logan -> JFK -> Amsterdam -> Tegel in Germany.
I was waiting in JFK and wrote the following:
It's interesting how no matter where you go faces become familiar - you see a person once; standing to get bags checked, riding in the airtrans, boarding a plane - and when you get off and see them again; bag pick-up or waiting for another plane-they are someone you already someone you know, you might notice some personal details- a guy with sprained angle and great cheekbones, a girl for whom an airport-worker found a ring that was lost, a curly-haired boy and traveling with his father, a couple who's origins I could not identify. Even if it's just one person and three other  and all of them soon will be forgotten, but for now they are familiar.
(the guy with the cheekbones turned out to also have a final destination in Tegel)

Two airport ladies were really helped me figure out how to get to the Delta area. I waited in JFK after picking up my bag (there was a marine there-I feel like I always see way more army men in the airport than anywhere else. Also an Asian woman and her child were wearing flu-masks, which I thought was odd.) and got some food and went through security again. I talked to an old man on the plane to Amsterdam. He was going to Norway, he had red eyes and faded brown-green eyes, black birthmarks sprinkled on his brown cheeks, and an arm that had been severely damaged so I helped him open packets of food. The plane-pasta was actually okay. By the time I got off the plane my back was in a lot of pain, because I had been trying to use the food tray as a place to put my head and sleep. It looked really pretty from the sky, the little streets and little houses.

After landing we had to run. There was a stewardess waiting for us with the flight number and Berlin written on it. You would think that a one-hour overlay would be calmer than speed walking across the airport, speed getting-checked in security, speed stating my business in Berlin. There were about 20 of us, which was the majority of the people on the small plane to Tegel.When I got on the plane I realized that, though my phone could pick up on the European airwaves, it did not want to use them. Not to send a text home, not anything.

Flying down to Tegel I noticed the eight electric windmills, and brightly colored houses.
Once I got on the ground I realized I had forgotten the instructions Sasha (who I'm renting a room from) had given me as to how to get to where I was living. Thankfully Tegel allows for 5 minutes of free wifi, so I wrote it down and wrote him an e-mail saying my phone wasn't working.
I took the bus. I was confused as to how to use the ticket because on the mbta you just tap it if you have a charlie, or feed it to the reader if you have a ticket, or feed it money if you don't have either. I had bought a ticket at the machine, but you need to get it stamped and it's not right at the entrance to the bus, but a few steps further. I felt dumb and I was exhusted.
On the metro I got a lot of weird looks. My suitcase is huge (we don't have a medium sized suitcase at my house: and the small one's zipper popped open when I tried to stuff everything in there) and an orange hicking/camping backpack. I got off and sat down under the bustop area. It was glass and I figured I would be visible there. So I sat there. For a while. And this lady was sitting there too, and the a man came over and they were talking. And looking over. And talking. Until they finally asked me if I was waiting for the tran (first in German, then in English) and then they helped me by first letting me use the phone (but it, of course, turned out I had written down the wrong number) and then by helping me find an internet cafe, the woman only spoke English and Swahili, the man knew German as well. The internet cafe was 1.50 for an hour (I payed .50 since I was there for less.) I wrote down the address and e-mailed Sasha. He wrote back saying that he had to go to work at 11:15 and I said I'll go back to the bus stop (but he didn't know what I meant by that.) I didn't even know what time it was because (once again-of course) I rushed out and didn't think to look at the time on the computer, and it didn't say the time on my phone.
He still didn't find me and it was raining and somehow nobody knew that meant can I borrow your phone. I teared up a bit out of desperation. Finally I just got a cab and then I stood in the archway of the building next to it (because it had a deeper archway and thus kept me from the rain). Three people used a key and walked in the building. As the door was closing, I slowed it down so it wouldn't shut all the way.
Got my stuff, and walked in.

Inside turned out not to be inside. It was like an outside corridor into a courtyard in the middle. Two doors in the corridor. I stood there and very soon a young woman asked me in German something and then it turned out she could speak English (thankfully I live in student housing, so people can speak English) She rang the apartment for me and got one of Sasha's apartment-mates, Andreas, and I got let in. It was about 1 by then, I had arrived at the airport at 8:25.
Christian (another of the apartment-mates, and there's a fourth person who I haven't yet met) and Charlotte, who was visiting them, turend out to be really really nice.
At this point, after being so upset and so tired I was incredibly relieved. And the apartment is really really nice. I e-mailed home to say I was okay and then we had tea and strawberries and good bread with butter and honey and it was really lovely. I showered and I tried to stay awake and then slept for an hour. They had invited me to play futball so I got a knock on the door when it was time to get up and I quickly changed. Went downstairs and met up with a bunch of people at the courtyard entrance and walked over to a park that had an enclosed red-surfaced area to play. There were two little boys there so we played with them too. People would stop and watch us play: a boy and his father, a couple on a walk, two high-school aged boys with beer, and then it started to really rain and we played until one more goal and walked back.
We came back and once again I tried not to fall asleep but then did anyway, for two or three hours. Woke up, ate a little bit of pasta that Christian offered me (but I didn't want to take a full serving...) so I ended up eating a sandwich they had given me on the Tegel flight, and went to bed around 12.

I woke up a little before 9 today and made tea and ate the banana and baked-good (the rest of my  Tegel plane meal) and then felt sleepy again. A little before 10 I got a knock on my door and finally met Sasha. He is going to show me how to get to various places. Christian studies theology and Andreas studies economics, Charlotte I supposed studied something like political science, by her accent I think she's from England but she recently lost her job (sortof...the person she was working for decided to go back to her area in Germany, and the new person is a little bit crazy, so even though he offered her a job she turned it down, but she has an interview tomorrow.)

We are on the third floor and I look down I can see the courtyard and across the windows of the chapel, and the bell rings (often, more than once an hour.)


I think that is all for now.