i am sitting in my flat in berlin.

i am strangely fine, though exhausted.

the following things have already been surprising/ exciting for me:

1. babies in germany speak german. noticing this has reaffirmed that a) i like babies a lot and b) i am a baby. they are the only ones i can understand entirely. i witnessed a dad on the bus talking with his six year old twins. they counted to six. then they counted just to three because one of them was eins- zwei- drei minutes older than the other. this made me happy.

2. you can drink alcohol anywhere. while i knew this, i was still amazed as i rode the u-bahn and watched a very very young-looking boy unabashedly drink a beer. it was a "berliner pilsner" no less. it made me wonder why san francisco does not have a "san francisco beer" and, more so, why san francisco, considering itself so liberal and forward does not lawfully permit drinking in public places. drinking outside is awesome.

3. there are friendly and unfriendly people in every city, state, and country. the first person i talked to in berlin was the very grumpy man who sold me a train ticket and acted like i was inconveniencing him by existing. i quite artfully equated him with the people that work at bart and muni and realized that he just hates his job, not me. the second one was a nice girl who helped me wrangle my flailing pink suitcase on the u-bahn. she had drawn a smiley face on her shoe and i liked her.

4. i am me, no matter where i go. though i smell slightly more unpleasant than usual, given my long journey, i still look the same and have the same kinds of thoughts. this is both reassuring and disappointing. sometimes i wish some other beth would emerge entirely.

5. people wear american apparel in germany too. i saw a boy in one of those heather- grey hooded sweatshirts with the white strings and laughed at how small the world is.

the world is small. i am in germany and have already talked to two of my friends online.

above is a picture of my room. i know my mom will appreciate being able to situate me in her mind. hi mom!