It begins (Day 5)

                     The Brandenburg Gate / Die Brandenburger Tor 

                     Well that gets the obligatory shot out of the way.

Unable to pack you into my two overly stuffed pieces of luggage, I figured the intertubes presented the best option with which to bring you along with me on my journeys to the Continent.  Moreover, lacking the artistic abilities of one super-smash playing friend I have, I've been forced into the aetherial realm of the prose blogosphere.  With its share of lions, tigers, and political diatribes the blogosphere is a savage realm indeed but I'll do my best to update thematically on a roughly Tuesday/Thursday/Sunday schedule (On whatever timezone I may be at the time).  I'm going to say right now, regardless of however entries I may or may not have "canned", I'm likely only to hit two of those dates per week.   

                       The blogosphere looks oddly like a jellyfish. 

That said, this particular American has made it through the  World University Debating Championships (WUDC) in Cork Ireland and off to Berlin.  Here I'm living attic of a sturdy old house nearby Templehof Airport the site of the Berlin airlift.  Fortunately for me (and not fans of Albert Speer's architecture) the airport has recently been shut down.  Which oddly enough involves shutting down what was formerly the largest building in the world.  

My journey thus far has been a slow transition into the culture of Germany.  Having arrived on a whopping two hours of sleep from my flight over I stumbled through the snow and the S-bahn to my house only to botch a McDonalds order and fall asleep for some fourteen hours.  Let me tell you nothing puts one back in their place more than leaving the premier venue for international collegiate eloquence and twelve hours later finding oneself being unable to correctly order at McDonalds.  

Still, following the next days laguage testing the I was placed into a class in the Goethe Institute a german language institution in the center of Berlin.  Its a pretty well done operation and I've been enjoying my classes (which run from 8:30 to 1 everyday) so far.  In the mean time I've attempted to explore a little, adapt to the rhythms of the city, and begin to pull my linguistic act together (which I can fortunately say is happening).  

                                Still, such assistance would be nice.

                                    A Statue on Unter den Linden