A short ditty

I'm sitting in the Education Center at Vilseck Post. I don't think I'm really supposed to be here, but I'm going to try and write a quick blog nevertheless. I doubt many people will be reading it since my last blog said I won't be writing for a while, but a lot of things have happened. Maybe if I put it in bullet points that'll be easier for everyone to read :).

Hightlights
- We went to Berlin this last weekend
- The rest of our household goods arrived today (earlier than projected) and will be delivered to us on Friday
- Matt's car arrived today (also earlier than projected) and will be ready for pickup tomorrow
- All of the furniture my parents gave us fits perfectly in our house, and when I can hook my computer up to the internet, I'll upload pictures
- It sleeted a little on our car as we drove from Berlin to Vilseck

Detail
Berlin was cool and clean. The first thing I noticed when I got out of the car was the temperature though. It got down to around 50 at some points, and I had to wear a jacket anytime we were outside.

Our hotel was right on the major shopping road in the city (Kurfurstendamm) and within walking distance to a lot of cool sights (Matt did a great job finding the place). We saw a lot of ridiculously expensive shops like Chanel and Gucci, as well as 3 H&M's within a tenth of a mile of each other. For those unfamiliar with H&M, it's a great European store that has good fashion and really cheap prices. They have them in a few large cities in the states. We walked around this area on Saturday afternoon/evening enjoying the sites, went back to our place, changed, and then had a Mexican dinner right next to our hotel for about 3 hours.

Sunday morning we went to the Berlin Zoo, and I must say, they have the friendliest and most photogenic animals! They all sit in great places for everyone to see them, they'll approach the tourists, and are generally pretty active. Sunday afternoon we went to the Mitte, which is the middle of the city where Museum Island, the Brandenberg Gate and the Reichstag are located. Museum Island is just uber cool, and beautiful to boot. We got to go in the Pergamon Museum, which is a museum of architecture...kinda. It had rooms with entire bits of temples, streets and large floor mosaics. We got in for pretty cheap, and the headsets were free. It was great to finally be able to walk around all of these Roman statues and have someone explain the myth or story that goes with them. Highly educational.

As far as East vs. West Berlin, the parts of east Berlin we saw were very clean, and very nice looking. I couldn't tell you if it was new or not, but I couldn't see any remnant of the east/west-ness of the Soviet Union era. I guess they've done a good job of moving forward.

A few nights ago Matt and I watched High Society with Frank Sinatra, Grace Kelly, Louis Armstrong, and Bing Crosby. An all-star cast if ever I saw one! We found out at the end that it was the last movie Grace made before she married the Prince of Monaco and became a real live princess! I didn't know that happened anymore! Monaco sounds so romantic, especially after seeing it in the latest Bond movie. It's definitely on our places-to-visit list.

I think that's all I should write for now. I'd love to hear how you're doing, so keep in touch!