Ein Blick

Here's a collection of random observations I've had lately:

• I love the spreadable cheese they have all over in the grocery stores, in place of where the cheddar should be. I still don't understand why they don't have cheddar. (Who doesn't like that cheese? It's so versatile). But the spreadable stuff is like salty dessert.

• Who says there isn't wildlife in cites? I've seen three rats near the channel. I got stung by a wasp the other day. And I'm constantly bowling for pigeons on my bike.

• I've been running in the mornings. It's right when the sun is beginning to spread across the clouds. A sleepy Berlin is stretching, as the shop keepers start to pull open the metal guards on the doorways, tucking away at least some of the graffiti that is everywhere here. The swans gather on the glass of the channel, flirting and primping.

• My emotions have taken on a life of their own. They seem to rise and fall like mercury in a thermometer in this city, where the weather is constantly changing. It's like I'm an addict going through withdrawal, and that addiction was my life at home. I have a bad day and start counting the days till I can leave. I have a good day and the homesickness seems like a distant memory. But like a smoker, I still think about the cigarette.

Lessons learned: Rats are creepy. Wasps do sting for no reason. Time has a weird way of going fast and slow simultaneously.