Hello, still in Berlin.

I have good news, bad news, more good news, and extra good news on top of the other two bulletins of goodness, and a fourth and final piece of incredible goodness.

Alright, first the bad news. I called the bank yesturday, and they told me that there was no record of my phone call last Saturday. Not only that, but they did not send me out a replacement card. I asked if they might send me out a new card with the greatest of all possible speed, and they said that FedEx would take until Tuesday. TUESDAY! I was upset, but at the same time, I am not going to sweat over it.

My friends Matt and Thomas have met me in Berlin, and they are here for the next three days or so, after that they are going to Prague, and I think that is where I will head to as well. This means, that I will have to come back to Berlin for a day or two to pick up my card, and then head back to Prague.

Alright, I forgot, the fact that my friends are in Berlin, that is good news. I am going back to Prague to see Mikey Church and Jess Wolfley, that is my second piece of good news.

My third piece of good news, is that I have been invited to join the Keatings on vacation in London. Which is good for two reason, for one, it means that I will be able to see the Lord of the Rings in English, and I have a place to stay. And it is also convient that I will be able to see Tim, Vicki, Heather, and Aran as well and spend the New Year with them. But mostly The Lord of the Rings. ;)

The fourth and final piece of good news is that my family still loves me very much and that my sisters, Mollie and Katie, now have tickets to visit me in Paris in January. That is all so wonderful.

I think I am going to see Harry Potter this evening at the Sony Center, should be a nice time. I will be sure to write my impressions of the film sometime in the future. Funny how I am hundreds of miles from home, and there is a whole ocean between us, but I am able to still see all the movies in English. Weird huh?

Alright, thanks for wading through the poor grammar. I will write more soon.

Ok, I am now in Berlin, Germany.

I left Vienna two days ago, on a night train, which was as always, a load of fun and rife with paranoia. You might be asking yourself, "What does a strapping and intimidating young man like Mike have to fear on a little old night train", and the answer to your obvious question is simple, Bagthieves; sneaking into my compartment at night. I have inherited my parents ability to sleep through almost anything, and I have found myself physically shaken at times by the ticket checkers because I was sleeping.

If I don't hear the door of the compartment open, I would have no way to know if someone was in the compartment taking my bag. This is why I sleep in fear, with my bags firmly under head. The only problem with this is that I now have a crick in my neck as the result of my inclined sleeping. Perhaps there is a better way.

When a lot of people think of Germany, they think of Fascists. This was really never the first thing that came to my mind, but Berlin is not making it any easier. I say this, because my first day in Berlin, was also, by coincidence, the day of the largest fascist demonstration since Hitler. There were loads of fascists, throngs of antifascists, and an army of police officers trying to keep the two groups apart. I couldn't really get close enough to the epicenter of the demonstration to see what was going on, but I did get to watch some of it unfold in a public park. There were dozens of young skinheads running away (probably they just did something very bad), and they were being pursued by stoic policepeople. Pretty heavy shit. (Sorry I am just to old to be saying poop)

Berliners, are by definition cooler than the entire rest of the planet. They make looking cool, acting cool, and living cool, look so effortless. This is easy to explain: Coolness in Berlin is pasted down genetically, and if this is not why, there is a chance that there is something the government puts in the water, much like the US government does with Fluoride. They have an exuberance for their nightlife, and there are so many youth subcultures, keeping track would be impossible.

Blah, Blah, Blah, my ATM card is officially dead (RIP Oct 11, 2000 - December 1st 2001), I was able to get money out of my account however, thanks to the helpful people at American Express. I have ordered another one to be overnighted, and hopefully, it will get here sometime around Thursday. If not, I am thinking about enrolling myself in some sort of scientific study where they pay me for two solid weeks of abject pain and suffering.