So I'm about to leave Berlin, and it was great. I am slowly beginning to understand expatriotism, although nobody was very funny here which would ultimately stop me from moving. I stayed in Charlottenburg, which is sort of a cheesy tourist area, and I'm writing from a cyber cafe that is near the 69 Museum.

General: Everybody spoke English to me as soon as they heard my German accent. German dogs are wonderful - they're not as inbred as American dogs and they have lots of ''character'' and are one hundred percent loyal. The best neighborhood is Mitte in East Berlin, besides being the ''trendiest'' and ''edgiest'' it has all the best museums. I went to sleep very early most nights and walked a lot and got bitten by lots of mosquitos. My mom and I went 1-1 in Scrabble while here. Everything was expensive.

Sights: The Hamburg Art museum was my favorite, it was in a restored train station and factory they combined and they not only had wonderful modern art, but explained a lot about the artists before each exhibit. I also liked the Medical History Museum, which had displays about outdated treatments (fake noses made out of glycerine, birthing chairs, iron lungs), and tons of dead babies, and a ''megacolon.'' At the History Museum I learned that huntsmen had assistants who carried ''at least'' seven falcons at all time and to show off, drank wine out of their gun barrels. The Pergamon Museum with ancient art was boring but beautiful. We went to a concentration camp an hour away from Berlin, Sachsenhausen, and it had the only death metal people and scene I saw in Berlin. The town people were creepy as Salem-ers times a million. A woman whose parents were camp survivors, Susan, thought I was a kindered spirit and followed me around saying camp tourism was evil and wrong. I kept running into her for the rest of the day. What do you say about a camp? It was surreal. My mom took too many pictures. We tried to go to the Reichstag three times and failed each time. The remainders of the Berlin Wall, the Holocaust Memorial and Museum, the Trail of Terror. My old lady loves genocide studies.

Food: Food was good-not-great. We went to an Asian fusion place that was the best ever in Mitte twice, Msr. Vuong's where I had artichoke tea. German breakfasts were too bread-and-meat-y. We dined and dashed at a really fancy hotel and ran into someone from Brandeis on the way out; it was very Hitchcock to have to make smalltalk when all you want to do is run and escape the crime. I unknowingly ate liver and freaked out after, and only drank beer once. Great great great coffee.

Purchases Made: Box of artichoke tea at Msr. Vuong's, matching underwear and cardigan at Princesse Tam-Tam, Fred Perry by Jessica Ogden tee. Food. Subway tickets.

Transportation: Subways were beautiful, fast, and moderately pricey, and entirely trust-based (there were no turnstiles or ticket-checkers). The train was good and so were the buses. The airplane ... I will see.

Friends Made: Susan, I guess. A Swiss couple in Mitte who told us the ''sun would come out tomorrow.''

Bye Berlin. Hello Copenhagen.