Das ist ein Moped.

Thursday was Moff's last day. We celebrated with a lot of Slivovice and some Becherovka and a bunch of Mexican food. Then I cried on the phone to my mom for about a half hour about a crazy huge decision I have to make.

So when better to make a huge decision than on a trip, where you can clear your mind and have fun? So I went to Berlin! (Well, I planned the trip before the decision came up:). The plan was for one weekend, and to meet up with my Dutch friend Ronald (a.k.a. Dingo... an old nickname:).

I left work at 3pm and rushed to the hotel to grab my stuff, took the metro (with Jose's help on the directions, thank you Ze!!) to the train station. I had no idea how to take a train, since around where I live it just isn't that common (rather, it's common, but it's not the fastest way to get anywhere so I never bothered). There was a number for which car to get on, and which seat, but I couldn't tell which car was which so I asked some guy and he pointed to the one right in front of me. So on I went, found seat 55-window, and...there was a guy in my seat.

"Hi, I'm not sure if I have the right place..." showing him my ticket.
"You probably do, I think I'm in the wrong place. I'll just sit next to you if you don't mind."
"Not at all."
I couldn't tell where he was from but boy was I glad he spoke English. He gave me the window and moved to the aisle. We ended up talking the whole time he was on the train (he wasn't going to Berlin), which was about an hour and twenty minutes. His name was Alain, and he was Lebanese. :) Arabs are the best people anywhere, of course.

We had a really nice talk. He's been in Prague for 12 years, is marrying an Albanian girl, and has a lot of Lebanese/Pali friends in Prague which is cool. I told him all about my situation and my tough upcoming decision, and he gave me the best advice anyone's given so far... "Whichever decision you make, it's the right one." Do whatever you're going to do without regrets, and then it's always the right decision.

And that's when it hit me what I have to do. So thank you, Alain, wherever you are tonight.

After he got off the train, it got very boring until Berlin. When we finally arrived, I found Dingo right away. I couldn't find where we were supposed to meet, but I looked behind me on the escalator for a second and there he was :) We rode the U-Bahn and the S-Bahn to the place where we were staying, and we were both kind of exhausted and ended up just sitting up there and talking for a couple hours before finally deciding to just go to sleep and just be rested for the day of sight-seeing the next day.

Saturday we woke up late, probably around 10 or 11, got ready and headed out. Got a bite to eat, took some pictures, saw all the touristy stuff (I will post pictures soon). I would tell everything we saw, but honestly I don't remember the names of anything. I really suck at that. :) We did a ton of walking, though, and finally around 5pm decided to head back to our weekend-rented apartment. We ended up falling asleep until 11pm (we suck at staying awake), and my first thought was damnit, I totally missed nighttime Berlin. I was super hungry, too, since I hadn't eaten dinner the night before and just had a little sandwich earlier that day. So we went out for Thai food (of all things to eat in Berlin).

After that we weren't tired, of course, and he'd read about a salsa club so...

OFF TO HAVANNA WE WENT!! (http://www.havanna-berlin.de)

Now, my very white Dutch friend may not be a natural latin dancer, but he did his best out there and I was very proud of him :) He dances a very nice merengue, and by the end of the night he did just fine with bachata as well. There was a surprising number of Dominicans and Cubans there, just like in Prague. Odd, but cool. We had way too many drinks and had a fun walk back to our weekend residence.

I even got on someone's moped for a picture :) Again, to be posted soon. I reminisced about how we used to love to talk about "das Moped" in high school German class. Awesome how much I remembered.. like Blumen means flowers :)

And today the trip back was basically uneventful. I shared a train compartment with two very nice young American girls who were high school friends. One is taking a year off before going to college, the other is a freshman in college. We had a nice friendly chat and then once we got to Prague I helped to get them metro tickets and get them in the right direction. I know how appreciative I've been when someone helped me in this crazy city, so I like to do the same for others.

And people say Americans are fake in how nice we are... pfft. We really just are that nice. :)

And here I am! I went to the office to call Tara (and Ash, yay!) and my mom when I got back, then had a nice dinner with Kristel, my colleague who's in the office for a few weeks from Belgium to help out just like I am.

And the best thing about the weekend is that I made that very tough decision. And I'm happy about it. And everything is going to be just fine. No, better than that. It will be awesome.

Hugs to my all my beloved Pittsburghers, including but not limited to: Mom, Tara, Ash, Maira, Bethany, Liz, Shannon, Marco, Thiago, Nasser, Lisa, Hima, and Moffstra University.

Y un abrazo a Taquito en México también.. no tienes que ser Pittsburgheño para merecer un abrazito :)