first days in berlin

first days in berlin.
first of all, it's f-ing cold. minus 15 or something. there's a permanent grey sky and frozen snow on the ground, and what i saw from the plane, those snowy rooftops and streets looked like those depressing world war I trench movies, and it's pretty much the same from the ground.
people tow their kids around on wooden santa sleds which is cute. people still ride bikes, including the postman on his special yellow-and-blue version.
i'm in a hotel room which is about as big as my king sized bed. they have a tan and turquoise theme going which is all very hip, and there are flat screens everywhere showing a bright yule log fire. it's channel 0 in the room. there's also TV5, which lets me catch up on my chiffres et les lettres (oh there was a good C&L highlight from 2009, when a dude spelled 'niquer' and the judges read out the definition).
the lobby has free internet so i go there to scavenge websites for apartments. i'm certain the waitresses are not turkish, as one would presume being in the kreuzberg, but russian. i ordered one of those mega-tall weissbiers with the drunk monk on it yesterday. i nursed it for a long, long time and nevertheless pretty tipsy and was about to leave. the waitress comes by and i'm all sehr gut! with a double thumbs up. she then brings me TWO more weissbiers, wtf? i gave one to the british guys next to me and had to down the other.
across the street is an 'imbiss' - one of those street takeout places that has currywurst and doner kebap. it's called "the foodbag." it's got a very bag-like see-through vinyl sitting area, and it's packed all the time! i even saw people eating outside at lunch. crazy. i haven't washed my hair yet because i don't have a hair dryer. so i've been wearing my stepmom's old beaver fur bonnet, or the faux-fur ear flap hat from my mom. they both equally crush my hair to make it flat and boring, but i don't care.