hihihihi. i must be here long because jesse is going to take me out for sushi...so ich muss jetzt weg. but the sun was shining today...it was marvelous. it was about 15 degrees and cold .. but there was still a warm sun and that at least made it feel happy. Today is the first half of my birhtday .. huzzah! .. and thus the taking me out for sushi. I dont have many other plans ... Im not big into hitting the bars .. but since its my 21st birthday I might do just that .... but maybe tommorow. Ok ... frau martin ... ich glaube meine Deutsch ist ein bisschen besser .. aber ich weis nicht! ok ... tschuss!

Deb

Hola! I mean .. Halo! Im here at the Stanford Center on this Sunday morning. Ive had a pretty lazy weekend .. and I like it that way. Mmm recent news ... I went to my first opera! Jesse got me a ticket for an opera that was only 4 dollars ...discounted from like 75. He has been to more operas and thought this specific one was boring .. and it kind of was ... so we left after 2 acts. But it was very cool .. and I enjoyed it very much. My school keeps chugging on .... and Lexia is pretty annoying. They do not respect our time at all ...its hard to explain exactly. But they just expect us to have every second of our day available for impromtu lexia events. Prime example. This Wed. I had language class from 9am to 1215, a class from 2pm to 5 pm..then a movie screening from 5 until 630. And then AFTER THAT they were like .. were all going to go out to dinner with the director. I mean come on .... Do you really need to take up 12 hours of every day? I ended up skipping the dinner because I was absolutely exhausted. So yes, thats annoying. Oh .. and I had a semitragedy the other day! I am taking a trip to Poland with Lexia and I assumed I would be getting back to Berlin on the 17th ... because that is what our schedule and sylabbus said. So Jesse and I, the forward thinkers that we are, booked plane tickets for the 18th to Ljubljana ..the capital of Slovenia....as the beginning of our Italy Spring Break Trip. Lo and Behold we arent arriving in Berlin until the evening of the 18th.....which means I would miss my plane to Slovenia. So yesterday I was calling Jesse on my cell phone ...then Carol, the director ...then Jesse again. We finally figured out that I will fly from Cracow to Berlin on the 17th...missing a few hours in Cracow, but thats ok. The flight is like, 25 Euros, which isn't bad. Jesse thinks I should ask Lexia to pay ... but that makes me feel weird, so I wont. I will probably need to do laundry at that point .... but Germany doesnt believe in dryers ... so who knows what will happen! Mmmmmm...right now Jess and I are making pasta with a sauce of olive oil, lots of onions, garlic, and sun dried tomatoes. yummy, sounds like a good lunch huh! Hmm..I dont have much else to say. Its still very cold here and snowy. Right now its about negative 5 or 6 celcius .. which is about 20 F .. still thats pretty cold!! And Berlin is pretty dreary and sunless .. but this morning I saw the sun shining brightly and it made me very happy =) Thats it for now! Oh, heres some news. Caitlin, one of my best friends from school, is going to come to Berlin to visit for a week! She will stay at my place with me .. and I told my host Mom she could pay a small charge .. like 5 Euros a day, but Melanie said no. Instead Caitlin will bring some amazing Southern France delicacy .... seems like a pretty sweet switch for Caitlin! Maybe she will bring lavender soap or something. So yes, thats very exciting! Ok ... I miss you all very much. And I know it sounds like I am complaining .. I should definitely try and see the brighter side of things .... I will.

Debbie

hi! finally! im on the Ku´damm right now at an internet cafe ... argh, paying money for each minute of internet, what a drag. So the Berlinale is finally over, for which I am part glad and part sad. I saw tons and tons of movies .... maybe 30ish .. which was great, and I saw some stars like Kevin Spacey .. who sang to us! ... and soem other people ... oh, and the lead from elizabeth who was also in life aquatic, and wes anderson, and angelica houston, and will smith. etc etc. but it also took over my life, so I am glad its over. And now its back to the grind .. language class from 9am to 1215 pm .. followed by some sort of other schooling from 215 until 5ish. Im getting very tired from all of the running around. And I REALLY need to do laundry .. but there is seriously no time! It is still very cold here ...right around 0 debrees Celcisu, or 32 F. Tommorow and the next day ... more snow! So that is stinky. Mmmmmm what else. I am definitely goign to Italy for my spring break. We will fly to Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenai. Spend a day there in the Julian Alps ... romantic, eh? .. and then go to Venice, Florence, and maybe Bologna or some other place. Oh, and when I say we I mean Jesse and I. So I am very very excited about that! Not much else is happeneing ........... I keep on learning German. The hardest language on earth. But Im just going to push on. Alright, I have a meeting soon. Das ist alles! Bis später meine Freunde
Mit Freundlichen Grußen
Deb

Yo yo yo yo yo. So Im at the Stanford Center now .... and Ive been seriously reading emails and responding etc etc for like 2 hours ... so I'm sort of jaded and sick of the whole communication thing, but I'll suck it up. Well, things are good. I've had 3 days of language class so far ... and I find myself in quite a bind. If you remember ... the head of the language school was like ...I am going to bump you up, you are smart, etc etc. So he deeefinitely did, and I guess the only way I can put it is that at Wellesley we worked through chapter 7 of my boo, and I am now on approximately chapter 13. So the genetive case, subordinate sentense structire, da compounds, subjunctive .... these are things I haven't learned AT ALL and they are like, old news to my class. So, I have two options. I can stick it out ... learn retrospectively ....as in go back and learn it on my own quickly ... and eventually in the end I will get further in my general knowledge of German grammar. But the question is, at what cost?? To know a lot of German but only half well, and with wholes in the general framework of my German? Or I could move down a level, which sounds to be exactly where I left off .... I talked to my teacher Margit .. and she said she thinks its a good fit ..and that I should wait until Friday. And the front desk said I can start my new class tommorow. So yes ... it is quite a decision. I think I will untimately move down, whether tommorow or next Monday. Because now the homework ... usually WorkBook...oder Arbeitsbuch.. excercises....its seriously like a joke. I look at it, realize I really have no idea what it is, and copy the answers from the back of the book. Not so good.

What else .... the Berlinale film fesitival is quickly approaching. Actually, it starts tommorow!! I'm so excited. I have language classes inthe mornings from 9-12...and then most of the afternoons for the enxt 10 days are ust going to be me watching crazy obscure documentaries from iceland. Well, not neccesarilly, but you understand. Our schedules have mostly been cleared, and we have our passes. This is the first year LExia is doing the Berlinale, and I am very glad about that. The Stanford kids are also doing the Berlinale...and they have the super mega ultra passes .. so they can go to special screenings and retrospectives ...basically old movies being shown on big screens ...so they are SUPER lucky. and some big stars are famed to be coming, like will smith and bill murray. I, like most people, am very excited for bill murray ... ill let you know if there is a sighting!

Everything is good with my family - they are super nice. I actually had dinner with them the other night. We are technically not supposed to eat dinner with them ... unless we pay. But there was enough and they asked if I wanted to jpoin. We spea in a sort of half English half German ammalgam. And I always have my Worterbucher on hand! Dictionary for the non German speakers. But my Melanie und Eran sind sehr freundlich. I think we will have a nice coexistance. Its still inda weird though .... like they usually leave right around the time I leave my room to get ready ... and something about me going downstairs to tae my shower, and then walking up the spiral staircase wrapped in a towel makes me feel really weird. So now Ive been waiting for them to leave until I leave and shower. Hopefully thatll wear off.

The people on my group are super nice. Out of the 8 or 9 people I mostly like everyone, and some of them very much. Haha, that sounds weird. We work pretty well as a group, and its actually a pretty nice size. Soemtimes its too big and makes me want to DIE.......well, I guess I have to give an example. there were 9 of us walkking the other night looking for food. And you know it is with groups ...,.. UGH its awful!!! Everyone walks slow ... and then one person finds a restaurant and its like .. ohh .. this looks good to me..anyone else? And its all confusing and no one can decide and when you DO decide there are a million people to seat. So yes .... that really got to me one night.

The food has been pretty good. Ive had some really good food ....mostly with Jesse, he is good like that .... and ive had some mediocre food. Last night was a very German dinner for Jess and I ... some Rotbrautwurst from a guy on the street with an actual grill .... so the outside was burnt and crispy and yumy .. so we got that with brot...or bread .. for 1 euro. And then we got some currywurst a bit later ... for like 1.50. Cheap and delicious.

Ok ... my fingers are tired. But wow, that was quite a long post!! Ive seen some really cool art while Ive been here, and Ive had some nice tours of Berlin auch. I saw the Reichstag, Brandenburgh gate, the Flick collection .....quite controversial because Flicks grandfather was a steel industry owner who used 400000 slave laborers during the third reich. and the grandson flick bought his collection with that money passed down .... etc etc. More on that later i guess

Miss you all!!

Bis spater,
Deb

Hi everyone!! So alright, I'm here in Berlin, and there are almost too many things to say! Well first, my housing. I live with a mother, father, and 6 year old son. The mom, Melanie, is super duper nice. Right now we're sort of in a she speaks english I speak english phase ... because my german isn't that great. But I was around the house with her yesterday .. dictionary in hand ... saying things in German to her and if they were right she would say "genau" , or exactly, and it was very fun and we laughed a lot and I like her very much. The kid, John, is very cute .. he kind of looks like the kid from Jerry Maguire. I think he is slightly threatened by me, and very spoiled, but I like kids so maybe ill ask him to play a game, or to help me learn some german, and i think that will make him see that i am not a threat. The dad, Erkan, is very nice but kind of cold. I leanred though that he likes hip hop (and is a DJ...haha) so I want to show him some of the hip hop I have on my computer and maybe that will bring us together. My house is on a 4th floor walk up, and you get up to my room up a spiral staircase. whats really cool is that there is a second entrance to the house on the 5th floor, the level of my room, so if i come home after 10, 1030 I just go up in my entrance. My room ..... its really amazing. It has: A double bed, a futon couch, a dresser, a table ..next to futon counch..a desk, a chaize lounge, a tv, a stereo, 5 windows, and 2 plants. im pretty sure it is the master bedroom ...as their room is half the size ... and it really is quite big and great. My group is 9 students, 6 girls and 3 boys. There are 6 of us, including me, doing the visual culture track and 3 doing the german civilization track. The first few days I have been here have been orientation ...and the people are all super nice. I start monday with my language classes .... he put me in a level which he said might be a little difficult ...like he was in between two classes for me and he chose the higher... but he said he put me there because "du bist klug"....or "you are smart"....not to brag, but he did, and that made me feel very good. Jesse is here, and we have seen each other for dinner each night which is nice. He came out last night with a bunch of Lexia students .. i am integrating my both worlds, you see...and it was very fun. He has two very good friends ..anna and nathan, who are actually married..and i am very excited to meet them. Well alright .... thats all I can think of for now.
oh..and i got a cell phone!! madre, padre, here it is if you wish to call me *but beware it may be expensive, and i will perhaps call you when i get a calling card* but here it is 01744913746. but first is the outside of america number, 011, and then the country code, 4930, and then number without the zero in front. well hey, i think thats rght, but im not sure. oh! and people in europe ..tahts my number! ok..miss you all, more later.

Tschüss
Deborah ...which everyone seems to call me these days ...