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