hello everyone. i am across the street from my house right now ... paying for these sweet internet minutes .. if that makes sense. I just got back from Spring Break...and it was really really great. Italy was really cool.....first was Venice. Its impossible to convey the beauty of that city. Winding streets, water everywhere, the Grand Canal, the little bridges, the old houses and the courtyards. We saw museums and things ... but really the city was the main attraction. There were LOTS of tourists..and that got annoying..but I guess you have to suffer through that to get the city.

We then went to Florence..and had an incredible room. Our hotel was basically on the Duomo plaza...so looking out our window we could see the Baptistry and the dome and the Cathedral....all for 65 € a night. And we ended up spending a fourth night there (long story involving Jesse forgetting a charger...and us returning) and we got the BEST room there...a huge corner room with an incredible view. So that was pretty sweet.

Jesse and I also saw Siena for a day....which was a beautiful city with a hill and cute streets...And we were also in Pisa for a few hours. By that point though we were so sick of paying entrance fees (they even charge at the bathroom) that we just couldnt stomach plying a 2€ entrance fee to the church, so we played cards on the green near the leaning tower instead =).

Im now back in Berlin...taking my one day of rest. Tommorow I take a day trip to Potsdam. Its a city that used to be a different city...but now its connected to Berlin by S-Bahn. Then Tuesday Im off to Budapest and Romania...or should I say Transylvania. Supposedly when we are there we are going to be staying with families .... who are living 80 years in the past. If I want a shower I must tell them .. so they can heat up the water ... And I will wake up with the roosters and go to bed when the cows come home...something like that. So it should be a crazy experience...Ill let you know how it goes!

The weather in Italy was really great.....probably 60s or 70s....and right now in Berlin it is very cloudly but not so incredibly cold...Spring is finally on its way! What joy, for real. You have no idea...

Oh .. Happy easter everyone. I had breakfast with my host mom, dad, grandmother,m grandfather..and god.....how would I say it .. mz host moms sister. It was fun...but kinda awkward. Im not at the point where I can understand jokes very well....with my unfortunately lacking vocabulary and the inability to comprehend subtelty. I am, however, much much better at German than when I arrived....and I think I will keep getting better if I put some effort into it. But you know .... the family didnt really know how to act around me or deal with me ... it would be good to play a game or something so that without words they could see that Im a real person ... and that despite the language barrier its ok to like..talk to me about stuff and treat me like everyone else. I hope that made sense.

Ok...enough with this whole paying money to have internet thing.

Though most of you know .. since you are part of my family...our family dog Sheba died Friday morning. =( Its very sad..and something that I naively thought were never happen. But she was pretty healthy right up to the end .... was incredibly loved (she had two families), and lived a great life. She will be missed

Love you all.

From Berlin,
Debbie

greetings from ljubljana! im here at the youth hostel, and i have unfortunately not a lot of time. ive been on my trip for 2 days now ... we arived here in the captial of slovenia 2 days ago ... and we walked around. its a beautiful city ...like a little prague with winding roads and beautiful upligghting. yesterday we went to lake bled .. an alpine lake near here ... and it was SOOO nice. look up some google images of it, you will be amazed. i leave soon for venice, im so excited! jess is too. ok, i need to give up the computer.

bze

deb

Salutations! Its 7pm this fine Thursday evening. I flew today from Krakow to Berlin .. and tommorow I am on my way AGAIN to Slovenia and Italy. My trip to Krakow...was actually much much more. Haha .. I will tell you the intinerary .. over the weekend we went to Dresden and Gorlitz..both German cities in the Southish Eastish part of the country. Dresden was really cool .... you could really see the difference between the old old windy city and the ugly Soviet block housing. Our chaperone/guide was a man who grew up in Dresden and could tell us about what it was like growing up and living there. Incredibly enouch, he has lived throught 4 political times .. Hitler, Russian occupation, the GDR, and now a united Germany. Gorlitz was beautiful and old and we saw tons of of buildings from serioulsy the 1400s. Krakow was SUUUPER awesome ... the center of the city is very old, big, and pedestrian only. I looooove pedestrian streets, they just feel so much more friendly. The center was beautiful, with a big marketplace, a towering cathedral with two towers, and lots of windy streets. Argh, I hate how I cannot express the beauty of these places through type .. and unfortunately I have no pictures since I have no digital camera. Sorry everyone! So yes, tommorow I am on my way again, flying to Ljubljana, Slovenia, followed by Venice, Florence, Sienna, and Pisa. This time it is just Jesse and me .... so that will be nice. Alrighty ... were going to go out to dinner and then pack etc. I will actually be here at the center tommorow, so maybe more love will come your way! Also dann. BIS dann! tschussie. Deb

Halo. Ich habe leider kein Zeit, but I will write a little bit. We are having the Lexia students from Budapest visit us .. the two of them. And there is also the leader of the program and a 15 year old Hungarian girl. They will be with uys for a bit, and then they will travel with us to Poland. Oh, news! I am going to do an internship here in Berlin, for a group that plans exhibitions. I will help specifically with the Albert Einstein exhibition they are planning because this year is officially Albert Einstein Year. SO .. I will be looking at architectural drawings, organizing where they are going to paste texts on the walls, where they are going to place objects, helping with the little blurbs ... etc etc. My host mom works there in the mornings, so maybe I will see her. And yeah., it sounds like it wil lbe a nice experience. And I can continue after my school school is done on May 13th ... so even if I dont work too much then, it will be nice to have some sort of structure upon which to build my weeks. I will start after I get back from my weeks of travelling, so around April 10th. And maybe work two days a week, a few hours each. Should be interesting! Ok .. thats all for now.

Oh, just for fun, a really fun German word is: Entschuldigung. It means excuse me.

Ok, until we meet again
Deb

Hola! Wie gehts? Es geht mir gut! I went to Weimar this weekend and had .... an interesting trip. I went to Buchenwald, the once concentration camp. There wasn\t much of it left, including all of the barracks where the prisoners were, so there wasn't too too much to see. And at times I felt like I wasnt feeling enough, like I should be more upset or more moved. But I felt very upset and sad at certain moments, and had to hold back tears. The second day we toured Weimar .. the cutural capital of Germany .. and we went to the Schiller house, the Goethe Hosue, and the Bauhaus museum. All good! Goethe, man, what a collector. His house was HUGE and with tons of statues .... and tons of rooms just filled with statues...no tables, no chairs .. its like he had his own art gallery in his house. Crazy! Times wiht my group were sometimes good, sometimes awkward, sometimes awful. Its hard to explain it all as it would take forever ... but its amazing how different diferent people are and I guess how much they can piss me off! I have naother week coming up before my tri[ to Poland. The Lexia students from ... I think Budapest .. are coming to Berlin tommorow to visit us here, go to some classes, etc. I guess Im excited, sort of neutral to it all. There are only two of them, one girl one boy. Or should I say one man and one woman. =) Ok ... Jesse and I Are going to get some pizza ...and hes very super hungry!
until then,
Deb

hola peoples. Im leaving to go to Weimar tommorow morning. Tommorow I will be in Buchenwald ... the concentration camp. And I was telling Jesse about how it is going to be sooo cold...and he said Debbie, its a Concentration Camp..people lived there with rags and froze to death. And yes .. wow. That really made me feel shitty. I think it will be very powerful to be in a camp. Not much else is new. Its already 11pm...and im tired. Oops, we need to catch a bus...it comes very soon Bye!
Deb

hi ... quick note here. absoultely nothing new. im about to go to my third class of the d ay from 6pm until 8 ... ugh. k, peace out homies

deb

Guten tag meine Damen und Herren. I just ate a big bowl of spagetti with olive oil, garlic, brocolli, and sundried tomatoes .. yummmmm. But I have a variation of that dish once or twice a week .... so I think pretty soon it wont seem as yummy. Im at the Stanford center ... drinking the sweet nectar of free internet. Haha...whatever that means. Things are goody goody. Its super cold here and snowy ... and yesterday I lost both my hat and a part of my headphones. the hat part was pretty tragic....but i just bought another one. And mine are in ear headphones so they have a silicone part that fits in my ear to make a seal ... so I lost one of those parts and seriously ... I almost cried. I thought I would have to buy another pair .. and thats 50 dollars. BUT...I rememberd that I had bought Jesse the same pair of headphones ... and he uses the big silicone thingies ... so I am getting his little ones! I hope that made sense .... Im going to Weimar this weekend with Lexia. We leave Saturday morn and get back sunday night ..... I hope its not too stressful! Lexia style would be to have 7 activities each day. I will let you know how it goes. I think I am going to a concentration camp one of those days .... Im excited aabout that. What else .... I am officially 21! Its so weird to think about it ..... I feel all of a sudden a LOT older. Im excited just by the prospect of being able to buy alcohol...like, feeling like having a beer and just buying one. I think I will 100 percent be carded .. ..since half of the world thinks Im 15 ... but I will totally have a legit ID and thatll make me feel damn good. ..... OH! this IS big news. My family bought .... drum roll please ... a DRYER! Its very exciting, as not many Germans have them. Its not a real dryer though .. its like compressed or something ...and you have to empty a container after each cycle to dump the water out ...my mom tried it out last night for a really long time ... and the clothes were still damp! So hopefully it will improve, but its still amazing. AND they bought one of those in home espresso machines ... with a milk forther. I asked about this shopping spree and he said they have a friend who works at a large department store so they got all of their things on sale AND with a 19 percent discount. Alright. It has suddenly become 9pm ...oh where did my evening go. I hope everyone is happy, warm, and feeling good. I miss you all!

Viele Liebe Grusse
Deb