Polish borscht, Czech beer, Turkish coffee, and Swiss hot chocolate

As I sit on my great Aunt Lisie’s balcony in Zürich the chirping birds and delicately warm sunshine reassures me that spring is here to stay. After two weeks of traveling and unpacking and cleaning and packing again and traveling some more, I can pretty confidently say that my body is exhausted. My mind, however, is refreshed and inspired. I look forward to the moment when I can slowly process all of the pictures – from the sand-castle train station in Breslau to the vastness of the Prague castle to the majestic mosques in Istanbul. I want to filter through the random receipts now overflowing from my wallet, for better or for worse (it just may reveal the actual sum of the money I have spent already this month). Of course the ultimate goal is to do some writing: recording the places I’ve seen, the food that I have eaten, and the new things I noticed along the way. I love that traveling can also reinforce old connections, rather than focusing on making new ones in new places: it’s been three months since I saw Jess Weaver at New Years and much has happened to both of us since then, so catching up was a must. And now I am here in Zürich with similar goals. Lisie is never at a loss for words, whether in Swiss German, Schwäbish German, or “Hochdeutsch”, the only dialect I can fully understand. But she just likes to have someone around to listen.

On another note, I have no internet here in Zürich. Perhaps I could try to find an internet café, but the 10 franc price tag for 15 minutes of wi-fi sort of turns me off. So for the moment I am enjoying the sunshine and Lisie’s lovely company. We are leaving in a couple of minutes for a lunch in a small town not far away with her dear “Geliebter” Otti, hence mentioning the Swiss hot chocolate… I have many more warm and cold beverages alike to comment on soon ☺

Ein SONNIGES Berlin!

What?!? Can it be? Has the sun really come to tempt Berlin with hints of springtime? I’m not expecting that the clouds and misty rain cover will never return, but I am pretty damn excited that Berlin held onto legitimate sunshine for four days straight. Even my uncle Ronny from California would have liked the weather...

The incredible and well-traveled Eliza Wilson was already in my apartment when I arrived, bronzed and making tea. Luckily Kate was there to pick her up from the airport the day before. Anna and Diego were around too, although Anna has been working at least one shift at her restaurant/cafes per day. Eliza and I went out walking as soon as I got in to take advantage of the sunshine (how could we have known it would’ve stayed for three more days?) – we walked through the Viktoriapark and into Kreuzberg to the Turkish market, where we stopped for gozleme and coffee. We bought eggplants, some zukes, a kilo of strawberries and a few other ridiculously cheap pieces of produce. We essentially cooked dinner and passed out no later than 9 pm. Eliza, who was recovering from two weeks on Safari in Krüger National Park in South Africa, had as much sleeping to catch up on as a jet-lagged Melissa.

Anna waitressing at the Kant Cafe in Charlottenburg -->

The next few days happened incredibly quickly. We saw a few touristy sights but mostly went café-hopping and walking through the sunny streets. Robert joined us on Thursday afternoon so that he could see Eliza before she left (and I hadn’t seen him for a month!). I spent most of Friday editing my last paper (on Immigration politics, just ask if you want to hear more) and after I mailed it to my professor we celebrated with beer and hot chocolates. We topped the night off with another good meal and a round of “Europareise”, a really fun board game that I found at a thrift shop for 2 euro earlier in the week. On Saturday we spent the day in Prenzlauer Berg, where we saw Berlin UNION play against Jena. Perfect weather, fabulously routy fans, and even though Robert’s favorite team pretty much played like shit (they won on a penalty kick, I mean PLEASE!) I really had fun taking pictures and drinking glühwein from the stands. Cupcakes followed, as is customary on my trips to Prenzlauer Berg. Then we went to Judith’s house for dinner and met up with Diego at the restaurant where Anna was working for drinks until late.

<-- me at the Turkish market in Kreuzberg

Exhausted but somehow still energized, Eliza, Robert and I managed to pack everything in under an hour and get a couple of hours of sleep before Eliza’s taxi came to pick her up the next morning. And now she’s gone! Gone to spend a week in DC with her own family, and then to go back to Chicago for the spring quarter. Meanwhile Robert and I have also left Berlin behind us. We took a train to Brelsau mid-morning and six hours later were buying tram tickets to go to his apartment. Of course, no more sunshine. Frigid and foggy, but that’s just how it is around here. Robert is glad to be “home”.

F.C. Union, Eisen Union, Union Berlin!

A walk around east berlin (wish you were there, Erika):

More to come, but for now I’m planning on FULLY taking advantage of the following fact: I have no homework! I am on vacation! Robert has a few classes this week, during which I plan to do a liiiiiiittle bit of german-studying. But other than that there will be plenty of sleep and pierogi-eating (super tasty) and picture taking. And hopefully I’ll keep up with this blog a bit better in the weeks to come.

the most important trip: home

It would be fairly impossible to describe even a small percentage of my thoughts and experiences since the beginning of February. Now in late March I find myself back in Europe and finally on vacation. Let me repeat:

I.
Officially.
Survived.
My.
First.
Semester.
In.
Berlin.

Wie geil / how sweet!!

With a breath of fresh air, a little dose of freedom, and a calm feeling of accomplishment, I can barely contain my excitement at the destinations that lay ahead of me. 

In the next three weeks before my summer semester gets rolling (for better or for worse), I shall do the following: accompany Robert to Breslau, take him on a belated-birthday-celebration trip to Prague, return to Berlin for three days, fly from Berlin to Istanbul to stop in on the adventurous Jessica Weaver, leave from there to Zürich to check in on our great aunt Lisie Weihmayer, train through the Black Forest to my father’s birthtown of Saarbrücken to see family friends, and finally travel south a little bit to Karlsruhe, where Robert will join me to celebrate Easter with his mother, cousins and brothers. Some time after that I shall take a five-hour train ride back to the illustrious city of Berlin, and assuming I will not have fainted of exhaustion before I get there, I fully intend on attending the first sessions of my second-semester courses, whichever courses those end up being. At some point in between all of that I hope to brush up on some of the German that I’ve lost from all that English I’ve been speaking. Perhaps I shall get the chance to do a little spring cleaning in my apartment in Berlin; upon returning from Boston I realized with dismay that a thick coating of dust covered just about every surface in my room… And of course I gladly transition into vacation mode: camera always close at hand, journal in my mini-tourist backpack, a couple of guide books, a couple of READING-FOR-FUN books (who would have thought!), and many people to correspond with; it feels so wonderful to keep in touch.

(Beacon Hill, Boston)

Going home for a month was all about slowing life down long enough to appreciate the things that matter: courageously strong family, and ever-supporting friends. On a day-to-day basis that broke down to running errands with my mother, heating up macaroni and cheese and chilling in the living room with my father, calling my sister and talking for a long while after all the phone tag, and skyping with Robert from Poland. Sitting in the kitchen, enjoying some of the fancy new appliances, and going outside only to feed the birds once in a while… Somehow I managed to complete not one but two long research papers over the course of the month. I cannot say that I went about writing them with any sort of efficiency; my parents can attest to the fact that I am a supremely talented procrastinator. But when my Mom used her Harvard connections (via a medical library ID) to find me four good sources on Immigration in Germany I really could not hold it off any longer.

Erika came home for her spring break, and suddenly a quiet house had life in it again. Despite the fact that Erika came down with a furious cold, we went on a mini-roadtrip first to Brown to stay with Erika’s closest high school friend (incidentally she is named EriCa, as in Erika but with a C), and then I went on to Wesleyan to visit our dear cousin Frazer, who is already a sophomore (I cannot believe it) and who could not have found a better fit in a college. Erika unfortunately left early so that she could sleep, and I made it home safely in a snowstorm driving around 50 mph on the mass pike.

In comparison to Berlin, we had incredible amounts of sunshine. I had forgotten how beautiful the winters in New England are: a few days of whiteness but so much blue sky. Snow and variable weather sporadically messed with our travel plans though, and as my mother often says, our street has THE most snow in all of Boston. The following weekend my mother decided that the safest way to get Erika home would be to drive her to Montreal on Saturday afternoon rather than risk having her drive in a snowstorm that Monday. So we went, the three of us blasting Les Miserable from the tape deck (haven’t pulled out any tapes in a while). We arrived at around 9 pm, and after dropping Soleil and Erika off at Erika’s apartment, my mother and I were thrown into what turned out to be a Winter carnival, called the “White Nights Festival”. There were people all over old Montreal. The temperature could not have been over 10 degrees, and yet people came out for galleries, for restaurants, for street performances, for ice skating. We ate dinner at a French-Quebecois restaurant at around 10:30 , and then visited a few interesting galleries before going to bed. In the morning we went straight to La Gascogne for fabulously buttery croissants. We went from there to my grandmother’s nursing home, where we spent a few hours reading and walking around. Two family friends of ours, Donna and Peter who live just outside of Toronto, surprised us by coming to visit Bubby (my grandmother) just at the same time we did. We met their beautiful dog and heard some amazing stories about Peter’s swimming days. And then my mother and I simply drove back home. For a less-than-24-hour trip, we definitely packed a lot in.

(Peter, my mother, and Donna in Montreal)

Once my father finished his treatments at Mass General Hospital, he grew stronger and looked healthier each day. I was particularly glad that he was at home; not only did he gave me invaluable company while writing my papers, but I cannot quite describe just how comfortable it was to simply be at home and around him. My mother was also able to take time off, and we really enjoyed the time that we spent together. With all this hectic moving around in my life right now, from Berlin to Chicago to Boston and back again, those moments at home are just more special than any far away adventures. And I cannot stress that enough.

The following weekend Maya visited me from Hampshire College for an evening and we went to the lovely Joe’s Family Diner for Two the next morning for cranberry pancakes and omelets. Jan toured Boston for a few days after his ambitious field trip to Mount Washington. When Jan and his friend Tobi arrived with no cell phone at the Logan Airport and no where to store there luggage, they realized that getting around Boston is not as easy as getting around Berlin. Jan repeatedly swore about the lack of lockers at the airport and the incompatible cell phone companies. 

But we made a great day of touring out of those first frustrations with “American Culture”. I picked them up at the airport (additional complaint from Jan: you can’t see ANYTHING in Boston without a car) and we essentially ate our way through Boston one delicious treat at a time: burritos in Central Square, rich hot chocolate at Burdick’s in Harvard Square, Cannoli’s and gelato at Mike’s Pastry in the North End, ridiculous amounts of stir-fry at Fire & Ice. 

(Jan watching his food being fried before his eyes, Fire & Ice, Cambridge)

But the beautiful sunny (and warm!) spring day made walking around possible and allowed us to (mostly) digest it all. It was fabulous for me to have a day to speak German again, and to get my fill (literally) of Boston before heading off again to other cities. 

Janna and I topped off this Boston eating experience with a greasy and horrendously cheap breakfast at Waltham’s second finest diner, Wilson’s, a few days later.

Already it was time to leave. Part of me regrets having to work so much on my papers while at home, but working from the kitchen table with my dad around and playing nice music really did feel like a nice balance. All I can really say is that I started missing my family as soon as they dropped me off at the airport. I hope that they are doing well without me.

(Sammi, Robert, Josee, Sandra)

A Break from Berlin

Whereas January began slowly, February has kept me on the run from day one. I am somewhat astonished at all of the things that happened in these passed two weeks: 

a crash course in Berlin history with the illustrious EB, a "long night of the museums", a couple of cozy movie nights with the fabulous Kate, a wonderful goodbye dinner for Meryl, a jam-packed but incredible weekend with Dori and Milan, a perhaps a bit shaky on the vocab but nonetheless successful presentation on US Migration politics, a solid start on a paper about German philosophy, a week of relaxing and packing with Robert, a Schnitzel extravaganza with Nancy, Jan and Patrizia, a "Russendisco" party, a visit from Robert's father with lots of walking and DDR-stories, incredible amounts of food and long walks around Köpernick with Robert's grandparents, and finally, a lasagna feast (my second in two weeks) with Judith and her myriad of British guests. Wow. 

And now I am heading home to Boston for one month to be with my parents and Erika, who will be joining us from Montreal next weekend. It promises to be both busy and restful, sprinkled with road trips and hopefully a bit of working (I still have, sadly, two big papers to finish). I cannot wait to have my Mom waiting for me at the airport for a much overdue hug. 

I will post some pictures from February soon. In the meantime, I have a plane to catch at 7:30 tomorrow morning, a boyfriend to say goodbye to, and still some packing left to finish. Please direct all correspondences to my American cell phone, or my email, or, of course, this blog.

<-- Boston, view from above!

-13 wonderful (unfassbar) things from January-

Okay, fine. I confess. YES! I am procrastinating right now. But after an ENTIRE day of surviving the StaBi (again, public library), this time the one at Potsdamer Platz, I'd say I deserve a little ice cream and some down time. And not only that, but I used my wonderful new bike to get there. Jenni, your bike could not have fit me better. I love it, and although I am very sad that you are not in Berlin anymore, it's... well, it's amazing!

Here are thirteen pieces of my month that I want to share with you. In the spirit of German orderliness they are listed in order of how great they were and are in my mind. Enjoy partaking in my January, and, of course, my procrastination.

13) Campbell's soup.

Sold for the cheap price of 5 Euros on the gourmet floor of the KaDeWe. What a deal!

12) A Fortune.

On my way to the FU one day, a craving for greasy Chinese food prompted a spontaneous stop at the Asia Box. The food quality was, as expected, questionable. But it sufficed to suppress my craving for a good long while. The best part of my meal was the fortune cookie. The following is a rough English translation of my fortune:

"Your next Fortune-cookie fortune will undoubtedly come true"

Ha! I have never heard a greater fortune, and a better marketing technique. Kudos Asia Box.

11) My favorite German names.

One would not expect for "German names" to be so different from "American names". It is apparently a bit looked down upon to use names like Jenny or Kevin for one's children, since those cannot even try to sound German. I have met a lot of Anna's, a Lisa, a Katherina, a Nora, a Robert, a Thomas, a Steffen, etc. in my time here; these are all names that we have at home, that are just pronounced differently in German. There are some names, however, that could never be said "in American", for fear of just sound incredibly, well...

(female)

Wiebke, Elke, Ulrike, Helga, Dagmar, Jutta, Gisela,

Geraldina, Cordula

(male)

Helmut, Dieter, Tilo, Klaus, Günther, Detlef, Egbert,

Karsten, Hannes, Bernhardt

10) DOGS.

I have come to hate them. Particularly when I mistakenly step on the little gifts they leave behind ALL over the sidewalk (thank goodness it is all frozen right now). Although there are many rules in German society, one entire demographic group that is completely free of restrictions: Berliner dogs. They can ride the busses, take up seats in the subway, sit cozily in cafes, and poop anywhere they please. Granted, dogs here are particularly well-trained. But still! Here are some signs that are completely ignored by dog owners:

9) Animalspeak!

More on animals, these are the sounds that animals make in Germany. I wish I could make one grand list of animal noises in all languages all over the world - how cool is it that groups of peoples simply interpret the animal sounds differently? It gives me faith in the pluralism of cultures, as opposed to the westernization of everything.

cow - Muh (english: same)
sheep - Mäh (english: same)
duck - Naknak (english: quack quack)
frog - Quakquak (english: ribbit)
dog - Wauwau (english: woof)
horse - Wiehern (english: Naaaaaay, i think)
rooster - Kikeriki (english: cockeldoodledoo)
hen - Pokpokpok (english: same)
turkey - Googlegoogle (english: gobble gobble)
bird - Piep piep (english: chirp chirp)
pig - Oink oink (english: same)

8) "American-styled" things:

I do not know what associates these places with the USA. Okay, well I can understand the pizza. American pizza probably means huge, thin crusted, and cheesy. But nails? I'll let you know the next time I get a manicure.

7) A poem that I discovered on the door of a women's bathroom at the FU.

The question posed was, "Wem gehört das Wissen?" meaning, to whom does knowledge belong? I found the response quite clever.

Wem Gehört das Wissen?
Sorry, diese Frage klingt beschissen,
doch ich will dich nicht dissen,
sollst' eine Antwort nicht missen:
'Dem, der es erlangt, gehört das Wissen,
Doch sind Freiheit und Gleichheit des Erwerbs wohl prämissen.
Zufrieden oder entsetzlich verschissen?'

6) More on toilets:

My own toilet has been flushing just about once every fifteen minutes, just for fun. I have gotten used to it, but while describing my bathroom to my mother I realized all over again that this is quite a special bathroom. A very efficient use of space, shall we say. The flush-happy toilet is located right in the middle of the very skinny bathroom, in front of the shower so that you have to walk around it to actually get to the shower. You open the lid 180 degrees before use, and then you pull a little chain to flush it. A photo, at just about its cleanest moment all winter:

5) Cool cars in my neighborhood, that must be still in use because they are not always in the same spot every day:

4) "Soziale Laden"

On my way home from the Humboldt one day, I happened upon the greatest thrift shop in my neighborhood, if not Berlin (or the world). It is essentially a place where people donate junk and then the money they make off of it goes to some form of charity. Here is what I purchased the two times that I have been there:

A turquoise belt

A purple and white tie (for Robert)
6 small white egg-holders for breakfasts
A gorgeous red and brown vase that matches my room
A bright yellow insulated lunch bag with lemons on it
A Berlin souvenir shot glass
And (best for last) a drinking game! Complete with four shot glasses and a spinner that might require you to do strange things like exchange your shirt with the person to your left.

All for the incredible price of 4 Euros.

I know, junk is probably not wise to collect, but the prices are irresistible.

3) "Grüssen"

Grüssen is one of my favorite German traditions. It isn't actually a tradition in the sense that it happens once a year. In fact, it comes up in just about every single conversation that I have here. In English the verb grüssen means "to greet". It is used in the sense of "say hello to (insert name here) for me!" And people use it all the time. Sometimes I hear people run into each other in the U-Bahn and they say "Ah, Frau Schmidt, ich grüsse dich!" When my room mate Anna said goodbye to me before leaving for Colombia (in December), she gave me a long list of people to greet for her, including my parents, my sister, and Robert. There's always someone to give greetings to, and sometimes the greetings can show various aspect of one's relationship to someone. For instance, at the end of a formal letter one writes "Mit freundlichen Grüssen", which is far less personal than "Mit herzlichen Grüssen". And guys say it just as often as girls do. Jan, Nancy's son, signs off his text messages with "Liebe Grüsse!" I just love it; it gives the impression of everybody being so connected to one another.

2) "keine Getränke, keine Speise. Alles verboten!"

I could not talk about January without complaining about the German libraries, just one more time. No drinks, no food... everything is forbidden! This is what a proud-looking security guard said to me today, as I tried to sneak a bottle of water into the reading rooms with me. Well, are there any water fountains on the other side, I asked. There's a cafeteria. You can go there, but you cannot bring your books with you and the only water is for purchase. Hmmm... my goodness. How obnoxious and marvelous all at the same time.

1) My absolute favorite wonderful thing from January is a quote from Erika, something she wrote to me in an email:

"if paper writing is too much for you, you should type your paper up in english and then copy and paste the document into the translator at dictionary.com and then go through
the text to fix the grammar. Maybe that might make things easier?"

Erika, I love it. Can't say that my professors would love it as much as I do though! Thanks for the suggestion :-)

Auf den Tisch klopfen...

A few more comments on "university-life" to add:

My favorite part of my classes comes right at the end. The question is this: how is one supposed to react at the end of a student presentation? Is it appropriate to clap, or is that a bit exaggerated for a boring ten-minute talk on Goethe’s biographical background? My experience is that Americans are particularly awkward in this area. For instance people will clap for the first presentation of a class but then forget for the next three, to the disappointment of the speakers. German (and apparently the Swiss and Austrians too) have found a great solution to this conundrum. After every presentation, or if someone makes a comment and people want to show their support, the students knock on the tables with their right hand. Knocking, for a few seconds, and then either the student takes his seat again or class ends. Sometimes people knock before class is over, particularly if the professor is going on a tangent and the students want him to quickly finish his thoughts.

Robert told me about his first day of classes in Poland. During the intro lecture at his Erasmus orientation, the Germans automatically knocked on their desks at the end; all of the other students (Brazilians, Americans, French, etc.) stood aghast and had no idea what initiated this sudden table-knocking. I’m curious how long it will take me to get out of this habit once I’m back in Chicago; either that or I will try to spread it around and see if the table-knocking-instead-of-awkward-applause-method will catch on. Clapping is out; knocking is in.

As an addendum to my last entry, it is a bit contradictory to complain about the full classes and then at the same time berate the German universities for not having enough places for all of the students who apply. As Robert has commented, not every high school graduate should go to university. Only those who are qualified should be able to study in medical school, in the same way that students cannot always get accepted to the university of their choice in the US. And good alternatives to university should be taken full advantage of. But it's still a strange concept for me as an american, especially since I think of university as a right rather than a privilege. I am not quite sure how the problem of huge classes can be resolved, other than giving universities more funding to hire more professors. That would also solve the never-getting-tenure problem, now that I think of it. But who has the money for that? No $150 billion obama-style stimulus plans for Germany...

Also, I have noticed that German students use two particular words in just about every sentence: "halt" and "quazi". I keep hearing these two words popping up more and more in class. They don't really mean anything; the best translation I can think of is "sort of". Es ist halt quazi eine Behauptung für... (It is, well, sort of an argument for...) I am hesitant to equate these two words to the way we use the word "like" in the US, since people can still sound smart when using them, and they are not substitutes for "said". They are technically called Particles, or at least that is the grammar-term used for them. The word "zwar" could be tagged on to the list too... (perhaps meaning "indeed"...?) That means that I have found the key to German fluency! It lies in the correct usage of three words that mean almost, sort of, indeed absolutely nothing. 

Also etwas IST mir halt eingefallen, und zwar, dass Deutsch quazi einfach ist!

BRESLAU: lantern lighting and more lasagna

Und wie war mein Wochenende 345 km und 6 Stunden mit dem Zug von Berlin entfernt?

Schön war's.

Breslau is a big city with a small town feel, which is something that Berlin, for better or for worse, just cannot offer. Going to Breslau for the weekend is a real escape from worries and responsibilities. Of course it helps that I have someone waiting for me at the train station (called Wroclaw Glowny) smiling and with open arms. I left Berlin on Saturday morning, and arrived in Breslau six hours later. Robert and I have repeatedly noticed that as soon as we cross the border back into Poland, the clouds clear and the weather warms up. This weekend was no exception: we had SPRING-like weather in Breslau, 6-degrees celsius and sunny. People don't usually think of Poland as the land of sunshine; if I didn't hear from Robert about the snowstorms resulting in power outages and frozen rivers, I would have a very skewed impression of Polish weather. 

I was very excited to see Robert's new apartment and meet his polish roommates. We spent a bit of time walking around the "Altstadt", the old city, stopping shortly in the medieval part to watch the man lighting the gas lanterns that border the street. 

We did a few grocery-store runs to collect ingredients for our lasagna fest, planned for the next evening. Although everything is obviously in polish, the brand for the lasagna noodles was none other than... GUESS! Of all names, Polish and Italian, the lasagna noodles were from some company named Melissa. A good sign. 

On Sunday we studied (Robert had to answer questions IN POLISH in a final exam yesterday), enjoyed the sunshine a bit, and baked two fabulously cheesy lasagnas for Kasia, Robert's polish-language partner, his roommates Damian, Mischek, and Magda, and the two of us. Vodka and ice cream to go with it. "Lecker schmecker", as they say in German. 

(Kasia and I after lasagna)    

Robert has many more details on his incredibly funny blog (robertinpolen.blogspot.com) for those who can read German. He continues to be astounded by how lucky he was in getting a room in that apartment, as his roommates are pretty awesome people. He is totally shocked by the fact that Damian cleans his dishes in the same day that he ate off of them, and more than that, yesterday he offered to wash everybody's jeans since he had some extra space in the washing machine! Oh the things that one appreciates after living in a dorm...

(Robert drinking tea in his new room)

In the meantime, I am back in Berlin, cozy in my bed on a Wednesday afternoon. I had a wonderful dinner with Jan and Nancy on Monday night. After a long day of classes yesterday (we discussed Hegel for THREE HOURS in my intellectual history class, enough to give anyone a headache), there was small cause for celebration. Diego, my roommate Anna's boyfriend, is finally back in Berlin after seeing just about the entirety of South America in five months. He brought us some Venezuelan cachapas (I think that's what they're called, sort of sweet cornmeal pancakes that are fried and delicious) and was consistently switching from German back into Spanish without even noticing. It's great to have him back. 

These next few days I am going to face the StaBi again, and perhaps finally get permission to take out books: my passport was not enough the last time I went, since it turns out that you need to bring the sheet proving that you're registered with the police at your address and only THEN are you eligible to take books out... they really could have told me that before I made a trip specially to bring them my passport... But I am really really really going to make progress now, since there is far too much going on in Berlin to be stuck in the library in the next couple of weeks. EB is coming on Friday! I already have a few museum stops planned and restaurants picked out. And next week a big film festival, called the Berlinale, will be starting downtown. Much to do, much to read, so I am sending out a big hello to those back home who have not heard from me in a while. I'm sorry that I haven't written and I will answer emails soon!