Winter Break

Hi everyone,

For the past two weeks, I have been on my winter break.  I love the way the schools here divide up their breaks.  I feel like I just got back from Christmas break, and here I am with no school again.

Jesse and I didn't do anything spectacular over break.  Even so, I wanted to share with you what I have been up to lately.

Our break started with a quick trip to Berlin to hang out with our friends Sydney and Peter and watch the Super Bowl.  We started out at Belushi's, which was one of my regular haunts when I studied abroad in Berlin, but we ended up just going back to Sydney and Peter's apartment, since the bar was so crowded, and watching the game there.  Jesse and I were also able to grab some Mexican food at the Tex-Mex Cantina that weekend.  Ahhh, yes.

Then on Febaruary 4th it was my 25th birthday.  I realized that I celebrated my 20th birthday in Berlin and now I celebrated my 25th birthday in Germany, so I will have to be back for my 30th.

On my birthday we went to a friend's apartment in Pasewalk, a nearby town, where they had prepared a beautiful table for me with flowers, cake, champagne, and presents.  Eva, Julian, Maika, Andy, Jesse, and I also played some video games and ate a delicious dinner.  I also got to play with Eva and Julian's baby, Marta.  It doesn't get much better than that.  Eva even called a friend of hers who is a hairdresser and she came over and gave Jesse and I free haircuts!  It was a fabulous day.

A couple days later, we hopped on a train with Eva and Julian and took a day trip to Neubrandenburg.  I wanted to sign up for the library there, since they have an eLibrary, so I could check out books from a distance.  After finally located the library, we got that done.  We then went and ate burgers and did some shopping.  Jesse found a sweater and I found a couple cute shirts and a pair of jeans.  The jeans were a little long, so after we got back to Pasewalk, Eva took us to her mother's alterations shop, and she quickly hemmed my pants.

This week, Jesse and I took the bus to another nearby town, Brüssow, so I could get something taken care of at the bank there.  We also grabbed some lunch, and then we had some time to spare before catching the next bus, so we decided to walk around the lake.  It was such a nice day and it was a very nice walk.

Then, of course, we celebrated Valentine's Day by spending the entire day together.  We first went and got some lunch together at a restaurant in Löcknitz.  The restaurant was right on the lake, so we walked down to the lake before heading home.  On the way home, we stopped and got some little cakes at the grocery store bakery, as well as some flowers at a florist not too far from our apartment.  Back at our place, we played cribbage and then tried out a card game I had had for a while but never actually played before called Blitzen and Donner.  It turned out to be a lot of fun.  We ate our cakes while we played.  We then sat down and watched The Artist, which we both really liked.  All in all, it was a really lovely day.

So that was my winter break in a nutshell.  It's back to school on Monday, and then it's only five weeks until I get another break to go to the Berlin Seminar for Fulbright (not that I'm counting, but I am looking forward to seeing all my Fulbright buddies)!

Until later,
Amy