Lieber Fruhling, kommt doch wieder...

"Dear Spring, please come back..." That is the song that we have been warming up with in chorus lately. Still, from today on out, the days are all longer than the nights, which is a clear improvement.

This weekend we were in Poland for the first meeting with the other chorus that we will be working with. It was pretty crazy. The hotel was an old castle that had been renovated, and was trying way too hard to squeeze as many "old" things together as possible, and ended up just looking way over done and fake. At first glance, you had the impression that it was very nice, and the longer you looked, the worse it got. There was no free space on any wall. There was always some picture, hung in a giant ornate frame, on really loud wallpaper. If possible, with a little figure in front of it on a shelf. But half the time the lightbulbs were exposed, or didn't work. Still, we got a lot of singing done, and that was good.

Tomorrow I go back to school, and I think I have a fair amount of work ahead. Everything is centering around the fact that the 13th graders have to take their Abitur exams in a few weeks, which will determine if they can study and in what. So it is a big deal.

It is still cold, but it hasn't snowed for a while, and the snow is melting away noticably faster this time around. The other morning I saw three deer outside of my window. One lady in the choir says they have been visiting her too, and eating all her grape vines, which has been bothering her. I wrote down some really winning quotes from class the other day, and I will try and find the time to write them down this week.

Hope everything is going well for you all, and that you find the time to write! I would love to hear from you.

Back at school

Well, after a lovely two week break, it is time to get back to work here in Storkow. The school trrip to Lübeck was very nice. Lübeck is a lovely old city, and even though there wasn't a lot of gelling within the group (as was hoped) I think everyone learned a fair amount, and had a good time. Even if all they remember is that Thomas Mann might have been gay, and that Günter Grass thinks that mushrooms are phallic.

Last week of course was when James was here to visit, and when I had my Fulbright conference in Berlin. Visiting with James was, of course, wonderful, and made me wish I could show you all Storkow and my friends here. The conference was alright. It was great to get to be in Berlin for four days and visit all the parts of town I know. But even though there were a lot of people at the conference, almost all of the talks I went to were pretty sparsely attended, which was disappointing. But it was good to get away for a week, and it was good to hear other people's horror stories and be reminded of just how good I have it here.

One aspect of the last week that I didn't find so charming, but my guest from balmy Atlanta did, was that it snowed. All week. We havn't had snow like that for like a month. I didn't think we were going to again. But we did. A lot of it. And it will stay... certainly all week. And I think we are supposed to be getting more. At least today the sun is shining a lot.

Oh! How could I forget? I got a very lovely valentine's day package from the church last week. It was so exciting to get snacks from home, and to know that I am in your thoughts. I am trying not to eat everything up all at once! Thanks for thinking of me, it really means a lot.

Now that I am back with fairly regular internet access, I will try and be better about staying in touch. Do write when you can, I miss hearing about all the stuff that is happening at home.