Hey. I don't know if anyone still reads this or not...

Anyways, I've been home for about 3 and a half months and things are going well. Got back into work and school nicely... I was lucky enough to have very little culture shock going to and from Germany.
I try to keep in touch with my host family... and practice my german... which is not so good anymore, and yes, I do miss being there.
At the same time it is really good to be home.

Last week I declared my major, Psychology - so now I have to stop taking slack semesters and get down to business.

hello all. made it through christmas. had thought i would oversleep and miss it... but as it turns out, i can't sleep in the mornings lately. have been up by 8:30 every day since i got home. i've also started working at the bank again. that is also going much smoother than i expected. the only thing that has been bothering me there is people who come in and say "are you new?"...no, today was my one year anniversary. i've also been getting back into babysitting and next week school starts again already.
i definately miss germany, especially... or mostly, my host family and renate at the center...but it is also really really good to be back home.

Hello Hello! Just wanted to let you all know that I am home safe. Flew from Berlin at 9:40 am German time today. Got to Minneapolis around 4:15 pm CST. While I did really like Germany, I'm very glad to be home! Merry Christmas Time!!! -Lisa

Went to back to Wittenberg to visit my host family, and it basically amazing. The contrast between Berlin and Wittenberg is amazing. It was nice to sleep in such a quiet place again!!!! My room in Berlin is really noisy... It was also so great to see my host family again. We ate their traditional christmas meals and played games and just took it easy. I also made christmas cookies with Birgit. They taste great, and yes, i got the recipe!

Hallo! Today I am in Wittenberg! It is SO GREAT! Very nice to come back to my guest family!!!!! Tomorrow we plan to bake, go to the Weihnachtsmarkt, und we will eat Weihnachtsessen. Even though it is a little early...... More later.
Auf Wiedersehen!!!! deine Lisa

Hey all! How's life at home? Berlin ist immer gut! (always good!) they said it would rain all week... but so far it has only rained at night. Hopefully it stays like that. We have a big day outside tomorrow in Potsdam, a "suburb" of Berlin. Today we had a lecture about the Confessing Church and then Dietrich Bonhoeffer. We went to his house. Pretty interesting stuff.
I've heard some of you have been asking Mom and Ang when I'm heading home... It's coming soon! December 19th already. September seems like a day ago and a year ago. Better get to the homework.
Much love - Lisa

HALLO! Happy December. Christmas is EVERYWHERE in Berlin! The Weihnachtsmarkts are open in every "Platz" and there are christmas lights all over the place. And christmas music... most of it in english :(... Everything but SNOW! The weather continues to be amazing here! Almost don't need a hat to go for a walk... but it is better with one!
We come home in a little more than 2 weeks. Until then we'll be reading one more book, and looking at museums together. We will also go to 2 operas and the Berlin philharmonic orchestra. Next weekend I'm going back to my host family in Wittenberg. I'm very excited about that!

Last night we went to a church to help distribute food. We thought we were going to a soup kitchen.. but it was more like a food shelf. The program gets food from local grocery stores at the end of the day, things like fruit, vegetables, and bread - that are still good but people in the stores won't buy, then they give it to people in need from the neighborhood. It was a very different, important experience.