Ein paar Neuigkeiten auf Deutsch!

Bin schon wieder hier, dieses Mal auf deutsch! Habe gerade meine Homepage ein bisschen ge- updated! Die Infos zu meiner Reise nach Amerika findet ihr jetzt auf:
www.beepworld.de/members58/kathrynnj unter USA-Countdown oder im Menü unter USA Februar/März 2005. Dort werde ich auch mein Tagebuch führen, während ich dort bin - danach komme ich hierher zurück!
Würde mich über ein bisschen Feedback total freuen!
Liebe Grüße,
Kathrin

Lazy days...(21 days to go!)

Hey! Time for my Saturday night update that has kind of become a habit around here..:)
Let me start with last Sunday: As I had mentioned, Anja stopped by and we talked a little bit. I also spoke to Krissi on the phone, so it was like a small AuPair revival...Andy wanted me to watch "Indiane Jones" with him but I found it so boring that we didn´t finish watching it but went to bed early instead.
Monday would have been a perfect day to work for school...but the TV won the battle....so I spent the day doing absolutely nothing! I stayed at Andy´s, Basti came home from work early so we had some tea and watched TV at night.
Tuesday I went to work, as usual. They have so much to do right now, they could really use me fultime!:) I burned CD´s (finally I learned how to do that!) and copied tons of skripts for Mr. Rannacher. After that was school where I met Mia who gave me a ride home as I skipped the last class.
I didn´t do anything special at night, just watched some Friends and went to bed early.
Wednesday I went to school, we had a very interesting class where we learned about the new school curricula here in Berlin. I met with Jule and the baby at the Italian place after. We had thought Ines, Frauke and Madeleine would show up there, too, which also had been the original idea of Jule coming there at all...but it turned out Ines had to work, Maddi overslept and didn´t feel well and Frauke hadn´t thought we would really meet. So Jule and I had lunch and went to her house pretty soon...we had cake and I played with Sophie while Jule did get some things done....after that I went to Petra´s for bible group. It was very nice, as usual. We are now planning a meeting with the men in ourlives! Paul, Thomas and Andy. Hopefully it´ll work out before I´ll leave for America. When I got back from Petra´s I had to prepare my presentation on the Nazi curriculum in the 30´s and so I was very busy till late.
I finished everything up Thursday morning, got my favorite magazine on the way to school and then went to the ZEDAT to print out my handout and my presentation. After that I headed to the library to copy everything for the class. Applications for the "German as the second language" programm can now be turned in, so I got the sheets to fill in and got everything ready so I can apply on Tuesday.
After the presentation that went very well I met Maddi and Frauke in the cafeteria...before that I spent one hour at the library getting started on the synopsis of my school internship which is due soon.
After the last class I went home where Andy made dinner. We had planned t go to the movies but it turned out to be too late anyway.
Friday was busy: I cleaned up at home, went to work for three hours and the had an iSt-AuPair-Interview with 3 applicants. When I got home I was exhausted, but finally we made it to the movies to see "Napola". I liked the movie! I spoke to Sarah on the phone, she asked me to bring some stuff for her from America....I also found out where I can buy the things Annelie asked me for...school stuff is still bothering me a lot. We´ll see how it´s going this week.
Today Andy and I went to the post office this morning and did nothing special...winter sports were on TV and finally my favorite soccer club won!:)
Hope you´re all well!
Love from me!
Kathrin

FRIENDS-addict (27 days to go!)

I´m sorry I haven´t been here to update this any earlier...Let me think about what´s new...
Well, my visit to America is drawing near..Pat and Dan got back from their vacation and now I can start figuring out about when I´ll be with them in Mt. Laurel and which days I´ll be with Merlina in Lancaster. I also went to an STA travel-agent to get an international student ID as I found out their are so many discounts in NY when you have that card. Additionally I got a small new book on NY which has all the sights and museums in it that I want to see. I emailed with Sophie who´s an AuPair in North Jersey and she wants to do museum hopping with me. I talked to Andy and we´ll now defintely drive to his parents on Thursday, February 17th and stay there for 2 days until Andy takes me to Frankfurt airport on the 19th. Two things are bothering me: 1. no money, 2. nothing done for school. Oh well, I guess this is nothing new. I´ll have to reconfirm my flight and get dollars from the bank, get presents for the kids and everyone, do some shopping for me, talk to my insurance company about coverage for America etc. We´ll see how this is all going.

Monday I just went to school to do research on my papers, copy stuff etc. It took forever, as always.
Tuesday I went to work in the morning and then to school for two classes. After that I met with Lisa. We have been friends for about a year and a half and then things kind of fell apart. We weren´t in touch for a long time but both felt things hadn´t really been solved between us. We talked some time and after picking up a book at the library I went home.
Wednesday I went to school and when I got home after that, the FRIENDS - 8th season- DVD-collection had arrived from amazon. Needless to say what I did that afternoon..:) I just loooove Friends! Friday I went to this bid department store KaDeWe here in Berlin to get the 7th season. I now know season 7 through 10. Andy says I´ll go crazy when I´m actually going to buy and watch the rest 6 seasons, but of course I will!:):) They are ust so expensive that it´ll have to wait some more time. I have watched all the episodes once or twice and I can easily watch them again before buying entirely new ones!:) I´ll have to start asking my friends about wether I´ve become a pain in the butt by always saying: " You know, on FRIENDS Monica said....."
After spending my afternoon with Jennifer Aniston I went to Petra´s. Lisett wasn´t there, so Petra had a two-person talk about so many things. It was very moving and an enriching evening. We were talking about being a light for others, about marriage and about attacks that keep you away from what you know is right. I stayed there until 10 and didn´t get home till eleven.
Thursday was school and our weekly gathering at the italian place.
Friday I went to work and discovered there´s a DM in Berlin now. For those of you who don´t know what that is: It´s a chain like CVS in America but the best drug store ever! They didn´t have any stores in Berlin so far but now they do and I´m thrilled!:) They´re really cheap and sell good stuff.
Yesterday Andy and I slept in and I basically stayed in bed until it was time to shower and take the car to Regine´s. We ate chocolate cake and watched a wonderful movie. Andy was at a birthday party so I slet alone last night and went to his house this morning.
We opened a joint account because we want to start saving money for things to come. An account with money we´ll be needing in the future. I have been talking about that for a long time, finally we did it! It´s a free accoount with internet banking and very good conditions. We´ll both give a certain amount of money to it each month to build up some money over the time. You never know!:)
Later we ´ll got to the movies or watch "indiana Jones" on TV. I´ve never seen it and Andy says that means I´ll have to tonight.
Next week I have to go through the application process for an additional programm I want to do at university starting next semester. It´s "German as a second language". I´m certainly hoping I´ll get accepted.
Also I have to give a presentation on Thursday and go to work two days.I´ll be busy!:)

I hope everyone is okay. Special greetings to the birthday people of the month:
Jenny, Sandra, Dan, Sabine and Karoline!:) Best wishes to all of you!

Weekend! (35 days remaining!)

Hey everyone! Hope you all have a nice weekend! I´m not doing anything special around here. Last week´s weather was so crazy...first we had about 15 degrees and now it´s freezing cold again.....
Had a nice week...Met with Jule, Ines, Regine, Maddi, Frauke..... we already know the waiters at the italian place near the school..his name is Cosimo and he started to give us discount and everything...we always have a lot of fun talking to him...)
School was better this week....After last week´s boredom I though I was going to die until 02/19, but this time it was a lot better. Five more weeks to go till AMERICA! I really should be working for school, but so far, I´m not..unfortunately...
I went to work yesterday, stopped at the Dussmann after to get some books and birthday cards
..then I went to Jule´s to play with the baby again.... Today I went to Julia & Julia´s to have breakfast which was a lot of fun. We discussed Jen& Brad´s breakup and the death of german fashion designer R. Moshammer....
Now I´m at Andy´s...
Tomorrow we´re planning on attending church and then I´ll meet Ines to go to her fitness club "Elixia" to check it out. I might join after I come back from America...it´s very expensive so I still have to think about it some more.
Martin (my stepfather) had surgery this week. He had his "Gallenblase" to be removed. Thankfully he´s doing fine now.
Special greetings go to SARAH today who´s HOPEFULLY busy writing her thesis!:) Good luck, sweetie, I´m thinking of you and I hope you´ll come to Berlin SOON!:)
So much for today..
Love,
berlin girl

First week back in school (43 days remaining)

Couldn´t write for a couple of days as the computer I was using at school wouldn´t let me sign on! Hope everybody had a good start into the new year.
First week of school is over - nothing special happened. I wasn´t very lucky with my choice of classes this semester so I´m pretty bored.
Of course I was nice to see Ines, Frauke, Maddi and Jule again. Spent Tuesday´s and Wednesday´s lunch break at the italian place near university...the waiter already knows us and we´re always having a lot of fun when we´re there.
Went to Petra´s on Wednesday..Talked about Luke 22:32, which is the verse dedicated to 2005. I love it a lot.
Spent Thursday and today cleaning up my apartment. Bathroom is still dirty. With all the stuff I took back from my Mom´s it took me forever. Also, I rearranged the furniture....I just need that from time to time.
Went to see Jule this afternoon. She was pretty sick and still suffers from excema all over her body. Hope it´ll get better soon. Baby Sophie is fine! She´s getting so old already and she´s just the cutest baby ever....I have to watch my glasses now as she´s trying to steal it from my nose when I´m holding her....had so much fun!
now I´m at Andy´s. Had a stupid argument earlier. Sometimes we just can´t communicate.
Nothing on TV, so I´ll go and read now, I guess!
Annelie sent me the cutest picture of the Carnation-Sprague-Renz children of the extended family. I just LOVED it. Hopefully Andy will make it smaller so I can have it developped and framed.
I almost forgot: Picked up passport at town hall! I´m all set for America! Can´t wait!
Bye for now!

Happy new Year!

Hey everyone! Greetings still from Waldshut....Hope everyone had a nice New Year´s Eve yesterday! Mine was a blast!:)
I made a potato quiche in the morning, prepared dressing for the salad, threw my stuff together and took my Mom´s car to Merlina´s. We picked up her American friends Christina and Jack from the station in Dogern, set up the buffet and around 8 pm everyone else came.
There were 10 of us: Merlina, Lisa, Sonja, Sarah-Mee, Sandra, Riki, Christina, Jack, Barbara and me. We had corn salad, lettuce, quiche, sandwiches, dessert and lots of things to drink. We spend the night playing Taboo, dancing, giggling and talking. I was feeling very good. I don´t know why, but usually I had so many different feelings going on in myself and everything felt so weird I couldn´t really enjoy myself..this time it was nice. Merlina and I had a lot of fun before the others arrived - now I feel sad about leaving tomorrow and I can´t wait to see her again in March. We went to bed around 3 and slept till 9. We cleaned a little and just ate leftovers....Now I´m home and I´m starting to get tired again...I´ll probably watch "Sister Act 2" later....:)
I couldn´t report on a regular basis as the internet was down again - nobody really knows how this stuff works.
Anyway, I had a fun time at my Dad´s house doing nothing but watching TV, talking and eating. The day after I got back I went to a cocktail bar with Sandra, Merlina and Riki. I drove there so I only had non-alcoholic cocktails which I loved - especially the "Evergreen".
On the 30th I spent the day at home and we went out for dinner to a traditional restaurant in Merlina´s village.
Sarah, Jule and Petra called me which was very nice. Somehow I miss Berlin - Andy of course - on the other hand I´d love to stay longer. I might come here for a couple of days in March after coming back from the States.
Yep....and today´s today.....
Plans for the new year are:
- more sports - feel better with my body (swimming, running...whatever..)
- continue Swedish class
- find a choir
- go to church
- be more open
- be more relaxed
- do all the "Scheine" I need to complete university
- have a great time in the US!

I love you!