Dresden, home to an impressive Baroque- and Rococo-style historical city center and Germany's oldest Christmas market, was our destination on December 7! I headed south for two hours on a bus with some international students from my university and met up with another American participating in my program who lives in Dresden. She was nice enough to show us around the many sights her new city has to offer. Anyone who's read...

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Merry Christmas! Or Frohe Weinachten, as we say in Germany!  Hopefully you had an enjoyable holiday season. It's times like this during which I am exceptionally grateful that I am living with my great German hosts. Being a part of their family and participating in their traditions was a lot of fun! As I mentioned last time, Christmas Eve (also called Heilige Abend, or Holy Evening) is so important that it...

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Happy Christmas Eve! Actually, in Germany, Christmas Eve is considered part of Christmas. So it's already Christmas here, and Christmas lasts not one but two days! I can get on board with that.  I got up very early today to talk to my family back home, so before I join my host family here for festivities, I have some time to take a look back to December 6. On that day, my Kulturelle Orientierung in Berlin university...

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Happy Holidays! This festive time of year means, above all, one very important thing here in Germany. CHRISTMAS MARKETS! Germany's famous Weinachtsmärkte are a sight to behold, offering everything from traditional German food to warm wool caps to candle holders to wooden Christmas ornaments. The variety of goods available at every market is quite astounding. And there is a huge variety of the markets themselves as well - in Berlin...

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As you might have guessed from the radio silence on this blog, the last few weeks have been - you guessed it - super busy, once again!  A lot of my time has been dedicated to getting ready for Christmas. In one giant 5-hour shopping spree, I knocked out gift-buying for my entire 5-person host family. They have treated me super well, so I made sure to get them relevant and fun gifts. I know Christmas is more about giving...

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I'm back with more fascinating facts and photos from Prague, all gathered when we visited the weekend of November 16. As I already mentioned in my last post, we had a ton of fun and really enjoyed getting to know this fascinating city.  We're not the only ones who find Prague interesting - in 1992, the entire historical core of the city was added to the UNESCO World Cultural and Natural Heritage Register. The city is...

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The weekend of November 16 (yes, a whole month ago), some fellow Americans and I visited the Czech Republic and checked Prague off the bucket list!  It was a lot of fun and we learned quite a bit about the country and its culture. But first, a few updates. Life has been pretty normal, with university classes progressing as usual and the internship application process taking up a lot of my time. Since nothing too...

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Finally, the big climax - day three of the Lichtgrenze, when all the balloons were released into the sky! Day three was Sunday, November 9, which was 25 years to the day that the Peaceful Revolution took down the Berlin Wall, as I previously described here. The special day was marked in Berlin by releasing all of the thousands of balloons along the Lichtgrenze art project, followed by a big concert at the Brandenburg Gate.  The...

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It's already December, and holiday season is in full swing! That is particularly impossible to miss here in Germany given the innumerable outdoor Weinachtsmärkte (Christmas markets) across the country. I visited one, my first, just this past Sunday! It was huge, amazing, and also bitterly cold.  But, as is typical with me, I still have photos to post from a month ago. I am on day 2 of 3 of the Lichtgrenze (border of light) celebration,...

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