howdy! this may be my last post, sorry this blog hasnt been as big fun as last year, less time for silly adventures, more hanging out with bullshitting polititians and dealing with the fact that it has rained EVERY DAY IVE BEEN HERE. it snowed in munich yesterday..... it is almost june, that is absurd.... the terrible weather aside, this has been an interesting journey, and i think i have a lot to process when i get home.

anyway, yesterday we went to the new synagogue, which has been partially restored and is an incredibly well done museum, we also went to the jewish museum, which has an amazing building, google it, it looks like a giant silver smashed jewish star, but the museum inside is really designed for non jews.

our day at the reichstag was a little dissappointing we spent time with some politicians who really focus on foreign policy, when what weve been focusing on is really learning about the domestic side of german life.

we have had some really good tour guides who have been great about spending time with us and being willing to give us a more inside and candide perspective on how it feels to be german and dealing with issues like this on a daily basis.

tomorrow we are supposed to take a bike tour of potsdam, but seeing as it hailed yesterday... ill let you know.

also big shout out to wei, im glad youre enjoying the blog, and to my MOMMY whos birthday is today, i hope you liked your present!!!

so, germany....
this is such an interesting trip, sorry for the lack of posting... weve been moving at a very teenage israel trip no free time kind of pace. were in berlin, our final leg of the trip. A couple of my friends and i spent some time today trying to figure out the messages they want us to take from this trip. what i am coming away with is that they really want us to have an accurate picture of what modern, post war, post gdr germany looks like, as well as what the current jewish community in germany looks like (85 percent russian immigrant), and look at some of the history both jewish and non of the country... if that is what they want, then they are suceeding. we were also discussing the hopes that we understand germans as people and not germany as a generalized country.

anyway, ideological issues aside, things weve done

bus tours of frankfurt and berlin
an extended guided tour of buchenwald concentration camp, really moving, amazing tour guide

i think one of the most striking things about this trip is that none, thats right none of our guides, hosts, etc has been jewish, but they are all working with jews or jewish history...

oooh friday night we went to services with a couple of jewish college students in berlin, they were really fantastic, just incredibly interesting and involved people.

today we met with a guy named jeffery peck who just wrote a book about the new jews in germany, which was a great discussion of the way that jews, foreiners, and germans all interact here.

today we had some free time and went to the largest remaining section of the wall, a large piece of it has artwork, it has been restored once in 2000, but there is still graffitti all over it, interesting to feel like people are protesting the memorial of such a big part of berlins historý.

ok im gonna wrap up to make sure this posts, but looking forward to the next few days... tomorrow we visit with members of all five of germanys political parties at the reichstag.

much love, see you soon!

so, germany....
this is such an interesting trip, sorry for the lack of posting... weve been moving at a very teenage israel trip no free time kind of pace. were in berlin, our final leg of the trip. A couple of my friends and i spent some time today trying to figure out the messages they want us to take from this trip. what i am coming away with is that they really want us to have an accurate picture of what modern, post war, post gdr germany looks like, as well as what the current jewish community in germany looks like (85 percent russian immigrant), and look at some of the history both jewish and non of the country... if that is what they want, then they are suceeding. we were also discussing the hopes that we understand germans as people and not germany as a generalized country.

anyway, ideological issues aside, things weve done

bus tours of frankfurt and berlin
an extended guided tour of buchenwald concentration camp, really moving, amazing tour guide

i think one of the most striking things about this trip is that none, thats right none of our guides, hosts, etc has been jewish, but they are all working with jews or jewish history...

oooh friday night we went to services with a couple of jewish college students in berlin, they were really fantastic, just incredibly interesting and involved people.

today we met with a guy named jeffery peck who just wrote a book about the new jews in germany, which was a great discussion of the way that jews, foreiners, and germans all interact here.

today we had some free time and went to the largest remaining section of the wall, a large piece of it has artwork, it has been restored once in 2000, but there is still graffitti all over it, interesting to feel like people are protesting the memorial of such a big part of berlins historý.

ok im gonna wrap up to make sure this posts, but looking forward to the next few days... tomorrow we visit with members of all five of germanys political parties at the reichstag.

much love, see you soon!

gosh free internet is fun... thought i would fill in some funny stories while im waiting for the girls to check out of our hotel.

1) we went to a karaoke night in prague... where we a) met a dude who was like 6 5 and named till, he introduced himself as till, like till tuesday without the tuesday... i giggled, b) sang robbie williams angels, with some dudes from montster.com europe despite not knowing the song, and c) sang sweet caroline in by far the worst rendition ever.

ok gotta run!

Allo from Deutscheland! I have just reread my previous posts and would like to note that i am sorrz about the terrible spelling... i was in a rush. In any event, Kutna Hora was an adventure to get to, we had to find this weird train station and bailey.s friend.... but BONES good times, 40,000 peoples bones decorating a church, it was really incredible. otherwise we had a good day getting lost in the town, then we met an obnoxious guy named greg from vancouver who kept trying to compare the therezin ghetto to pittsburgh.... pittsburgh has become our new cry of exasperation ;) Last night bailey, delayne and i went to traditional czech food... where i might have ended up with a plate of brisket like meat in a cream sauce with whipped cream and cranberries on top.....yum? finally found the fred and ginger building today about 20 minutes before we left prague, but i really needed to for the trip to feel complete. We got into frankfurt with little trouble, except that i started calling czech airlines sketch airlines because they were giving out really creepy sandwiches, the plane was falling apart and they were serving wine like they hoped you didnt remember the flight.... tomorrow we meet up with everyone should be fun!

Hi all!

We've been in Prague a couple of days now, the weather cleared up, although clouds still come and go quite often so its definately sweater weather. Today we're going out to a town called kunta hora, which has a church made out of bones! Yesterday we spent most of the day in the castle... which was awesome, i freakin love castles they are all different and fun! Bailey and I made the climb up the tower, and saw a great view of prague. We also took a tour from a really funny tour guide who knew a lot of big english words, but pronounced them TERRIBLY it was hilarious. We walked down through the lesser quarter, lots of pretty buildings and shops, then down over the St. Charles bridge, which was lovely.

Last night we met up with bailey's friends for services in the spanish synagogue and dinner. also, there was a woman visiting from boston who goes to marilyn and barry's synagoge! how funny is that!

the day before we went out to therezin ghetto, which was really weird and interesting, its a real town, except it used to be guarded, and 35,000 people died there.... just a strange experiance, but the museum parts were great.


anyway i have to go run to catch a bus.

love you all!

Hellooooo,
After much mess, we are in Prague. Yup, our first flight got cancelled, and after nearly 3 hours with our gate agent friend Bill, we got on a different flight that left at 7 am the next morning, flew us through chicago, then brussels, then prague. So here we are who knows how long later in a cafe in prague, super tired, but here! When we got here it was raining like crazy, but it seems to be clearing up now... we saw a bunch of the Jewish quarter today. There is an amazing synagogue where they wrote the names of 80,000 Jews who died in the shoah on the walls, then we went to the Jewish cematery where graves are piled upon graves, the combination was incredible... then we ran into bailey's old college roomate! in a synagogue! what are the chances. Anywho, we're exhausted, so i'm going to get going where food might be waiting... the apartment is not quite what we were hoping for, we're on the lookout for new haunts.. i'll keep you posted. Much love, deb

So... it's been just over a year and it's time for a mini-adventure. I'll be flying for 28 or so hours, ending up in Prague for just under a week then going for a crazy 12 day adventure in Germany learning about the german/jewish experiance. For those of you who were not in on my last adventure you can go back and explore: http://www.debbieineurope.blogspot.com I don't know what kind of access I'm going to have on this trip, but I'll do my best. Comments are welcome, accolaides are also enjoyed. Catch you on the flipside, I leave in 22 hours and I have not packed a thing.