Oh Dear

I'm so very sorry that I've abandoned the readers of this blog for almost a month--if there are any of you left. This is because things have been busy and I've been enjoying some Brandenburg SUNSHINE whenever I can and some time with my favorite Fulbright group.

Here's a basic rundown of things in my life lately.

I turned in a lot of job applications, all over the US. It was kind of a challenging time and I really missed the ease of the theatre conference for finding jobs. So far I've had 2 interviews based on these job apps and I'm still in the running for at least 2 more, though I haven't heard from those groups in a while. I have interviewed with Portland Stage in Maine and with Walnut Street in Philadelphia. Overall, I think both interviews went well, though I have accepted the job at Portland. If the one at Trinity Repertory comes through, I may have to do some hard thinking about that choice though. Trinity is attached to Brown University which is a top choice for grad school at the moment.

So all in all, it looks like I'm probably moving to Portland, Maine next year. Stage management internship. It's very badly paid, and I will get to apply for food stamps (woo!), but at least Portland is a cool city and it's close to my brother and family.

Other good times occurred in the form of the Fulbright conference in Berlin. This is where all Fulbright grantees in Europe (but mostly Germany) come together and hang out in Berlin for 4 days under the auspices of going to a conference. And go we did. It was really great to see people from orientation again and see how things have been for them now that they've experienced life here as well. Great chance to catch up and hear stories. And I, by far, do not have the worst situation. Actually, at this point, I'm quite enjoying being here. I know, I know. You're shocked! What happened to the sad and depressed Katie of blog entries past? Well, the sun helps A LOT, and I guess I'm just comfortable here now and it took 5 months to be welcomed into that teacher community at school. Ooops. back to conference first.

So at the conference we were put up in the Park Inn Hotel on Alexanderplatz. A very nice hotel and my room had a great view over Berlin from the 37th floor!

Really, really nice. And free for me! We also got to do some other amazing things. We met the German Fulbright grantees who are going to the US next year to study, heard the German Secretary of Education talk, saw people's project updates, went to an AMAZING concert put on by the Fulbright music grantees, heard a speech by a German man who was an assistant to former German chancellor Willy Brandt and was a Fulbrighter to the US back in like 1953 and is somewhere around 85 years old, and heard an absolutely crazy "discussion" about how Germany has changed in the last 60 years and 20 years (2009 is the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany and the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall). The problem with that discussion was that it was about East/West relations and it was composed entirely of West Germans and 1 American. Kind of like having a discussion on racism and only having white men give their opinions. It was still very much an "us vs. them" opinion, which is kinda scary 20 years later. Also, though we never thought it would, it angered those of us who live in former East German states. It really still is like the 5 former East German states are the unwanted adoptees. And Anne and I felt a need to defend them.

Time here is wrapping up quickly. I have less than 3 months left in Brandenburg and it seems like they're passing so fleetly. On Wednesday our spring break/Easter break starts for 1.5 weeks and I'm headed to western Ireland with a quick trip to Northern Ireland. For you Centre folk, I'm visiting Tonya Watts for a few days , so it'll be nice to have that Centre connection back again. I also spend a lot of time outside here by the river. It's so nice that it finally stopped raining and warmed up! I'll be posting those pics soon on Facebook and Picasa along with Ireland pictures when I get back.

Hope all is well in whatever land you are reading this from.