Kate Pierce-McManamon

Kate writes: "As for me, my holiday season started in November and is just now coming to an end. In November, Tobias and I visited the US for two weeks (rather short, but Fulbright only allows you to travel outside of Germany for 2 weeks). Although packed with activities, the trip was well worth it ...Our return to Germany was promptly followed by more work and traveling around southern Germany to tie up loose ends of my project. Two days before Christmas, Tobias and I traveled to Dresden to visit his family and my host family from my 2000/01-exchange year. It was very nice to see all of them again and to experience the architectural (historic preservation) of numerous buildings.... There is some more exciting news. I have been accepted and approved by Fulbright to begin a MA/PhD program in Cultural Heritage. The program itself is supported by UNESCO, and is a combination of history, law, management, preservation and environmental studies. I being in April and can't wait! The only catch is that the program only exists in Cottbus, about 2 hours from Berlin and an hour east of Dresden—so about 15 min from the Polish boarder. I'm looking forward to learning Polish (all of the signs are in two languages)-and extremely excited to start the program. It requires a 6-month exchange/ internship program in another country…one of which is to University of Virginia, which would mean that I would be a German exchange student to UVA!"