Archive for January 4th, 2009

How are you? It’s been so long since I’ve gotten a chance to correspond with you and my apologies for that. I’m sure life has been quite busy on your end as well. I want to extend my thanks once again for the kindness and hospitality you so graciously offered me, your assistance and support along the trip was an amazing boon.

In regards to keeping up I wanted to share with you what’s going on since I’ve come back to the US and gotten back into the flow of school at ASU. The rest of my summer was wonderful, Calm and relaxing I spent my days with Mum and Dad recuperating and preparing for another wonderful year at ASU. As the summer began to come to a close the preparations for school and my move into a new apartment really brought my experiences over the summer and the impending work of another school year to bear.

I moved into my apartment and found that it had not been prepared for us. The baseboards were peeling from the walls, the vent grates had been not been cleaned and the dryer and washer both had problems which had not been addressed. In addition the house had not been thoroughly cleaned, we were not provided with a pool key nor was there a mail box key. To top it off the paint repairs they had carried out were shoddy at best. After two weeks of arguing and fighting with my broker and the resident handy man about getting the apartment to a livable state. I managed to get all my immediate complaints dealt with and the place has begun to look a bit more like a home instead of just some apartment. I settled in and have begun to make it my own. As I am sitting in a computer lab at school right now I’m afraid I can’t attach pictures however I’ll send some your way as soon as I’m able. I think with a little more decoration and a few more paintings here and there it will really come to life. The more work I’ve put into it the nicer it’s become. Right now it’s looking pretty darn good, it’s a wonderful little spot about a 1.2 miles off campus. Since its so close to ASU I can just hop on the bus and ride over so that’s pretty darn neat. At the end of the third week school started up.

My first day of school was spent (as usual) running around figuring out what books I need and where the closest bus stop was to my classrooms. I decided to take 17 credits this semester instead of the planned 20 because the course content is more difficult than I would have first expected. I am taking: Italian 101, SGS 394 Global Markets (econ), SGS 394 Research Methods (social sciences researching/ survey/ demographics) Hon 394 Life and the Universe with a Mr. Paul Davies, PLB 108, Concepts of Plant biology Lab science, and finally Dan 394 Latin Ballroom Swing III. These courses have proven to be quite time intensive, especially Italian and PLB 108. I love my Italian class and hope to soon converse with you both in Italian instead of English. I think that it would be both fun and education for me as well as continue a wonderful friendship. I’m not sure if you’ve left London yet and headed for Umbria but I’d love to hear about how the rest of your summer went and what has been happening in your lives.

I’ve been so engrossed in attempting to stay abreast of my school work that the social world has seemed to slip further and further away. I am still managing at least two nights out however, Fridays and Sundays I go out and dance from around 7:30-1:00am that is an amazing stress reliever. It really allows me to get my head in the right place for the upcoming week and relax enough to get everything done in the day.

I’ve now finished both my required papers for my Hon classes which I was taking while overseas and have officially closed that class, I’m rather sad about it. I miss being there already and wish I was back and had more time to explore the wonders of Europe. All in good time I suppose. If you haven’t heard Alex (my older brother) is over in Edinburgh now, he left last Tuesday and has been exploring Scotland all week. I believe he’s headed to Leeds at the moment I do hope you’ll get a chance to see him.

Looking forward to hearing from you,

David N. Berger

Thanksgiving 2008

After a relaxing drive north from Phoenix I settled in at home for Wednesday evening. Watched a movie with the folks, and fell asleep warm, safe, and excited for the next day. Thursday we headed to Sedona to spend Thanksgiving Day with our good friends the Levin’s. Our driving to Sedona to be with them has been a tradition for many years now. This year was wonderful. We enjoyed a magnificent dinner – perfect succulent turkey, Green Jello, amazing stuffing and cranberry sauce, and most importantly, great family. After dinner we walked down the street to our longtime friends the Huffman’s home.

They are a big family and we affectionately call them the huffmanys. We had our desert there and spent the evening catching up on events for the year. Since we moved away it’s been hard to keep up with our close friends, and now that I’m attending university in Tempe I get to see them even less. We made the most of our time together that evening and then piled into the car and drove home around 10.

The next morning (Friday) we had a huge thanksgiving dinner at our home in Prescott. My Aunt and Uncle came up, and a cheerful young Danish couple I’d met as well as our neighbors the Rosenbergers’. I taught a Dance class at ASU Friday and Saturday evenings for the University and met the Danish couple who were two of my students. They said they had never been to a thanksgiving dinner so I invited them to join our family.
Dinner at the house was amazing. Ham, Turkey, Salads, Pies, Green beans, anything you could imagine for Thanksgiving was on the table. We had good food, good times, and good company. Saturday my brother and I returned to Phoenix.