Awww... inn't she cute?

Steffi was my youngest friend this past year, although we never really noticed, because she blended so well into our motley crew. Just out of high school (which lasts a year longer than ours), Steffi had just turned 20 when I met her last fall. She had a volunteer position this year at the Akademie (and thus also in the building in which I work). Steffi always had a ready smile and made the most of every cultural publication that Wittenberg had to offer, dragging us (sometimes kicking and screaming) to various film presentations and cultural fairs, some of which turned out to be pretty cool.
Here is Steffi, dressed to the nines for Luther's wedding, the little wench. :-)

Between the three of us, Heather, Steffi and I had the perfect kitchen: I had the microwave, rice cooker and decent pans, Heather had an oven, and Steffi had a pizza maker. So we spent an enjoyable evening cooking and stuffing ourselves with homemade pizza at Steffi's apartment at the campground across the river.

One of my favorite weekend excursions was in March, when Helge, Steffi and I drove up to the Baltic Sea for a filmmaking workshop. We spent the entire weekend (sans sleep, for the most part) creating a storyboard, filming and editing our little 6-minute wonder, taking the time to enjoy the beach air on the side. It was quite the marvelous weekend.

Now Steffi and her smile are moving on, to the University of Koblenz, where she plans to study European Community Education Studies (whatever that is) and where I plan to visit her sometime. :-) Steffilein, I'm gonna miss you. Alles Gute!