Mar 4, 2011

How to title this, first week..

Ok, excuse my english.

Tomorrow I would have been here for one week, yet it feels like years. Just to be annoying I will do this day-by-day. Maybe so I have this as a meomory (see I can´t make sence no longer) Or maybe for my mother...

Saturday New Zealand arrives in Germany, tired and excited after our bad flight with lufthanse. We wait in the airport for ages as AFS volenteers and exchange students for other countries leak in. I send the first hours charging my phone in the toilet ahaha. It was interesting where and why people came. Lots of maya´s and south americans, a few australians and other asian groups- it was nice and fun- one made aquantences and played games like twister and limbo (... ahahah) And then my group, the last group, who were going south-west left.

We had to quicky jump on this train under the airport and with me were Janina (our volenteer, my liasion person. A former exchange student in panema) this argintinian girl (who was like god at limbo) this japanese boy, this boy from somewhere in south america, this cute little chinese girl and this lovely bolivian girl.

It was great, although I was the only one who spoke english as a first language/well and after like half an hour of travelling I was with all the south american and Janina- we always spoke in english. Stupid english being international, but lovely english for being international. 

With my first looks of germany I thought this, IT´S SO GERMAN! I can not convey how German Germany is. All the trees are skinny and look this perticular way, all the houses, well they don´t look the smae but have this romantic old charecter about this- it breath taking. Even now when I look out my window at home, simply looking at the hills it takes my breath away, but irralevent.

It was fun, the train ride. One of our trains was late- causing us to miss our next one so we spent some in this big beutiful town at the top of Baden- Wurtembug- starts with an M.? It was soooo Beautiful all the buildings were old and colourful and and yes. Will upload pictures.

On this next train, I talked to Janina in 80% German. It felt.. personal. I was shy to speak earlier to the volenteers as I and one other NZ girl were the only two (I think) out of all the excahnge students coming to Germany that spoke/understood German. Crafting sentances and stuff was.. well it´s like Janina is going to help me so I should, plus that is my purpose. So we had like three languages going on. Janina-other exchange students = Soth American. Janina - me = German. And me - other exchange students = english.

I was nervous to get off the train, which was the first time I have been nervous during this whole thing. But my family hugged me and took me how to a lovely dinner of spag-bol. First course salad.. apparently this is normal. It was late so my German was not good plus I was soo tired. I was not hungry but I ate anyway. I was proud of myself that I could still make my fmaily laugh despite that.

I went to sleep..


Sunday and woke at nine. For breakfast Germans, or maybe just my family.. anyway there was a basket with like four different types of break/rolls, home made jam, sausage things that one eats like salami and cheeses. So far we have had this evry morning, it´s pretty hard out.

The house is on the outskirt of town, it is a new comfortable house- still pretty German. Suurounding are rolling hills and pockets of forest. The tree are thin and dark. There is clumps of snow all over the place.

Whilst eating breakfast it starts to snow, and I feel like magic. It is so beautiful.

That day we went for a walk and to my host fathers, brother house to wish his misses a happy birthday.

That afternoon we had some form of family time, it was very nice but very different for me. (not that I don´t have fmaily time but it just was) we all sat at the table doing different things in silence but we were all together.. I was nice but strange so yeahh..

Monday My first day of school. This whole time I have been speaking all German, most of the time broken. And it is very cold so I have had to wear pants ( :( ) I feel like a fool spending so much on nice clothes when I am living in stupid Jeans. I sit by my host sister in school, and this boy named Nicholas. None makes eye contact with me, or bearly noticed me. It was strange. I kept thinking if I were in NZ people would be all over me for being something foreign. SO the German rummours are true. We have three double periods most days, a small break in the middle of these periods, and a bigger break ( maybe 15 minutes) in between. There are many couples in my school and they are all over eachother- it´s gross.

We went to Villingen to sort out some visa stuff which we didn´t but WOAH thats one beautiful stadt. I have no more words but the main streets are lovely.

Tuesday Did I mention I walk through the forest to get to school everyday!!! In english I said to my friends I am going to go talk to the enlish teacher, because I was bored. And wehn I stand up to do so they CRACCCCCCCCK UP laughing- in hysterics.  I look at them strangly and head to the teacher, and the whole class dramatically turns their heads to watch me, like a full on stare. I ignore this and ask the teacher why he is a teacher and he says I don´t know secpiosly.. I say.. well it´s the most significant questions of your life and he snaps out of his weird trace and says yesd i should kniw this and explains why. Only later do I find out it is really strange to actively talk to a teacher, like they are not too formal with teacher- children joke around with them and stuff but only when being taked to.

Mum will laugh, we start school and 7:30, yet I get up at 6.. so out of charecter. However I do to bed around 7 or 8. Talking and trying to think in German is wirklich tiring.

Tuesday we have school late so we have a lunch break and melanie goes to the town and eats a kebab so that what we did. A kebab for €3 it was a perfect size too.

People were nicer today.. I talked to them. People in my class stare and smile a little hahahahaa

I don´t have to go to french so I came home early and did spelling with my little brother Marcus. Remember whern your mother read out words from your spelling book and you wrote. Thats what we did ahahhahah.

Mitwoch Ahhh what a day. In short people started talking to me more. I somehow cntributed a smart idea in school. People say to me do you like it here? and Im like yeeeee its beautiful! I went for a stroll and saw this old man twice and I am forgetting how to communicate in english but it was funny.....

But more significantly we had an afs thingy at Janina´s. First this teacher at my school who scored me this choice family talked about all those things they talk about at afs orientations ahahahah love you afs! And I meet at these really cool people from belgium and turkey and brazil and former exchange students and we talked and played games like charades and this crazy card game and ate. CRAZY THING: the most common chips in dl is paprika flavoured or capsicum!!! They taste like bbq but its crazy we dont have them in NZ and they are so big here.

Yes it was really sweet and fun and evryone was so great.

Then i went to my first party here with hay and whatever else in the middle of no where, its silent and i am like WTF.... and them somewhere to the side is a door and boom! We are in a house..! it was crazy. But it was cool we were in the kitchen listening to fasnacht and techno musik and there were this brithday boy and his gf, melanie and her bf and these tow others I don´t know if they were together or not but yeah..

They asked all the questions about NZ i knew were coming at some time and I taught them a drinking game and we played drinking games and drank and talked and it was sweet. excpect they smoked the kitchen out and I smelt like smoke. This boy asked me about maori swear words and i told him pakeha and whakapapa. he said woooah! we have mother fuker but not whakapapa!!! and other funny things happened and were asked. It was fun

thursday aka fasnacht I am getting bored of typing so I am going to make this brief.

Went to school as normal but dressed as a cowgirl as this was my class theme, and then at like 2nd period tzhis crazy ugly witch things come and rark us all up by stealing our things and hugging us and etc it was crazy! every run/goes down stairs and techno or the school band plays and its one massive party, we danced we watched and i taked to girls in my class more.. it was great

then we went to melanies boyfriends house in a differetn town, furtwangen. He live in a 600 year old house! it was crazy cool! with the same people form the party we had many shots and sang fasnacht songs and headed to town where i went in my first pub and got chaatting to some people and then we left to the town sqaure and there was a parade and then this like big bomb fire where they burn a witch and these creepy witch things were jumping thru the fire there were fireworks. I was at the front and I held on to the broom of witch which held the croud back. so i took a like í am taking a picture of myself´picture with this witch. ts was funny. we went to all these clubs and pubs in this small town we were in after that and were home before 11 ahahah, calm down mum. In this one pub i was taking to this guy and when he found out i spoke not great german he started speaking to me in english and said ´you can tell me your life´ I was like, ok........ late.

Today I woke up in a 600 old house and went down stairs and spoke to jacobs( ya-cob mother) and when we had started breakfast mel and jacob came down. after that i looked at pictures form this wooden bible and we went to villingen and walked around. i love villingen. its perfect. i ate this huge ice cream thing and came home. I was going to go to a party with my bolivian friend but she is 18 and have no crefew by law where as I do so... I am here writing this freaking book. I am tired. I love Germany. I wish for spell check to be in english.....

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