Last day of German school!

Today was mine and Murray's last day of school here in Germany. Mixed feelings about leaving and not knowing when I will be back in Germany. Sad to have to say goodbye. One the other hand, I will be happy to see and hang out with friends again. I am also looking forward to not doing too much. I haven't really had a stay at home holiday in what will be almost a year. Winter 2015 I had Arnhem Land and work experience, Spring holiday was the Austro-Swiss-Germanic tour and then this summer has been my exchange in Germany. The last just stay at home and not do anything was last Easter holidays! I have been busy. School wise, today was a very easy day. The trains were late which meant we missed our bus to get to school so we had to wait at the station. Wasn't too bad because we were in a heated waiting room. Once we got to school late, we just had the last half of Religion where we didn't do much. After recess was the school sammlung which is their equivalent of a formal assembly. Some awards were given out and there was a video about the year 10s sailing in Amsterdam and a powerpoint Laura made about Australia. After that Muzz and I had a free because it ran into French/Latin. After that the Germans had a chemistry exam. When they were finished we talked to the Germans and said our goodbyes to them. It was a bit sad.  Only one more full day in Germany.

Snow tobogganing

Today school was much shorter than a normal Thursday. We had double German and chemistry which was normal, but rather than having and extra long break with lunch and a free before lunch, we had double music earlier. We had it straight after chemistry where we watched a film about Mozart. We didn't have GK which is why we had music earlier so we didn't have to wait around at school for 3 hours doing nothing. We then caught the bus and train home. When Julian got home later, he and I walked to a big hill outside of Bodelshausen where we went tobogganing with two of Julian's friends. It was great fun! The slope down the hill was over probably about 100 metres long and we reached speeds which were quite fast. We raced down, and at the end you got to use the best bob for your ranking. As in if you came first you got the best bob. It was all good, except when we got back to the house Julian caught a fever.

Boring Subject Selection

Today was our last Wednesday in Germany! That meant we had our last math, physics and English lesson in Germany. For the first physics period we went down to the break room while the Germans had a test. English and maths were just standard lessons. After school was over, Karin came with Laura to pick Julian and I up from school. We went to McDonalds for lunch as there wasn't enough time to go home. After lunch Karin dropped Laura and I back to school for Laura to have a subject information selection meeting thing. Basically a teacher from each subject got up and advertised what they did in their subject for Year 11 and 12, for 1.5 hours. Karin and Julian drove straight to Julian's guitar lesson. During the meeting I got the hiccups really bad. So much so that my body was twitching whenever I did. I didn't have my water bottle on me, but Julia pointed out that I could go and get a cup of water. When it was over, Karin picked Laura and I up and took us home.

MUM miscommunication

Today began with a free period. The Germans had a music test so Murray and I went to the break room. When they were finished we went back up for the second period where we just sang some songs. It was funny because all of Laura's friends were surprised  and happy to see her after not being at school for the last few days. What was funny was I was almost as surprised as them because Laura was still in bed when I walked to the bus stop. She went home again after the music test was finished. After recess was GK and double German. In German we did some drama kind of activities which reminded me of some of the games we played at Boys Brigade. One person was in the middle and pointed at a person and said something from a few options. Then that person was have to act the word along with the two people next to them. An example was for Hawaii the middle person was a palm tree and the two people next to them did hula dancing. When we finished that we had to act out a small conversation in Kabale und Liebe, the German text. We didn't have KL today because there were no announcements to make.

After lunch we would normally have triple MUM, but Murray and I went to where we normally have it and no one was there. They could have been in any room in the school. We waited a bit and no one came. I looked on the board for what teachers have what class in what room and it said that our class should have been in that room. We ended up going back to the break room. Later someone in our MUM class and another person came down. Murray asked if we had the class and Sebastian (the kid in our MUM class) told us that we had moved to a different room where all of year 10 were. We went up to the room at the end of the 5 minute break and the teachers were all cool that we didn't know where they were. The MUM groups were just giving presentations about a film that we watched in our first week.

Last sport lesson ever!

Today was mine and Murray's last sports lesson ever. Most Australians already had it, bug we had ours today. This is beacuse we don't do sport or pe in year 11 and 12. It was very anti-climatic. The boys were being graded for soccer so we sat out a bit because neither of us wanted not needed to do it. We also had math, physics and a free. Everyone in year 10 had a dance course after school, meaning Murray and I would have to catch the bus and train alone. Karin picked us up from school at 3:30 along with Julian and one of his friends. This meant that Murray and I didn't have English at the end of the day. We dropped Julian and his friend home, then continued on to drop off Murray. After dropping Murray off, Karin and I went to the shops to buy some stuff. I bought almost 3kg worth of sweet things. About 750g of Haribo gummy things, 1.5 kg of Ritter Sport chocolate and 500g of Milka chocolate. All that for only 20 Euros. Laura stayed at home today again.

More snow!

Yesterday was a relatively quiet day. After breakfast Julian and I went back out into the snow and we did more bobsleighing and hide and seek in the snow. It was really fun. We played for about 2 hours.

Today was similar. Other than playing in the snow it was a pretty quiet day. Today we built a snowman with sticks for arms, rocks for buttons, bark chips for eyes and a carrot for a nose. Julian and I named him Günter. (Its a running joke we have). Laura is also still a bit sick. Today was also the last full Sunday in Germany! This time in 7 days I will be a plane back to Sydney, Australia!

SNOW!!!

This morning when I woke up there was snow outside! It is funny how we got snow in the first week and second last, but not over Christmas! Laura was still sick so didn't come to school. Being a Monday it was a short day. We had double Religion, but Murray and I went to the break room for the second period because they we all doing a group thing about stuff that Murray and I didn't understand. After recess we had a double free as well because the Germans had languages. After that was double chemistry. When we got home Julian and I played in the snow using toboggans and having a snow fight. It was pretty fun.

Ultra short day!

Today was an ultra short day. It was only five periods long. Laura didn't come to school because she was sick. I also thought that Murray and Leon were away because they were not at the train station. Just turned out that they were driven. We had double music where we just finished watching Walk the Line. It finished before recess so recess was extra long. After recess was double chemistry then a single GK. And that was thd day. Because the day finished early there was a different bus. Instead of a bus, train then bus, it was just a direct bus straight to Bodelshausen. I was home and had lunch before 1pm. It was pretty good because you didn't have to wait around for trains and buses to come. Only thing is you know you are tall when your knees hit the seat in front of you. :/

So much English!

Today Murray and I were a bit surprised when we didn't go to physics. We were waiting outside the physics room and I saw that Leon had his school photos from WAC. Then Frau Watts, our English teacher took Murray, Laura, Leon, Vicki, Julia and I to her year 9 class. (The other year 9 class) The Germans gave a presentation to them about their experiences on the exchange showing photos etc. Murray and I just watched from the back. When the presentation was over Frau Watts got the class to ask the Germans about their exchange experiences and us our exchange experiences and a bit about Australia. We finished a bit before recess but we didn't go back to physics because the teacher was away so we just had a long recess. After recess was double math and then double English. In double English we all had a test where we had to summarise a text. Murray and I being native speakers of the language finished early so we went down to the break room. Being a Wednesday it was short and we went home when the Germans were finished.

Movies and Behind the scenes

In German today we watched Kabale und Liebe which is a film adaptation of some German love story literature. Its all a sappy story of a guy and a girl who fall in love but can't be together because of their parents and then in the end they both poison themselves and die. Sound like any English literature that you know?  It was the biggest rip off of Romeo and Juliet ever. It was alright. As good as a rip off of the worst genre can be. We also had GK, music and MUM.

Later in the evening we watched some of Laura's Hobbit Super Special Extended Edition which she bought with some of her Christmas money. We watched some of the behind the scenes of the first Hobbit such as how they used green screens to make Gandalf 25% bigger and how they animated Gollum etc. But it was all in English! They didn't bother dubbing it into German. It was very interesting to see how it was all made.

Back to School

Today was the first day back to school after 3 weeks holiday. It was a bit of a shock to have to get up so much earlier at 6:00. Both Murray and I almost fell asleep in math because it was both boring and we were tired. It is interesting that their school terms don't begin and end after the holidays. Our second week we had a term change where we swapped bio for chem and geo and history for music. But today went we went back we just continued with what we were doing before holidays. It was like it was just a really long weekend. We had double math, double sport where we played badminton, single free from languages, double physics and single English. For dinner we had pancakes :)

Fasnet Parade

Yesterday was just another quiet day. Stayed at home not doing much.

Today Laura, Karin and I walked to Bechtoldsweiler, the next town over, with some of the Klett family friends, to a Fasnet parade. Thomas and Julian were at soccer. It is a 2.5km walk in either direction. Fasnet is the Carnival of south west Germany. It is a celebration during winter as a festival to scare away winter and to bring on spring. It was originally something for people to do during the cold winter months, but today is just an annual festival. They parade from town to town. I am pretty sure they were walking from Hechingen to Tübingen. I am not 100% about it so ask Mum for more infomation.

The green and purple makes me think of The Joker. Plus they had very pale white makeup on.

Tomorrow is back to school!

Another quiet day

Today we stayed at home. I slept in till 9:30. After breakfast Julian and I played some Mario Maker and Minecraft. Later on we watched a film and played some more Minecraft. Just another quiet day at home. Have to go to school on Monday!

A Trip to Reutlingen

Yesterday and the day before we just stayed at home being tired from Berlin. Hence no blog post. (Plus the Klett internet was down!) Today we drove to Reutlingen, a city of similar size and is next to Tübingen. We did some shopping. I bought a couple of new 5 Euro T-shirts because I think mine are getting small. Laura and Julian bought some new pants and jackets as well. Julian also bought a new Wii U game, Super Mario Maker. It is like older Mario games where you get to play levels in a 2D plat-former, but you also get to make your own levels! (Hence the maker bit in the title) When we got home Julian and I played it for a while.

BERLIN

BERLIN!!!!! 

2/1/2016

Today we all woke up very early, 5 o'clock,  to catch our plane from Stuttgart airport to Berlin airport. It was about a 1 hour flight. Airport security was easy and all went well. Once we had arrived in Berlin we caught a bus to our hotel to drop off our bags so that we didn't have to carry them all over Berlin. Once the bags had been checked in with the hotel, we caught the subway to the Brandenburg Gate. There we saw the Brandenburg Gate, one of the gates to the city of Berlin in the 19th Century. It is also known for Hitler marching troops underneath the Gate. Right next to the Gate is also Hotel Adlon and the French, British and Russian embassies. Later we went to the Berliner Unterwelten (Berlin Underworld) which is one of the only remaining bunkers after WW2. No photos were allowed. After that we saw a bit of the Berlin Wall and went to a small museum about the wall and the split of Berlin and stories of people escaping the DDR.

3/1/2016

Boy was it cold! Today was -11*C but was windy as well, with a reported wind chill factor of -20*C! With the chill factor it was colder than both the freezer and Antarctica! My body was ok because I wore a singlet, shirt, 2 pullovers, a fleece and a snow jacket, but my face was freezing! I couldn't feel my nose. Surprisingly though, my legs and feet were ok with just jeans and shoes with some lining. Australia was 40 degrees warmer! Today we went back to the Brandenburg gate because it was earlier than yesterday so there were less people. We also walked over to the Reichstag (German parliament building) where we went up to the glass dome which looked out over the city of Berlin. We also had the handheld tour guide things and mine was in English so that I could understand everything. After the Reichstag we caught a bus around Berlin seeing parts of Berlin such as the Tiergarten (literally animal garden, largest parkland in Berlin), the President's house, the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, another big church and the giant TV tower. We were going to go up the tower but there was a two hour wait to buy the tickets and another two hour wait after you bought the tickets. We decided against it. Later when we walked passed again it had gone to 3 hours for both meaning a total of 6 hours. We did some souvenir shopping instead. Later we then went to Alexanderplatz where there is a world clock which has all the times of the world (except that eastern Australia was wrong because it doesn't account for day light savings!) We also went to the Berlin Hauptbahnhof (main station) where people from the 2013 German trip will remember. Especially Will, Murray, Ben and I when we dropped the bottle into the bin from the next level up. Then we went back to he hotel.

4/1/2016

Today was the last day in Berlin! It was still cold but no way as cold as yesterday, about -3*C. We left our bags at the hotel so that we can walk freely around Berlin without suitcases. We went to a bridge over the River Spree (main river in Berlin). We also went to Checkpoint Charlie, the main checkpoint between East Berlin and the old American sector of West Berlin. There was also information there about the checkpoint and other East Berlin information. Afterwards, we went back to the hotel to get our bags, and then headed for the airport. It got a bit stressful because one of the subways never came. So we had to run around to get a different train and bus. We made it to the airport on time anyway, and then caught our plane back to Stuttgart. We arrived 20 minutes before scheduled meaning the flight was only 50 minutes! We got back to Bodelshausen at 7pm.

Here are some of the best photos I took from the trip.

New Years Day

Today we all slept in very late. I woke up at 10am and Julian and Laura were even later. During the late morning early afternoon we didn't do too much. We had a few people over for afternoon tea. Other than afternoon tea it was a fairly quiet day. Late morning from NYE and an early night because we had to wake up early in the morning of the 2nd to get our flight to Berlin.

New Years Eve

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Yesterday was also a fairly quiet day during the day. We had meat fondue for dinner which sounds weird but is pretty cool. You get raw chicken, pork or beef, put it on skewers, then fry them in boiling oil in the middle of the table! Its pretty cool. After dinner at 11:30 we set off our own fireworks. In Germany fireworks aren't illegal for NYE so almost everyone in Bodelshausen were setting off fireworks! It started on and off at around 3pm yesterday, but at 11:30 to about 12:30 there was almost constant explosions of fireworks! The Klett house is on a bit of a hill and normally you can see most of the town, but you couldn't because of all the smoke! It was very loud and awesome! We had our own fireworks as well. For those of you who know Cracker Night in the Northern Territory, imagine that, but 50 times louder and more awesome! Don't get me wrong, Sydney fireworks are cool, but unless you are actually at the harbour, I think this is so much cooler! Rather than just watching and saying cool, you actually get to set off the fireworks yourself! In Australia you may get one or two people new you who bought fireworks from Canberra, but here? Everyone has them! It was interesting that Australia was in a completely different year for 10 hours! (Soz this doesn't sound gramatically correct. It's 2 am :)