Ok, Finally! here is the long awaited newsletter I've been promising for WEEKS! Soor it too soooo long! Luv ya, cheers.Hello Dear Family and Friends!
If you get this then I want you to know that this is the 7TH time I'm writing it, which is why I 'haven't written' in 5 weeks! I HOPE IT GETS THROUGH, COS my patience is wearing thin! Esp. about the week 8's news, cos that is now REALLY old!!!! hehe. Oh well, here it goes.... (and obviously cos there's so much to put in it's gonna be REALLY long.....forget what I said about the others, this one takes the cake!!!! Oh, and please excuse the grammar and spelling mistakes, I just wanna send it, so I'm not using Spell Check!!!!)
Woooo... Ok, on the 10th-12th March I went to a Rotary Exchange Orientation of sorts, it was more a get-together than an orientation. I had loads of fun and met some really great people. I caught the train around 11:45 and sat in my seat wondering where on the train the guys I was supposed to be meeting were. I had a sneaking suspicion that the guys I was looking for were the ones sitting at the front of the carage I was in, but I didn't feel like making myself look really stupid by asking. So I rather listened to their accents and by the time Ashley (one of the girls from Canada) got on the train, I was pretty certain. It did help that they called Ashley's name and so they confirmed what I thought, but that's another story. Anyway, I wasn't sure how many exchangers to expect on the train. There should have been at least 5, but Aaron (who's name was the only one I could really remember!) got onto the wrong train (ice-cream!). And so I met Mike and Odin (both Canadian), as well as finally meeting Ashley, who I had spoken to on the phone and through e-mail a couple of times. So then we chatted all the way to Titisee, which was a small problem, cos we we're SUPPOSED to chat all the way to TITISEE-NEUSTADT!!!! hehe. So anyway, we called the District Chairman who was supposed to meet us and he came to fetch us. In the interrim, Odin and Mike threw snow balls at a (wooden?) carving of a beaver. So then Herr Hoch arrived and we all squished into the car with all our luggage. I then met another exchanger, Carolyn (USA). We then embarked on the slow, snowy drive to the Hütte in the Schwarzwald (Black Forest) where we were gonna be staying. The place we stayed was more of a hostel than a 'hut' but it was cool non-the-less! I met most of the exchangers directly after arriving, Kari arrived later in the evening, followed shortly by an exhausted Aaron (who had needed to catch multiple trains to get to wher he needed to be! hehe) and then Mike arrived some time late on Saturday afternoon. We started taking photos, which came out really nice, for the most part, and now form a sturdy base to the album! hehe. There are only 3 'newies', so in this case, exchangers from the Southern Hemisphere. We ate supper (Abendessen)about an hour after we had arrived and then Zimbabwe (Nancy), Carolyn and I did the dishes. We had a long political discussion and then went down stairs to where everyone else was chatting and debating how bad the 'non-alcoholic beer' was. They opened one bottle and everyone took a sip so the guys could decide if it was worth thier time. Well, only 2 bottles were drunk in the whole weekend (As opposed to about 100 cokes), so it's obvious what the verdict was. Personally, I think it tasted like burned caramel mixed with Castle, ie, NOT GOOD!!! hehe. At about 12 people started drifting off to bed. The rest of us invaded Aaron, Odin, Mike and John's room and lay about on the spare beds. At about 1:30 I went to bed. The next morning we had to be up relatively early, so I took a shower to wake me up and then we all ate Breakfast (Frühstück). Then we chatted some more until Herr Hoch got us outside for a 'hike', turned out to be more like a 2 hour long snow ball fight (and photoshoot!)! hehe, loads of fun though. Ashley was the first one covered with snow, and the first one to eat it. We saw CAMELS!!!! so strange (sehr Komisch)! Anyway, when we got back we had lunch and then we talked some more (It is amazing how much english can be spoken in an hour by 17 exchange students who are speaking deprived/repressed because they can't use their native tongue!!! hehe). At about 3.30pm Frau Hoch made us do a German quiz, or rather a couple of quizzes. Then Kari tought us a really cool game that I'm definitely gonna re-use! Had lots of fun playing that! After a bit of a rest we played 'I have never...' a game the D.9300 Rotex tought us exchangers back in June/July at an orientation. We all had some fun times with that one, and we got to know each other better. When we had finished playing, Kari started doing 'excercises' with Ashley. Kari ended up with a huge door handle shaped bruise after Ashley tried to teach her some Tai-Bo. Then we played a game called Ouch (which I learnt at Youth Week, so Julz, you should know what I'm talking about...). We all stayed up as late as possible. The next day was more talking and photo taking. After lunch most of us packed ourselves into the two cars and were driven to the train station. Most of us were on the same train for at least the beginning of the journey, so there was loads of company. Took more photos. I got back to the Edelkott's at about 6pm, exhasted. After unpacking, we had dinner and I went to bed early. I had German school the next day.
This seems like a good time to state that the Week part of my weeks here tend to be rather boring cos of school, so if I don't mention anything special about the weekdays, it means they were ordinary, boring days at school.....
The next weekend I went to Austria with my Rotary club for a skiing weekend. I DID try skiing, and think I did pretty well, all things considered. I did come home very sore in my shoulders and I pulled a muscle just below my knee, which was very sore. It was quite cool to find a SPAR in Austria, until I was told that it was a Austrian company, which *almost* spoiled it. It was still cool to see a known brand though. Te Spars are VERY different from the ones back home. More like Kwik Spars than the 'real' thing. I drove down with one of the Rotarians and his wife on the Saturday morning, we arrived in Austria at about 11am and then where we were staying (Au) at about 12:30. After a lunch with amost of the other Rotarians, I had to 'Tandem-Ski' with Manfred (My R. Councillor), which was really weird and a bit scary. Anyway, so when we got to his car we drive to the easier of the 2 main slopes (That's right, they don't let me start on the bunny slope, they push my down the freaking mountian, first time, one shot! hehe, it was fun though!) and after getting strapped in, we went up the lift and down the mountain. Manne tought me how to do the whole side to side skiing thing, which much easier than I thought it would be. Strangely enough, it's easier for me to do the left turn than the right one. Odd.... Oh well, so after falling a bit on the first run, I dared to do a second. I got about an 1/8th down (which is much further than it sounds!) without falling. Then came a horrible hill, and I slid the whole way down on my tummy!!!! hehe, about 100m. Classic to watch but not so fun to experience!!!! I was supposed to go sleading (sp?) on Sunday afternoon, but my lifts wanted to get home in the light, so we left about lunch-time.
The following week was when I started speaking more German at school and at home, and realised my German is better than I thought, but I still make MANY mistakes. Oh well. My Deutsch Lehrer (German Teacher) complimented me on my German, which really made my day; a Wednesday, I think. hehe
Then on the following Saturday I went to my first (which is very sad cos my Bro plays the game a lot!) Soccor match (Fußball). Our team lost, even on home ground, which was very disappointing! Oh well, new experience, and lots of fun either way. It was soooo cold, so I got to wear the 'STUTTGART' scarf. hehe. It was pretty funny though at the end when the approx 150 Guest supporters went nuts and we could hear them, while the 30 odd thousand home supporters went home quietly. hehehehehe.
I think it was at the soccor game that I caught the cough/cold from hell and spent the next 2 weeks (symptoms started to ease about Tuesday(4th Apr) last week, and only really disappeared on Monday(10th)) coughing my insides out! My ribs and abs were soooooo sore, and I couldn't sleep for about 3 days cos the coughing got worse when I lay down! Grrrr.... I thought I had whooping cough, but fortunately not. YAY! Was gonna go to the doctor last friday (7th Apr), I set a 'get better' date on Monday 3rd, but I was feeling much better by then, and thought it would be a waste of time energy and money to go if I was feeling so much better)
Then on the following weekend I went to stay with a family in Munsigen, which is a 'nearby' ''town''. hehe. The mother (Gill) is a South African woman who married a German man (Martin), and so we had some interesting cnversations. They have three wonderful daughters: Marie, who's about 11, Helen who's 9 and Carolyn, who I think is 6. Never a dull moment in the Brändle household, and I like that! hehe. On Friday nght I went with some of the local teens to a Volleyball evening/club thingy and thoroughly enjoyed it! Then on Saturday morning we went swimming (Caro had a lesson) and then we spent the rest of the day in Reutlingen (Roytlingen) shopping! Bought some new Trackpants (Sporthose, for school PE) and a music box. In the evening I went to a Hütte (a cabin/wendy house/lodge, depending on the size. In this case, more like a heated wendy house!) in a dorf nearby Münsingen with the same teens I went playing volleyball with. Thoroughly enjoyed my self and they're gonna send me a t-shirt with the Hütte logo (long story!) on it. They want me to bring it home and then send them a pic with me wearing it somewhere 'African'. hehe. So then on Sunday we lazed about until around 5 when Gill drove me back to the Edelkotts. Was told what Edelkott means if you separate it into 2 words and remove the second 't'. Explains why the family is so keen to keep the second t! It's not very polite. Something a lower class Brit might say if something didn't go his way....hehehehehehe
I phoned home last Friday, and enjoyed a nice long conversation with an 'assortment' of Dorrigtons and Becks! The Beck family is in SA visiting thier daughter Kir(stine), who stayed with us for three months between Dec and March, I think. Either way, it was wonderful to talk to them, despite the rather bad line, and I got to have good conversation with Mom and Kir, who I miss lots cos she became kinda like a sister while we were both living a number 12! hehe. My Councillor also came to see me just before we all spoke, and he's very impressed with my Deutsch, so *whoop* and Yay! hehe
Then last weekend I went with Gertrude to Ulm to get some books from the library. On Saturday I spent a really nice day with Ross (the exchanger from NZ) in Ulm. WE CLIMBED THE MÜNSTER!!!! Oh my word, SOOOOOO scary! It was so high, and so windy, and so high, and so windy, and so high.....! hehe. The top piece wasn't supposed to be open, but it was, so I climbed to the top of it. There are soooooo many stairs! There are 3 levels, and for the first 2 levels, the stairs are about 70cm long (of which you can only use 40 cm for your feet) and about 30 cm wide. The last part has VERY narrow stairs, about 60 cm long and 30 cm for your feet, and because they're made of a different kind of stone, they're worn away into 'bowls' where your feet go, which makes a HUGE difference!!! The other thing is that there are 2 routes to get to the 1st and 2nd levels, there is only 1 narrow staircase to get to the top, so you have to squish against the sides to pass people on your way up or down, which is horrible cos you already feel VErY exposed and the wind is so strong up there! But the view at the top is almost worth it, and the pride at having made it even half way up the Münster makes up for the rest! I don't think I said so, but the Münster is a total of 161.53m tall and has 768 steps to the top! It has the tallest church spire in the world, it was built between (1377 and 1890, which makes it's height impressive!), it was totally funded buy the people of Ulm (no Earls, Dukes or other nobles involved!) and is the 187th tallest building in the world (the Hillbrow Tower is 70th, and the tallest building in Germany is the TV tower in Berlin, which is the 18th tallest building).
After we climbed the Münster, we had lunch at Subway, and I finally had a Meatball sub. Divine! Then we went for a walk along the Donau(Danube), which isn't so blue right now, and is rather big cos of all the snow! hehe. All in all a really great day, took loads of photie, which you'll have to wait till next week for cos I'm away for most of the weekend, and the rest is Easter(!). Did nothing of consequence on Sunday.
This week wasn't so bad, an exchanger from Ireland that stayed here for 3 months last year and was in the same class as me came to visit. We managed to talk a little and I was reassured that the 'problems' I'm having fitting in with my class and school in general are not because of my personality or whatever, it's cos the kids ARE naturally very cliquey and nice, but unfriendly. It's actually a big relief to me! ;b
Last night I went with one of the Rotary families to Münsigen where we all had dinner at a lovely little resturant with the Brändles. I'm gonna be helping Helen with a school project on SA which is 3 days long!!! hehe. It'll be my first speaking opportunity since I got here. I'm a bit nervous, but excited at the same time! hehe
Anyway, today was officially the first day of Oosterferien (Easter holidays) and so I wrote the letter today. It also hapens to mark my 13th week here!!! Wow! But, 39 weeks to go, hehe. can't say I don't miss home, I do, it's just not so stiffling as I thought it would be (well, except for the odd occasion!). The 'wanting to go home' feelings have also abated a bit, so I'm glad about that! Tomorrow I'm off to Tübingen to visit one of the exchangers from home that travelled with me, Kirsty. I'm excited to see how her exchange has been! hehe. Next week I'm also gonna be visited by a school friend who's in Germany for a year through the church! I'm also excited to see her. It'll be about 4 months since I last saw Heidrun, I saw her off at the airport when she left and it made me cry cos i saw myself in the position in a bit of future-sight. The funny thing is that my leaving was NOTHING like hers! hehe. But that's a good thing all round.
Whooooo, well, now that I've spent a couple of hours writing this, I can start packing! hehe. So, HAPPY EASTER everyone, hope it's a nice one, whether you're with or without your family! And a special Happy Easter to the Exchangers, for most of us it is the first time away from home, a new experience that we're sharing together, in a way...
Oh, and before I forget, the most recent update is that the last snowfall for 'Winter' 2005-2006 was on April 11th!
HAPPY HOLS!!!
Luv all ya'll lots!
GB, (Easter)Bunny Hugs and Elephant Kisses!
Nicky
OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX to infinity
