June!! Scarey.

Ahhhhhhhh time is going way to fast!!

Sorry i have been so slack with my posts. I have been super busy with school and have been away. I have been to baveria with my host mum and my host brother. My host mothers family live down there and so i got to meet them. They were so cool and i had so much fun. We left on the 31st of May and it took us around 7 hours to drive there. It was so long but i slept abit in the car and listened to my ipod. People here do such long trips and we wouldnt even think about doing such a long trip in new zealand. Its crazy!
So i got there sunday evening and my host mums niece was going out that night. She asked if i wanted to come along not expecting much and so once i got there it was a massive white tent with food stalls and games. Its was so so much fun and everyone was sitting on long tables and drinking massive beer glasses.

This is what it looked like inside the tent. It was so hot and then when the music started (there is a stage up the front with a band) everyone stood on their chairs and clapped and danced.

We stayed there until about 12 and then we went back home. On monday me kirsten and ludwig (my host mum and host brother) went out for lunch with kirstens brother in Regensburg. That was very lovely and Regensburg is such an amazing town. I loved it very much there and there were so many old churches and old buildings. Then we took a walk around Regensburg and they showed me afew things. They then took me up to this massive massive museum and the view was just magnificent, i will never forget how amazing it was. The building was very cool aswell.

When i got home ramona (kerstins niece) and her cousin was waiting for me to go swimming. We went to the pools with indoor and outdoor pools and slides. That was so much fun and was such a nice day so did abit of tanning outside aswell. We were also with ramonas cousin at the big party aswell. We then went out for dinner to a very typical baverian place, a beer garden. That was very interesting but very nice. We didnt get any beer though. The next day was ramonas 16th birthday so we decided to have a little party in the garden and have a fire. We waited until 12 o'clock so we could wish her a happy birthday and then went off to bed because we all had a big day.

On Tuesday was ramonas birthday but she had work in the morning so me and kerstin went to go see a ruined castle in the morning. She said we had to climb a mountain to get to it but i thought she was joking so i just laughed but then we finally got there she stopped the car at the bottom of a hill and said ok lets go. I was like um yes ok lets go, but expected her to drive up. There was no way to drive up this massive and i mean it was a big hill so we did acually have to climb this hill. I should really say it was a mountain because it was really huge. After we finally reached the top it was such an amazing castle and you could really see how old it was and the view was also very beautiful. We arrived home and had a party outside for ramonas birthday with coffee and cake. The party went on all day and night then they said i had to have one of the big beer mugs! This is a picture with me a ramona with the big beer mug and baverian sausage.

On Wednesday we went into town and did abit of shopping and sightseeing then kersitn wanted to show me the dirndls and i ended up buying one. They are the traditional baverian dressess girls wear. I will definatly be wearing it when i get home to New Zealand. Haha. We then went out for dinner that night to a resturant in a very little but beautiful town, it was acually kerstins favourite resturant. The food was absolutely amazing and the dessert was even better. My trip was over and we headed home that morning, i had such an awsome time and didnt want to leave. Ramona was so nice and made me feel very welcome, kerstins sister is also very very nice and i felt like i had known them forever. It would be awsome if i could go back down and see them again. Ramona will be coming to Flensburg in Summer so that will be great to see her then.

I cant believe how fast my time is going here, people said it will go very fast and make the most of everyday. I didnt think it would go this fast though and sometimes i think what have i done with my time here. Once i look back on what i have done already and what i have seen it really does seem like i have been here for ages. I have seen so much and been on so many trips and i am already in my second host family. I just cant wait for what the rest of the year brings. When i tell you about all these amazing trips i have been on and what i have seen, it seems like i never go through things that makes it hard. There are times where i find it super hard and wonder what i am doing here but then when i go on these incrediable trips i just think to myself why would i not want to be here, why would i ever want to go home. I think all the amazing times i have had really make me forget about the hard times.

It is getting very late and i should be going to bed now, i have school in the morning and need to get up early. My timetable here is very different to the one back home.

I dont think i have told you about my timetable here, well everyday is different.

Monday:Latein, Latein, Spanish, Spanish, German, German, Philosphy, Philosphy Tuesday:Maths, Maths, Latein, Latein, English, Physics, Physics, Geo, Geo Wednseday:History, History, Art, Art, Chemistry, Chemistry Thursday:Biology, Biology, Spanish, Spanish, English, English, German, Art, Art Friday:Politics, Politics, Maths, English, Sports, Sports

When i have 8 lessons i finish at 3pm and when i have 6 lessons i finish at 1pm. Each lesson is 45 mintues long but we have basically have double classes all the time so it is longer.

They have just changed my timetable this week and said i do not have to go to the subjects i do not understand which is bascially all of them so i finish alot earlier. It is not so boring now and they have put me in some year 5 classes which will be very interesting. I only have to go to English, Maths, Art, Sport and Spanish with my class now. Some days i finish at 11.10am which is so great!

Chloe ♥

Whats coming up and what I have done in the past 3 months.

So i just realised that i need to let you in on what i have been doing and what is coming up. Well today i did a presentation infront of the 2 year 9 classes. Well at least i think it was the year 9 classes. Anyway, I had alot of fun with my first host family. We went on alot of day trips to different places. I live very close to the denmark border so we went to a science exhibition that was really really fun and we went on those segways! There is a picture of us riding them down the bottom. Was so much fun! We also had abit of snow and so we went to a hill just 5 minutes from my house and we took our sledges. I had the time of my life and we also had this little orange plastic seat that went so fast and you just get covered in snow. I also have a picture of me and my host sister going down on the sledge. Their house was amazing and it was right by the glucksburg castle and on the lake. It was so beautiful and i loved it alot. At night time the lights came up on the castle and it just looked magical with all the water surrounding it. The picture below is taken from my window in my room. This is the view i could see every night before i went to bed and when i woke up (in winter when i woke up it was that dark to0! it sucked!) I also helped my host sister sometimes getting the groceries for an old lady in our village. Janneke (my host sister) would recieve a call from this old lady maybe once a month or every 2 weeks and we would bike to her house then get her grocery list and then go to the grocery store for her. I always had alot of fun with my host sister and we would always make funny jokes. When i first arrived in Germany i couldnt understand anything and i was so used to just nodding and saying 'Ja'. While at the dinner table and my host parents were talking very fast german, my host sister would look at me and nod while saying 'Ja Ja'. It was very funny and we would always do it but my host parents wouldnt know whats going on.

Now that i have been in my second family around 2 weeks now I get along with them very well! Last sunday we arranged to travel to this beach in Denmark, it was 1 hour away and we expected very nice sunny weather because the last days had been. We woke up on sunday morning and it was ok weather but alittle bit cloudy. We still went and about 10 minutes before we arrived at the beach it started to rain, we realy didnt want to go back home so we got lunch and drove along the beach, literally. The beach was huge and very very long and also had very hard sand that you could drive on. It was alot of fun and we found a nice place to park while it was still raining and got our coats on and all stood under one umbrella. The beach was very nice but it was such bad weather so we decided to head back home. They said we will go back there on a nice day. My host father has bought a new tent so he said he would like to go camping for a week at this beach with his sons because my host mothers doesnt like camping and invited me to come along. I am really looking forward to that because the beach is very nice and it will be alot of fun with the boys. My host father also invited me to one of his family dinners at his grandmothers pub. His grandmother is still alive and she is 98 years old, she lives upstarid of the pub (which is very very old and is still running my volkers (my host fathers) parents. Volkers grandmother only stopped working at her pub 2 years ago, she made the pub herself and worked by herself. She stopped working because one day she crashed down and just forgot everything, sometimes she forgets who volker is and where she is. The sad part is that she has been in her bed for 1 year now, just all day and all night because she cannot move and is just to old. She doesnt like it at all and wants to be able to move. I couldnt believe it and was very sad seeing how old she looked and how old the pub was with all the same furniture from when it was built. Everything about the pub was just old and smelt like it had alot of history and life to it. I didnt take any pictures but i will be going again so hopefully i will be allowed to take some pictures.

School, well first of all school mornings suck! I have to wake up at 6 am and be out of the bathroom at 6.30am so my host father can go in. We then leave at 7am and he drops me at the Flensburg ZOB (the bus station). My school is really really close to Flensburg ZOB but the problem is, its on the hill and i have to walk up 'the hell stairs'. Honestly i hate them so much, by the time i get up the stairs i am so tired i just can't walk anymore. I think when i come back to New Zealand im going to be to fit and skinny! Yay haha. I am getting use to the stairs now and find them easy to walk up (well abit easier). I just dont want to sound to lazy! I have just found out that there is a bus i can catch up to school that everyone takes because they dont want to go up the 'hell stairs' but i dont want to be lazy so i just walk up. Lets be honest here, i just dont have time to wait for the bus, i have to walk. Anyway, school is very boring. I do not understand much but it is ok because i dont have to do any of the work or any of the tests. It would be very impossible because i wouldnt even understand the question let alone having to answer it. I take 13 subjects at school and i am in the language profile which means i have to learn spanish, latin, german and english. It is horrible but i dont even bother to listen in spanish or latin. They are putting me into another class because they know it is stupid for me to be in that class and not understand anything. Finally! Only after 3 months they notice that i cannot understand. Haha.

So whats coming up, I am going to Balveria with my host mum and brother to go meet her family. Aparently i will not understand anything because they speak a total different slang and they have a very funny accent. My host father cannot even understand my host mother speak on the phone with her family. I am very excited to go down south of Germany and meet her family. She said it is very beautiful down there and is very cultural. I have summer holidays soon, which i cannot wait for! I just want summer to arrive because i am so sick of rain and windy weather. In the summer holidays I will be going to Denmark with my friend Julia and her family for a week to their holiday home. I also change host families in August which is when my summer holidays are and we are going to France to a christian camp. I am very excited because Shona thinks it is the same one she is going to. It will be very cool if it is.

I am writing to much and am losing track of time. It is getting very late so i will head to bed now. It is 21:41 on Wednesday night. Everyone goes by 24 hour time here so i have to get use to it. Especially in german it is very difficult. Oh my german is coming along pretty well, i can understand alot more but speaking it is taking abit. I start my german lessons tomorrow with a teacher at my school. This will help alot and i will learn much faster.

That is me on the small red plastic seat thingy. Going super fast and with snow all over me.

Castle, view from my window!

My arrival in Germany! Was so so tired from L.A



Oh yes i forgot to mention, we went to L.A before we came to europe. We left on the 21st of January and was in L.A for 3 days and then arrived in Germany on the 25th. It was an awsome 3 days, well we acually lost 1 days or a few hours from america to germany. We left on the 24th of january and arrive on the 25th. In L.A we went to disneyland, universal studios and venice beach. We all had aot of fun and didnt sleep much. I miss alot of the girls already and still keep in touch over internet.

April

Hey guys, well i have just made my blog page so sorry it is so late. I have been so busy the last 3 months, so so crazy it has already been 3 months. I really dont know where they have gone. I am officially at my second host family which is really scary to think about, but they are really nice and i have a younger host brother who is 5 years old. My last host family were really really lovely and didnt want to leave but i think i will be going back to them for my 4th family.

So the last 3 months i have done alot! I arrived on January 25th and then started school on the 5th of february so i had alot of time to settle in and just get used to things. I have been the language school 3 days a week and finished the first course, that was very helpful and i learnt alot of the basics. The language is still very hard but i can understand alot more than when i arrived, concidering i knew nothing when i arrived. I have been to many rotary weekends meeting all the exchange students and they are all really cool and alot of fun. I have been to 2 of my club meetings which are abit boring but they are at a really nice hotel and have an amazing dinner for you. Of course i dont just go for the dinner, i also go to hear the amazing presenations they do in german.

I have already been on my europe tour which was incrediable. We were in berlin first, then went over to prague, then vienna, then was in Lido de Jesolo in Italy and did a day trip to venice, then went to Montecatini Terme still in Italy and did day trips to Florence and Pisa, then after Italy we went to Nizza and had a city tour around Monaco which isnt far from Nizza then went back to Nizza and had a city tour there, Then after Italy we went over to France but on the way to Paris we stopped at Lyon for a night because it would take to long from Nizza to Paris, then after Lyon we went to Paris and then our last country was Belguim and we were in Brussels. I enjoyed the europe trip alot and loved all the places we went to. We all had alot of fun together and grew stronger relationships with everyone, we all didnt want to go home. I loved Venice alot but the people were abit rude and very pushy. I think i loved prague the best in czech republic, it was so beautiful, i can not describe how amazing it was. The weather was amazing and the sun on the buildings and no cloud in the sky. It was increadiable. So yes we have been on our europe trip so that was very early and it was 19 days long. So nearly 3 weeks long, well basically 3 weeks.

I was also in Berlin on a class trip a few days after i got back from europe trip, that was alot of fun and enjoyed that alot. We all got along very well and got to know all the girls in my class alot better, there is only 1 boy in my class by the way. He doesnt seem to mind that but it is abit sad for us girls sometimes, no im only joking. We only had 3 days in Berlin but we acually only had 1 full day because we arrived there 2.30pm and then we left at 4.30 on the last day. We went to an english theatre which was very strange but interesting and then had a drama workshop the next day which was alot of fun! It was all in english which helped me alot.

I moved to my second host family about 1 week ago on sunday. I play alot of games with my host brother and the other day he made me do this bead thing which is very difficult and then when you finish you iron it and it melts and joins together then you take it home. When i started i didnt know i had to do the whole thing in order to iron it so it took me two hours to finish with him saying the whole time "Du bist fertig?" which means are you finished? I have alot of fun with him and he cannot speak any english which helps me alot and i learn alot of german from him.

I cannot believe the first 3 months are already up, i only have 9 months left and i know it will go really fast. I have already made plans for my summer holidays which will be alot of fun and it will be summer!! I am so excited for summer and just want nice hot sunny weather. The weather here has been alright laterly but aparently i am very lucky to have nice weather so early, acually as im writing this it is raining outside. It just started to rain as i was saying it has been nice weather laterly, not anymore.

I better be going, i have to get ready for school tomorrow and put some pictures up from europe tour. Thanks for reading and i will write more next month so i have more exciting news.