Kiwi in Germany: 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.