Ok people, as i mightn't get access to any page building programs, everything will be very simple. Like this. I know it looks very bad but you'll live. The information is here so get over it.
Monday12/Tuesday13
The plane trip. 22hrs total. Mel-Sin-Fra-Mün. Singapore Airlines was good with tvs in the chairs and the food was good, so good that i actually thought to myself, why does tv joke about it so much. Then we got on Lufthansa and the question was answered.
It didnt feel like another country. Though i couldnt understand people that well, i was still used to the accent. The only difference was the cold and Malbn has been that cold at some point so thats no big deal. We have these trees in Australia, people dress the same, have seen no wildlife... I wanted to see the northern sky but whenever i have remembered to look, it has been too cloudy. I have been able to see the moon though. So that proved i was here.
Tuesday13/Wednesday14
Just been walking around München and stuff: Old Town Hall, Churches, The Deutsches Museum...
Thursday15
Day trip to Salzburg. Didnt do any of the Sound of Music stuff, ah well, just the big castle on the hill and looking around the town.
Friday16
One long train trip to Lorch. There was a mini reception for us at the station by the host families and teachers, then they took us home. First off, Mona (my hostsister) showed me around and they fed me, then her friend Sina came and they took me to the local community-centre-like place to look for a cassette; with music i presume (duh). Later they took me to a party (that had a lot of the other exchange students) with a lot of smoking and drinking. These girls are sehr verrückt.
Saturday17
Oli (Mona's brother) and his Friend, Matteas took me out to the forest for a walk. We had to rush home so that the whole group could go to the Music Street Festival Thingy (Names later). That was alright I guess but after the cold crept through my shoes over 2hrs, it got up to my waste in 20min. I shold have walked around a bit. That night, just us kids went out to a pub, the Galerie.
Sunday18
Today my host-family, (minus Mona coz she had to study) took me to the Mercedes Museum in Stuttgart and up a television tower. Later my whole host family went out with a couple of other host families for Greek food.
Silvie, Mona's Mutter speaks to me auf Deutsch half the time and makes sure to speak clearly. The speed is more or less good too. Mona and Oli always speak to me auf Englisch aber I dont really want them to. I dont mind. I will make myself speak German SVWM later (SVWM = so viel wie möglich = as much as possible). Arne, Mona's Vater kann speak Englisch very well. Aber he is not here a lot of the time as he a doctor is.
Oh crap! I'm talking to myself in my head, with a German accent.
Monday19
At school we were told what we'll do on Wednesday: Mercedes Museum and TV Tower. HA HA.
School was crap. We never did anything but sit around.
Today I finally started to speak to people. And in German. But mostly to Oli, while we played GTA Vice City on Playstation.
Tuesday20
Today started much like Monday. Mona's last period was off so we came home early, then a couple of us Exchange-and-Hosts went to Swäbish Gemund for Shopping. The girls bought hair die for Mark and Cam. Later at Anne's (prn An'ne) house for a party, they died their hair. Cam's didnt work but they must have tried again later.
Wednesday21
Umm... we caught the train to Stuttgart. Frau Webber accomponied us today and Janet told her to speak to me auf Deutsch for exam practice. :(. Actually it wasnt too bad. First went to the Porche Museum. Yes Porche. This one was very small and dumb compared to Mercedes. At Mercedes, as I'd already been, i just sat in the cafe with a coke. Luckily, we didnt go to the TV tower coz it was too far away, but we did go up the tower within Stuttgartbahnhof. Free time was mostly spent resting in there in the heat, in a movie-presentation room.
Thursday22
We were late to school because there was a car crash en route and another at the train station, where the train had hit a car. PRSC and Sandkorn (RS.Lorch's Magazine team) went to Rothenburg. We went to the all-year Christmas shop/museum and Kriminal Museum (torture). The Christmas shop was quite amazing with all the stuff they had, but the Kriminal Museum, although having a lot, wasnt that interesting.
Friday23
Ok, during the Pause we all (hosts and teachers too) went to meet the Burgermeister. If we werent, we should have been tense coz this guy could decide if Patto River could come back to Lorch or not. He couldnt speak English that well but he could understand some things. There were a few speaches and stuff in a conference room. This is where we received our Lorch caps and badges and he gave us a tour of the building.
In the evening most of us (PRSCs and hosts) went to Top Secret, yet another bar (and they think thats not boring). After that we went to the Galerie again but (hehehe) were kicked out for not having ID.
Saturday24
I dont remember what we did thismorning as ive left it too late to write, but my Host Mum told me I went shopping in Schorndorf. I really didnt enjoy this day as most of the time people teased me and otherwise didnt speak to me.
In the evening we went ice skating. Its harder than blading.
Sunday25
Thismorning we went to Kloster Lorch, a monestery from, i dunno, lets say hundreds of years ago. Inside we saw a Panarama of the history of the area. Not local area. It looked pretty good and was interesting to watch all the things it had. Outside i finally threw a few snowballs for a change.
That evening, meine Familie, Jakes Familie and Iains Familie went Schlittenfahren (skiing, sledding, etc). Usally when im in the car with Mona, she keeps telling me to talk. On the way to this night (sorry Mona about this, but it must be told), she told me to shut up. Later in the night she (sorry but tis true) said something mean about me auf Schwäbish to Oli. Oli got cut at her and wouldnt tell me what she'd said. Over the next few days Mona was extra nice to me, I think her parents had heard her.
Monday26
After school, it was Mona's turn to host a party. Most of it occured in the basement, in a room i didnt know about yet. I had brought Vegemite on the trip and everyone was trying to make the Germans eat it. Someone lost (or stole) it :(. We went and had a snowball fight, the first i had had at a party and later i showed Sandra, Das Paradox, why her? Coz she knows Kieran and Lucas. Sure most the others knew them too, including Mona, but they had gotten lost.
Tuesday27
After school (i know, all paragraphs are starting the same), we went to the Binz car factory, where they take Mercedes cars and turn them into Limos and Ambulances and stuff. We got pens. yay
Wednesday28
Our first Wednesday at school. Nothing happened afterward coz we were meant to rest before going to Paris. That night we caught the overnight train.
Thursday29
Benny was our guide for Paris. We had breakfast in a restaurant at the train station. Most of us had bacon and eggs. The waiter was funny, he joked around with us and teased those with VFB Stuttgart scarves. After meeting him, i decided, the French werent that bad. First touristy sight was the Arc de Triumph, then the Liberty Flame (oh my god, why the hell are these things famous?). The Eiffel Tower was closed due to the bad weather :(. The only thing i wanted/needed to go to Paris for :@. We walked around past the Louvre and Notre Dame and found lunch. After that we went to the Catacombs. We werent meant to use flash photography but we did. We went back to the Eiffel tower and twas open :). Its not that big. It was getting dark, so we went to some New Arc de Triumph thingy which was crap and Sacre coeure*(sp). Overnight train back to Stuttgart.
Friday30
Sleep, lunch, sleep. Tina (Mark's host) had a party but Mona and I didnt go.
Mona told me she would buy me a VFB Stuttgart Scarf.
Saturday31
Over one week ago, Mona told we what we'd be doing today, and expected me to remember. "Are you ready?" she says when i have no idea im going out yet. We went to Anne's for lunch, (lasagne, which was good. no mum, the stuff we have *is* actually crap). Then went to the Fußball (soccer). "Hmm, no scarf." I said to myself. This made me angry, she's always doing things like this. The football was fun enough, except for the standing. We had to stand the whole time becoz we were in the cheap standing section. Mona got mad at me yet again coz i didnt jump around and deliberatly squash people. At least i was clapping to the chears/chants :@. At home, when Oli asked Mona if she'd got my scarf (this is all in fast German), she said they cost 12Euros and she hadnt enough money. Oli yelled at her. I pretended not to have understood, as i felt guilty for thinking certain things about her that day; but she still could have told me and i'd've paid. Even the whole thing, but i cant now coz she might buy me one later and send it me. Ah well, shes not getting the pink Billabong hat i said i'd get her until i get my scarf. Later, Galerie.
Sure she hadnt enough money. Sorry wenn du das liest, Mona, aber es ist wie ich mich fühle.
Sunday1
The skijumping was cancelled due to lack of snow. But there was this skiing thing we went to which was so dumb. The townspeople had pushed all the remaining snow into a track down a hill. People took turns at trying to stay on it the whole way down. It wasnt steep, and im sure the skies must have been made from old washing buckets. What a waste of time. Mona and I went back to Lisa's (Iain's host) for a small lunch. Then we 4 went to Monas for dinner. That night was the goodbye party at Sandra's. A couple of us slept over.
Monday2
Our last day of school :(. We had our official goodbye by the school in the Pause, they played We Are Australian for us. The Aussies had been invited to compete in a school Fußball tournament. 9c won. For our last dinner we all went to a Pizzeria.
Tuesday3
Pretty sad day. I went to school for first period to say bye to a couple of people id met in class then walked to the station. The girls gave us each a rose.
Köln was ok i guess, we only looked a the Cathedral, but what else is there?
The Rest
Berlin. Who knows what we did. We were there for almost a week, and for what? No one paid much interest. We were all still sad at having left Lorch. I can think of a couple of things we did, but nothing special.
I shall go now, goodbye. Last Updated 9/Jul/04
