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- My Exchange History
- About me
- Other Outbounds
- Pictures
- About Rotary
- About Youth Exchange
- District 9800 and Melbourne Rotary
- District 1850 and Brake Rotary
- My School
- Euro Tour part I
- Pre-Exchange
- The Trip
- Grünkohl fahrt
- Die Lissy Tour
Die Lissy
Apeksha and I traveled on the SSS. ‘Großherzogin Elisabeth’
from the 2nd till the 11th of April. On board the ship, were Students
studying to be a captain in the Elsfleth Seefahrtsschule (see travel school).
The boat is owned by the school but I there are also other trips made
with the ship such as weekend trips to Helgoland (a small island with
no taxes) where people can pay to be guests onboard. The captain, one
of the lecturers at the university is a Rotarian in my host club and offered
us the opportunity to travel with them. The Lissy was built in 1909 but
has been done up since then and it is very cozy inside. There were about
40 people on board the ship.
We left on the Sunday and drove
to Kiel, because there was a trip before hand with the other 3rd semester
students. We got to Kiel a bit after midday and unpacked onboard before
receiving our watch times and learning the sails etc in the heavy rain.
We left on the Monday morning at about 8am and set of in the direction
of Göteborg in Sweden. The weather was pretty good, but there was
not enough wind and eventually the wind was in the opposite direction
of what we needed so we ended up motoring, meaning we traveled slower
and only managed to get to Carlskrona, also in Sweden. We stayed in Carlskrona
for about 24 hours before setting off again in the direction of Copenhagen.
Once again the weather wasn’t right and we motored for a large part
of the time which meant we didn’t have enough time to go to Copenhagen,
so we ended up going back to Kiel where we anchored overnight before entering
the North-East sea canal. That night was the Taufel (the Baptism), a tradition
among sailors, although this one was a little different, being for the
North-East sea canal rather than the Equator. Everyone was locked in a
front room of the ship where the washing machines were and were taken
out two by two to be Baptized.
We were made to eat a piece of raw fish before beginning on our Taufel
‘journey’. We were rubbed with a broom full of excess muck
from the kitchen i.e. fatty fish smelling rotting mess, and then had a
shot of Baileys with lemon juice (try it and you’ll know why that
was a challenge) then sprayed with the fire hose while trying to scramble
through a mess of knotted ropes. At the end we had to remember the Taufel
name given to us at the start of the ‘journey’, mine being
down under and then we had a bucket of cold sea water poured over us and
were told to kiss the shoes of one of the officers who was acting as a
woman. After that we were allowed to go and shower and get normal looking
again, but because we were anchored, the motor wasn’t on and so
there was no hot water.
We went through the canal the
next day, it took about 8 or 9 hours and then we stopped in Brunsbüttel
for a bit over 12 hours before they decided we couldn’t go to Helgoland
because the wind was in the wrong direction. We ended up coming back to
Elsfleth after that, and we arrived back on the 11th at about 2-3pm. This
was another event where I met a heap of new people and extended my friendship
group once again.
Grünkohl fahrt
On Saturday the 4th of March I went on a grünkohl fahrt with the
Elsfleth volleyball teams because my host dad is in one of the teams.
Like you are now, I was going to a grünkohl fahrt, thinking what
on earth is it! I was told from my host family that you walk a long way
in the freezing cold with a schnapps glass tied around your neck then
eat grünkohl, but it wasn’t much of a help! It was not really
anything like I had imagined it would be. It was much better!
We started off at around 4pm and had 3 hours to walk 5km. The thing about this party (I’ll call it that to save myself typing the ‘G’ word again) was that the fact that we had to walk 5km was oblivious, it did take us the entire three hours! We had two carts that people towed, full of junk food and alcoholic drinks. One of the first things I learnt was that if you get cold, have another shot! We stopped every about 100m to play a game or to wait for people to run over the dike and have a pee (I think the average for the guys was about three) Along the way we played a couple of games as well, one was to get a spoon with a string tied on the end of it down the inside of everyone’s clothes before the other group did.
We got to the restaurant where we were going to eat grünkohl, and there were 3 or 4 other tables full of other kohlfahrts, although our group I think was the biggest. We ate plates and plates full of grünkohl, which is literally green cabbage in English but we ate wurst and meat and potatoes with it and it is delicious! After we had finished eating the DJ came in and pumped beats of German folklore or similar until about 2am when they kicked us out of the restaurant and told us to go home. The party was yes, very long. 10 hours of continuous partying (and drinking for some) is a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon!
The Trip
The trip was great, even though we were all apprehensive about our year
coming up and had an unbelievable amount of stuff going through our heads.
I met a heap of other outbounds, from district 9810, 9790, Tasmania and
from South Australia. The stopover in Bangkok was fairly frantic, the
plane left late from Tullamarine so when we arrived in Thailand our connecting
plane said final call. We made it luckily, although the plane was not
new like on our Melbourne - Bangkok flight and did not have entertainment
systems built into the seats:-p.
When we arrived in Frankfurt, we had an hour or so to spare so we had a hot chocolate in a café before heading to our gate. Frankfurt airport is HUGE! We walked for at least 30 mins along terminal A with the travelators to get to our gate, gate 40. When I got there, I had my only ‘scare’ for the whole trip, the lady at the desk told me my ticked had not been confirmed so I was not booked on the flight which was already fully booked. In the end someone didn’t turn up so I got the last seat on the plane which was great. (I don’t know what I would have done if I had been stuck in Frankfurt airport!) I arrived in Bremen and my first and second host families were there waiting for me with a big wilkommen sign which was also fantastic. (Bremen is roughly 40 mins south of Elsfleth)
Pre-exchange
The nerves first started when I went to an interview at Melbourne
Uni, where I had to sit and tell interviewers about myself. I was lucky
though, I had Nick Reynolds as one of the interviewers and he had been
at my house the night before for Nadine Schuller’s going away party
and he told me the right things to say in front of the interviewers, thanks
Nick!! After the interview it was three or so weeks before I got a letter
saying that I was accepted. About a month later I went to an orientation
weekend at Katteminga, north of Dalesford and met all of the other outbounds
as well as some inbounds, Johannes from Germany, Pri and Erickson from
Brazil. The weekend was run by some youth exchange committee members.
One of these people I think I need to thank, Emma Fenby who drove me down
there (even though i got us a bit lost).
On the Saturday night, we all found out our countries. Before that night I had been especially worried about getting ‘the wrong’ country, but after talking to everyone and having some of the adults talk to us, I realized that it didn’t really matter where I went, that the experience wouldn’t be compromised by going to a country that you knew nothing about. When I found out that my country was Germany, my first preference, I was ecstatic. We didn’t sleep at all that night which was awesome fun.
My dad is in Melbourne Rotary and so we have acted as a host family for many years. We have hosted 7 students to date. Our first was Sarah Javaux from Belgium, and then Tessa Hannah from Canada, Jule Brunner from Germany, Lilli Temiseva from Finland, Tom Erdösi from Switzerland, Nadine Schuller from Germany and our most recent, Alexander Dahlberg-Nummert (or just Alex) the Swede is staying with us.
There was a Portsea weekend at Lord Mayors camp held from December 2nd - 4th with all of the inbounds meeting the outbounds. It was not one of the serious rotary functions, it was very relaxed and was a good time for all. We visited the beach but spent most of the time indoors because the weather was not all that great. On the Saturday night, we all had to do a play on the country we were going to or the country we were from. The German group was definitely the best, (what goes on camp stays on camp guys!) We didn’t win because Dave felt sorry for the other teams so awarded the Polish (or maybe just their vodka) the prize.