Mittwoch 18 Juli - Roy's last Rotary meeting
Roy had made a powerpoint presentation about Argentina and his family, and he presented it at his last meeting. It was a really good presentation and I surprisingly understood the majority of it. By the end Ulla was crying and i was a little bit upset as it hit me that from now on i'd be alone in Rotary meetings and actually have to talk to the Rotarians. We both wore our blazers like good exchange students and ate our last Rotary meal together; very pleasant.
Donnerstag 19 Juli - Wismar day trip and Salsarico
My host aunty and uncle stayed with us for about 2 weeks and always did spontaneous day trips to different German towns. When they said they were going to Wismar I jumped at the opportunity and went with them. Wismar is a really old city with lots of history but unfortunately we couldn't see a lot since it was raining bucket loads! Silly German summer.. there seriously hasn't been sun for two days in a row, strange! We were only in Wismar for 3 hours due to the crappy weather, on my return to the lovely Rostock Roy and Annika were keen to have dinner out. Roy requested Salsarico mexican restaurant as he wanted one more burger from there before he left. So we had a pleasant dinner at Salsarico, Roy had his burger and we had tea/coffee at a hippy music shop afterwards - heaps chill.
Freitag 20 Juli - Insane soccer training!!
So from now on I am in the 1st grade soccer team, which is great as it will help my skills and fitness but it also sucks as it takes up so much of my week and it is so serious! The training is now a lot harder and pushes my body to the limit.. ab work, mini soccer games and skills, 5000m runs and 50m sprints - SO MUCH! By the last lap of running my body was dead and clumsy me fell over in a ditch. I ended up with a screwed ankle and bloody knee, great! This made me think about how much I wanted to continue soccer and if it is really taking up so much of my exchange, plus i don't have great friends in the team.. so maybe another option is to find another team closer to where I live and plays just for fun - i'll see.
Samstag 21 Juli - Caro's Mum and Grandma's Birthday party.
Caro asked Roy and myself if we'd like to go to her Mum and Grandma's joint birthday party (40th and 60th). Roy and I wanted to see Caro again so we simply said yes, without asking for the catch.. Roy and I ended up being photographer and DJ at the party - very interesting with drunk old Germans. The night was pretty fun as we played all our music and old music, danced together, ate lots and had a sleepover. Plus Caro's mum is adorable so we were pleased we went and celebrated with her.
Montag 23 Juli - Annika's "surprise" sleepover.
So we had this sleepover planned for about a week and since Roy and I heard nothing different we trekked it to Annika's house; it took us more than hour because we are retarded and took 1 train, 2 buses and walked for about 20 mins. Though little did we know that Annika had cancelled the sleepover because "no one" had replied BUT Roy and I verbally replied when we saw Annika earlier - since Roy and I are poor exchange students we didn't have an phone credit to technologically reply. In the end Roy and I turned up to Annika's all flustered due to the trek and Annika freaked out - very German! "The house isn't ready, i'm not ready"; spontaneous stopovers are well accepted haha but Roy and I stayed put, helped her clean and chilled her out. The night included cooking dinner; spagetti, watching movies, different gummi bears and interesting brownies. Ended up being an awesome night, heaps chill and to top it off Annika and I saw a shooting star together <3
Dienstag 24 Juli - Coming and slowly going :(
So pretty much this day involved me finishing Roy's video which I had been working on for over 1 week, meeting Roy at the beach and saving a spot for his going away beach party, partying it up at the beach, then coming home to meet Leon (my new host brother that got back from his exchange in Mexico). There isn't really much more to say apart from how sad it was to see Roy crying over all our German friends which broke my heart because he was crying and because in 6 months i'd have to do the same... and as the days ticked on I started to realize Roy wouldn't be with us for very much longer and that really hurt. But when I arrived home a little upset, I walked into Luca's room like always to see a new face and to receive a warm welcome - Leon was home! We talked as a family all sitting on Luca's bed hearing stories about Mexico and how great exchange is - extremely cute and made me feel more apart of the family. After hearing Leon's stories, thinking about Roy and Katie it dawned on me how unique exchange is and how everyone's exchange is different which makes it your own and so amazing - i'm truly the luckiest to have this opportunity :)
Mittwoch 25 Juli - Family Welcome and Goodbye party.
After helping clean the house, finishing Roy's video, making a pavlova and preparing myself for tears.. all of a sudden the house was full of rowdy Germans. The night involved; a really nice German bbq with a hint of mexican - Leon made some traditional tacos and salsa - a home made song from the Zeug's for Roy and Leon, being kids on the trampoline together, watching my video then going to Warnemunde for a midnight swim = fantastic evening! Reality still slowly hitting me as Roy said goodbye to the Zeug's and Laury... 1 day.
Donnerstag 26 Juli - The day had come... Goodbye Argentina.
2 hours travelling by car with the Kirstoff's (my third family - Roy's last) we made it to Berlin airport... the whole 2 hours I was trying to be sneaky about Caro and Maxi coming as well (they were a surprise) so I kept asking Roy details about his flight "to make sure he knew exactly" and so I could text them the details. Once at the airport it was just a waiting game, counting down the minutes until Roy left us.. though the game was cut short when Roy's flight jumped ahead by about half an hour. Our goodbyes were a little rushed but in a way that was good so we couldn't get overemotional, not that that didn't stop me. After about a 5 minute hug from Roy, I let him go because "baby birds must fly alone"... probably one of the most depressing things I have had to do in my life so far. I'm so grateful that Caro and Maxi were there to get me through it/ take me camping with them to distract me from everything that just happened.
10th Juli - FUNNNNNNN
The day started off a bit sadly as Roy and Johannes had a bit of a fight.. so at night Roy wanted to forget about it and just celebrate/say goodbye to local people, they were all going to FUN so we naturally ended up there. First we met the girls and got sassy on the dance floor, then we bumped into a family friend from the Zeug's, Max, so we hung out with him for a while. By the end of the night i'm pretty sure we sure half our year from school and all the local people Roy wanted to see. We also met some new people on the way home, because we are just very accepting people and talk to everyone, especially those who are alone - some very funny videos were made.
There was one really sad moment in my week when I was plant shopping (weird but Germans love it) with host mum's best friend/my new German teacher - I saw a plant which looked identical to the Australian bottlebrush and I also found a eucalyptus plant.. looked and smelled like Australia :(
14th - 15th Juli - Bremen!
Both my host parents, Ulla and Enno, were born in the German city of Bremen (its about 3 hours drive west of Rostock) so naturally they wanted us to see it. My host grandma (Oma) still lives in Bremen so we stayed with her. After being stuck in traffic for 4 and a half hours we finally made it to the sunny Bremen. After a sit down lunch at Oma's we had two new visitors, Paula (my soon to be host sister - she's going to live in my Aussie family in Jan) and her Mum. We talked for hours about exchange, Australia, Oatley and interests, all spoken in German - very impressed I could do it and she understood or so i think. By late afternoon our schedules caught up with us so we sad goodbye/see you in January. My host family, Roy and myself all wandered around the beautiful city of Bremen, eating ice cream and just being amazed at how diverse the city is with lots of culture, art and history. After our local tour we headed to the annual Bremen summer festival, where we listened to hipster music, eat hipster food and just stared at all the hipster people. By 1am we'd all had enough so we ventured it back to Oma's, on the way home the hipster atmosphere never left.. such a cool place!
By morning we all looked like zombies but there was more of Bremen to see, so Enno, Luca, Roy and myself walked around the streets and then headed to Bremen's Art hall. It was so amazing! I'm not really a big art person but the mix of old, new, photography and paintings was awesome, I was never bored. After about 3 hours inside wasn't enough but we need to leave before Bremen before night as my host aunty was visiting us in Rostock for dinner.
Overall a really cool weekend with Roy and my host family - i feel a lot close with both now which is great but also sucks as Roy is leaving and I am moving host families soon.
More photos will be uploaded soon.
3 Juli - Ulla's Birthday
All the family came over for some cake(s) and dinner, it was lovely. I got along really well with the Grandma and we talked for ages in German, it made me feel a lot more confident with my German. Roy and I gave Ulla a present involving a photo of us (she took one of Roy's photos when he left so we thought she'd like one of us) and a pretty scarf.
4 Juni - Crepes with the girls
Some school girls and myself went to Ditschi's and baked crepes/ played board games and cards. It was a relaxing day with bike ride along the beach to get to her house and a bike ride back with the other girls. It really felt like holidays.
7 Juni - Maxi and Johannes 18th Birthday
The night started off tame with us all meeting at Dana's apartment, just talking and figuring out what we were going to do. Maxi wanted a chill night so we ended up heading down to Warnemunde beach thinking it would just be small group of people, but when we got there it was huge! This night was the first beach party of the summer, there was really big stage, dance floor, lights, bars and people everywhere. It was a pretty fun night, even though the group split as Johannes wanted to go to a club, so Roy joined. Though there was a bit too much Jaga, peppermint liquor and vodka for Maxi - Happy 18th!
From the 29th June to 1st July I had my last district conference with the oldies, so sad. There were only about 25 of us as most of the exchange students have gone home. Since Roy and I were the locals from the group we had to help a fair bit with picking everyone up from the station and getting them to the youth hostel etc.
29th Juni - First day of the Conference
At first Roy and I had a few hickups with the exchange students and different time trains/ train tickets, but we finally got to the youth hostel without too much trouble. After settling into the youth hostel we had a group bbq in the hostel garden, sadly though the weather wasn't very kind we got rained out. The rest of the night was spent inside the hostel talking about our adventurers on Euro tour and just soaking up the little bit of time we had left together - it was Corey's last night with us and he wanted to go out on a bang... so we attempted to have a beach party but the weather ruined it due to the cold and wet atmosphere.
30th Juni - Blazers and boatsToday was a very full day! First we headed to on of Rostock's beautiful gardens and had a tour - highlight was the little garden houses and pretty flowers. In the huge garden we found a map of the world and everyone stood where they lived - Will and I pigbacked (Australia is the yellow blob).
Then we had a tour of Rostock's navy boat (Dad you would have loved it) a little bit boring but Corey and I played the Titanic so it was funny. Then we all headed to a ferry and had a nice cruise around Rostock harbour, I never realized how big and amazing my city is. Once refreshed from the cruise we all walked to Warnemunde's most posh hotel where we all suited up in our Rotary blazers and presented ourselves to our regions head Rotarians. Two exchange student gave a speech, Aya (Japanese) performed a traditional dance, Bika (Balinese) sang the saddest song about always being together and all the exchange students sang a German song, Hinterm Horizont - by the end most of the exchange students were crying.
After all the emotions were out a small group ended up getting pommes (chips), as Roy and I always do, and we just chilled. Next on the agenda was sailing, but sadly first we needed to say goodbye to Corey. Corey is one of the nicest boys ever and we got along so well, he is one of the oldies I going to miss immensely - but I'm going to visit him in Rockport USA so everythings good. Once the tears stopped we hopped on the sailing boat and had an hour trip, pretty cool. I talked with the captain, a Rotarian, and he said that Rostock will be getting 3 new exchange students - so that means I won't be alone after all, but still I am devasted the oldies are leaving.
At night we had a beach party since the weather was much better. My school friend, Karo, was having an 18th party there too so we all met up, it was quite nice for the exchange students and my school friends to mix.
1st Juli - Goodbye time :(
Today involved a slow breakfast, just chatting away with the exchangers then packing up and sadly saying goodbye. We all travelled together to the train station and had lunch together still chatting like nothing was going to happen, then all of a sudden all of them were gone and it was just Roy and I standing at the station - so depressing. We had moments of silence in memory of all the great things we have done with all the international exchangers, not thinking about the fact that we are probably never going to see them again, but then again "hinterm horizont gehts weiter" + "zusammen sind wir stark" = never leaving the exchange students and we will meet again.
This was probably one of the most depressing weeks in my exchange so far. It has showed me how close I have gotten with Katie and to Germany. In a way that is really good as I know i've been having great experiences as I am so emotional but also its sad that things are coming to an end.
Dienstag 26/27 Juni - Katie's surprise going away party/Berlin.
Katie had the shock of her life when she walked into her backyard and found all her school friends there, but an even bigger shock when Roy and I jumped out of her bed. Roy and I sang her a personally made mean girls song, showering her with hugs and also shots haha. We played Katie's favourite music, had a bbq and just had a nice time with her, it was lovely. In the morning we shared a German breakfast together, Katie's last, sooooooo sad. I gave her some aussie items for her to remember me by, a silly hat and tshirt, also I made her a page of photos and a letter.
When it finally came to saying goodbye Katie and I were crying like babies, trying to say meaningful words to each other but not hearing anything.. it was silly on my part as I knew I was going to see her again as Roy and I were going to Berlin airport the next day to see her off (a surprise for Katie) but still I love her so it was all worth it. After Caro and Roy had to tear us apart, Roy and I headed back to Rostock/home, but once at Rostock main station we saw a really cheap train to Berlin (19 euros for 2 people - instead of 30 for one person) so we jumped at the opportunity and after calling our host parents we were on our way to Berlin. By 6pm we were in Berlin meeting up with all the exchange students and just chilling. A nice indian dinner later we were in tiergarten playing beer ball and just having fun all together again. By 2am we (all exchange students) were starting to freak out that we wouldn't make the bus to Berlin airport to say goodbye to Katie and also Robin, an american girl, so we frantically go to the Berlin main station and searched for buses. Luckily we made it to the airport by 4am (Katie's plan was at 6am) so we had plenty of time for another goodbye. It is so sad to know that Katie isn't in Germany anymore, I don't have a girl here who completely knows me and understand me now.. but I know this is not a goodbye, its see you soon as we will definitely meet again in the future!! We are after all Sagi sisters and I love her so much.
Donnerstag 28 Juni - UEFA Semi finals (GEHEN 'SCHLAND!!)
The day started out pleasantly with a sleep in and some beach frisbee/ volleyball with Luca, Naima (Luca's girlfriend) and Nick (Luca's friend). Then Nick and I headed off to the Kirstoff's (my third host family) to watch the Germany vs Italy semi final in the UEFA Championships on their projector screen. We had a nice bbq and chatted for a bit then the action started. Everyones faces were painted in German colours and there was such a German atmosphere. I bet that it would be 2-1 Germany's way. But sadly it was 2-1 Italy's way, everyone was devasted, even Roy and I were in shock when Germany lost. The German team was meant to win!??!! It hit Roy and I so hard, so weird, I've never been that patriotic with an Australian sporting game before. Even though they lost I still love Germany tons and their soccer team too! The grand final was between Italy and Spain = Spain won 4-0 so happy it wasn't Italy!
Mittwoch 20 Juni - My last school day with Roy!!
It was not like a normal day as a some group of Germans came back from a 3 month exchange from Hong Kong and Wales so we heard their presentations and talked all about it. I sat with Roy and was a little depressed, though we had our ritual of bludging in the common room so I was content.
I can't imagine school without him, I have really no idea what I am going to do with my time and who to hang out with while my school friends are studying. Here is two photos to commemorate all the stupid times we've spent in the common room when everyone else was doing work and of course one of Roy's drawings.
21 Donnerstag - 24 Samstag Juni = HURRICANE FESTIVAL!!
It was the best weekend I have had in a while :) I was with such great people and listened to lots of amazing music!!
First off I drove with Laury and Luca to the festival grounds, took about 5 hours due to all the people doing the same - lots of fun though as when the traffic was no moving people would get out of their cars, open a beer and chat among each other - really cool. Once at the festival ground we met with Tini (Laury's girlfriend) and her friend, Marie - both lovely people. Our camping area was so small and full of people, but that made it a lot more fun as we became friends with everyone around us. I made good friends with a boy from Berlin, Jan, and his friends, we had water fights together and played cards a lot. Also I kept bumping into some boys from near Bremen who were dressed as sailors, very nice boys, they carried around confetti so we'd run around with them throwing confetti at everyone.
Friday night there was a public viewing of the Deutschland championship game, so much patriotism and so many people... Germany won 4-1. My favourite day was Saturday as i was with the girls; Tini, Marie and Anna (Tini's other friend) and we chilled, and then went to all the amazing bands together - Mumfords and Sons, Florence and the Machines and Blink 182. I got lost once but then I had the most fun as I found the sailors and we had a little adventure together...overall there were about 50 000 people there, insanely big! The only shame was that the weather on the last day was horrible, raining and so windy, that made us leave a little bit earlier, but otherwise the weather for the first 3 days was perfect and warm. We have all said that we will meet again soon so I'm excited, its great to have friends that are older and out of school as they have a bit more time and can come out with me.
