Freitag 17 August - Cori is in Rostock!
So I left school early to go pick Cori up from Rostock's main station, I was so excited its unbelievable.. I couldn't wait for her to experience part of my exchange and meet my friends/family here - not many people will get that opportunity so this was really nice! (Cori was an exchange student at my school in Aus). Once i saw her, and hugged her, we didn't stop talking.. German and English combined, so funny - sometimes we didn't even realize which language we were speaking in haha. I took her into Rostock city and showed her around, we went and had lunch in my favourite restaurant - very cute! After she came home and met my host family, they seemed to get along really well, and then we got ready to go to a school dance (Bergfest). Once finished we went to Laury's and hung out before going to the dance, very casual and chill. At 'Bergfest' we talked with all my school friends, watched the teacher perform in little bad (so funny) and then danced the night away! Around 11pm the dance was over so a small group of us wandered to the beach, then to a beach bar - it was a good night!
Samstag 18 August - Finally summer weather!
This was seriously the first weekend it was actually hot! 30 degrees! I was actually desperate to go swimming, odd for Germany, but Cori and I took advantage of the weather and spent the day on the beach with the boys. Warnemunde beach was wonderful and the water, even though it was cold, was really pleasant and refreshing. For lunch Cori had the famous Warnemunde 'fischbrotchen' (fish bread) and we soaked up more sun/admired the Baltic Sea. Once at home we rested, good ready for the night and organised to have dinner with my host parents. Later we met up again at Laury's and chilled, then headed to the beach where a lot of my school friends we hanging. After about 2 hours Cori and I wanted to dance, so we all headed to LT club. An interesting taxi ride later we were back at home and discussing the nights events. I loved having Cori with me, it was so nice and comforting to have another girl with me, especially one who knew me before Germany.
Sonntag 19 August - Hottest day ever in Germany.A whooping 35 degrees on the Baltic Sea and everyone was dying. Naturally we went to the beach, and so did all the population of Rostock and Warnemunde. The beach was sooooo packed!! I've never seen anything like it before, it was unbelievable! But nonetheless it was lovely with Cori and my school friends.. we played volleyball in the water and swam around - brilliant summer day. By 5pm Cori had to leave, so we packed up our stuff and headed to the train station. It was such a short visit, but lots of fun and it was great to see Cori again. We are planning another meeting later on, maybe in her home down or in Amsterdam hehe.
The following week was just boring at school, though I organised to go to a one day festival with Jule - so thats exciting. Its called Holi Open Air Festival Rostock and it involves throwing this weird coloured powder around, like a paint party, and dancing to music, so it'll be different and fun.
Samstag 25 August - Conrad's birthday night out.
Conrad, the new guy, turned 18 so we had a little celebration starting off at barfuss and then ending at LT club once again. It was really chill and nice to be with a small group and talk over a few drinks. We met some interesting people that night as well, a group of sailors were in town, and their English was excellent so we talked and danced with them, very nice guys with great stories!
Now the summer holiday break is over and school begins.. I've changed year group from 12 to 11 because I am a distraction in class/it really hard to understand anything in the 12th grade/the guys in the 12th class will be busy studying and it'll be boring for me/my host brothers are in the 11th grade.
Dienstag 7 August - A new school year with new school friends.
In the morning riding my bike with Leon, in the perfect summer weather was truly amazing, until we got off our bikes and headed for the school... Once inside it was full of people and pretty stressful. Leon and I found Friedi then was ushered into a classroom to figure out our timetables. We meet the new kids; Conrad and Jule, who were exchange students in Canada last year, and we all got along really well. Some of the students were a bit confused about why I'd change year groups, and both seemed to want me - pretty cute.
Mittwoch 8 und Donnerstag 9 August - No understanding and Photo day.
On Wednesday classes officially started for the year, and I was pretty happy that I wasn't alone in any if my classes, I knew at least one person in all of them. My first day started off a bit crappy as my Biology teacher assumed my German was better than it is and asked me questions about Biology which I wouldn't even understand in English and when I replied I don't know or understand she simply said oh yes you do, you know it! She was so persistent about me understanding everything so she wrote things on the board, tried to explain it in German to me, made people sit with me to help... but it was no use I really had no idea what was going on, way too advanced German. It made me feels so dumb as she segregated me and questioned me. My German teacher wasn't any better in the next period as she also assumed my German was amazing and expected me to analyze German texts and asked me questions about a complicated German word and asked for the English translation, when I replied there isn't one she laughed and said oh i doubt that, you just don't know (later I googled it and there isn't a translation). I found it so frustration that the year 11 teachers didn't understand that I've only been there for 6 months and before had no German lessons, yet they expect me to understand and contribute to senior lessons which are difficult for even the German students! Also the whole not respecting me and making me feel stupid topped it off... this was one of those horrible first day experiences I was meant to have in my first month but Roy had saved me from that at the time. I took something positive out of this though.. I realised my German is only conversational, with no reading or writing capabilities, so I will know work hard to accomplish more.
The next day was better as I talked to most of my teachers and explained that I really don't understand everything, but i'll try or I will do easier alternative work/German language work. In the afternoon we had school photos, and I was surprised that both the year 11 and 12 wanted me in their photos.. so people helped me sneak into both hehehe - yay for the token white exchange student! (we have a group of asian exchange students but they don't socialize).
Freitag 10 August - First German nightmare/dream, school presentation, Rotary boating.
At about 4am I woke up in shock from a nightmare, as usual when you have a scary dream, but straight after I had this odd feeling something was different.. that I normally don't have nightmares or the fact that IT WAS IN GERMAN!!?! I sat up in bed stunned for about 5 minutes, how awesome!! When i'm relaxed I can think in both English and German - goal accomplished... I am bilingual!! After the excitement wore off I went back to sleep and continued to dream German :)
At school I couldn't hold in my excitement and told my friends about my German nightmare/dream and they were really happy for me but weren't even surprised.. some said that my German has improved so much lately and they expected it - I was extremely happy. Maybe the crappy past days made me think more about German and made me work harder at correcting myself/thinking - however it happened didn't matter all I know is that I've progressed so much since the first months.. best things i've ever achieved! Today was really all about acceptance.. I went to the school assembly/presentation and was introduced by the school captains in front of the whole school and even received a dorky school t-shirt, yay! After the assembly I went with Leon and Friedi to a Rotary boating event on a lifesaving boat and was introduced to the crew as Warnemunde's only exchange student, so cute! The boat ride was pretty horrific as the seas were so rough, nothing i've ever experienced.. I felt so ill, but lucky wasn't physically sick. I sat up with the captain and listened to his stories, played with the boats buttons and tried to breath in as much of the fresh seas air as possible. Mum, I guess I'm not so lucky and inherited your seasickness...great! But nonetheless it was a good experience with Rotary and I got to fire the big water gun on board, awesome. Later Leon and I headed to Friedi's for a spaghetti, movie and chill sleepover. Overall an fabulously awesome day which I will never forget :)
Samstag 11 August - Maxi, Jojo and Rike's 18th.
So the Ribnitz triplets had turned 18 and wanted to celebrate with a German bbq and some dancing. Mid afternoon I headed to Ribnitz Damgarten West like every time I visit the Ribnitz gang, but this time was different.. No Roy. The train trip was awfully lonely and weird without him.. 25 minutes of no dramatic conversation about love lives or exchange, my heart was broken. Once in Ribnitz I wasn't as alone and decided to forget my sadness and party like Roy and Katie would want me too with lots of dancing and our specialty shots.The party set up was really cool with a
big grass area, volley ball court, undercover areas, awesome DJ set up
and lots of room for wild dancing. It was awesome to just be myself with the Ribnitz guys and Boek camping people, I'd really missed them. By 2am every was finished with dancing but the triplets wanted to party on so we ended up at the Ribinitz youth hangout where all the hipster/"cool" people hang. It wasn't what they expected but we still enjoyed eachothers company. By early morning we were all back at the triplet's house and regrettably I had an early train ride back to Rostock for a Rotary event, but it was all worth. I love the Ribnitz guys.
Sonntag 12 August - HanseSail.
So the whole weekend had been extremely Rostock focused as it was the 20 year anniversary of the "HanseSail" - it is a fest where boats and people from everywhere come and visit Rostock, there are lots of stall and people, and lots of money is spent. Due to my Rotary clubs rich nature we celebrated this fest in style, cruising around the Baltic Sea on a massive sailing boat with catered food and good sunny weather. We spent the whole day onboard from 10am-4pm, it was lovely. Most of the time I was with Leon, talking, playing guitar and singing. I also took the opportunity to talk to most of the Rotarians, earning some brownie points and asking some questions about travel and skiing.. just in case some might offer for me to come with them haha. Some were actually open to the idea of me going with the skiing, so when it is closer to winter I will ask them again - how cool if I can go with them!
Literally everyday since Leon has been home we've been chilling and hanging around just like siblings do. Its actually quite cute because we (Luca, Leon and myself) all lay on Luca's bed playing guitars and singing together, or watching movies, or playing lame computer games; it feels a little like family... finally.
Montag 30 Juli - Meeting the new Rostock exchange student.
So for a while i've known that there were going to be new exchange students in Rostock so obviously I was curious when Ryan from Florida, USA, came over to meet me and the family. At the beginning he seemed really shy, but then he warmed up and I couldn't really stop him from talking. He is 16 and into ice hockey, and seems like a real American boy.. so i'm interested how his year is going to plan out. He doesn't know any German, exactly like me when I came here, so I was very sympathetic to him; I spoke English and a very little bit of German with him to try and teach him small things. All the kiddies ended up in Warnemunde as Leon and Ryan needed buy some German stuff like sim cards... we rode our bikes in and then showed Ryan around a little bit, very cute. When home I cooked dinner, Peanut chicken, with Ryan and Leon's help; it turned out very successful - i've really got a hang of cooking now, pretty sweet. After dinner Ryan went home the night became really nerdy as Luca, Leon and I played games until early in the morning - what has my life become?! Brothers are bad influences haha
Dienstag 31 Juli - Cati and more fun.
After more cooking, which the boys insisted I make; Banana cake, I went to Cati's to hang out. Cati will be in my school this year, and she recently got back from an exchange in USA - she's awesome. We just chilled, got ready to go out and then had dinner with her family. After that we headed to the beach and met up with Karl, a guy from our school. All three of us later got to train to go to Fun; the really seedy club which is in a way like Oatley pub - so a local hang out place. Once inside I met all my local friends, and some old friends which I haven't seen for ages... one of them was Johann - we talked for ages and danced etc, it was really nice. I was a little upset as it was my first time in Fun without Roy so he comforted me, very sweet. After being danced out Leon called me and we walked home, only 20 mins, in that time we both talked about the nights events and decided never to go in Fun again (probably a lie but whatever)... that night it was extremely full and crowded, not ideal but i found it nice with all the locals.
Mittwoch 1 August - Johann's grill
After Fun Johann texted me inviting me to his house for grill with all the local guys, naturally I said yes; it would be nice. Before going I rode my bike to Sophie's house and caught up a little bit, then Johann picked up us. His house was really really nice, its in the countryside near Bad Doberan (half an hour from Rostock) and his house has lots of green fields surrounding it, so pretty. In his backyard he has chickens, lots of trees and its just a chilled nature atmosphere. I loved it. It turned out to be a small group at his; Miri, Sophie, Johann, Ditschi and Stefan - which was really nice. Johann just got back from Vietnam so we looked at his photos and talked about travelling. Another chilled night; perfect!
Freitag 3 August - Family squash.
After being lame and play computers games together until really early in the morning, Luca, Leon and I headed into town to buy some supplies for school/ just get out of the house. By the time we got home we'd organised something with the Kirstoff's (3rd host family) in the night so we didn't just end up being nerds again. Caro (next host sister) and Inken had a choir night and insisted we watched; it was lovely and extremely well done, even though i couldn't really understand what they were singing since it was in old German language. By about 9pm it finished and we were all starving, so Leon, Friedi and myself rushed home and cooked up the world's best lasagna with tons of cheese and beer mince - it was amazing!!! Ryan, Luca, Caro and Inken made it just in time so we all ate together, very family orientated and extremely cute. The night involved just sharing exchange stories, playing cards, and admiring our cooking skills.
Samstag 4 August - Sleepover and wild weather.
We were having such a good time together that we lost track of time and it was completely dark, making bike riding home with no lights very difficult.. so we ended up just sleeping over at the Kirstoff's. By about midday we finally headed home and luckily just as we stepped into the house it started bucketing down! It was so intense, it came out of nowhere.. it was so warm and sunny, it didn't make sense - but we took advantage of this weird weather and got out swimmers on and jumped on the trampoline. It reminded me of my childhood with friends and siblings on the trampoline - it was a beautiful bonding experience haha. We even got a visit from a little frog making it feel a little bit like an Australian down pour :)
So now both my oldies/best exchange friends have left Germany and I didn't think I could be possible this sad.. but in retrospect I've had the best time with them and I'm trying not to be sad that its over but happy because I met them and experience so much with them. From now on I'm focusing on further improving my German, experiencing more of the German culture and becoming better friends with the Germans = becoming German.
26-28 Juli - Boek camping.
CAMPING WAS SIMPLY AWESOME.
I met new people from Berlin, spent more time with the Ribnitz people like Caro and Maxi, finally soaked up some sun and just enjoyed the holidays. When my first camping experience started it seemed like a normal road trip; driving fast on the autobahn, macca's stop, singalongs and finally ended up at camp with too much energy... but i was wrong it was even better! Like always when camping someone had a guitar and was playing chill emotional music; that pushed me over the edge a little bit as Roy just left and I was extremely emotionally unstable but it showed me how much the Germans care because they stopped and supported me <3
In the morning it was just like Aussie camping; waking up in a boiling hot tent and running to find water. The days were full of perfect weather so we swam, played beach soccer, volleyball and badminton, laid in the sun and just relaxed. At night we had a bbq and winded down; brilliant. The next day was roughly the same heaps chilled, really good quality time with the Ribnitz guys.
Samstag 28 Juli - Friedi's welcome party.
Once I got home from camping around 5pm my family were on the road again and about an hour later I was at the Kirstoff's house, my third host family, for my soon to be host brother's welcome home party. Friedi was in Ohio, USA for one year with Rotary. I'd heard so much about him so it was really nice to actually meet him in person, he's a very nice guy and i think we'll be good friends/siblings. It was another relaxed night with a German bbq, some German beer and German family. Leon, Friedi and I were consoling in each other about exchange; It was pleasant to hear their stories about the US and Mexico, and how exchange really does impact lives. Since losing Katie and Roy, I've been a bit lost but now that Friedi and Leon are here I have gained two more exchange student friends/brothers which is lovely.
