Birthdays, Berlin and Charile Chaplin :)

Samstag 6 Oktober - Ditschi 18. Geburtstag!

Finally finally one of my best German friends is 18!!! So we went out to celebrate! It was a really nice night, we first started at Bar fuss, my favourite bar, and we had a few happy hour drinks :) then after headed to the biggest club in Rostock, LT club.. not my favourite but it was still really fun! Everyone danced and talked, very pleasant!

Freitag 12. Oktober - Schule Lauf!

So my school is kind of a "goody two shoes" and organized a school run to raise money for the less fortunate children in our area, which is really nice! I had my Rotary Club Warnemünde as a sponsor and ran 7km with Jule by my side :) it was actually quite easy and nice to run next to Jule and get to know her more.

Samstag-Sonntag 13-14 Oktober - Berlin :)

Both Leon and Friedeman (host brothers)  had a rebound exchange student orientation in Berlin, and to make the train ticket down cheaper they asked me if i'd join them. So spontaneously I went to Berlin! After a very long train ride down to Berlin due to track work, we all made it to Berlin by mid morning and then I met up with an Aussie friend, Ryan, and his host family. We walked around the suburbs of eastern Berlin and found a very cute/old cafe where we enjoyed tea, coffee and cake! Later in the afternoon I met with two of my favourite newbie exchangers, Riley and Cammy, we caught up with the latest goss. After everything was said more exchangers met up with us and we headed to the Brandenburg Gate for a light festival and some drinks. Funnily enough when we got there, a riot was happening!! Only in Berlin would this happen.. I have never seen so many hippies in my life! Don't stress, it was peaceful and about helping refugees. After the excitement left we all headed to a bar and just chilled.. the night was long and after a few more bars was extremely funny! By the time morning came, Cammy and I were finally at her house and talking to her very good looking/indie/artist host brother, and after practically died of tiredness so Cammy and I went to bed. Sunday morning we woke up quickly got ready, then headed back into the city to meet Riley before I left. I was a short  and sweet goodbye to my favourite newbies, and after another annoying train ride my host brothers and i finally made it back to Rostock. Very exciting spontaneous trip to Berlin :)

Dienstag 16. Oktober - Charlie Chaplin Concert.
There is a real bonus with host parents that are musicians! My host mum played at a Charlie Chaplin movie night, where one of Charlie's old black and white films (the gold rush) was played and the orcestra made a soundtrack over the top, it was brilliant!! Charlie Chaplin is seriously hilarious and can be viewed and enjoyed by anyone :) my little host brother, Gabi, loved it and now wants to be a slap stick actor haha :) so cute!

Neuruppin Conference! New Family!!! New Travels!!

The last month or so have been extremely busy!! I have experienced so much, and a lot has changed in my exchange. First up I went to my last Rotary district conference in Neuruppin, West of Berlin, and I met all the new exchange students, had a blast but at the same time missed all the old exchange students!! (Officially an oldie; so strange). Next I partied at a Holi open air festival (the festival with powder and dj music like in India), which was amazing. I changed host families to the Kirstoffs (musical and bio-free souling family), and I love them already!! And last but not least went to LONDON with two German school friends and met up with two Aussie friends, such a happening city!

27th -31st August; Compact Week
This week really just involved everyone at school being put into groups and learning skills and motivation class, which ended up just being an absolute bludge.. and involved just talking and drawing or watching movies... standard week at school for an exchange student really. On thursday we did a year building exercise at the local high ropes centre - pretty fun, and made me actually made me build on some relationship, surprise!

Samstag 1st September; Caro`s 18th (Sensation white)
So glad i have kept in contact with Katie´s host sister and her friends, because everytime I meet up with them I have a ball! The night started with Maxi picking me up, with a car full of girls, having pasta at one of their houses, borrowing there clothes and then going to the party (Germans are now quite friendly and nice to me since I can contribute to conversation, so glad no more awkward situations!). The party involved everyone wear white, party girls in red, a dance floor and lots.. I mean lots of drinks. Turned out to be a very funny night as some of Caro´s hippy friends had lots of interest in Australia and scouting so many amusing conversations came about :)


7th - 9th Septemeber; NEURUPPIN CONFERENCE

After a 2 hour train ride of the most frustrating conversations I have lived through... seriously language barriers and immaturity is not a fun mixture, me and 4 newbies made it to Neuruppin!! Once there we meet with 58 other exchange students from north east Germany :) but most of my excitement was to see my Australian, Will, and the other old exchange students. The weekend involved a tour of Neuruppin, a campfire down at the Neuruppin lake, and other activities. Also Will, German and I made a spontaneous trip to Neuruppin city from our hostel (10km) to buy some supplies. Got to know some of the newbies pretty well and they seem really nice, but my heart is still with the other older exchangers. During the weekend I translated a lot from German to English for the new exchange students and helped with problems.. by the weekend I was given the name of `Mumma oldie`, not sure if I like it but at least the exchange students know they can trust me! Due to all the work I did over the weekend with the exchange students, one of my Rotary leaders big projects  nominated me to speak at a Global Peace Forum in Berlin in Decemeber - BIG DEAL.. over 2000 people will be there and I will be speaking about my exchange and international relationships-peace throughout student exchange. Also I am the leader of the exchange students at this forum, soooo much responsibility!


Freitag 14th September: The Whos Tommy (theatre-musical)Was spontaneously invited to go to a musical based on the band, The Who, with two school friends; Annika and Franzi. Very cute night with the girls since I have really caught up with them in awhile due to being in a different year group at school. They are the nicest girls and we had fun laughing at the musical since it was all in German, even the Whos songs!!! Pretty terrible acting and singing, but nonetheless a good night with good company.

Sonntag 16th September: Holi Open Air Festival - IGA Park
Holi Open Air Festival is a religious spring festival created and highly celebrated in India, known as a festival of colours. It truely is a festival of colours as everyone is dancing around listening to hippy-cool music and throwing coloured powder everywhere! I went with a new friend, Jule, from the 11th class and some of her local friends - really fun and it was nice to be around some new people. Met up with Caro, Maxi and Jojo as well, danced everywhere and caught up. Such a fun day! The next day Jule and I woke up insanely sick... We just lay in her bed dying, probably because of inhaling too much powder, so we didnt go to school instead we watch One Tree Hill, the tv series - hard life!! Didnt matter we were sick though because it was such a fun experience :) Here is a link to a video of the Holi to give everyone an idea what it was like! ! http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Hh-o5g4tLVE

21-23 September: BERLIN

Spontaneous trip to Berlin! Thursday night I was invited to drive down to Berlin with my host brother (Leon) and his friends for the weekend, and party with them.. also to celebrate 2 exchange students 18ths = a big weekend!!
Friday; Leon, his friends and I drove down to Berlin after school.. Got there around 9pm due to traffic.. but that didnt stop us from meeting up with some friends in Berlin and going to the biggest club in Berlin called The Matrix. 

Saturday; I met up with all the exchange students, we hang out in Berlin, walked around, had a cute lunch together and bought presents for the birthday kids. At night we found the coolest spot, it was a mixture of an old cafe and theatre with fairy lights everywhere, next to a little park with play equipment and it was right on the Berlin river.. also with great views of Berlin - such a shame my camera was broken!! The exchange students soaked up the facilities perfectly, which made it a very eventful night. Exchange students are the most unique people ever haha. 
By the end of the night we all ended up at McDonalds together and meeting new friends, such as a group of tired Americans waiting for their 4.15am train - they didnt know what hit them when 20 exchange students joined their table! When we all started to lose our energy heaps of us headed to Victors (Brazilian) house and watched Hunger games then fell asleep! Always a big day and night with the exchangers.
Sunday; slowly made our way home to Rostock..


24th Septemeber: Last night with the Zeug family.I organised a very cute dinner, and made Mums famous meatloaf with mixed vegies and red wine. I gave the family their presents, Ulla started to tear up when I gave her the opal necklace, and said goodbye and see you soon. It wasnt as sad I thought since I know I will see them a lot during the rest of my exchange.. changing families is just another step. But I have been very thankful for the Zeug family as I actually felt loved and welcome there :) After packing up all my things I had three big and two small bags full of belongings... funny to see how much you can acquire over 8 months!

25th Septemeber: Hello Kirstoff family!After a normal day at school Ulla drove me and my five bags over to Warnemünde, where my last host family lives and which is my new home for the rest of my exchange. It was an easy change as I already knew the Kirstoffs and we get along really well. Even Holger, host dad, and I joke around a lot.. I call him Uncle Colin (because he has the same humour as my Uncle and the same look) and he calls me Andy pandy, funny relationship already! I am very good friends with my host brother, Friedi, and we bond really well over exchange as he was in Ohio USA for 1 year also with Rotary. I have another little host brother aged 12, Gabi, who is a crazy football fan, so we naturally get along too... works out well. The family are all very nice, even for a Bio-recycle loving family who are very free spirited haha - thats why I love them!

28th and 30th: West side story and Philharmonisches Konzert.As I have said my new host parents, Antje and Holger, are musicians.. not like  a rock band, more like an orcestra. Due to this they have many concerts and performances, in which I am always invited to.. so I took the opportunity and went to a modern concert (west side story) with Gabi, and also a classical with Friedi. Both my parents are extremely talented musicians, so both concerts were amazing!! I have asked my host parents to tell me when something new is on because I enjoyed both of the concerts so much!!

1-4th Oktober: LONDON CALLING!!For four days I went with Annika and Ditschi to London, for an new travelling experience. This experience started bright an early Monday morning, 6am, where I was picked up by Ditschi`s mother and we drove to Hamburg airport. From Hamburg we flew to London.. and in under 3 hours we were in our YHA hostel in St Pauls, right in the centre of London... amazing!! Straight away I met up with an old Aussie friend, Marika, and we demolished all the shops on Oxford street, had coffee together, some more shopping and then had a cute English dinner together - it was so nice to have a slice of home with me, even if it was for a few hours.. we connected heaps and shared stories of our travels, loved it! Got back to the hostel quite early and dead due to so much walking!
Tuesday; We ate a nice English breakfast at hostel, I have really missed egg, bacon and hash browns for breakfast so it was amazing! Then we head to the Tate Modern museum, really hip and technological museum - pretty interesting and facinating! After about 3 hours or so we walked around and found the Big Ben, Westminister Abbey and a lot more red buses!! Very typical London. We ended up in Soho and China town looking through markets and stalls.. also came across an entertaining and extremely funny Canadian stuntman-street performer, who worked the crowd by using excellent sarcasm, throwing knives and embarassing the audience. Late in the afternoon Ditschi went to visit a friends host family, so that left Annika and I to discover the crazy London nightlife. First started off in a transport museum drinking tea, then in a bar with cocktail night in which the bartender was extremely flirty and funny, and he ended up making us his favour drink, called the zombie. MnM world came next where we saw the fake Abbey road and experience `four levels of fun`, then somehow we found a rainforest cafe, where everything seemed like real life and then of course to the famous platform nine and three quarters! = one crazy night in London.Wednesday; Woke up with some exciting stories from our old Aussie roommate from Perth, the lady was probably 65 and had been travelling for about 30 years... interesting lady. Since we had such a jampacked day yesterday we started off slowly by walking around London, seeing the Eye, Buckingham Palace and Hyde Park. In between we shopped in Gilly Hicks, a brand based on Sydney in which I have never heard of in my life.. and there isnt even a single store in Sydney. Also on the way collecting a classic photo with the Abercrombie and Finch models, then headed into a small English town for High Tea; simply fabulous darling! This little tea house we had entered was real traditional English, from the curtains, to the scones even the customers with fancy clothing and cambridge or old fashioned English accents which I thought didnt still exist - such a lovely experience! On the way home I stopped by another local Aussie friend at work, Katherine, and we had a cute chat.. shame she had to work and was busy the days I was in London, but nonetheless it was pleasant. For dinner I met with another local Aussie friend, or really a friend my sisters, Dane, and we talked about our lives overseas and how back home is exactly the same.. also how weird to thnk about going back, very nice and in a way sophisticated, though I hated it when he said I was actually like my sister (yeah, laugh it up Liz).
Thursday; Last day was short but sweet. Annika and I trained it to Brick Lane, an arty section of London where we found an awesome vintage shop with old records and amazing clothes!! The trip was short but very plesant with the girls and i love mixing English and German together over the four days!! Definitely going back to London when I get the chance, awesome city!

All for now...I will update more and with more detail soon. Love and peace out xxxx