School...

School has started and the jet lag is over. It was nice having an excuse to not do things but I can't keep that excuse forever, i'll have to think of a new one.
I thought it was weird when I saw my friend still had her watch on Australian time when she was back in Germany,now I totally understand. It's not that I am too lazy to change it (well perhaps that aswell) but it feels like I still belong in Germany. I tell my brother I can't play soccer for too long because 'The Germans' will have their morning break soon, I look at my watch and think "oh the Germans will be awake soon". I haven't quite managed to totally pull myself away from it and its getting harder to live two lives at once.
Today I had my first day back at Orana, it was weird going back there after being at a completely different school in Germany. I knew I was definitely back at Orana when the teacher said "Now, we're going on a walk, I want you to collect 10 different types of leaves", so off we went on our nice morning walk.
The thing I struggled most with at the school in Germany was that the students had no connection with the teachers. The teachers didn't care about the students personal life at all, they didn't even ask where I was from or how long I was staying for. They do their job and as long as the students get good marks and do the work, nothing else matters. If the students fall behind, that's their problem, they can organize a tutor or leave the school is needs be.  It was so nice coming back today and talking to a teacher the whole morning break about my experiences and just having a nice chat without it being weird that I was a student and she was a teacher.
Something that I found really strange was last year the teacher said, "It affects your learning when you are in shoe box sort of classroom or one of these classrooms filled with different shapes,sizes and colours". I seriously thought they were mad. As if it had anything to do with learning, it's just Steiner that wants the buildings to look weird. After sitting in a shoe box for 6 months I really noticed the difference. It's almost like they don't want you to imagine things with your learning, its all straight until you get the right answer, there is no poking about and slowly coming to the answer. Where as at Orana the teachers take in the different opinions and through discussing the different aspects of it, come to the right answer. There is no straight forward "no". I think the learning space has something to do with it, you don't feel so enclosed and narrow minded, you have the freedom to think. It's something I missed a lot, even the school in general. The one in Germany was simple but ugly, it was a place to learn and nothing more, in my opinion there is more to school.
I have to say it was almost the best feeling having all the classes in English, everything seems to be a breeze now. The day was shorter because I didn't have to concentrate and translate everything in my mind, it was great. I made a deal with myself that I would be really switched on and start my assignments and homework...lets see how long I last.
I know this post seems short considering I am comparing the two completely different types of schools but it's only my first day back so there will be more :)

Home sweet home

It doesn't feel right writing this from Australia, Canberra, in my very own house, in front of the warm fire.  It just doesn't make sense.
When i first arrived in Sydney the first person to talk to me was from the airport. I couldn't have heard anything better but the sound of the Aussie accent, it was truly amazing. I thought they were just putting on the accent or they were a real Aussie but when I walked through the airport everyone was speaking with this weird accent, I loved it. It was so great to be able to speak to strangers without any problems and having to think about what I was saying.
I went to Woden on my first day, I knew I was back when I looked around and counted how many bogans there were.
I don't think I could be in a better place right now, home is where I need to be. Although I found it hard leaving Germany and the people there, I am so happy to be back. It's a weird feeling, I don't feel the need to catch up with people because I have lasted all these months without seeing any of them and now that I am back it just doesn't matter if I go through another few weeks without seeing them.
The changes here are very minimal but it's nice trying to point them out and appreciate them. Apart from the fact that the dog has changed into a psycho case, not very much has changed here at home.
I have no motivation to do anything, my bags were still packed until this morning when I decided to do it because I was starting to embarrass myself. The blog is another story... I just haven't brought myself to writing anything because everything is normal now. In Germany I had open eyes to notice what the differences are but here everything is normal and I can't find anything interesting. It makes writing hard because a lot of posts were about the differences and it was so much fun writing about it.
The question I get asked most from people my age is, "How did you survive half a year away?" my answer is always, "I really have no idea". It's such a hard question to answer because there is no answer to it, I just pushed myself through the 6 months and I don't know how. It just shows that it's possible for everyone, you just have to pull through it and even when things get tricky there will always be light at the end of the tunnel.

I know that it's going to be hard writing posts but there will most definitely be one next week when school starts again, so stay posted.

Goodbye

I remember sitting here 161 days ago thinking to myself "what am I doing?". Those words were stuck in my head as I realized what was ahead of me. When thinking to myself, the word which was most used was 'survive', I had to survive this but how?
I refused to listen to anyone who told me it will be a great experience, I'm going to have so much fun, I'll learn so much and so on. Seriously, what were they thinking? How am I going to have fun when all my friends back home are doing things without me and I am stuck here with no friends and all I am going to want to do is go home.  I always new i had to do this exchange and I was completely against it. Why would my parents put me through torture just to get a different experience, I rather stay at home. "You,re going to thank me after this" said my Mum has I went through the departure gates.
I know I have written all negative thoughts above but no positive thoughts crossed my mind when I thought about the exchange. It may because I am a negative person but I always try and stay opened minded however, it just didn't work.
The first night here was the hardest, tears came to my eyes as I thought about the road ahead and I just didn't want to believe where I was.
As the days carried on I still thought the whole idea of it all was stupid. I had so much on my hands and couldn't think straight. The days turned into weeks and there were a couple of days where I started enjoyed myself, but not enough. I could feel everything getting better as I made more friends and tried to be myself and get out more. Everyone would be talking about their plans for the weekend and where they were going to meet up. I couldn't do anything about it, I had to remember that not only were they new to me, I was new to them. I struggled to find my feet at school and nothing got any better until the last two months month.
Not only  did I have to think about what was happening in my life, I had to keep up to date with what was happening back home. But was that really necessary? No, it was a complete waste of time. Not only was I moving on, they were too. Now that I think about it, I am happy so many people moved on with life and left me behind. Of course it's a sad feeling but it is probably for the best, if we can't hold on to our friendship while we're living different lives then it isn't strong enough keeping.
The months moved on faster than I thought and I stopped counting down the days until the 13th of July. Now it is the the night before the 13th and I honestly feel the same way I felt when I got here but about Australia this time.
It's not going to be easy, it's like I left a life behind for the better and had to move on. I  moved on and made a better life but now I have to leave it and go back to the one I left before.  It's all a bit complicated but how boring would life be if it wasn't?
You may be reading this thinking that I regret a lot of moves I made but I don't regret anything I have done because I have learnt so much and I couldn't be more happy with the choices I made and the outcome . People say "you didn't even want to go at first". No of course I didn't and I am glad I thought that because it feels like I have achieved something now. I proved everyone wrong and even better, I proved myself wrong. I honestly haven't achieved something bigger than this and its one of the best feelings to have.

This is the last post I am going to be publishing from Germany,but not my last post forever. If I leave it at this its like an unfinished book.

Final days, final goodbyes

The days are ending and the tears are coming. It hasn't sunk in that I am actually going, it feels like a dream and i'll wake up in Canberra.
I say goodbye to people knowing that I wont see them for years, I say goodbye to teachers knowing they will never be a part of my life again. Although school was hard, the people were amazing and so welcoming. I guess leaving shows me which people actually noticed I was there and felt the need to say goodbye. Others kept to themself and knew they wouldn't see me again so why bother saying goodbye?
It hurts knowing that I could loose all these friendships because of the distance. Of course we can keep intouch but I know very few will.
Without the people here my time wouldn't have been the same. They were all so nice and friendly and made sure I was always being cared for. I can say it wasn't easy going to a new school where no one spoke English, I didn't know anyone and on the first day I was put in a class to fend for myself. Well, that's what I thought but no one allowed me to sit alone or even walk to class alone, they were always there and I honestly couldn't have done it without them.
Another thing that I couldn't have done without was soccer. It was something I could commit to and also do without having any struggles, it also helped that my team was made up of the nicest people. I'm going to miss it so much but it really shows that no matter what talent you have, you can do it anywhere and also meet amazing people.
Unfortunately I can't write about everything I will miss here or what I have enjoyed but its simple, I will miss everyone and everything.

 This is not my last post so stayed posted for tomorrows end post :)  

Just a few thoughts...

Just a reminder, this is my opinion and how I see things so no one has to agree with me. 

In Australia it's like everything revolves around attention and popularity. You have to have the latest and greatest to be 'cool' and you have to get the most likes on your facebook picture to be popular. Then there are the other people who either make their life miserable and  want to be sad to get attention or have nothing better to do. There are also the ones who have mental illnesses and I fully respect that, they can't do anything about it.
I am not scared to say that I was one of the people who only wore clothes if they had a good label, its embarrassing now that I think about it. I'm not saying that has completely changed but it has changed a lot. It's amazing to see how much the people who surround you influence you. When everyone cares what brands they wear,of course you're going to start to do the same, just out of habit. There are people who are strong and don't fall into these traps, they are lucky because they are their own self and are not a shadow of the people around them. Wouldn't everything be better if everyone was different and themselves, if they didn't try to impress the ones around them?
Well, in Germany the people are something like that. Life doesn't revolve around being sad and miserable, you have to be happy to live a good life. School is so important here and it all revolves around the marks. Despite this, if they realize it's taking over their social life something has to be changed. Socializing is a big thing here, and no one can get enough of it. Perhaps its easier to catch up with people because everything is walking/ riding distance in the village and so its easy to say "meet me in 5 minutes".  However, it does lie upon the people aswell, because they want to get out and go for a drink or go for a nice walk, stuff sitting around at home all weekend.

I am here thinking, 'Going back home is not going to easy. Just because I have changed as a person, it    doesn't mean anyone else has, perhaps no one. I don't want to live the life I was living when i left but it's going to be hard to live my German life with different people and on the other side of the world. Why does it hurt so much to think of the person I was before I left? Because no doubt, I will fall back into the same traps.'

Europa Park

The weeks are coming to an end and the stress is starting. I was originally going to write about the stress but I decided it would be boring. To make things more boring, i'll write about one of my highlights.

Europa Park

Europa park is the biggest theme park in Germany and can accommodate for over 50,000 guests per day. It's nothing like Lunar Park, it is bigger and better. Entry costs around 40 euros for a day pass but this allows you access to every ride without any higher costs. Not only do you get to choose from the 48 rides but there are amazing shows which are also great to see. You can travel through Europe in a day, there are 12 countries and each country represents their culture. The park has 5 resorts which are absolutely amazing and so well built, it also has camping resort, I wouldn't call it camping though.
  'Silver Star' is the biggest roller coaster in Europe and my favorite one at Europa park. The tallest point is 73 metres high and has a speed of 130km/h. The feeling you get can't be described but it has to be experienced one time in your life time. Another highlight is 'blue fire' which isn't as big but you get a shock when the train accelerates to 115km/h in 2.5 seconds.
If your ever visiting Europe, Europa park is a must see. Something you wont experience anywhere else. I was lucky and visited the park twice in 5 and a half months.
Enjoy some photos (not taken by me)

  Silver Star

        Blue Fire 

One of the hotels 

Another visit to Portugal

Last time I wrote about my time in Portugal it started with 'Portugal. A place which I can't quite work out even after spending a week there'
Nothing has changed since, I  still can't work it out. I saw a different part of Portugal this time and that was the city, it was beautiful. A little bit like Paris with the atmosphere being full of life, the buildings were similar, the metro and all the tourists. The week was spent at my host families holiday house with another family who were staying nearby.The days were spent relaxing by the pool and on the beach. The water was still way to cold for someone from Australia but I managed to go swimming nearly everyday.  We arrived in Lisbon (the capital of Portugal) late in the afternoon on Saturday and spent one night there as we were flying back to Germany early the next morning. It was amazing to see how much life there is late in the night. We watched Germany vs Ghana in a pub (I have to say its pretty good being 16). Here is a photo of what it was like in the pub:

Every single night I had problems with mosquitoes. It was the most annoying thing ever, I would wake up to a buzzing in my ear between 12:00-3:00am  and spend an hour trying to kill the stupid things. Sometimes I managed but other times I went crazy and gave up. After a week of living with the stupid insects i came to the weird conclusion that they have personalities. Some of them were REALLY annoying and wouldn't leave me alone but other ones would buzz in my ear, maybe bite me and then leave.There were hungry ones which weren't too annoying, they just bit me on my face or hands and then left. There were also sneaky ones which hid under the bed so I couldn't find them when I turned the light on and then they would come out again. One night I went crazy and took a photo of one of the bites because it was so itchy, I looked at the details of the photo and it was taken exactly at 2:46am.I have no idea what I was thinking but here is the photo (it's pretty disgusting): 

And here is a video of someone we listened to on the street. He had an amazing voice and deserves to be recognized.  Sorry about the quality,I'm not the worlds best filmer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiIUyPwqdG0&feature=youtu.be

 It was a perfect holiday to end my stay here. I am not in a writing mood so I'll post more pictures instead. The months are coming to an end and now its only weeks, I can't believe it but that will be in another post still to come.

The pool at the holiday house 

I thought it would be cool to get a photo of someone surfing with the view behind
them but unfortunately the waves weren't very good.  

This was a spot on the beach which was out of the sun and also out of the wind. 

Here is Lisbon

Another photo of the swimming pool 

And lastly these cool statues we climbed on which was also in Lisbon

12/06/14

I can now delete my last post, my laptop has decided to be nice to me.

"You don't need to pack summer clothes, you wont be getting a real summer and it's not going to hot." Said the mother as her daughter left for Germany for 5 and a half months; 6 weeks being in summer.
so, what did I do? I packed one down jacket, one woolen jacket and another jacket. As well as over 5 pairs of long pants, what was I actually thinking?
The past few days have been horrible, it has been between 35-40 degrees Celsius. Luckily there is a public pool close by and its perfect for a nice cool down. It's hard to work out if people are in a bad mood from the heat or the amount of French people who take over the place, i'm thinking its a bit of both.What annoyed me most were the people smoking, just sitting there surrounded by kids and the smoke is blowing in everyone's faces. It's such an issue here but it doesn't really get to many people.  Its so great to listen to the Germans complain about the French. Breisach (where i am staying) is right on the border of Germany and France, so as you can imagine there are plenty of French. They all shop here because its cheaper but not only do they do that, they only speak French. When Germans go to France they speak French but when French people come here they speak French and don't attempt German.

It is now holidays for two weeks which is good in a way but on the other hand I have had to cure my boredom for the past week. Everyone seems to go away in these holidays instead of the summer holidays because its not so busy.  I'll go to Portugal on Friday so no more posts for a week but I am thinking of writing a day journal so i'll see how that goes and then post it when i get back.

you can be jealous, I'm sure most of you are sitting home freezing

Yesterday I decided to cure my boredom by going for a two hour bike ride. It was extremely hot but I wanted to do some sort of excise. I had no idea where I was going but I just decided to go straight and see where I would end up. I didn't end up in an interesting place because I was dying of thirst and had to turn around but I decided to take a photo:

Talk to you all in a week, goodbye for now :) 

Due to technical difficulties (also known as my laptop being a total shit) this may be my last post for a while.
I am very sad about this and I apologise but these things happen. There may be some posts but not as many as i was hoping for in my last month in Germany.
Goodbye for now and hopefully I can write again soon.

The weekend started nicely on Thursday; a long weekend was just what I needed. It was a busy long weekend but one of the best so far.
Thursday and Friday were just normal days to relax and do a few things. On Saturday I had my very last soccer game here: I don't think I've ever been so sad about a game.  It didn't matter if we lost or won because we would come second on the ladder either way. Winning would obviously be a good note to leave it on so that is what we did. The end result was 3-1, I had to score three or more goals to get my goal count on 10 or above but unfortunately I only managed two goals. I am so happy that I got to play in Germany, it has definitely helped me feel comfortable in this rather unfamiliar place and, of course, my team was great and will never be forgotten.

Number 9 is my lucky number- 9 goals. 

Saturday night my friend Marlene and I had a sleepover, which was great, and we went on a really nice walk down to the river Rhine in the evening. I didn't want to make a big deal over my birthday so the day was very relaxed and in the evening I had a few friends over for dinner which was really nice. Turning 16 is here is a big deal because you can legally start drinking (beer, wine, etc.No heavy things), but to me it was just another birthday. I have six weeks to live it up and then I'll have to wait another two years.
Thank you to everyone who wished me a happy birthday and for all the kind messages I received- and of course the presents.

sunset

 

Mistakes

We all make mistakes, its part of the human nature and it can't be stopped. When learning a new language, of course mistakes happen more frequently but everyone just forgets and moves on.
I make mistakes very often but thats alright, its all part of it. I am going to write about one of the mistakes I made yesterday, it was more of a miss understanding. If you don't get it the first time you may have to read over it again.

We had just finished writing a 3 hour long German test and I was still a bit overwhelmed by it all. The next lesson was biology, not too hard just another lesson where I pretend to understand everything.
 Anyway, the teacher said, "draw a stick man on half of the page". So i drew an ugly man, not too hard I thought. The next thing the teacher said was, "draw the same stick man with closed eyes".  So I thought a little bit about how I would draw it and came to a nice plan in my head. Before i started to draw it, I looked around at some other peoples and they weren't drawing the face on the actual person. The first thought that came to me was, is it really that hard to draw a person with shut eyes? Then I thought maybe it was a German thing to draw stick people like that. I sat there for a little bit and then realized how dumb I really am.

A weekend in Switzerland

A short description of my weekend in Switzerland (1 week late) 

1/5/14

Sitting on the ICE (InterCity express) and watching the mountains and green grass go past in a blur. I won’t complain and say I had to wait for over an hour for this train to come because I was very well entertained. People watching and free WiFi is a fun thing to do for an hour. I really am not German at heart because I didn't mind waiting for an hour.

As I was drinking my four Euro small hot chocolate from Starbucks, I was watching this lady have a conversation with herself. She obviously thought she was really funny because when she came inside she could hardly walk through the door because her laughter was taking over her body. I thought maybe it was time to go before she came and sat next to me.

I arrived in Interlaken Ost (Switzerland) a few hours later and met my dad’s uncle and aunty. They have a holiday house in Beatenberg which looks over the lake and mountains. It was such a shame I had so little time because it was simply beautiful.

The rest of the day was well spent catching a bus to the end of street and walking back. No, it wasn’t just a normal street; it was the longest street in Europe that goes through a village. When we got to the end we walked the 7km back, taking in the beautiful view along the way. 

3/5/14

Bern is a bit like Canberra, not in looks or the way it feels but it is a forgotten capital city. No, Zurich is not the capital of Switzerland and Sydney is also not the capital of Australia.

Bern is a beautiful place filled with lots of life but also very relaxed.  At the end of the main street is a bear enclosure, it was weird seeing bears in the middle of a city but also understandable. I thought it was pointless at the time but I studied a bit about Bern in one of my German assignments... who would have thought it would come in handy?

Bern is definitely a place I will visit again. You could almost say it is a flawless city because the flaws are so well hidden. Switzerland is a ‘must see’ and should be visited at least once in everyone’s life time.   

Bern

The bear enclosure 

The walk along the lake side 

Independence

This is just a thought I had: An example of independence between German and Australian kids and their parents. 

Australia: "You're now in year 9 (or 10) darling, this means you're going to have to start being independent. I will still pack your lunch and morning tea in the mornings. However, Mummy wont be able to pick you up from school anymore, she now has to work full time because you're grown up now. There is a bus that goes past our house but you will have to cross the main road and walk a few metres so please be careful. Now listen to me, do not talk to any strangers and call me as soon as you get home. I will be home from work in the late afternoon so I will leave some afternoon tea in the fridge. OK?" 

Germany: "You're now in year 5 (or 6), this is when you become more independent and don't rely on mummy and daddy as much. I have bought you a train card so you can now travel to school and many other places without having to get me to come with you. I will give you the train times so you will have to work out what time you need to catch the train. There will be a lot of other people from your class doing the same so you wont be alone. I will come home  later in the afternoon so make something for lunch and we can have a warm meal for dinner."

It's hard thinking of things to write and making it interesting. I like to write interesting posts every now and then rather than really boring posts everyday. This post may be interesting for some but feel free not to read it if you're not interested in 'Steiner education'.

School went back today, it was a bit weird getting up at 6.30am rather than 10-10.30am. My holidays were well spent relaxing and catching up with people.Going to bed at a reasonable time is also a struggle. It doesn't help that the time differences are so annoying now and basically doesn't work out at all with Australia - it's very tricky finding the time to talk to people at home.

I have to keep reminding myself that because I am in Germany it does not mean I am on holidays all the time. I would love to spend the time visiting new places, taking nice photos and meeting new people but unfortunately school and homework are in the way. Instead of taking maybe an hour doing homework it takes me 3 because my procrastination has become very bad. It is not that I don't understand it but I am just not interested and, of course, looking up words that I am unsure of takes a lot of time and effort.

I am starting to lose all my creative skills that I formed at Orana over the nine years that I was there. It's something that is really lacking at this school, and I find it sad. Its something completely normal for them and it was normal for me to write my own work book with pictures and colours every morning for nine years and then bring it home and spend more time working on it. Those books are precious and it is hard to part with them so you store them in a box until you move out. What happens here I wonder? Everything gets drilled into them with endless pieces of paper and tests, then at the end of the year all the pieces of paper get chucked out.

I never believed it when the teachers at Orana said "make your books beautiful, you will come back to them later in your life". That is 100 per cent true: its so nice to start from the class one books and flick through them watching your handwriting and the use of colours and crayons change.

To put it straight forwardly, I miss Orana but the time has come to move on and now I know that it doesn't just take a few days. The things like being outside for most of the day, going to singing every morning, talking to the teachers about things that aren't even about school - you don't realize how important they are until you don't have them anymore,everything just goes.

I guess being at this school is not only extremely different but it is also hard on me. It's impossible to be myself because most people are complete strangers and you see new people everyday. There is no sense of 'family' or even 'community'. School is where you go and learn, nothing more (I do not agree). It is also frustrating with the language because I can't say what I would like to say, only what I am able to say. I am hoping this will improve over the time (which I'm sure it will).

If anyone has any interesting ideas on what would be interesting to write about or what they would like to see in this blog, comment below or message me :)

Although we spend nearly everyday in the year with eachother apart from in the holidays, holidays are spent relaxing and hanging out with friends. The one problem that occurs is that it is so hard to find time because everyone wants to catch up with everyone and they are always 'too busy'. Its even hard finding time with the Germans even though they are the most organised people on the planet.

Who would have thought we could get eight Aussies and Germans to all hang out at once in Germany and meet on time? It was most likely a once in a life time experience but it really did happen and wow, I'm glad it did. It really is a great feeling hanging out with your classmates on the other side of the world - the surroundings are different but we are still the same people. This once in a life time experience was spent walking around Freiburg while all the shops were closed. However, that doesn't matter because my favorite shop, or shall I say restaurant was open - a small Italian place. "I can't think of anywhere like that in Canberra," said Jasper Lindell. Das stimmt ("that is the truth"). A couple of hours were spent there talking about home and all the stuff we don't really miss, no one mentioned anything they actually do miss. We then went our separate ways knowing we wouldn't get this opportunity again.

One can never say goodbye enough, so another afternoon was spent with two Aussies in Freiburg eating cake, playing card games and setting off fireworks. I travelled back to Breisach at 10:30pm after seeing Jasper leave with a bang

Portugal

16/04/14

I wrote this down when I was in Portugal...

I looked in the mirror after a day at the beach and thought ‘shit’. It was stupid thinking that the sun wasn’t strong in Europe and there is no such thing as a bad sunburn ... my back could be mistaken for a tomato, I was that stupid.

It was my first time going to a beach here in Europe. I thought I was back in Australia when I looked around at the surroundings: there were a few eucalyptus trees but then I looked at the people and knew I wasn’t in Australia. To put this straight forward, some people in Australia want to reveal everything and they may as well, but they decide to cover up in the slightest way possible. Here, who cares? No one does, so wear what you like ... or should I say don’t wear anything. Everyone was happy at this little beach even though the water was freezing, well that is what I thought but apparently it was, ‘so warm’.

Too cold to go in the water. So I lay on the beach and people-watched (something I love to do in new places). There was one family who really fascinated me. I couldn’t quite work them out but that is what I liked about them: they weren’t like every other family sitting on the beach. There were three kids, a mum, a dad and a family of dogs consisting of a mum and her three little puppies. The family were travelling and had a nice old camper van with a big trailer which may have had a kitchen in it. They were the type of people who I would have liked to ask a few questions and ask about their travels but it was impossible to. They had set up for the day just next to the beach on a big sand hill. No one could disturb them unless they climbed up the hill. There they sat with their washing drying on a string attached to two things; the kids were playing in the sand and the dogs were running around playing with the kids. No iPads, phones,TVs, anything; it was just the family and nature. I can’t even imagine what a better way would be to spend time with the family and really get to know each other. The puppies were also growing up with the family right by their sides.

Portugal

Portugal. A place which I can’t quite work out even after spending a week there. It isn’t like Paris where you know exactly what you’re in for the minute you step into it. Not much is mentioned about Portugal only that is a ‘beautiful place’. Yes, that is true but what are the surroundings really like? It’s a place where you really have to see with your own eyes because the place changes when you get in the car and drive for 20 minutes. It goes from lots of life and houses which all look similar, narrow roads, poor people, heaps of restaurants and then to a little town where everything seems to be dead, one shop in sight with lots of shrubby bushes everywhere. The beautiful part of Portugal in my opinion would be the beaches and the views because everything seems untouched even though so many tourists have visited the place but there are still the old rocks and ruins in their same shape. 

It was good being able to understand everything again (don’t think that I speak Portuguese). If the locals know you're a tourist there is no question about it but English is spoken. Most of them can speak English very well because that’s how they make their money through tourists. I would say most of the tourists come from England and America; all the beaches are swarming with English accents and extremely white people who then turn to red.

There isn't much to say about Portugal itself but it’s a place that you must visit to be able to experience a different culture and to see places which you don’t get any of in other countries.

Time

Sitting in French lessons and not having any idea what is going on is always a good time to think. The thought that has come to me this French lesson is, time. I remember before i left I was doubting myself if I would 'survive' these five and a half months . The truth is that I guess I really am a home body and I don't like going out of my comfort zone. "It will be a great experience Lotta, you're going to love it", they all said. My answer was always, "five and a half months is way too long, I'm going to want to come back after two weeks."

   It is amazing how one can doubt themselves so much and then the outcome turns out to be the best thing. However, lets be honest here, I wasn't the only one who doubted myself. I knew there were people who were worried about me and if I would manage it all.  I will say that the first two weeks were hard. Trying to find friends at school and not being able to be yourself because of the language problem, on top of living with a different family and trying to get used to how they do things. Every family functions differently and you just have to accept their rules or there will be major problems.
    Confidence was also a problem: I have always been the shy type of person but I had to boost my confidence or I would disappear and be left with no one.   Once i got my head around how everything worked and the differences, things became pretty easy for me.
    The time is flying by, at first I was counting each day and then week but now I hardly even remember the months. I can only just manage to answer the question, "how many months do you have left here?". When you're in your comfort zone and nothing is different you don't really pay attention to time, it either goes really fast or incredibly slowly. But by the time you know it, it is a new year and nothing has changed.
   Homesickness is one of the main problems that people come across when on exchange or away from home for a long period of time. It happens but you just have to accept the fact that you're not going home and just have fun so you can forget about it. I try to keep myself busy each day by planning things ahead so I have something to look forward to.
   You learn to live without the people who used to be in your life everyday. It started off with speaking to a few people most days but then it became less and less. The people who don't make an effort are easy to forget about. It's sad but that's something that happens when you are both living two separate lives. It is weird to think that other peoples lives aren't changing and that is why it makes coming back hard. You leave your new formed life behind and have to go back to the same old, with the same people. Also leave all your new friends behind and go back to the losers you left back home (joking, you're not all losers).
   Something else that made it easier was knowing where I was going and knowing a lot of people before hand. I have had Jasper   (a boy out of my class in Australia who is on exchange in Freiburg for three months). Saying goodbye to him will be hard,I have formed a tight friendship with him because we can relate to one another and he was always there to have a chat to. However, I still have it pretty good because Marlene ( A girl who has been living with my family in Australia for three months and comes from Breisach) comes back just in time for when the others leave. Also Oliver (another one from my class in Australia) won't be too far and he will be flying home with me so the timing works out perfectly.

 Just some family shots for the sake
of it :) 

Attitude

It is safe to say that Gymnasiums and Steiner schools cannot be compared. Perhaps a Grammar school could be compared  to the school I am at now but not a Steiner school. They are too different and both have extremely different views on learning. However, peoples attitudes can be compared. After spending over 2 months at this new school I have started to get to know the people. The first few weeks I understood close to nothing so my days were spent looking around the classroom and observing.

The bell rang and everyone got to class on time (not anything to do with Germans being punctual ) it was because there was no time spent stuffing around. When someone is late, they are at the very most only four minutes late.  Five minutes isn't spent trying to find an excuse because that would disrupt the lesson. People are so focused on doing their best at school and always aim to get the highest mark possible. If they don't that's OK, they will just try harder next time.  There is none of this "oh who cares if I get a bad mark, i don't really care about this subject anyway" feeling. Everyone is involved in class discussions (apart from me most of the time of course) and they will express their knowledge even if it may be wrong. There is no being shy or you will get bad marks. I discovered this in English when i got my marks back and the teacher said I need to speak more in class and contribute more. This is a strange feeling...Do I not want to speak English? or am I just too shy? I thought it would look stupid if I put my hand up in English class and gave the answers or expressed my opinion on global warming or political cartoons. One way to change it all- I am just going to have to speak English.
The first sport lesson surprised me the most. Everyone participated even if they were like me and didn't have a clue about volleyball or should I say 'wollyball'. No one had the wrong shoes or clothing. They were there to give everything a go, learn, and have fun. perhaps they are like this because they don't know any different but you still don't have the girls who sit in the corner and talk (like we do at home), that would just be strange and people would get angry. It is all attitude and you can achieve everything if you have the right attitude, just like the people here.
Learning all these important things at a young age would have made a huge difference to the way learning is approached. Back home no one knows any better, most of us have been at Orana since kindergarten and haven't experienced something else.  It is normal to muck around in class and not respect the teachers or not do work and participate. All these are such small things but they are so hard to change if you don't know any better.

Edited by Jasper Lindell 

WHY ENGLISH IS HARD TO LEARN (not written by me by the why)

We'll begin with box, the plural is boxes,

But the plural of ox is oxen not oxes,

One fowl is a goose, and two are called geese, 

Yet the plural of moose is never called meese.

You may find a lone mouse or a house full of mice;

But the plural of house is houses not hice.

The plural of man is always men, 

But the plural of pan is never pen. 

If I speak of a foot, and you show me two feet, 

And I give you a book, would a pair be a beek? 

If one is a tooth and a whole set is teeth, 

Why shouldn't two booths be called beeth? 

If the singular's this and the plural is these, 

Should the plural of kiss be keese? 

we speak of a brother and also brethren, 

But though we say mother, we never say mothren. 

The masculine pronouns are he,his, and him;

But imagine the feminine...she,shis, and shim! 

WHY GERMAN IS HARD TO LEARN (for me anyway) 

We learnt how to sing nursery rhymes in German, We learnt how to do a skit of sitting in a train, we learnt how to make a plane ticket and many more unnecessary things.  I can briefly remember learning about the mistakes i now make. It would have been extremely helpful learning the difference between- Freund,Freundin, Freunde and Freundinnen. To avoid confusion I try not to mention the word friends, they probably think I have none. However it is better not saying anything than saying I have a girl friend or boy friend when I clearly don't. 

Nouns come equipped with genders, learning the genders would have been a great help. televisions are male but the news is female...its too confusing to even think why. There is also neutral but I'm certain it just adds to the confusion. 

It is easier said than done "Der is the definite article for male nouns, die for female ones and das for neutral." They all say its simple but it is clearly not, its one of the hardest things to learn but practice makes perfect. Oh hang on, it doesn't end there 'dem and den'...I have no idea what they are even doing. 

People say here that English is a lot easier to learn than German is so why do we not have German classes like the English classes they have here? Less singing and more learning I would say. 

Credits to Jasper Lindell for helping me out, check out his extremely good blog http://jasperlindell.blogspot.com/

I guess I can say that i was back in Australia yesterday, not physically but mentally. One of the Steiner schools in Freiburg had a circus show and I went with some family and friends. The sense of community all came back to me, the friendly people who are all individual, the ones who wear no shoes because they are a waste of money or the ones with dreadlocks down their backs.  The buildings surrounding me had no straight lines and were filled with colour and happiness,it was a good feeling. The circus show which i watched was amazing, all the kids showing the community their creativeness and skills and they were all so supportive of each other.
It seems to be a problem that the most used word in my vocabulary is 'ja' (meaning yes). Don't really know what i got myself into but tomorrow I am running in a marathon..I am not at my fittest state considering the amount of junk I have been eating while i have been here but i thought 'why not?'. No backing out now, I've got the school t-shirt and I am all set to represent the school. I am also filled with bruises because of my soccer game today. We lost 4-2 thanks to a black horse..or bus or bulldozer (whatever you want to call her, she fits every description) on the other team. You could hear her coming from a mile off and also smell her. I was the lucky one who had her marking me. When i got the ball i went around her but she tripped me over EVERYTIME from behind. Oh well..thats all involved with soccer.

Thought I should add some photos of the things I have been doing because I'm not going to write about everything i have already done. These are just the highlights from the trip (I'm making a powerpoint of  all the photos. I will post it when I get back to Australia)

This guy thought he was the coolest. Going skiing in lederhosen..

I'm still looking at this photo and thinking 'Did I really take that?' 

A visit to an art museum in Basel.. very inspiring and interesting 

A Day In the Life of Lotta

The alarm is set for 6:11am because 6:15 is just that little bit late. Some days such as Monday morning it’s better to keep sleeping but other days I know i have to get up. I always feel very popular in the morning thanks to the time differences, lots of notifications are waiting so I do my morning routine and read this really interesting newspaper called Facebook.  No problem choosing what clothes to wear in the morning as i have a limited choice which may be a good thing. Breakfast consists of a small bowl of muesli and some strawberries just to add some taste.  I need extra time to make my bread for school because the butter is so hard, the bread is ruined by the time I’m finished and the butter is still in big blocks on the ripped bread. Butter is so important to Germans but it is impossible to use.. I don't really understand.

After going to a Steiner school for over 9 years I have to say it’s a bit strange going to a 'Gymnasium' which is a secondary school with a strong emphasis on academic learning. I like to say it is a school filled with smart arses because it basically is. They are all extremely intelligent and know everything; I don't think they understand that what they are doing is so much different to what I have ever done. I'm not really sure what they think of me when I try and do the work, I mean I can't even copy things off the board because the teachers hand-writing is messy. Thankfully my class is really nice and helpful and I always have someone there to help me out.  Back in Australia very few people can write a sentence in German; I don't blame them because we were never pushed hard enough to learn the language. Rudolf Steiner has made it hard on us, yes the way of learning is possible but not in the time we have. The very first English lesson I had I nearly fell over when the teacher said 'analyse this political cartoon and tell the class your thoughts'. No one said it was too hard they all did it with very few mistakes. No one gets away with not doing anything at this school and there is no such thing as slacking off and not doing the work. They get pushed and pushed, the kids who fall behind a little bit go to someone outside of school to get help because they can't continue getting bad marks. So everything is different to what I am used to but I quite like observing the differences and maybe when I go back to Australia it may be similar at my new school.

My afternoon activities include...eating and soccer. I have soccer two times a week and a game on the weekend. I really enjoy playing with the team I am on. I've played 4 games and I've scored 5 goals so hopefully I can keep it that way. 

Introduction

I was never going to start a blog but i thought 'why not'? It's a once in a life time experience and people can see what i'm up to without looking at my photos on facebook and getting a rough idea.

I am now 2 months into my 5 and a half months here in Germany.  I'm finding it hard to remember the first few weeks and the days are just flying by. I really should have started this blog at the beginning of my stay because now its going to be hard to find a place to start from. A nice introduction would be:

Life in Germany 

I am not in Australia anymore, I can not walk around with no watch or even have my mobile a few minutes late and then forget that it is not the real time. Buying a watch was the best idea that has come to me in a while. Peoples lives revolve around getting to places on time and leaving everything until the very last minute. Being 'too early' or 'too late' does not exist. People speed walk everywhere, checking their watch every 7 seconds because they have left it until the last minute to get on the train. I would not like to see a typical German trying to catch a bus in Canberra. Firstly you have to leave 15 minutes before departure time because the bus may be 15 minutes early or 15 minutes late. Secondly, It takes 1 hour to get to a place which is 15km away. I can't see this life working for a German, they lose it when the trains are 2 minutes late. 

Yes Germany is on the other side of the world but its not that different after all. Facebook is still called Facebook, I have internet here, I have phone reception, the toilets are the same, I have friends. All these questions were asked before i left. However, Germans also have dumb questions about Australia. There is one girl in particular:

Her: Can you speak English? 

Me: of course I can, I am from Australia. 

Her: But don't you speak Australian there? 

I hope this trip will be a learning experience not only for me but for people in Australia and Germany too.