3 Months

Yes, peeps, the time has come. I have been in Deutschland for just over one quarter of my stay here. Wow. It has has been incredibly fast, and I look at the coming 8 months thinking that I have still have a very long and short time left.

Things are interesting. I haven't done much since my last update. I have offically come to the 'bump in the sweet road of exchange' known as 'Culture Shock'. But I've acknowledged it and doing my best to work it out.

I'm going to Munich in a few days, 3 to be exact, so I hope that will lift my spirits. Days have more sunlight now, but it is still snowing nearly everyday. This has been the biggest amount of snow in about 3 years they say. Just for me, I guess. Let's hope the spring and summer is as kind! I've made solid friends in my class with 4 girls. And 2 others from different classes. I'm also rekindling my Japanese, as Satiko, the Japanese exchange student here, is teaching me. (Don't worry, it's just revision! Deutsch first!)

I went to the school musical which was fantastic! Not as good as ours, ofcourse : P Sets and costumes were fantastic. And teachers acted and sang. They even have a teachers' choir at school (they have 3 here all together)!! I was pleastanly suprised. Music is celebrated here. I like that.

Any hoo. Not much else to say. Didn't get my timetable as anticipated. Hopefully next week. Keep you posted.

Love, Alicia xxx

I'm baaack

Hello All.

I'm back from a week of skiing! And yay!! I can ski!!!! Yes, really. I'm not that bad, either. I took a ski course and the teacher was fine, and the other pupils were great, so I had fun. On Friday, the last day, we used snow blades which were so much easier than the older model of skis i had been using, and much faster! Peter (the teacher, not my host dad), took us through the forest (yes, with the snow blades) and it was so hard and fast and scary!! I crashed on numerous occasions, and on the last crash I think I actually caused some damage to my knee. So I'm in a little bit of pain whenever I move or walk. But, man!!! I have a new favourite sport, and it kicks ass!!! We're going skiing again at Easter for another five days, so I can't wait. And in a couple of weeks I'm going to Munich for the weekend for an EF 'discovery tour' and I'm staying with Sigrid, an Aussie girl I met from Language Camp, who lives about half an hour away from the city.

School starts again on Monday. I should get a new timetable without Spanish and French, and with grade 5 German, and hopefully grade 12 english and music. I thought I'd better take the advanced English otherwise Uni will be a bit of a shock for my brain! This week is also the school musical - Les Miserables - which is a big thing here, cos musicals are so expensive and time consuming. It literally stops the school -- no school on Friday, but to my horror, on Saturday to make up the lost time. I will also go to orchestra again. On the last week of school last term it was quite interesting. It was 'Faschings' or Karneval, and on Thursday women could cut the men's neck ties. On Friday everyone put black paint stuff on their faces, well a few people would. Jan attacked me at lunch time, so I didn't make it unscathed. And on Thursday I was asked to go to a grade 12 english class and give a talk, and that was really really good. I just spoke and made jokes and they laughed (SCORE!!!) and it was just really comfortable. And I was stading alone the next day, two of the girls from the class (and one of which who catches my bus) came and spoke to me. So I have friends!! And a girl from my class gave me a belated birthday present, which was very nice of her. I also went to Jan's 18th Geburtstag Party and made better connections with a few girls from my class. So things are going good!! On Friday the school's stage/jazz band played, and I so want to learnt the trombone!!! But it was weird, they had a tuba and flutes!! But they played Birdland, so I was happy! And the teacher was crazy (in a good way), he was dancing and just going off.

I think that's about it....Josie and Lauren, I hope the moving in goes well. Send me your new details and stuff, okay? Amo, how's band and the oboe going?? And how is Courtney doing? Sage and Dom, how's school going. I hope your not abusing your powers as seniors ....hahaha, what power??

Hey, can someone email me Mrs Douglas' EMAIL ADDRESS (not phone number....hehehe, thanks for telling me, Yoko!), cos Yoko (the Japanese exchange student from last year) wants it. Happy Birthday for last Monday, Yoko!!!!! And Happy Birthday for Sunday, Rebekah!!! And Christie, on Monday, Alles gute zum Geburtstag!!! And mama, I need my insurance number from the 'insurance certificate'. I've cleaned my room and searched to see if you did send it previously, but I'm certain you didn't. And if I have a password for Cardalert, I'd like to know it : )

Okay, best be going.

Tschuß,
Alicia xxx

P.S: Yes, Josie, snow smells. Like you can smell rain, you can smell the snow. Impossible to explain, but it does.

Snow and minus 20!!

Yes. It has been f**ing freezing. Even the Germans are finding this cold snap 'chilly'. Last Friday, Saturday and Sunday had daily temperatures between -10 and -15 and at night about -20, reaching a low of about -25 or more. Brrrrrr!! And last night, it snowed so much, so now the snow is maybe 30cm high. And I made a snow man!! Have I told you lot that already? Last Thursday I went out to the garden and began. Though, it is much much harder than I ever expected it to be!! The snow just wouldn't stick together, so I couldn't do it the normal way (by rolling a snow ball in the snow and it gets bigger and bigger) so I had to just build a pile and compress it. In the end, Hannah come out and helped me, which was great. The last time she made one she was in the 4th grade, so I think it was good she rekindled the inner-child. But it was sooo cold. I couldn't feel my fingers or feet or nose.

OK, I have to go now, but I'm feeling much better about stuff now. THANKYOU TO EVERYONE WHO EMAILED!!!!! Christie, I swear I will reply better next time. And Lauren, I owe you 2!! And Sage, yay! So good to hear from you. And Jim!! Good to see that OP 1 came in handy : P You can help me with German physics with your free time!!

Got to go, and learn some German. Peter, my host dad, says I have improved so much. Yay.
And next week I'm going skiing for 5 days! Wooo!!!

Love, Alicia xxx