Raindrops keep falling on my head

Right, well, I thought it’s been a little while and time to give an update.

Well, in the last week we’ve had pretty non-stop rain pouring down. Areas in Switzerland and near me have been flooded and people evacuated and stuff. The river that is about 1 minute away was flooding its banks and the fire service had blocked off entrances and roads and stuff. Now, however, we’re having really nice weather and I can almost say that it’s summer. But the nights are starting to get longer; it’s dark at about 8.30pm now. I’ll be sending back home my summer clothes soon!

Now for the interesting things. I still can’t remember where I left off, so I’ll start wherever I think I should.

12.08. Friday: We went to visit friends who live in the neighbouring state of Baden-Würrtemburg. It took about 3 hours, I think. On the Saturday we all went to Europa Park, which is this big theme park. That was fun! I was there for about 11 hours. Then on Sunday we went to the movies and saw Madagascar and went bowling. On Monday we went to Freiburg, which is this really pretty university city about 20kms from France, and then we went home.

17.08 Wednesday: I went to Munich to meet Sigrid and her parents, who are staying about 6 weeks, travelling through France and Poland and England. We went to the place where Oktoberfest is, and it’s huuuge. The ‘tents’ that they’re building are actually buildings and they can hold something like up to 5000 people! And there is this huge statue of ‘Bavaria’, which is this lady with a lion who is supposed to be the personification of Bavaria. Then we went to the English Gardens and saw some surfing on the river and went to a Biergarten thing. Unfortunately, my really cool funky shoes gave me huge painful blisters from all the running about we did. The cost of looking good, eh?

24.08 Wednesday: I went to Salzburg. Think The Sound of Music, the place of Mozart’s birth, heaps of old castles and churches and windy cobblestone streets. A veeeery beautiful city and I will do what I can to go back there (with a camera this time!). I went with my EF coordinator lady and then I slept over her house (she has a lovely house in the centre-ish of Munich). For all those people who are wondering: I still don’t know when I’m actually coming back! EF should be sending me a letter early next month giving the choices of my return flight; when I know, I’ll let you know!

26.08 Friday: My host-grandfather had his 74th birthday so we went to dinner. Very yummy fish dish. On Saturday we went to the National Garden Show, which is in Munich. We had 6 people and only 5 seats in the car, so I offered to travel with the train. It’s actually amusing (to me) that I was longer in the trains travelling to and from Munich than I was in Munich! We only stayed about 2 and a bit hours at the garden show, because after a while it all starts to look the same. But it was huuuge and so much work was put into it!

Mmmm, that’s like the highlights of my holidays. In the meantime I’ve learnt how to play The Sims (and subsequently become another one of the addicted masses) and I’ve postcards to various people. I then noticed that I have lost or misplaced or never had the addresses of a few people in the first place. I’ve also seen Sin City. A very ‘interesting’ film, to be sure. I’ve played the out-of-tune piano a few times, and my violin, read and learnt a bit. I’ve also applied to Uni. All in all, the holidays have gone by so quickly! Before I know it, I’ll be back at school, and then that means I only have a couple of months left here. Definitely a roller-coaster ride!

Lots of love,
Alicia

to the family

ok, tried calling Shelagh to no avail. thought the number was wrong. so i tried to call home, but no one was there.

tried to email and there is something permanently wrong with my hotmail page, so I couldn't email you.

i hope you read this!

UPDATE

15.08.2005
2035 Hours
Buxheim, Germany
Status: Alive
Contents: Top Secret, but I’ll take the risk…

Well, I’m going to give you lot a brief update in a short, precise, concise (any difference?) militaristic fashion. Hey, we all have our ways of entertainment, Private!

I was going to give you a pre-update last week, but I didn’t have a chance to publish/save all of my hard work. So I’ll simply have to start again. The problem is, I don’t know where I left off…

26.07.2005 Tuesday: Wadertag. Went to Bregenz, Austria (where I went for the Opera) for an art exhibition from Roy Lichtenstein (Pop Art). It was cool.

Thursday: Schulfest. Each class chose a country and I helped out at the Japanese stand. I learnt origami! And I saw the people out of my 10th class doing the schuhplattle!! Teehehe, it was great day. And in the even the stage band played for a couple hours. Ours is sooo better! J

Friday: Gottesdienst. Church / prayer service. Because of the nice weather we were outside. I understood most of it. That was cool. The theme was ‘flowing water’ or similar. Immediately after, I walked to the train station and went to Ulm with a guy from South Africa. Now, I can’t remember exactly what I’ve written in past blogs, but on my first day in Germany, I arrived in Frankfurt airport and took the train to Ulm, and there my host family picked me up. We were going to climb the cathedral (which, by the way, is the tallest IN THE WORLD, and Ulm is also the birthplace of Albert Einstein), but there was a concert, so we couldn’t. But I did it on this day! Something like 860 steps (one way), and the steps were so small and spirally that I nearly felt sick. (it was also HOT and I was wearing jeans. I know… Germany…hot??) but the view was pretty awesome. I also bought a purdy dress (now looking for shoes to match…) we came home with the train and I missed my bus by 30 seconds! So I decided to walk home…only an hour. And then went to a friends house and slept over. WE made sushi and watched Kill Bill 2.

Saturday: The first day of the Summer Holidays. My friend, Fabiana, a Brasilian exchange student, had her going away party. It was okay. Sad to say goodbye, ofcourse,

Sunday: Went to eat icecream (freaky summer weather was continuing…though rain clouds were looking threatening). I crashed into my host dad on the way home….oops.

Monday: Got my school ID card (a bit belated) so I could buy this cool ticket where I can travel with the train in the whole Bavaria during the holidays. Thought that was a pretty worth while idea. Spoke with Mum and Ellen on the Fellytone.

Wednesday: My host grandmother had her birthday. So we jumped the state border and spent the night. Excellent food, freaky Swäbisch dialect. Unfortunately, a friend had her 18th birthday on the same day and I couldn’t go… oh well.

Thursday: Maya called me!! (And I subsequently nearly missed my train!) I trained for nearly 3hours to visit my friend Sigrid (the Australian exchange student). I stayed there till Sunday. We went to the pub place and met the town (it’s a village). The next day we went with her family and friends of the family to eat icecream in a really pretty city called Mühldorf (however, by now the summerish weather has disappeared, and it’s cold!!) On Saturday we went horse riding. I nearly escaped injury (the stoopid horse stood on my foot!) But it was cool, even though we were just walking round in circles with Sig’s host dad holding the reigns (but I did get to wear his cowboy hat). And the night we went to a party where I met friends of hers from her school. It was also cold that night. I came home on Sunday.

Monday: went to Munich with Sachiko (Japanese exchange student) and her host sister (who has just come back from a year exchange in Japan). Bought a few books.

Tuesday: Hannah left for her year in the States. I baked ANZAC biscuits (it’s interesting how each mixture is different, but none turn out better than any of the others). I mowed the lawn (and got a blister on my thumb for my hard efforts). I went to Sachiko’s house for her goodbye barbeque. At midnight we all (about 8 of us) decided to go to the forest. It was quite amusing, especially cos to get there we had to walk through this meadow with this little rivers flowing through it and it was pitch black. On the way back, I actually fell into one of the rivers. Twice. My shoes and socks were completely brown.

Wednesday: Had to say goodbye to Sachiko. That was hard, and sad.

Thursday: Went to Stuttgart with my family and Franziska. Stuttgart is the capital of Baden-Würrtemburg (the neighbouring state) and about 2 hours away. I fell in love with a coat. It was beautiful coat. (Only) 130 euros. It was perfect. If only I didn’t have to buy a new camera… BUT I did buy a pair of shoes I’ve been wanting for a loooong time. They were reduced to 40 euros from 60. and they were the last ones there (the were the display ones) and just happened to be my size. And then the woman said cos they were a little dirty at the toes I could have them for 35 euros!! Bargain! And I figured that 10 euros I got for mowing the lawn, I could pay the other 25. Retail therapy really is a medicine.

Friday: I went with the Kleidermanns to visit friends of the family, in Baden-Würtemburg. About 3 hours away, in the Black Forest Region. On Saturday we went to EuropaPark, which was awesome. Did what you usually do at a theme park; stood in queues then have the pants scared of you for about 10 seconds and then do it all over again. Even after 11 hours, it was thoroughly enjoyable.

Sunday: Rather crappy weather, which is ironic cos that region of Germany is actually the region with the most sunshine and is on average 5°C warmer than where I live. We went to the movies and saw Madagascar (my 2nd and half time) but still funny. And that night we went bowling. (Still as crap now as I was in Australia, but still fun).

Monday: We went to Freiburg (which is really close to the border with France, so you guys know where we’re speaking, geographically). A really really nice, old, university city. Pissing down rain. Cos it was a Christian public holiday, there was a church service. We looked in for a second, and it was amazing. It was full of people, and the orchestra was playing some huge concerto from Bach or someone and the choir were going off, so to speak. The feeling was pretty special. We drove back home through the Black Forest. Unfortunately the rain prohibited my from admiring it in it’s fullness.

Today (Tuesday): well, the cloudy rainyish weather continues. I’m actually wearing a jumper than I have worn skiing, and yesterday we had the heating on full bore. Wonderful Summer in Germany.

I’m not quite sure what I’m doing for the rest of this week. Hopefully I’ll be going to Munich tomorrow or the day after with Sigrid and her parents. And sometime in the next week I might be going to Salzburg (in Austria, the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart). Where, apparently, there’s more rain then sun (hahaha, but that’s applicable to most of Europe…)

I hope this gives you enough of an insight of what I’ve been up to recently. I’ll do what I can to keep you all updated.

Ciao,

Alicia xxx