Finally in Germany!!

10^th January 2017

Hey everyone- after a very busy five days I now have the time and also the energy to type out this blog post. Alex, Harry, Sarah and I started our journey at Queenstown airport at around 12:45pm on Tuesday the 10^th of January in which we were faced with some very hard goodbyes to our family and friends. However once we were on the plane to Auckland  it became a lot easier to look forward and be happy rather than look at the things we had to say goodbye to.

From left to right: Dad, Myself and Mum at Queenstown Airport 

From left to right: Alex, Sarah, Myself and Harry at Queenstown Airport 

10 January continued (The time difference meant we had two 10th of January's)

Once we had arrived in Auckland we met our Rotary chaperones-Sandra and Craig, which would be with us until we reached Los Angeles. Although it was just over a twelve hour flight thankfully I was sitting next to Sarah, Izzy and Alex as they could keep me company for the following hours. After many hours of movies, reading and talking we finally arrived in L.A. We were quickly transported in a large bus to our hotel ---. After a very quick turn around at the hotel we were told that we were going to be taken to Santa Monica and we had to split into different groups (I was in a group with Harry and Christian who are both also going to Germany). We spent our time shopping and looking around  and once it reached dinner time, we were taken to ‘Shakey’s’ a pizza place for dinner.

From left to right: Myself, Christian, Harry, Mish and Luka

 

Santa Monica Beach with Pier in the background

11 January 2017

Walking around at Disneyland

At 9am a bus took all 31 of us to Disneyland to experience the atmosphere and enjoy the rides it had to offer, however in order to get there a hour bus ride in which I sat with Alex was necessary. Once we arrived we split off into smaller groups which I was with Mish, Alex, Grace, Christian and Nick, who were all super cool people. Even though I had previously been to Disneyland in 2012 it felt like a whole new experience as I was now brave enough to try all of the rides. 

Some of the rides included the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Splash Mountain and Indiana Jones Adventure. After half a day our group moved to Calafornia adventures where there was even more rides which were lots of fun! At 6:30pm we left to Westchester Rotary Club to present our New Zealand gifts and have dinner. It was lovely to get to know some of the Rotarians and to see how proud they were of their own cultures.

Presenting my gift to the Westchester Rotary Club

12 January

Today we travelled on a bus to Universal Studios, although we were told it was going to be around an hour, it felt like way less time. With the same group we did lots of rides, and for me I liked Univeral Studio’s rides a lot better than Disneyland, even though it was raining very heavily for the majority of the day.

Universal Studios 

Alex and I 

In the afternoon we were picked up by a bus and went on a Hollywood Tour, howver I was very tired from the previous days so I fell asleep for most of it. Later that night we had another meeting with people who were involved with Rotary. It was really inspiring to see how enthusiastic they were about what they were doing and how they were really making a difference in many peoples lives.

13^th  January

Today was a very big travel day as all thirty one students were to travel to London in order to catch our connecting flights to our host countries. On the plane to London I was once again sitting with Alex, Izzy and Sarah which was really nice.  Alex and I watched Lights out and the Conjuring, which were both quite scary! We arrived in London around 10am. Time flew by and what felt like two minutes later we were saying goodbye to people that I felt like I’ve known my whole life.  As we had to split up to go to different terminals (I was terminal 5) the whole situation started to feel real. The plane ride to Germany only took 1 hour 35mins which felt very very fast compared to the other flights I had been on. Once I reached the airport in Germany I was greeted by many more people that I expected! It was freat to see everyone straight away.

 

Big welcome at the airport from my new family!!

Will catch up to the present tomorrow

Jasmine x