Carnival and first official Rotary Meeting

So even though I wrote a blog post not long ago, two large events have happened in the past couple of weeks. These have been 'Fashing' or carnival and my first Rotary gathering with all the exchange students from my district. Carnival in Germany is a massive event for everyone, so much so it is considered a 'fifth season'. Although carnival actually starts on the 11th of November, the celebrations don't really kick off until the 23rd of March through to the 1st of March. During this period there are many parades, dressing up and performances all over Germany. However it is actually particularly prominent in my region the Rhinland Pfalz. I was planning to travel to Mainz on Rosenmontag to watch the parade there as it is the biggest in my district, however I didn't end up getting there. Instead on Tuesday I travelled dressed as bee, with my friends from school Vanessa and David to Herxheim, a nearby village to watch the parade there. Despite it being absolutely awful weather with lots and lots of mud and rain, it was a fun day with lots of 'hello's and dancing. 

Myself dressed as a bee and Vanessa dressed as a handball player 

One of the many floats that were in the parade

I also had the Orientation Weekend in Eisenburg from the 4th-5th of March and it was really really nice to meet the other exchange students in my area. As part of the weekend we had to make something that is seen as typical from our country. I was planning on smashing out a wicked pavlova but we were told that we didn't need any more sweet dishes so I settled on making a bacon and egg pie which my family and I eat a lot in New Zealand. 

Katja (Host Mum) and I with my freshly made bacon and egg pie

Once Lucca, Katja and I arrived in Eisenburg we were met by many of the 'oldies'. Oldies are exchange students that have been in there for more than six months. Soon after we arrived we all met together. We were told that we had 10 minutes or so to talk to one another and prepare a wee speech saying what we are proud of in our time here in Germany, what we are enjoying and how everything is going. However this was to be in German!! I was told I was able to do mine in English, however I did my best to piece together a German presentation with a few English words thrown in. Later in the evening at dinner time we had a flag parade, and seeing that I was the only exchange student from New Zealand, I carried the flag, it was amazing to see how many people were there from different countries. We then listened to some live music and was really cool to get to know some of the exchange students better!!

The hall where we served our traditional foods to Rotary members and guests 

Month two is nearly done and dusted!!

Hey everyone! This month has been completely insane! It is a big and bold statement to say that this year is going to be the best year of my life but every passing day it is becoming more and more true. I had thought that the pace at which I was experiencing new things would drastically slow down, but they have surprisingly constant which is amazing. This month I really struggled to know what to write about as so much has happened, and it is hard to know what everyone would find the most interesting. I have decided that instead of going into too much detail I will just try to describe the highlights. 

- One of the main highlights over the past month for me has been visiting two phenomenal castles that are situated around my area. The first, Hardenburg which I visited on the 12th of February with two other Rotary Exchange students Gabi and Gui from Brazil, was AMAZING. I came away from the experience feeling privileged to be able to see such a beautiful place. I have no words to describe the sight apart from this is definitely not something you'd see in New Zealand!! 

View from the castle (a photo just doesn't do it justice) 

Hardenburg castle 

Gui and I

And on the 19th of February I went to another castle in Annweiler with my host Dad Werner and  this was incredible. I am constantly amazed by the deep history that this insane country has. We also went to a mini performance at the local 'Fest Halle' which was cool to see. 

- 16/02 I attended Lukas' (a friends) 'Licht Nacht' at his school. There were many performances, and stalls and it was awesome to see Lukas play.

- 26/02 Katja (My host Mum) and Lisa (My host Sister) went to an animal park called 'Wild-und Wanderpark' which was so cool! There was a pack of wolves that are kept there, and this was the most captivating thing to watch that I have seen in a very long time. It was very easy to see the hierarchy, and to be perfectly honest I could have watched them all day! We also saw deer, artic foxes, bison and an assortment of farm animals. It was a very cool day and it is still a very real dream for me to work with animals such as wolves or artic foxes one day in the future. These sort of experiences is what motivates and encourages me get a degree in Zoology. 

-  Germany has said to have a 'fifth season' which comes in the form of 'Karneval' or 'Fashing'. This celebration begins each year on the 11th of November and continues through till 'Ash Wednesday' (1st March) the following year. However the main celebrations are based around 'Rosenmontag' from Thursday the 23rd of February  until the 1st of March (Ash Wednesday). Germans are crazy for carnival season, and every day throughout this time period there are performances, parades and dressing up. In Rhineland where I am, when I looked up the background of the performances an extensive history was revealed. It was said that the highly expressive parades were a way to protest anti Prussian and anti-French thoughts in times of occupation through forms of parody and mockery. In 1823 the first official 'Carnival Club' began in Cologne. Since then Cologne, Düsseldorf and Mainz continue to be the main centres for large celebrations. During Carnival, many German schools close, so that everybody can fully experience it. My school, MSG was closed so I had a five day weekend which was fantastic! On Tuesday, I attended a Carnival parade in Herxheim with two friends David and Vanessa. It was awesome to see everybody dressed up and the effort that went into the different floats!! 

                                                              

- My German understanding has improved dramatically which I am so thankful for. By no means can I understand everything yet, but I can now understand the general context of my conversations which is really helpful, especially in school! 

- My host family has been absolutely fantastic. And even though I have only been in Germany 46 days, I truly feel a part of their family, which is so cool!! I am looking forward to see what the next few weeks brings and what new experiences awaits. 

This weekend I have the Rotary Orientation Meeting in Eisenburg where I am really looking forward to meeting other exchange students in my district. 

Tchüss für heute!!

Jasmine x

Update on my German life

Hey everyone,

I’ll start off by saying that I am terribly sorry that I haven’t written a post in a few weeks, this is due to being extremely busy! And when I’m not busy I’m sleeping. Time has gone incredibly fast, it is insane that next week on Tuesday (the 14^th) marks one month in Germany. However at the same time it feels like I arrived yesterday as everyday I am exposed to more and more new aspects of  German life.

I was thinking about the best way ti describe the last few weeks, and describing the main events in bullet point form would be the best way.

-       New Zealand presentation in English. During my first English lesson, my English teacher asked me if I could prepare a presentation on the ‘Culture Shock’ I encountered when I first arrived in Germany. I described that the windows in Europe are very different to New Zealand (Instead of just opening outwards they tilt outwards as well), this was a shock for me when I first opened the windows in my host families house, the long hours of school (8am-5pm some days) and in Germany many families have their main meal at lunch time and a light meal at night. Howevr the biggest shock I received although I knew it was coming was the driving on the other side of the road!! I have to be extremely careful, as I have caught myself looking the wrong way before I cross. During my presentation I was amazed at how interested people were about New Zealand, it was surprisingly nice to see that people are wanting to find out about a different culture.

-       Aerobics Class (25/01) Katja and I were invited along to an aerobics class. This was very exciting for me, and also awesome to experience. Although I was very bad at the moves because I couldn’t quite understand all of the instructions, it was a lot of fun and really good fitness. I am hoping that we will go again.

-       University Trip to Mainz (26/01) Today with all of the Year 12’s (equivalent to the Year 13’s in New Zealand) travelled to Mainz, a city an hours drive from Landau to attend the unvirsitys open day. It was cool to see how a German university works and what one looks like. It is very similar to a New Zealand university however the buildings are a lot older.

-     Wolfsburg trip with Werner (04/02) The weekend that has just passed, I travelled with my host father Werner up to the North of Germany to a city named Wolfsburg. It was an amazing weekend celebrating Claude (Werner’s girlfriends birthday) and getting to know everybody better. During my time there I went horse riding on Claude’s daughter Stella’s horse and we also visited the Autostadt (Wolfsburg is the home of Volkswagen). I had a terrific time and I will definetly jump at the chance at visiting again in the near future.

In the near future I am also I am also wanting to visit a friend, Laura that lives in Saarbrucken a town that is an hour away from Landau. It would be awesome to see her again, however it would be very weird as our situations have flipped. She was in Queenstown for her exchange last year, and now I’m in Germany for my exchange.

I am also hoping to visit the Landau Zoo this weekend for the first time, in order to meet the director who I have spoken to about completing my Duke of Edinburgh volunteer service. This is a perfect opportunity for me as I love working with or for animals, and while doing this I will be completing my Duke of Edinburgh Award, it’s a win win.

Last thing from me, it is getting a lot warmer! It is no longer -5 to -10 degrees, it has warmed up to at least 5 degrees. I am very happy about this as I can do more outside.

So that’s it for now, hopefully it won’t be too long before my next post so keep checking my blog!!

Jasmine x

First day at school

 Yesterday the jetlag truly caught up on me, and even so I woke up at 6am. In the morning Katja and I had a meeting at my new school Max Slevogt Gymnasium to find out what subjects I would be taking. We walked to school in -3/-4 degrees, needless to say it was very very cold! Once we arrived at school I was paired with a ‘buddy’ (Vanessa) who I would take the same subjects as.  She would help me find my way around, which works perfectly as we already get on really well! Generally the school days in Germany are a lot longer than New Zealand, for example my school day in Germany is from 7:55am- 5:00pm. My subjects including English (yay), Biology, Religion, History, Music, Maths, Spanish, Social Studies, French, German and Sport. Although I will have to try my best at school, Rotary does not put any pressure on actually passing the year which is really nice. Everybody in Germany speaks fantastic English which is great at this stage, however I do need to start only speaking Deutsch as soon as I can. 

My school Max-Slevogt Gymnasium 

I also had my first Rotary meeting with the Landau Rotary Club. Everyone was very welcoming and friendly which was really nice! I listened to another Rotary inbound Gui talk about his home country, it was very interesting.

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