Josh's Blog Wilkommen in Deutschland

Josh Raymond
Arrival - 29 September 2013


After saying our goodbyes at the gate Matt and I were accompanied by our escort to the waiting bay for our flight to Singapore. At this point I was excited beyond measure.  This was it, leaving Australia for the first time. When we landed in Munich after our second flight from Singapore, we were greeted by an escort in a traditional German dress.  It was at this point I fully recognised the gravity of this opportunity.

At the airport in Munich

We were greeted by our hostpartners Georg and Kathi along with Georg Ruider, Kathi's step Dad.  He is really friendly and can speak some English which is always a breath of fresh air over here. We drove to Großkarolinenfeld which is about 45 mins from Munich and we met Georg´s Family, They invited us into their home for some Fruhstuck (Breakfast) it was tasty.  All the breads and other things were so awesome. His Mum and Dad, Elisabeth and Johann are funny and also know basic English. His younger brother Michi and older sister Maria were kind and understanding of my basic German skills.

We dropped Matt off there and continued on to Holzhausen, a small farming village with about 20-30 people. We drive up to their house, my house for the next 10 weeks, and unload and I am greeted by Kathi's mum Krisztina and Lorenz who is new born, Anna who is nearly 2, Marinus 3 and Franz who is 11. They were all extremely welcoming and were easy to warm to.

School on Monday was a shock because I was under the illusion that they had another week of school holidays but they had finished a fortnight before. The school is so different.  They start at 8:00 and finish at 12:55, have a 25 minute break at 10:10 and everyone can speak some level of English.

On Thursday Georg's parents took the four of us to Oktoberfest and it was honestly one of the loudest, busiest places I have ever been to. I had an amazing time and the amount of food was astounding. We then went on the double-decker train home and continued to bask in the glory of our day off school It was a public holiday, German Reunification Day).

At the Oktoberfest

There were a few stand out differences too and it's not only everyone speaking German but the amount of corn is tremendous it is pretty much cows and corn as far as the eye can see.

There is so much more but its to hard to put into words but I'm sure there are many more exciting things awaiting me in the near future.

This trip has now opened my eyes to the usefulness of German and how much harder I have to work to become fluent.