Tschau Deutschland

My last week in Deutschland was a fine one t say the least. I had an amazing time here in Bavaria learning German experiencing the culture and realising the unlimited opportunities that learning a language can create.

On Thursday Georg, Kathi, Matt and myself went to the Rosenheim Christkindlmarkt where I met up with Florian my exchange partner for 2014. We looked at all the little stalls that were selling the Christmas decorations and hand crafted ornaments and it was really nice to see how much culture is associated with Christmas in Germany compared to Australia.

Friday was the day that Herr Lehrer had set aside for Matt and I to go into some of the English classes and help them out with their projects and just answer any of the questions they had.

Saturday Georg's Uncle took Matt, Georg, Kati and I skiing in Sudelfeld were we enjoyed an amount of powder I had never experienced in Australia. I was a little nervous due to the terrain being steeper and my leg but my nerves soon went away when I just let those worries go.

Sunday was a nice day we went to a small Christkindlmarkt in the town hall in Grosskarolinenfeld it was not as vast as the Rosenheim Christkindlmarkt but it was just as cultural. We then went from there to Kathi's house for coffee and cake.

Wednesday the last day of school  for us was very nice the class threw us a Party to say goodbye and that I will see many of them next year.

This exchange was an opportunity to not only see the world but to improve my skills and make friends who have welcomed me into their homes and helped me see the Country with the eyes of the locals. Knowing were the best views are, the best walks and the best places to go.

The thing that living in Germany gave me was the ability to have confidence with my German speaking before the scholarship I couldn't speak in classroom simulations let alone in real situations.

Ich möchte sagen, Danke zu meine Gastfamilie und zu meine 2 Austausch und meine Tauschpartner Kathi Schwaiger und zu Georg Baumann.

Meine zeit in Deutschland war unglaublich weil es war eine der besten Erfahrungen meines Lebens.

Danke
Josh

Winter Activities

It's starting to get pretty cold here now. Just last week it snowed, and the snow stayed until Saturday when it warmed up a little bit....a little bit. Although it's been colder I prefer it much more than rain.

Snow on Georg's farm

Am Donnerstag wir haben nach München gefahren, mit der Klasse. In München wir haben ein Film gesehen, "Fack ju Göhte". I understood heaps of the conversations, but missed a bit because by the time it took me to translate the words into English they had already finished that sentence. So I was a little bit behind them. Although all-in-all it was a great film, and quite funny. It was also filmed around München and Berlin, mainly. After the Film we caught the train to Rosenheim, stayed there for a couple of hours and then were picked up by Georg's mum.

On Saturday Georg, Maria (Georg's older sister), Kathi (Maria's friend) and I all went skiing at Hintertuxer Gletscher in Austria. You can ski there all year round because it's so high. We arrived at about 0930 caught three Gondola's up to 3250m and then we started skiing. We skied for about 1.5 hours and then went for lunch. Lunch was so good. You took a tray and you could get nearly any hot food you could think of. I had Schweinebraten mit Knödel my favourite Bavarian dish and Georg had Schnitzel mit Pommes. After lunch we went over to the other side of the mountain and went to see the Glacier. Although it was all covered in snow of course. After that it was time to go so we skied down the mountain as far as we could and then caught the Gondola down the rest of the way.

View from halfway up Hintertuxer

Sunday Georg, Lisi and I went to Söll in Austria and went Schlittenfahren (Tobogganing). We walked up for about 1.5 hours because the Gondola wasn't operating and then rode the Sled all the way back down. It was so fun and you could go so fast although you had to be careful not to drive off the edge, like I almost did twice. After coming down the mountain we drove to a 'Wirt' (Restaurant) for lunch. I ordered a Schweinebraten mit Knödel, of course, and Georg had another Schnitzel. It tasted so good, better than in Austria when we were skiing. The 'Wirt' was over 250 years old. It was built in 1786 and is still there today and it doesn't even look old.

Wirt

This week was mostly spent in the snow, which was great. Skiing was definitely the highlight.
Until next week, my last blog from Germany...
Matt
 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Last post.....But I've had a great experience

Servus. I've been in Germany, in Bavaria and the time here on exchange has been some of the most eye opening and life changing weeks of my life.

This week on Thursday I went to Rosenheim with Kathi, Georg and Josh after school. Josh was meeting up with his exchange partner for next year.We walked around and got to know Josh's exchange partner and then went home becuase it was getting late.

Friday Josh and I worked with two English classes which were making brochures about the differences between life in Australia, and life in Germany. We helped for four periods and then in the last lesson of the day we went with the exchange students for next year.

After school we went to Rosenheim again to go to the Christkindlmarkt. The Christkindlmarkt is a street market held every year to celebrate the four weeks of Advent. There are many stalls selling Christmas related ornaments, food and drink. Many people drink Glühwein when they go. It's normally cold so it warms you up a bit. The market closed at 20:00 so we went home to get ready to go skiing the next day.

Skiing at Sudelfeld. Wikipedia pic.

Saturday we went Skiing in Sudelfeld. The snow was so good and there was heaps of powder to Ski in. For lunch we went to a 'Wirt' and then went out Skiing again. The weather was good although a little bit windy, but all in all it was a really good day.

Sunday we went to another Christkindlmarkt in Großkarolinenfeld. It was smaller than in Rosenheim but still had many stalls there.

I arrived here almost ten weeks ago feeling excited, although a little bit nervous as well. But after the first day I didn't feel nervous at all, whatsoever. I settled in with my new family really well because they made me feel extremely welcome. Being on exchange when you're younger you get to see the country and the life in a completely different perspective. Nothing like a tourist would see it, you get to see way more. I've made friends here that will stay with me forever and I can't wait until I come back next time to see them all again. Applying for this exchange has been one of the best things I've done. Now I can speak German without worrying about mistakes, because if you want to learn you have to make mistakes.I also feel heaps more confident in speaking the language. It has been such a great experience and one I will never forget, ever.

Chriskindlmarkt in Rosenheim

Servus, Hias

Pretty Chillly

This week is when I saw the large change from Autumn to Winter. It was a pretty chilled out week due to the minimum temperature being minus 10 degrees!!

Thursday this week was the excursion to the cinema in Munich to see the new  movie "Fuck Jü Goethe" which was extremely funny and I was able to understand nearly all of what was said. The theater session was very interactive at the start they had two people come out and talk to the crowd about the movie and how it was made.  After the movie we had two of the actors come into the studio and have a Q&A with the people in the theater.

Friday night Kathi's dad picked Kathi, Franz and myself up to go to Oberhof and then we just relaxed and watched the Fußball on the TV.

Saturday was a giant sleep in and then we went to the Christkindlmarkt in Glenleiten near Kachelsee with Kathi's older sister Steffi her partner Naddl and Naddl's Parents.
Glenleiten it is a farming village up in the mountains in the summer and warmer months it's for farming and in the winter it is turned into a giant Christkindlmarkt  and also half of the houses are little museums.

Sunday was an early start due to Krisztina and Georg coming at 9:00 to take me to Neuschwanstein another castle made by King Ludwig II and it is also unfinished. This is the day I had been craving since the day Mr Kusch raised the subject about it in class last year. We begin the experience by Georg drifting around the corner in the carpark and at that very moment I knew it was going to be an awesome day. We walked up to a smaller castle called Hohenschwangau and we had a guided tour of the entire thing. We were not allowed to take any photos of inside the building but it was truly amazing.
We began our ascent to Neuschwanstein and when we arrived at the gate it was exactly how you would imagine a castle to be: Old, decorated and with a giant lowering gate.

Inside everything was either gold or resembled wealth.  King Ludwig II had a 1 ton chandelier and it was outstanding. When we exited the castle we walked around the castle and then along the side of the mountain to a bridge with the best view in the house of Neuschwanstein.

But all up this was an amazing week and now it is only 10 days until I feel the warm embrace that Australia's summer has to offer.

Übung macht den Meister

This week I was really able to see what the phrase `Practice makes perfect` really means. I managed to do some research and the closest translation to it is `Übung macht den Meister`.

I have had a pretty good week having Wednesday off from school was pretty awesome. I was picked up by Georg's mum and then we went to Chiemsee the largest lake in all of Bavaria. It is roughly 60km from Munich. In this lake there is an island 'Herrenchiemsee' where King Ludwig II built the neues Schloss which translates to New Palace. We went on a tour through the new palace and it was amazing, unfortunately we were unable to take any photos whilst inside the Palace but it was an amazing sight.
There is only one problem and that is that King Ludwig II ran out of money about half way through the building process and just ditched the project.

Sunday was really really great.  We went to the other side of Bad Aibling and to be honest I thought it couldn't get any bigger. Matt, Michi and I went to Therme Bad Aibling where we were able to swim and relax.  One pool connected to outside so the water was really warm and the snow was all around.  It was refreshing to put your head up and then sink back down to stay warm.

Till Sunday
Josh

Chiemsee

Herrenchiemsee

On Wednesday this week there was no school. So Josh, Georg, Lisi and I went to Chiemsee. First we caught the ferry to the island Herrenchiemsee, where the palace that was built by King Ludwig II in 1878 is. The Palace was never finished due to the King running out of money and him being found dead with his Doctor in the Lake. No one knows what really happened that night when they were out for a stroll and no one will ever know. I think that's what made me like the Palace more, all the mystery behind it. After touring the Palace and then heading into the Museum we caught the ferry to Frauenchiemsee. It's the second largest island in Chiemsee. On the island there is a Monastry which is about 600 years old. Each year they hold a Kristkindlmarkt which attracts lots of tourists to the island. It was getting late so we had some Kaffee and Kuchen and then caught the Ferry back to the mainland. On the drive home it started to snow a little bit, but it didn't stay. That night Georg and I had Plattlerprob, Bavarian dance, from 1900 until about 2000. It was the third time we've had it and I'm catching onto it quite well, and Georg is also. It's heaps of fun and we always have a good time.

 On Friday Georg and I went for a swim in a river when it was about 3 degrees outside and the river was even colder. Although we nearly froze it was really funny and we felt awesome after it. Saturday we cooked with Georg's mum and made Christmas biscuits, 'Weihnachtsplaetzchen' but there aren't many left becuase we ate so many already!

Sunday we went to Therme Bad Aibling becuase the weather was wet and cold. We stayed there for about three hours and then left to go to the cinemas to see 'Catching Fire' in the Hunger Games series. It was a good film, even though I couldn't understand all of it. After the film we all left and headed home for another day at school the next day.

Only 3 weeks left

I've been here now for 7 weeks already, but it feels like I only got here 3 weeks ago. Time has flown, probably because I've been having such a good time.

This week the weather wasn't the best, so we couldn't do much outside of school. Although on Friday after school I went with Kathi's family to Switzerland. It took us about 5 hours to drive to Aesch a town about 15km outside of Zurich. We stayed with Kathi's mum's best friend, Christina. That night we settled in, being ready for Saturday. On Saturday we went into Zurich for the day. We walked around the city, looking at many shops. We saw Falsenegg lake and ETH Zurich. A university of engineering, science, technology, mathematics and management. Albert Einstein graduated from the university in 1920 and later came back to teach there also. Time flew and before we knew it we had to leave because it was getting dark and cold. So we left and headed back to Aesch for dinner.

Sunday we went to the local school in Aesch where Maxi, Christina's son, goes to school. It's a small primary school with a Basketball/Soccer court, a small playground and a table tennis thing. We left Aesch at about 1400 to head back to Germany becuase we had school the next day. So we said our Goodbyes and drove back to Germany arriving at about 1900.

This week was a really good one, even though we didn't go out much it was nice to stay and relax for a bit because we have been busy the past 7 weeks and it was nice to slow down a bit.

Until next week,
Matt