Hallo Menschen,

Well while I'm in the mood and have a spare 20mins and have just put on some Brooke Fraser, I think I'll write a blog entry.  On the note of NZ music, well there are certain things I oddly miss about that place...one recent example is NZ hiphop. Yep that’s right, my friend Gina and I have been pumping the Dei Hamo, Deceptikonz, Mareko, Scribe and Savage non-stop.  Something I never thought I'd appreciate but the other day I caught myself singing 'Early in the morning, its all good to eat sausage rolls' without even realising.  Anyways...

At the moment I am very very busy. Uni has flung a series of assignments and presentations at me, all at the same time as I am trying to organise my Portugal plans (GOING IN ONE WEEK EEEE!) and Munich/Barcelona.  But alllllll gooooddd because Konstanz is brilliant and to be honest, these courses are really amping up my general knowledge (which compared to these worldly Europeans is not so flash).  It's a trade-off between wanting to learn and get reasonable marks or to travel and party. I'm trying to get the balance right but seriously where is the time going???????

Apparently it snowed today but I missed it cos I was in class, but it's not even December yet so I guess if it's snowing now, there will be a fair bit to come!  I'm still not feeling the cold that badly at all. I actually think that the winter I just had in Georgey may have fully prepared me for the worst..but best not to speak too soon I guess.

Ok well on to what I've been doing! I'll just talk about a few of the highlights:

I guess the most exciting thing I've done lately was our trip to Heidelberg. Man oh man I love it there. Heidelberg is about 4 hours from Konstanz by train so we (Vanessa, Qin, Thorin and I) got up super early and caught a ridiculous-in-the-morning-o'clock train. The train journey was actually brilliant because I got to catch up with friends I hadn't seen in a while, the Mp3 Nicky gave me before I left came out and IT WAS ACTUALLY AMAZING (I don't know if you got Margsys help or by some fluke the perfect combination of music played but it set the best tone for the journey) and also, the scenerey of the famous black forest all the way was so cool.  I'm defintely not as 'squealy with excitement' as I used to be when we pass castles and fortresses ever 15mins, but I'm still the most squealy haha.  So we arrived in Heidelberg and uh we realised we had no idea where we were and how to get to the centre of town. I really like this feeling of just being so lost, especially so far from 'home'(Konstanz in this sense).  So we followed gut instinct which lead us in the right direction (...after gut instinct asked a few locals for help).  Eventually we made it to a big-ass hill where the massive Heidelberg castle ruins are! I realised Id only reaallly been to palaces before this and this would be my first proper castle ruins! Walked...or should I say 'crawled' up the hill to get to the castle for the most brilliant views over the city and to check out a few things inside like a massive pharamacy museum which sounds weird but was really cool, the old wine cellar/producing place (I know the word in german ok!) and souvenier shops.

Then we went down to the old part of town and the bridges across the Rhein river. Heidelberg, as beautiful as it is, is tourist central. I heard more amercians than germans and souvineirs were everywhere. I of course demanded we went in the churches. Went to one of their gigantic christmas stores, a bit like Kirkaldies in Wellington but even bigger and just enjoyed the atmosphere. We wandered, went to starbucks and then did a bit of winter shopping. I got a hilarious hat that all the people here wear and that I havn't quite brought myself to wear in public yet but the time will come when I wear it every day, I know it.  Caught a few trains home and spent a while at a few train book stores and McDonalds. Lucky the trainstations here are practcially malls in themselves. Got home very tired, had an amazing day but happy to be back home in our little slice of paradise.

Right so then on Sunday it was BEUATIFULLY SUNNY. So strange that in Mid-november it felt like a warm spring day.  I went on a little walk up a hill to a tower called 'Bismark Turm' for a stunning view of Konstanz.  It looked out over some sort of orchards or fruit-growing trees, the cemetry and the lake.  I sat there and wrote postcards which I want to send but have somehow misplaced..I'll find them.  Anyway, I then saw a squirell and got WAAAYYYY to excited about it and just followed and followed until I was somehow in the cemetry. This was one of my fave discoveries, it sounds silly but I was just so at peace ther. They really look after their gravestones (which are stunning) and flowers and trees and cute old people (Erin, you'd love it). Oh and heaps of squirells! I kept wandering and finding new things I never knew existed :)

Ok so another highlight was another dinner party with my wonderful french friend Natacha and her boyfriend who had come from Paris for the weekend. He's a film-maker and I got a sneak preview of soem of his work and WOW, incredible stuff. I'll be sure to look out for him in french-cinema film credits in a few years. Good night all round, yummy yummy food and french cheese.

Ok so then the next big night was the weekend just been. I met with my friend Gina on Friday afternoon and we had a bit of a sneaky 2pm wine while we got ready for our big nerd-fest a.k.a. HARRY POTTER! A group of us dressed up as characters from the movie (yeah yeah we know we're a tad lame) and then caught the train to the nearest english-showing cinema about 25mins away. But first Gina and I picked up her crazy friends in Konstanz train station who came from Freiburg (these would be the people I stayed with when I went to Europapark). We knew right from then that the weekend wasn't gonna be ordinary.  So we all met at one of the student apartments for some genuine butterbeer...and just standard beer too ;)
The train ride was hilarious.  Think about how many looks and comments a group of HP-freaks woul get in NZ and then times that amount of disgust by a million! The germans would never do this. Ever. We loved it and the comments and stories are priceless. LOVVVEEEDD the movie, even though the germans play like half an hour of credits beforehand.  Then Gina, the Freiburg crowd and I decided to go out..where excatly we went and what we did only the photos give real evidence of. But the bottomline is I was really really careless and stupid and deserve to be put in the naughty corner but I lost my credit card, efpos card and bus ticket. Thsi made for a stressful morning (long story but kinda funny) and I owe Andra, Alex D, Steffi and Gina sooooooo much for helping me!

Alright then the rest of this weekend has been devoted to writing an essay. This paper pretty much trys to get us to solve world poverty through politics and economics. Considering the best minds in the world have been trying to do this for decades, it's a pretty hard task to ask of us students, but worthwhile none the less.

But on Sunday I had my first ever thanksgiving! Yeah kinda strange it was in Deutschland but I liked it anyway. The North Americans did a superb job in organising a big pot-luck feast (they provided some amazing Turkey and mashed potatoes) for 30-40people.  Got to have some good chats and good food. The north americans looked so content and happy =)

I really think that's about it for a bit. Oh but as an aside - Yeeeaahhh we won the Rugby.  Not ususally too concerned about such things but when you have the Irish and Aussies making taunts, it's good to win.  Also, hasn't the world news just been horrible this week. The miners, bombings between the parts of Korea, the Cambodia disaster.  I feel like its been terrible news after more terrible news. I guess at least the Price is engaged. I think all of our thoughts go out to the miners on the West Coast. Bye for now xx

Oh the joys of jumping borders on a whim :)

Hi guys, yay I may just update this blog a bit more frequently after all (I know you didn't believe me!).  This week has felt so long but finally it is the weekend and I can quench my travel thirst a bit more.  On Saturday a few friends and I are visiting the german town Heidelberg which I've been wanting to visit ever since I started learning german so very excited! Ok well, I should finish talking about the last few weeks..

The day after Thorin and I had our FOTC night, I got up bright and early for a hike up the Austrian alps (pics above)!  Yeah, typical Jessie kinda maybe sorta forgot it was daylight savings and got to the train station a whole hour earlier than I needed to! I can imagine no one is surprised I did such a thing. Anyway, that was all good because I got some croissants from the bakery and chatted away with some people who were there early too (only, they were early on purpose haha).  So it was organised by the people who organise excursions for exchange students and they were such sweethearts stuffing us with bretzels and apple juice.  A big group of us took a train ride (well actually, 3 changes) for a few hours to the Austrian town on Lake Konstanz called 'Bregenz'.  We then started our hike up to the 'Pfaender' which is one of the best lookouts over the Switzerland, Germany and Austria and of course, lake constance and the alps in between! So they advertised this trip as 'gemuetlich' which pretty much translates to 'comfortable/leisurely'. Haha well they lied just a little bit. I think it took most people between 2 and 3 hours to get to the top but we were all fine and the scenery was totally worth any sore muscles the next day. This place has the most amazing autumn ever (much like Christchurch but more trees/leaves falling from trees on hills as well).  A really stunningly beautiful place! We got to the top and awwwwww the view of the snowy alps was so pretty. We stayed up the top there for a long time just taking in the scenery. Luckily it was a pretty nice day too.  Then we went to have a look at the 'wildlife park' which was pretty much a bunch of mountain goats, hogs and sheep but there were some fairly entertaining moments none the less.  Then took a very big gondola back down, getting some pretty autumn views and spent the rest of teh day/evening exploring the town of Bregenz. My friend Chandni and I went off on our own and found a lovely church where we were so in luck as a really fantastic choir/orchestra were practicing for some sort of performance and so we just sat and enjoyed the beautiful music (somehow it made me ever so slightly miss Carol Service at school....NAHHH). We then went to check out the Austrian side of the lake and came across a uni-cycling, fire-juggling busker who was mostly entertaining for his use of the very common language here - 'ginglish'(german-english) or 'dinglish'(deutsch-english).  Stayed and watched him for a bit and then went to a really cute bar/cafe in town where we had a hot choc and some lovely conversation (thanks Chandni!).  Train back was sooo tiring but hey, Monday was a public holiday!! Can't remember what I did but it involved homework and maybe met up with some people.  Uh oh, my days have run into each other now..I hope I havn't mentioned this already but later that week I...WENT FOR A RUN, haha, yeah shocking, I know. But it was actually so enjoyable as when you run around teh pretty lake, it really all just looks so nice you forget your running anyway.  Might do that again, probs in a month ;)

Anyway so at some point that week (or the week before), I went to dinner with the aussie/nz/american people at this pancake restaurant. WOW, they were huge, more like big crepes. I actually got a dessert one with a bunch of banana, syrup, icing sugar etc. Then we went to a Gluehwein (typical german xmas muleld wine) party at Europahaus (one of the halls of residence here which ashamedly was my first time going there!) where some people had bought like 40L of gluehwein. Thought it was gonna be crappy budget stuff but NOPE, it was goooooood! (Don't worry Ryan, ours was so better!). Anyway that was fun! Then...Ive stuffed up my days but let's pretend that.....on Thursday us kiwis and NZer's met up and cooked typical NZ/Aussie food for honestly hours for the International dinner that night. Matt did some mini pavalovas, we had afghans which Rebecca stuffed up the first round and so we put it in the cheery ripe, there was an impressive meat pie, hokey pokey and honey comb and aha my lolly cake completely failed and looked like a lovely log of vomit but I'm gonna blame it on lack of real malt biscuits and fruit puffs (we didn't exactly take this to the dinner). The dinner was entertaining but sadly a bit of a weak turnout.  Us kiwi/aussies were as always nice and loud and potentially scared the europeans but hey, that's what we do best. There was however, italian, finnish, romanian, german, american food etc which was delicious! We spent most of that night planning our big harry potter extravaganza for next weekend.  I did also get confronted by an angry german when I attempted to sneakily take a beer for the road..no such luck :( But, good night all round!!

Ok so then on Friday I started my first 'tandem learning' lesson with my Polish friend Diana. Tandem pretty much means that (because her german is waaaayyy better than mine), she teaches/helps me improve my german and I teach her english.  No idea how to teach english but she asked if I'd be interested and I didn't see why not. First tandem-successful and fun! I met up with my nz friend Gina at night for some wine and a general yarn which was great fun! I did something saturday....can't remember what...oh yeah! Thorin and I went into town for a wander and got ice cream. My mission of trying every ice cream flavour at german ice cream cafes is slowly getting accomplished. I personally love 'snickers' and 'tirimasu'.  Ok then I went to my french friend Natacha's appartment for a really really sweet french dinner/wine/cheese party as her sister and boyfriend were vsiting for the weekend. A great mix of cultures and languages always makes for an excellent night! As does french cooking and of course, Drews brownies :)

Ok so then Sunday (almost near the end guys, promise!). So Diana's boyfriend is here for the week and quite convieniently has a car! So on Sunday, Diana, Karin, Iida, Diana's bf and I went on a trip to the Swiss alps at a place called Saentis.  Journey through the Swiss countryside was absolutely gorgeous! But I am still insistant that the bottom of germany has hands down, the best scenery ever. Saw a few lovely swiss towns here and there which were WONDERFUL (but again, Germany is better!).  Ok so copied from wikipedia: "
Säntis (2,502 m) is a mountain in the Alpstein sub-range of the Appenzell Alps in Switzerland. It can be reached by aerial tramway from Schwägalp".  We went up by this gondola thing and wow, it sure felt HIGH! Sadly the day was a bit foggy so most of our exploring of the Saentis involved getting lost in the fog but EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE SNOW!!!!! First time I have seen snow in a really long time and it eventually cleared up a bit for some views of snow covered mountains.

Well we had the rest of the day ahead of us and a car, so what better place to go than Liechtenstein! Yeah, thats right, that tiny country that is barely a country it's so tiny! Well we went to the capital city Vaduz and had an absolutely hilarious time pretty much just laughing that we were in Liechtenstein. Well, as none of us knew anything about th place, we went to tourist info and learned about their prince and saw his castle on the hill, we found out they really like their postage stamps and really strange street sculptures and that they are just as expensive as Switzerland.  A really great day thanks Diana and bf! Slept all the way home :)

So then, I guess this week...oh yeah on Tuesday night Diana, her bf, Thorin and I had some Polish vodka drinks and some brilliant yet intense economic/political discussions haha (amazed that this happened without the presence of a german!).  And we shall 'make a party' (as the germans say it) tonight again with quite a few more people, should be great! Havn't done much else, just a shocking presentation (*erases from memory*) and got my first essay result back, not too bad at all considering how crap the lecturer said the class did (yeah, she's a lovely sort, that one).  But last night my Yael, Thorin and I went a very Wellington-esque bar in town and I tried something I really don't know what it was but it was good! Well, that's definately enough for now. But I really truly hope exams went ok/well/amazing for you all and that your summer job issues have been sorted and that guy fawkes was a blast (haha, oh so funny am I)...though stories tell me it was as mental as always.  Party hard, especially you mum and dad ;)
Ok, love to you all xoxo
"

Quick Hello!

Hello everyone, this will be really short because I am going out in 10mins but I felt really guilty that I havn't written in this like I said I would So for peace of mind I'll write a little bit about last week quickly.  SOrry, that means there are going to more typos than usual (if possible).  Anyhoooowww, so last week was actually quite stressful. Got given a tonne of homework and my first political economy essay which to say the least was exteremly difficult for me. Results on Tues - fingers crossed for a pass. Anyway, on Wednesday I went to Meersburg again because the weather was just far too beautiful to pass up.  So I took teh ferry over and just wandered around all the places that I hadnt explored yet. Oh the vineyards are so gorgeous and then I got a fairly large chocolate sundae at a cafe looking out over the lake to celebrate my being in Germany for a month only a few days before.  So that was a lovely day! The autumn colours are stunning here but with each day, more and more leaves are going and even though I'm finding it pretty warm, winter is definately coming, as seen by the christmas decorations already appearing. So yeah, spent the next part of the week frantically writing these essays and then gave myself a nice relaxing weekend. It was made even more relaxing because Monday was 'all saints day' - public holiday. So on Saturday I met Cristina from Romania and Chandni from England and we went on a lovely walk to Kreuzlingen (which I've mentioned before, teh neighbouring swiss town).  The weather was again nice so we sat outside and ate these gigantic swiss sausages and they used some coupons to get some drinks.  That night, Thorin came over and we celebrated his birthday with too much cake and vodka..and maybe some wine too.  I accidentally first mixed our drinks with vodka and water instead of limonade though which wasnt so delightful. Then we watched flight of the conchords :)

Ok I am off to a dinner party with some girls from Paris tonight and then maaayyybbeee some towning.  So I will continue this tomorrow or Monday. Hope Guy Fawkes was brilliant! Gutted I missed it. Also, I really hope all your exams are going well and the start of summer is bloody awesome! Till later, xox

This has gotta be the longest blog entry evvverrr - an October in Germany summary (ish)

Woooohoooooo hello! Finally (AGAIN) I get around to writing in this thing. Ok just so I don’t get into the habit of not updating this and you guys getting annoyed and then me having to write a novel and then you having to read a novel…I propose this:

I’m going to write one long entry today about what I’ve been doing over the last few weeks in good depth (sorry another novel) but then after that every week like Wed or Thurs I will make certain that I write an entry of the weeks highlights.  It just kinda means that todays one will be LONG. Maybe read it over a few days.  Also, because some people don’t care about the history/detail stuff, when I write about somewhere I will put the historical and detailed specifics in a paragraph beneath (in blue) the general description so that you can skip it if you want. This blog is also for my benefit so I want to take note of historical details.  And also I am copying and pasting some stuff from emails I’ve sent people because it makes things easier so don’t be weirded out if you feel like you’ve read some of this before.

Ok on to business…

I should really finish Munich!

Thurs: Last full day in Munich until xmas (which I am really really excited about!) and Alex and I drove to this gorgeous big lake in Bavaria called Chiemsee surrounded by cute little towns and with a few islands on the lake. The drive was so pretty, the landscape blew my mind. Actually, the scenery ended up being my fave part of Chiemsee.  So many cute villages with little farms, town churches, towers, onion domes and bright colours. It’s actually a bit sad, I’ve been here so long that all that stuff is so normal for me now, I appreciate it a bit less. Though I guess I still can’t help staring out the windows in buses and trains. Got to the main dock at Prien and got on the ferry and took a ride to the island Herrenchiemsee to see the palace there. 

Detailed description: So King Ludwig II of Bavaria bought this island in 1873 and decided to build a summer palace that was pretty much a replica of Vesailles in Paris. So this guy, Alex and I decided, was clearly a mad-man!!  But a brilliant mad-man because without his madness the world would not have 3 beautiful palaces in Bavaria (2 which I have now visited, and eager to tick the third off my list at xmas). So Ludwig, the fairytale king’ was obsessed with King Louis 14^th of France and wanted to copy his Versailles palace (which I’ve already visited when I was younger) as a copy with a little bit of Bavarian flair.  I admit, a lot of what I saw really took me back to my time in Versailles, a stunning place.  Typical of the French kings, very flashy with gold, extravagant chandelier, lavish decorations, secret passages, exact painted copies of artwork and ceiling frescoes and marble everywhere. Loved how there was a table in the dining room and the table top lowers down a floor level to the kitchen through the kitchen staff pulling chords and then putting food on and pulling it back up again! Also loved this HUGE room of mirrors with so much gold decoration and hanging from the ceiling were these huge astonishingly decorated candle holders that must have held 100 candles each because in total there were 5000 candles. And yes, Ludwig did demand that they be lit every night – what a mission! The outside has a long pathway then a big fountain before a series of stairs leading to two other fountains and then the palace. Photos weren’t allowed sorry but the interior was phenomenal.  I would say I like the exterior and gardens of Versailles much more but the interior of this more.  The funny/sad/ironic thing about the palace is that not only did Ludwig become bankrupt and only finished half the palace, but he only actually lived there for 10 days of his life! He died mysteriously in Lake Stanberg before he could spend a full summer as intended. 

After the palace we went to look at the museum with bit and bobs that never got put in the palace and plans for so many other palaces by Ludwig that had been inspired by countries all over the world. This guy really was bonkers. So then we took the ferry to the island Frauen Insel (Island of the ladys haha, cos it’s got a monastery for nuns).  The monastery was very sweet, saw a well-decorated church, as always, cute Bavarian houses and eeee view of the mountains over the lake. Slept all the way home J  Chicken pancakes for dinner! Interesting concept but brilliant. 

Friday: Gosh, let me remember…oh yeah, I think today I packed for Kostanz and Alex and I went and bought me stuff at a big place like a massive version of briscoes to set me up for my apartment.  Got pots, pans etc. Little did I know that Alex’s mum had been an absolute sweetheart and packed me heaps of stuff to take too! Then went and played tennis again with Alex’s trainer. Then tv and got ready for a night clubbing in Germany with a bottle of cheap (but really good!) 1.80 euro wine J  Met some friends and caught the train to the disco called ‘naga’.  German clubs tend to have a few different rooms with different music scenes.  We stayed in the mainstream music one mostly.  Well one long island iced tea led to some jager shots that led to a few more cocktails, raving to my fave german songs ‘disco pogo’ and ‘nein mann’ as well as some lady gaga etc of course. FANTASTIC NIGHT, loved raving with Alex and can’t wait to do it again! Got home around 5am and only slept about 3 hours and then got up for a drive to Konstanz with my host family. The words ‘MASSIVE HANGOVER’ don’t really even begin to cover things so sadly some of the breath-taking scenery went to waste on me but towards the end I was gawking as always. Europe is a world of wonders! Ok so we arrived in an unbelievably sweet medieval town called Meersburg and took a 20min ferry from there to Konstanz, called my brilliant ‘tutor’ Larissa who we met and took me to my apartment. 

I live in a big apartment block and have my own apartment with bedroom with study desk and computer chair and big wardrobe (lots of space), small kitchen and tinsy bathroom.  I am very very content with where I live.  I am so lucky, I live of the 4^th floor and have a balcony that looks out in many different directions. One towards the forest surrounding the Uni, one towards the beautiful old town and the alps and then out over towards the other apartments (which are one level lower than my floor) where I look out of the hills and see the sun sets most nights J  Most people look at a concrete wall, I am grateful for my place! I only have a stove though! No microwave, no oven, but I knew that before I came. Haha it has just meant that I’ve become a bit creative and am slowly getting better at judging how much one person eats.  Everything is functional, warm, the bed is comfy, shower pressure good, 10min walk/2 min bus to Uni so I’m happy.  There are many other student houses. Europahaus has waaayyy more parties and is more social but I’ve heard a few stories about noise and annoying flatmates so I think I’m where I should be. 

                                                             View from my room

After arrival, I went and checked out the Uni so I’ll say a bit about that which I have since visited multiple times. Haha, um I find the whole place funny. My observations:

-          Lots of smaller rooms for 20-30 people. Less big lecture theatres.

-          One lecture theatre has a gigantic window that looks out towards the beautiful lake, a very easy distraction!

-          The Mensa (student food court) seems to be where it’s at.  Lots of people everywhere, big glass windows with a view you would expect from an expensive restaurant. LOTS of food, good, well-priced food. Most people have their main meal of the day at the mensa.  There is an outdoor part up top (again, eee the view!)

-          Crazy weird art – things that look like pumpkins and strange blue pipes and twisted (try hard Gaudi) pillars.  It hilarious because the uni has won a bunch of art awards and stuff but I just see it and laugh.

-          The library is pretty sweet, they keep bragging about its awards.  Quite a good system of organisation and a really cool media library for dvds etc. 

Had to say goodbye to Alex and family which was so sad but Konstanz is brilliant, and denfainetly a place I can now call ‘home sweet home’.  First full day in Konstanz was WOOOONNDEEERRFULLL.  Caught the bus (over the Rhine river!) to meet Larissa and a friend of hers Carola.  Haha so my first real day in Konstanz was the German reunification day! Most places were shut open so we decided to go and see the cute little german boy scouts and fry dough over a stick in a big tent in the sun.  This is called ‘Stockbrot’  Played some funny traditional german boy scout games including attempting to smack acorns rolling down pipes. 

Then we went into the city centre (old town) for the first time J WOW WOW WOW I can’t rave about Konstanz enough. This place is just amazing, more beautiful than I imagined.  As some of you may have seen from my photos, so much old german-style architecture! And most of it is genuine too, unlike some German cities that have re-built everything to match originals destroyed in the war.  Konstanz however was not bombed – there are two theories 1) That Konstanz was not important enough economically to bomb and 2)The more preferred version by anyone from Konstanz; the Konstanz people were smart and during the war they switched off all their power so that there were no lights and the bombers simply thought Konstanz was part of Switzerland.  I think it was a combination of both :P 

Anyway, we went up the awesome town cathedral (which has multiple underground passages to crypts that I love) and got a GREAT view over Lake Constance (Bodensee), Konstanz town, the Swiss alps and even Austria – I was so joyous! Then back down and started to go for a walk to the Swiss border (me dwalding and gwacking the whole time though – the a kid in a toy shop). The border is such a non-event, got there and looked at the neighbouring Swiss town, soon realised Konstanz is so much cooler and went back. I have since jumped across to Switzerland a few times and found much prettier parts J Got some ice cream etc (as I have been doing wayyyy to often – almost daily!). Also, I have rekindled my love for the McFlurry.  There are lots of buskers – my fave is this cute little sailor man with a little cap and beard who sings in german about the lake constance area.  I got a little lost late a night on my way home that night which was good fun, and also really scary but since arriving here, getting lost has been my adrenalin buzz – I almost do it on purpose just to see how I cope. I also cross the Swiss border without my documentation to feel like a rebel, havn’t been caught yet, but close…I think I have problems, I’ll have to stop that.

I really wish I had written like this everyday but there is just no time so I’m going to list lovely things that have done/happened/I’ve noticed – sorry if it is out of order.

-          Lots of ‘getting lost’ wandering around the city and just discovering new and beautiful parts all the time.  Actually, now I feel very very comfortable here. I can navigate just about anywhere and the bus system is flawless.  I no longer feel like a tourist here. In fact, I’ve never felt like this before, it’s almost like when I first moved to Christchurch; new city, new people, new uni and now it is just life as usual but with a trip to a beautiful island or new city every couple of days!

-          Met some really lovely, friendly german people – YES, they exist! And there are so many! And of course absolutely everyone, no matter what country are so shocked when they hear I am from New Zealand.

-          On that note, I really can’t emphasise enough how much coming here has made me realize how much I love New Zealand. Not because it is better than here or anything, here is just fantastic, much more interesting, beautiful etc. But what I’ve discovered is that NZ really actually does have a culture and it’s in our attitude, our sayings and language we use, in our behaviour and in our values.  I came to Germany to learn about the german culture but instead I find myself learning more and more about NZ. Today I had to talk about a national holiday in my country and I can tell you, I have never ever spoken so passionately about Waitangi day.

-          On that note – people laugh at me all the time, the words I use, how I say it, my voice, everything. Good thing is that they actually like my accent! But it’s a pity I have to repeat a lot in an American accent. Sometimes I amp up my kiwi accent and choice of words just to mess with people, it’s fun haha. Also I have discovered that NO ONE can imitate the kiwi accent, I wish they would stop trying but instead they pierce my ears with some horrid Australian/British combo.

-          I can’t understand Swiss german when in Switzerland, not one bit.

-          Bureaucracy in Germany – they are not joking! My first few weeks in Konstanz was pretty much devoted to trying to get a residence permit and sort out Uni enrolment. The queues were crazy and the opening hours so short. But never fear, at last I am a German resident!

-          Just for a bit I’m going to rant (haha ‘rant’ – NZ word people would usually laugh at me for using) about dogs here.  They are so loved here, it is incredible! They are allowed EVRYWHERE – malls, public transport, cafes etc. And the sheer VARIETY, you name the breed, I guarantee there will be at least one in Konstanz. Dogs are also a major conversation point – strangers will talk for hours just bonding over their dogs.

-           So the orientation program – not much too say, just a lot of seminars, intro the uni, the strange assessment systems here etc. Have met some really awesome people from all over the world which has been so interesting hearing about other countries and how things are different.  Some stereotypes have been confirmed and a few turned completely topsy-turvy. 

-          So my classes are really scarily hard here and different! Turns out I’m doing a masters course and the rest of my courses are equivalent to the 2^nd semester of 3^rd year courses.  Pretty darn scary but at least 3/7 are in English and the other 4/7 are manageable german (for my language level).  Instead of big exams, I have big mid-term essays and then 20 page assignments (one in german!) at the end of the year as well as every class has a presentation/seminar I have to do and weekly homework/readings. So intense and I just got my first assign today so a tad scared.  Problem is, most other exchange students, their Uni’s don’t care at all what mark they get here but mine affects my GPA so eekkkk.  BUT on a positive note, I have hardly any classes per week (about 15 hours) and my Fridays are free J So my courses are : 1) ‘Poltical Economy of Aid and Development’ (super interesting but certainly my hardest subject), 2)‘Brand Management’, 3)‘International Dimensions of Human Resource Management’ (both these courses are great!) and then in german: 4)‘economics/german studies’ – don’t even get me started on the lecturer but oh well, I think they’ll be easy credits. 5) Current events- german 6) Germany and the world – debating and presenting 7) German history – since 1949 (HARD but interesting).

So this is way too long so I’ll bullet point all fun stuff I’ve done since I arrived:
- Fun times with my New York friend Chrystina at the sealife museum (penguins, sharks, fish etc)

-          Meeting up with friends for way too much ice cream and exploring the area trips.

-          A few parties; first was at the main club here ‘Blechenerei’ which was a good time partying with other exchange students

-          Trip to the historic town Meersburg across the lake (one of my most favourite days here, see the photos, it is beautiful! Maybe towards the end of my stay here I'll post all the historical info because it is very interesting). Pretty much, Meersburg = boat trip, old castle tour, view over the lake, baroque church, old wine making store tour, vineyards, walk to thermal pools, ice cream, BEAUTIFUL sunset.

-          Island Reichenau – world heritage site preserved by UNESCO for it’s old churches, history and monastery.

-          Island Mainau – Flower island where I enjoyed my first real Schwarzwalderkirchtorte (black forest cake), saw some beautiful flowers, my fave church I’ve seen since I arrived back in Germany and a butterfly house!

-          Stuttgart and Marbach – Ok so I get a scholarship from the state I am living in ‘Baden-Wuerttemberg’ and the capital of that state is the German town Stuttgart (mostly know for it’s involvement in the car industry). The scholarship organisers paid for all the scholarship awardees to got to Stuttgart (3 hours by train) and then from there we went to ‘Marbach’ where the german author Schiller was born.  Here we took a tour of the town and saw Schillers birthplace and usual – churches (J), town walls and towers and OH MY, my firend Thorin and I found this cute little bar/café that turned out to be owned by Itlaians who made us the best Apfelstrudel (apple strudel) and hot choc. We then went to the National Archive of Literature and saw some old manuscripts of many famous german poets/authors and then we went to the National Schiller Museum. Very interesting day but the highlight by far was meeting some other interesting exchange students! Before we left Stuttgart we went up a really high tower at the train station and great view of Stuttgart. 

And then this weekend just been was absolutely CRAAZZZYYY….I went to a party on Wednesday, met some Aussies and New Zealanders who invited me to go to Europapark the next day…why not?? Haha so then I went to Uni the next day, then went out to a pub and had some good good german beer with some Aussies, NZers, Germans and Americans. Late that night I then met my new NZ friend and we drove with her german friend to the town of Freiburg (2 ½ hours from Konstanz). Met her friends and pretty much from then on it got interesting.  Maybe ask me for the details in person. Anyway, we stayed at some friends of my NZ friend who live in Freiburg and the next day went to Germanys largest themepark ‘Europapark’ or ‘Europe Park’. As with all themparks, it had awesome rollercoasters, water rides, shows and other amusement rides and games.  My fave was by far the ‘silver star’rollercoaster which was made by Mercedes Benz and had lots of fun Mercedes Benz promo stuff as we waited. Because it is Halloween soon, the themepark had pumpkins EVRYWHERE and wow, I did not know how many varieties and different sizes, shapes and colours pumpkins came in until I came to Germany!  So there was one ride that was pitch black inside a gigantic pumpkin.  The most unique thing about Europapark though, is that it has a replica of every major country in Europe and has big buildings that are architecturally like the buildings you would find in those countries e.g. A big Kremlin like in Russia, a Colosseum and little Venice like in Italy, a santorini-like Greece section and oh a good ride was the Swiss Bob-sled ride.  We enjoyed calling each other and saying ‘I’m in Switzerland, want to meet in Russia in five minutes?’.

And now I really need to start saving a bit more and stop eating out all the time (even though the food is far too good!) and I need to start doing some uni work…as it is hard L  But having a great time so far! Can’t believe yesterday was month since I arrived in Germany. I feel like I have been here for so long and yet just arrived.  Now I really don’t believe any of you could possibly read this all in one hit! But I do intend to update it weekly from now on so until then, Aufwiedersehen xox MISS YOU ALL

FINALLY an update from the mighty Deutshland!!!

Gutentag!!!! Hello my friends and family,

So word has it you all want a blog post :) To be honest, I thought I was too tired tonight BUT I have just eaten a half a bag of Haribo lollies (for those who know what these are: yeah that's right, I said HARIBO) and am now on a sugar high so very happy to write you all a long rambling blog post to sufficiently make you wonder why you wanted it in the first place :D

So let's start from the beginning... I left on Friday the 24th of September and yet I feel like I have been here in Germany for months.  I really do love Germany so much; the people, the history, the buildings, the food and most of all, speaking the language - it brings me such joy.  Though I'd be lying if I didn't say I thought of NZ and all you wonderful people every day :)  Missing you all here and wishing I could have stuffed you all in my suitcase somehow.

I'm going to write this blog with a few tips of mine along the way in hopes that one day you will all travel and have first-hand advice :)

Anyhow...the flights, let's skip past them quickly, like ripping a bandaid.  Emirates were BRILLIANT. Definitely up there with AirNZ for my fave airline.  The food was just superb! Couldn’t even fault the chicken (and with most airlines you can always fault the chicken), movie and tv selection was pretty good (but probably only 'pretty' good because I was searching out the limited movies available in german for some last minute practice) and the staff were so helpful and very multi-lingual.  One of the main staff even came up to me and especially welcomed me on the flight as he knew I was travelling a really long way on the same plane/airline. Transfers were disastrous and I didn't sleep the whole way from Christchurch to Sydney to Bangkok to Dubai to Munich.  I did however, meet some truly lovely and interesting people who helped me out with the all too frequent problems I had...and yes Sarah, there were some pretty intense 'judged hard' moments going on.

Arrived at Munich to see my gorgeous host sister (from last time I was in Munich) holding a bunch of flowers, a box of chocolates and balling her eyes out! Instantly I wasn't tired anymore, the jetlag temporarily disappeared and the happiness of finally seeing my host family after so long made me so happy beyond description!

I've already seen a lot of Munich so to be honest, I devoted a huge proportion of my time in Munich just having fun with Alex and her friends and practising my german :)  It was so different from rushing from tourist attraction to tourist attration as I had done the last time I was here, but chilling with Alex, it felt so right, well overdue.  Alex's family could not have been any more hospitable.  They really treat me like their daughter...particularly my host mama who mothered me like nothing I've ever experienced! The food was insane!

A bit on the food…

Alex woke me up every morning (after letting me sleep in longer than her) with a hot chocolate, let me get myself together for 5mins (after waking up, it takes me 3mins or so to adjust to speaking/thinking german) and then would call me into the kitchen for a full bavarian breakfast of sausages (sometimes the tradtional weisswurst - white sausage), salami, ham, chesse, bretzels (very german) and an assortment of breads fresh from the bakery that morning. I couldn't think of a better way to start the day!  However, the prospect of obesity became a serious possibility especially because, breakfast happened to be the lightest meal of the day! Dinner was always early, they like to have it at 4.30pm here, what the????? The food varied throughout the week – usually something traditionally Bavarian like spaetzle, sausages and bread but also one night we went out to an all you can eat Mongolian restaurant on the lake Stanberg and another night, Alex and I went to an African food store in town and made African food like non-sweet fried bananas and a really slimy (but good!) vegetable and chicken dish. AND always served with beer and wine. The first night I was there, after over 40hours without sleeping, they somehow got me to have a half a litre of beer and 2 glasses of wine…and encouraged more! For the first week, I physically and mentally could not stay awake past 8pm on any night but now I am in Konstanz, I’m back to my regular pattern of staying up past 12 at night most nights.  One of my best discoveries thus far about Germany – good wine can be purchased for 1.69euros (around $2.40 nz)! You can imagine my delight J And of course (Erin!), I can not go without WOWING at the amazingness and variety of ice cream/gelato here. Mmmmmm J

Now a bit on the language….

The german language somehow came really easily, though some parts of the day I was always way more alert and ‘in the zone’ than others.  At first I thought it was just the special bond Alex and I had as ‘sisters’ (I feel like she can always understand me, no matter how wrong it is) but the more I have ended up speaking to random Germans (in some cases, spontaneously talking with randoms for hours), I’ve come to realise my german must be pretty good by now! Also, being able to understand basically everything was a pretty amazing feeling that I’ve never felt before.  I had my german language test today and to be honest I’m kind of bummed – not because I did badly, but because I did too well! In NZ I sought course approval for particular German language courses in hopes I would be good enough to take them.  Turns out, the course people won’t let me take them cos they are ‘too easy for my level’ and now I have to reapply to Canterbury for higher level courses..yay for more bureaucracy.  On a positive note, yay, I don’t suck at german! I have to say, opening a bank account and buying a cellphone completely in german all by myself and now using a phone completely in german have been some of my proudest moments yet!

Anyway, onwards to the fun times!

Sunday:

This was church day!!! Last time I was in Munich I had covered most of the churches I wanted to see there but of course, there are always more!!! With a map in hand, we scoped out a gorgeous rococo church called Asamkirche that was completed in 1746.  It has got to be one of the tinest but most intensely decorated churches I have ever had the pleasure of seeing.  Truly worth visiting! Then onwards to Saint Michaels Church which is the largest Renaissance church north of the alps (according to Wikipedia hehe).  It was completely different to the Asamkirche but still so beautiful in it’s bright and white simplicity and many many paintings along the walls and a fabulous altar (as all churches in Europe have). Next church…Heilig Geist Kirche, so beautiful! I hadn’t even heard of it so thank you to Alex’s mum for introducing me to this treasure with a wonderfully painted ceiling!  However, we did managed to get kicked out for loitering during a service ekkk! Ok now, the highlight of my day…climbing the ridiculously old (1294) church ‘Alter Peter’ with a ridiculous amount of stairs (92metres worth).  But the breathtaking view was well and truly worth it! Got a brilliant view over the whole of Munich including the very impressive old townhall, the main square, two of the most prominent churches in Munich (Frauenkirche and Theatinerkirche), the Olympic skytower and the BMW factory and museum.  Then went and did the tourist bit and joked around with those guys who dress up and get painted as statues and stand still THE WHOLE DAY, they fully impress me. Also randomly there was this Jewish American man playing a strange gigantic xylophone (like a wood instrument of some sort). Then onwards for a peek at Oktoberfest (though anyone who is german or pretending to be german, like me, call it ‘Wiesn’ which is the name of the big ground it is held on).  Saw some gorgeous horse and carts all dressed in bavarian gear (blue and white) carrying barrels of beer that go to the Wies’n. Sooooo many rides that are not for the faint hearted – CRAZY.  Abs so much food everwhere.  Pretty much did the rounds and planned what I wanted to do/see later in the week.  Great day!

Asam Kirche

Had to get these off google but:

Above: Heilig Geist Kirche

Below: St Michaels Church

Monday:

Shopping with Alex in town!!! I thought today I would spare Alex the history lesson (she had a bit of a church overload yesterday) and went shopping in the inner city. Bought a top and looked at all the awesome fruits and foods and flower decorations available at the market called Viktualienmarkt.  Did a bit of cooking with the family and spent the whole night drinking wine and yarning with the family J

Tuesday

Played some tennis at the courts with Alex and her trainer (the cutest and most unbelievably fit old man over the age of 70 I have ever ever met!).  They play on clay courts which I am so not used to but very much enjoy (they seem to be much slower).  I thought Alex was going to annihilate me but I didn’t completely suck thank God, but her forearm could thrash my forearm any time. Cooked the African food, had some wine (surprise surprise) and the neighbours came over for fun times and to meet me! Loving practising my german so much at this point and hilarious german tv! How I met your mother in german is very entertaining. 

Wednesday

Proper Oktoberfest day!!!!!

But just a note on the side first:  I took a full week and a half to get used to driving on/walking on the right hand-side.  Last time I was here it didn’t affect me one little bit but somehow this time, I grip the seat feeling like I’m somehow breaking the law.  One day I mistakenly thought Alexs mum was in the passengers seat sitting on the left while I was in the back seat and so I put my camera in front of her face to show her a photo only to realize when she shrieked that I almost caused an acciedent – SHE WAS DRIVING! Eekkk.  Also, Alex’s dog Tommy is adorable, he'd never forgive me if I didn’t mention him.

So Oktoberfest, went very traditional with the dress this time (yes nicky, as opposed to teaparty, erm hemm), trying to pretend to be a real german and borrowed a Dirndl (traditional Bavarian dress) from a family friend of Alex.  However I think I failed on looking german, Alex labelled me a ‘german pocahontas’.  However, sat next to some aussies whilst speaking german to the girls I was with and then they looked very surprised to here my kiwi voice turn to them and say in english ‘So, more aussies aye?’. Befriended them and taught them the ways of the Bavarians J

Went on a crazy big ride with Alex that flung us around up in the air (great view, briefly before they spun us again).  Had some Lebkuchen (kinda like gingerbread stuff) and then onwards into a big beer hall! Woooo! Fun times in the beers halls! Ok so the call the tents but they are like really ridiculously big halls with wooden floors, extreme decorations and themes. Soaked up the atmosphere, had a nice big 1 litre ‘Mass’ or ‘’Krug’ of beer, had some chicken and watched some Bavarian dancing whilst yarning with anyone around. Loved the lederhosen, beer, smells, songs (Ein Prosit, ein prosit, der Gemutlichkeit!!!), dancing, just it all really! The ‘Schottenhammel’ tent was defiantly the most raging and where we spent a good few hours of our night.  As we left I got to see Oktoberfest by night which was so pretty all lit up! Now and again a fight broke out which is always fun and then now and again we saw the medics carrying drunk people in comas out of the party…not so much fun.

Ok, I am now officially past my sugar high so you’ll just have to wait a lot longer to hear about where I’m actually living right now – THE BEAUTIFUL KONSTANZ.

Yes, I did warn you I ramble. If you have lasted this long reading this post, well done, I am truly very impressed. If not, good on ya having a life and all. Just kidding. LOVE YOU ALL heaps and heaps and heaps and HEAPS MORE. Hope all is well at home. Thanks for sending me facebook messages etc, it’s really great to hear from home.  Also, to anyone who wrote me something to read on the plane – you are awesome! You made me very happy!

Until next time, promise it won’t be long, I still have to finish Munich.

xox