Vera's World Is A Small World

Friday, December 30, 2005

The weirdest thing happened...

OMG. The weirdest thing happened yesterday.

Nina and I went to this thing, at a place called "Schneiwindhaus." We went last night for the openign thing, and then all today and tomorrow they have little games and things for fun. People come from all over Germany.

Anyway. When we were there, everyone had to go and introduce themselves up the front. Yes, all, over 100 of us.

Just two rows before I went up, this girl went up and was like, "Hello, I am ????, I come from AUSTRALIA and I am an exchange student here."

The whole row that I was sitting in was friends, and the one in front of me. And we all just burst out laughing, so amazed.

I was so shocked!!! I mean, the world city, Schönebeck.

Then I Went up there and I said, "Hi, I'm Vera, 15 years old and I don't come from Germany. Does anyone know where?"

This guy I know was like, me, me, me!!! He shouted out, Australia. And the girl was like...wtf?

She comes from Adelaide, but she is going back in 9 days. And with a different organisation.

Today it snowed. It has been snowing for two days straight. It is nice, but what sucks, really sucks, is that we have to get rid of all the snow on the sidewalk.

Nina and I did that once yesterday, this morning at about 8:30 and today at about 1pm. Then we will probably have to do it one more time, because its snowing really hard right now.

I have to go now. Back to my Australia friend. We had a lunch break, and we rode our bikes home. But now we are going back.

Vera was here at 12:33 AM

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Wednesday, December 28, 2005

The next days in Germany

I still haven't got around to finsihing my new layout, but it should be ready soon. I really have better things to be doing, than to screw around with coding and so forth.
Plus it really annoys me sometimes.

Anyway, the day after "Heilige Abend", was the 25th December.
We slept in, because we were all so tired. Then Nina and I finally got up, and went downstairs. We didn't bother with eating breakfast, just because we had been up so late, and were about to eat lunch. We cooked ourselves some nice tea and sat down and watched "A walk to remember." I know, it is sad, but I really love that film!

For lunch we ate duck, these crazy round "potatoes", rotkohl. I don't even know what i am eating, but it was nice. It was...it was OK. We also got to drink this really nice strawberry juice, instread of wine, Nina and I. That was the highlight of the day.
After lunch we went for a walk, past the Gradierwerk, where salt is pulled up form the ground and...well, I don't know, quite frankly. Sick people go there and it is supposed to be good for them. It was actually really busy.

We walked a little further and found a playground, which I played on. Oliver spun me around so much, that I couldn't feel my head and I felt so sick, especailly after such a large lunch.

We got back to the house about an hour later, and sat down to coffee and tea, once again.

We talked, watched movies, drunk alcohol, the normal. By the time Norbert and Irmtraut left, she was so incredibly drunk. Oliver and her were doing shots of Jägermeister. Enough.
We have this great little Santa Claus, and he sings and dances. And Irmtraut felt obliged, through her numerous shot glasses, that she sould sing and dance with it.

What alcohol makes out of people, you will never believe. I actually have a film of it, which I will upload and give the link, if I can do that.

We all sat down, had some fun, talked, the normal. Then went to bed.

The next day, we went for a walk to the Graveyard, and it started snowing. I didn't exactly get a white Christmas, but short thereafter.
by the time we got home, it was...white.
We ate some quick lunch, and played Die Siedler Von Catan, three times. That game is addictive, I love it so much! By the time we were finished, it was dark outside. I went outside, wrote my name in the snow, which had built up amazingly in that time, and threw some snowballs at the wondows, just to annoy the others.

We then went to...believe it or not, a birthday party.
Yes, we went to a birthday party, ate dinner, stayed there till 1am, got nice and tired, drove home and collapsed in bed.
At the party, which was in Magdeburg, we went for a winter walk, through the snow, and it was great. There was four of us, and everyone just kept on belting snowballs at Nina. She didn't even fight back.

Yesterday I woke up really late. I was dead from the never-ending parties.

Then I posted, got this up to date, nothing more really.

Today it is snowing, and I have to ride with my bike, because my friends and I are going shopping. Oh great.

Now this is up-to-date, I am going and I will leave you all to your interesting lives over there, in the warm...

*dreams from home, beaches, sun, summer...*

Vera was here at 9:47 PM

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Christmas in Germany.

Wow. These past few days have been the best time of my whole time in Germany. So much as the last week has been amazing!

The only disappointing thing was that I didn't get a white Christmas, but that was OK. Because it snowed yesterday, on the second party day.

I have already told you all about the Christmas tree, yeah? Well, we did that again, the next day. It wasn't quite so bad though. I just ignored him and watched TV when I was bored.

That morning my mother called up. It was actually quite funny, because she always calls when we are eating breakfast. No matter how early or how late she calls. Always.
Anyway, as I was on the phone to her Oliver got the camera and filmed me, talking to my mum. Apparently I was rude to her, but I don't see how. I always talk to her like that. LOL. Not really.

We didn't eat very much lunch, because we were going to eat so much dinner.
We went, straight after, to a little play about the birth, the...what is it called? In the local church. I can tell you, the church is amazing. So beautiful.

After lunch we lazed around for a while, and then ate some cake and drunk coffee and tea. We waited for everyone else, and by the time our Uncle and Aunt (Norbert and Irmtraut) came it was late. I think it was dark actually.
They ate something, then we read out a little poem about Christmas and gave out the presents. Nina and I were allowed to do it, because we were the "Christkinder." It was so cool.
It took about....10 minutes or so. Then we got given peace to open our presents. I was actually surprised at how many things I was given, considering I am not even part of "the family."

Anyway, I gave:

Oliver and Dagmar- A concert with Nina, with the clarinet and guitar
Nina- Some hand written stuff, favourite sayings and things. Took a long time to translate them actually. these crazy things which I liberated from Margit.
Grandmother Margit- the two recipes she asked for, written out, and a keyring from Australia
Norbert- A bookmark
Irmtraut- Another keyring

I got:

Oliver and Dagmar- A fountain pen (everyone here uses them), John Lennon CD, pyjamas.
Nina- Hair ties, clips and a big clip.
Norbert and Irmtraut- Diary, socks, 10€
Grandmother- Three shirts, really cool! Chocolate

I also got some more a few days later.
Heidi and Dieter (pronounced Ditta)- ski gloves and an angel for protection.
Dagmar's sisters- chocolate and a movie pass from one, chocolate in a little porcelain container from the other.

Alot of stuff.
Nina got a certificate for a new guitar!! That was really cool!

We all hung aruond, ate dinner, which was fish (which I ate!!!!) and then drunk more and more.

At 11pm we went to a church service, for young people. NIna was up the front, helping out and Dagmar and I stayed in the audience. Oliver didn't want to come. (He had drinken alot!)
That took ages and after that we were home at about 1:40am.
We sat down to some nice coffee, talked alot and went in bed at about 2:30am.

I think I will leave this for another time. This was the 24th December, and I will be back shortly and post more about my last few days after dinner.

A big shout out to Emily, who is probably doing now what I was doing about 5 months ago. Lying in bed, stressing about so many things. Luggage. Family. The Plane Flight. Normal stuff.
Don't worry about it Emily, I know you will be fine. You can do it. And I love you. Hopefully we might see each other soon.
I am so proud of you.

Some advice.
1. Don't hold back. Talk Dutch, speak to friends in the school.
2. Ask your friends in your class if they want to do something.
3. Don't be too sacred to do anything. Everything will turn out alright.
4. Don't pass up any opportunity. Everything that you miss out on, will never come back again. Don't say no to anything. Do be a yes person!!! :P

Vera was here at 5:54 AM

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Saturday, December 24, 2005

It was Nina's Birthday on Wednesday. I usually get to sleep in on Wednesday for an hour, but because it was her birthday I got up early to eat breakfast with her.

It was so cool. They put this massive box with these little annoying things, like little tiny things you use to pack things up, inside. Then they put a camera, which was her main present, and some paper etc in it. It was funny watching her search through the box, but it is OK.
As for me, I gave her what she wished for, which was a cake for her birthday party. Honestly, that is what I gave her.

Anyway, I went to school an hour later, like normal. Boring. Wrote a few tests and then went to Mrs. Wülfel, she is a German teacher for me and Pablo, and we went and had a little party there. It was OK, but...I don't know. Boring.

Anyway, I left at 4pm and got home, only to find that they had started the party without me. But at least they had waited for me to eat my cake. :P I guess it doesn't really matter.
I think Alec will be disgusted again, because it was, once again, a cake and coffe/talk fest. Great. But, this time it was actually OK. I mean, good. Better than normal.

We ate pizza for dinner, which was what Nina wanted to get. It was good, but I couldn't even eat so much because I was so full. This time of year really is, as what Dagmar called it, a "freß fest." Well, I don't know how to spell it. But it is basically an eating party. LOL.

On Thursday I went to school for the last time this year. We had three lessons and then two hours for a party within our class. It was actually, surprisingly, fun!
We sat around and talked, ate and played games. I also took a whole heap of photos and videos. I really want to have thigns to remember everything, I should bring my camera everywhere!
Maybe not.

Well, as I said at school, I am not going to school any more this year. That's it! I hate school, and I don't want it anymore for this year!
Everyone seemed to find that funny.

After school I went and ate ice cream with Nina's friends, celebrating her birthday. That was a little boring, but I am not saying anything. Free ice cream!
Then I went home, tried to do somehting, went to hockey, (I played like absolute SHIT!) and came home. I was totally beat. Honestly. I was dead. School is finally over, if only for two weeks, and...I can relax a little bit. Thankyou!!

Today I woke up late, got to sleep in for the first time in...forever! Then we hung around. Oliver and I were going to do the X-mas trees, but then his filter came, and he totally gave up. He got caught up in drinking beers with his two colleagues (or should I say employees?) and then it was lunch time.
After lunch, till now, which was 6 hours time, we were doing the trees. Well, one tree is now finished, but the other one hasn't even got any decorations yet!

Oliver is such a control-freak when it comes to the decos. It is so annoying, but great fun to make fun of him.
Everything must be perfect, everything must be totally aligned! Nothing camn be out of place!

First came the lights. He put them on very slowly and carefully. Then he turned them on, and replaced nearly all of them. Finally they were right.
Second were the baubles. They had to be in the exact perfect place. Small at the top, big on the bottom. Not too close, but no holes allowed! He took basically every single one that I put on and made it "better." By that it means he basically put it straight back on the tree.
Third. The "lametta." It is these little silver things, like tinsel but not. Do you know? They are thin and about half a metre long, in total. Well, he hung those over the tree. In little clumps. This was the totally rediculous part!
They all must be straight, not too big clumps, but also not too small. They must not touch any other part of the tree, and must be hung properly.
The antics of Germans...
But I didn't say that.

Well. In the end it wasn't really that bad. I had my fun by making jokes. Mostly at Oliver, but it was fun anyway. And chocolate. (:
So now I am back at home. The tree was at the grandmothers, across the road. It was great, but long!

I wish you all a very amazing Christmas! I hope it is great fun, and memorable, for all the good reasons.
As for me, X-Mas is on the 24th in Germany, so I will be celebrating tomorrow with my host-family. It should be great fun, if it is anything like the tree. Tomorrow morning I will have to repeat the pain once again, with our tree.
Oh well.

Hope you have great days! I must be getting off and actually finish making half the presents I am supposed to be making. :

P.S. If you look down to the bottom, you will see the first post that I made when I was in Germany. That means all of my things are on one page, and slowly disappearing. I don'T know why I am saying this. I just find it indescribably cool!

Vera was here at 5:12 AM

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Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Well. The time has come again, to update my little friends.

First things first, if it works, I will be getting a new layout in about...ten seconds after the post is posted. YEY!
I entered a Secret Santa on this forum I go to, and now someone has actually made me a layout!! Better that all the crappy ones out there.
To be honest, it could be someone better than Lindsay Lohan, but it's OK. Tell me what you think!
Now I might actually be blogging a little bit more frequently, because I have a cool layout!

My Msn isn't working, which sucks, but I guess it means I can only be distracted by other things then, not people talking to me.

This past week has been amazing, especially the last few days! For the first time in ages, I am actually able to say that I am going along really well, not just going.
I think it is that time of the exchange. Everyone says that in the second half, so after 6 months, everything becomes so much easier. Like, school, people are starting to get used to you and talk to you, invite you places and are finally settling in in the country.
It has been amazing. Honestly.
And Emily, Antwerp isn't anywhere near germany. It is on the other side of the country. Did you ever pay attention in geography? Obviously not. I guess it is close compared to now though. :P

Well, on Thursday and Friday I went to hocke,y no surprises there. It was also snowing, but only a little bit, when I was riding to the train station. that really isn't that fun, but it felt nice, riding in the snow.

Saturday I basically hung around at home. Janina came at 4pm, and we sat around and talked for a while. That was fun. Janina is really funnny, and fun and cool. She was in NZ for a year. She's great.
After she left we all sat around in the family room. We watched some videos, ones of Nina when she was little, the video of me coming to the family, in Hamburg and in Center Parcs last holidays and the video they made when the were in Ireland a few weeks before I came. Nina was so cute as a little baby.
We ate dinner and hung around some more. I don't remember what we did though. Then we went to bed.

Next day we drove to a Christmas Market in "Harz." It was so beautiful. Just as we walked out of the car it started snowing, and it was like a dream come true! It was so beautiful. Like in a movie. We were standing under a little shop thing drinking some hot liquid-like substance, apparently German is famous for it, watching the snow come down. Beautiful.
We also ate these great apples with chocolate over the top. Yummy. I swear, I am going to be so fat by the end of this year. :X

We also drunk coffe/hot chocolate in a beautiful little tea shop. It was like this massive house, and in all the little rooms there were little tables, about three in every room. It was so cosy and prettyful! It was great. It was so great, sitting inside in the warm drinking hot chocolate and watching these massive snowflakes falling down outside. Wow!!!!

We were in this wonderful little city, in the mountains, "Harz." It was great, because it is a really old city, with those typical German houses that everyone imagines are here. I love it!

We drove back, through the snow, and finally got home and ate lunch at 4pm! It was a little late! But lunch was yummy.

After that we played "Die Siedler von Catan", it is this game I am addicted to. And then we went in Delta. It was a great day, all in all.

Yesterday I went to Halle. My class went in the Planetarium there. Nothing really much to say about that, just alot of German speaking people and sitting around in a bus for three hours. Not fun, but fun, not being at school.

I hadn't actually been to Halle before, but now I have. It was great fun. It was snowing the whole time, and the ground was completely white. It was so beautiful walking through the trees in the snow, just like in the movies.

The trip back was OK, like the one there. I listened to music.

I honestly don't know how I am going to keep updating this though. I mean, it is already so hard for me to speak English. I hope you all know what I mean. But, what comes comes, and I will have to work through it I guess.

Nina's birthday is tomorrow, so hopefully I will be able to update after that. I hope it is OK, but if I don't, Have a great Christmas, and A happy new year.

I am planning to celebrate MY new years with friends form school. And there will be "no" alcohol there, so don't worry about me. Or at least that's what my host-parents think. But...ssshhhh...

And Emily, hope you have a great going away party and a terrific flight! I know you will love every single minute of it. I am so proud of you, and we will see each other soon. :D

I love you all and miss you all. So much.

Hope you enjoy my new tagboard as well!

Vera was here at 2:16 AM

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Monday, December 12, 2005

To be honest, I don't really feel like unpdating right now, but it seems to have become a routine for me now.

The past week has been OK for me. I guess you could say that.

On Tuesday I went to a funeral, it was sad. I didn't really know what they were saying, but...it was sad anyway.

Thursday and Friday I went back to hockey. It is such a release now, to play hockey. I get home and am so buggered that I feel like just curling up and sleeping. But then I go to hockey and I have this kind of energy, it is so great. I am playing really well here, better than I have for a long time. I love going to hockey now.

Yesterday was a busy day, compared to the ones I normally have. I got woken up at 8am by Nina. I point blanc refused to get out of bed. Who gets up at 8am on a weekend?

Me. I got up. I ate breakfast and cooked Pavlova and ANZAC Biscuits. They turned out OK actually. I baked a trial Pavlova, on Thursday, and it turned out so bad. But this one...it wasn't bad.

After that, I ate lunch and then we hopped in the car and drove to a birthday party. It was so cold. We drove for about an hour, the whole time Dagmar whining about how bad she felt. It ended up with Nina holding her down and covering her eyes.
When we finally pulled up to the house, we jumped out of the car and ran to the house. Basically we ate cake and drank tea, then talked alot. What happens at every party.

We left there at 5pm, drove back to Schönebeck and dropped off the Grandma. Then we went to another party. Interesting. This one was Dagmar's sisters birthday, the other one was...I don't even know the connection!

On the way out of Schönebeck, there is this corner, where you go on to turn onto the highway. In the dark it is really dangerous, because when you drive it looks like the traffic is coming from straight on, and there is no corner. Well, there is a corner, and obviously smeone didn't know that, because their car went straight there and down into the ditch behind it, and into a tree. We saw it, and I think we were the first people there. We dorve on a little further, parked the car on the side of the road, got our jackets and ran back. It looked really bad. Dgamar stayed in the car, but Nina, Oliver and I went. When we got there, the poeple were sitting in the car and didn't want our help. They had already called the police and insurance people. So we went back to the car, being careful this time, because on the ground was all ice, and it was very easily to slip over.

When we got there we explained the story about many times. Countless times.
At that party we sat around and talked, once again. We got dinner and talked more. It wasn't a fun party, it was all adults except for Nina and I. Sad, hey? I played on the keyboard for a bit, got some notes and played some songs, and Nina, being the anti-social thing she is, went upstairs and watched tv, and did homework. I realised she wasn't there after a while and went and joined her. It was so boring, but the movie she was watching was this horror, and that was cool.
An hour later, it was late and we got to go home...finally.

It was so cold on the way home, even in the car. I was about to freeze. Anyway, when we got inside I crashed, once again. I couldn't do anything more, I was tired.

Next day, got woken up early...again. But this time it was only 8:45. That is almost a sleep in now! I had to put the cream and kiwi on my Pavlova, which took about an hour in total, with this and that. By that time, I had to get my nice, freshly washed clothes on and then we had to go to Magdeburg. This was at 10:45.

Oh yeah, this baking and stuff was for a Y.F.U Christmas Party. It was great fun.

I love being in Sachsen-Anhalt, this region is one of the only ones who get regular meetings and thigns. It is great.

We got there at about 11:20, which was actually quite good timing. It was so cold, and we couldn't find the right building. Oh well, too late now.
When we got there I put my food down and put some labels on it. Everyone was really surprised at how good it looked. :D
We then sat down, got welcomed, the normal. I had to introduce my food, which was hard, because...what can I say about it?

It was great fun watching these unfortunate people trying to cut the Pavlova. It was almost impossible. LOL. It was so hard.
There was some good food there, and some...well, not so good. The whole time people were trying things at the tables, I could see everyone holding their hands over their mouhts, like it was bad or something? Well, don't blame me!
It was great though, my food was the first to go, so obviously it was a favourite. That made me very happy! Someone even told me something like "It is because you are a novelty, coming from Australia." Ohhh...great.

When Margit Niemann, the über-betreuer, saw my food, she just looked straight at me, because I am the only person from Australia in the whole of Germany. Also when Janina, my betreuer, saw it, she just said, "Looks like someone's been baking Pavlova again." She really wanted me to make Carrot Cake, but...I didn't. She was in New Zealand for a exchange year, so she knows all these foods.

I was sitting next to Robert and Jana, the guy from Latvia and his host-sister. We are really close. It feels like I have known Jana for ages, even though we have only seen each other three times, but we are like best-friends. And Robert...what can I say? He is such a sweetie, who can not like him? Well,
not me, at least. We are like best friends too. He is great.

After the food came the songs. The plays and the theatre pieces. It was fun, watching these people singing and stuff. the prize was an international cook book, which was OK. Nina did what she normally does, and showed off her "talent," if you could call it that. There was some really amazing things though. Two girls on the piano, that was so beautiful, and one on the piano one on the flute, that sounded great too. They also did a play, Snow White, with the guests from YFU near Berlin, who wanted to do a Christmas party next year. It was funny though.

Then she tried to make me get up there and sing. When I told her I didn't want to, she just didn't understand it. She bugged me for the whole day. I
don't care about it anymore, I am over it.

It was great fun, we just hung around and talked for alot of the time. I love just hanging around and talking to people. Janina, came and talked to us as well. She is cool, and she is coming to my school tomorrow, to talk to my class-teacher. I think it is totally normal though, she has already done it with Pablo. She also said that if I want we can meet up next weekend, and do something in Magdeburg, so I think I will take her up on that offer.

Now I am sitting here. Nina really wanted to go, just so she could go and spend time with her boyfriend again, so therefore the parents made us leave. It was a bit of a pity, I would have loved to have stayed a little longer, talk to these people who I never see anyway. But the parents never do anything to upset their little perfect daughter, so we left. Damn.

I am sorry, long posts are not fun. I am going to post more often. I promise. I will try!

BTW, I will try and get some more pictures up on my MSN Spaces site, so I will tell you when they are up.

I am going to go and play my clarinet now.

I have only 13 sleeps till Christmas. Counting down the days till the school holidays. It is so unfair that everyone back home is already on holidays. NOT FAIR. What is that ad, not funny Jan? Or what? I have forgotten.

Vera

Vera was here at 2:40 AM

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Sunday, December 04, 2005

Yeah, once again, I feel bad for not updating. I am starting to abandon you guys!

I feel really bad. I have had a headache for the last three days...and I am tired because of that. I haven' slept for a nice long period of time, but...I'll get over it soon enough. School is back tomorrow...*cries*, so I will have plenty of time to sleep then.

What to say, what to say?

Well, I had a YFU meeting on Thursday. I went with Pablo and his guest-father on the train, then we went by car to the pub where it is held. It was quite a disappointment actually. There was not very many people there. One guest family, they are hosting a girl from Brazil, Pablo's guest-father and sister, but she is all grown up, and me. So, it was relatively small compared to the other ones. But, it was still fun.
I sat in between the two families, and they were both really nice. The father from the Brazilian, he is exactly the same as Oliver, with the jokes and the food and everything! It is so scray!
Well, yeah, I got home at 9:45pm, and I went straight to bed, because I was beat, and even I will admit, that was a little late for me! I don't think it did anything for my headache the next day...

On Friday my year went on an excursion, we walked to the City Park and watched the general parctice run of an orchestra. It was actually pretty boring, but better than normal lessons.
We had Sport for two lessons, then first break, where we met up at the other part of the school, then we walked to the park, watched it and came back. We were finished at 11pm, and we had about an hour to walk back, because they originally thought it would go for a little longer. Oh well, that means one less lesson of maths that I have to take this week. Not exactly bad or anything.
So we took our time getting back, lazed around in the Maths room for half an hour and then went on our second break.
It was a fun day.

I also went to hockey, but, hockey was a little boring this week. I don't know why, but I think my headache contributed to it.

I haven't really being doing much this weekend, yesterday I baked little Christmas biscuits with Dagmar...man that was alot of work! They didn't really taste so good either, but then again, they never do!

Other than that, we might be going to a Christmas market later on in the day. That is, if Nina wants to. Nina seems to be the be all and end all of this family. It is so annoying. Like, "Oh no, it is too cold today, and I have lots of homework to do, so none of us can have any fun."
It is a little unfair on me, because she always has homework to do, which means I get to send no time talking to her or doing anything with her, and then none of us end up doing anything outside the house.
I am reduced to sitting on the computer all day on the weekends...and I HATE IT!

Well, that's all I am going to say, for fear of boring you to death with all my complaints about this family.

So long my sweet Aussies...
Till next time,

Vera

Vera was here at 9:00 PM

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