Monday, March 27, 2006
The Head...So, today I went to a YFU meeting for my land-group, which is now...*drum roll please*
Niedersachsen-Hanover.
It isn't really that important, I just thought it'd be cool to do something like that.
Anyway, Florian and I drove to this place called Burgdorf, and the meeting was there. It was OK, we sat around eating cake and drinking, then we had these little AGs, like a rip-off of the middle-seminar.
The food was good and all, the problem was that Florian and I were sitting in a really bad place, where everyone around us had their own conversation. So we talked with each other, which wasn't as bad as it may sound. Florian is a cool guy. And I have the way and means, if I wanted to make him really embarassed. But I would never do that.
We got back about an hour ago, and since then I have been sitting around, drinking tea, trying to get rid of this terrible coughing problem I have. I swear, I have never been so sick in my life. Ten days...ten days ago was when I got sick, or started feeling the first effect of sickness.
Now I am slowly getting better, to be honest. The only problem is my head...referring to the title of my post. My head spins the whole time, and it buzzes the whole time. But I don't want to bore you with my problems with my sick, tired and weary body, it could take a long time.
The other cool thing is that I got a YFU t-shirt...finally!! I have always wanted one, and at the seminar we all kept on asking the teamers if we were going to get them as well, and they always said we have to organise that with our land-groups. So, I come and they have them, how cool is that?
I am really happy with this family. I feel so good right now. I know, it could just be the honeymoon time, where everything is good, but I think it is already soo much better than with my other family.
I am really funny about them, I am not sure if I want to write an email or letter to Nina.
She wrote me a letter and hid it in my suitcase secretly, as I left. I found it on the night I got here, and since then my head has been totally full with thoughts, if I want to write back or not. I won't say what she wrote in it here, it is kind of personal, but there would be specific people I would tell. ;)
Anyway, the point of this paragraph was to tell you all I love it here in my new family and that I am totally confused, whether I should write to her or not.
I mean, I did stay with her and her family for nearly 7 months, but on the other hand, they hurt me so badly, like no-one else can. And they are one of the reasons that I was so sad in my whole year. That I regretted so many things I had/hadn't done.
What do you all think, should I write or not? (Tell me
here)OK, rant is over now.
I actually forgot that is is Canberra day, or was a little while ago. So, to do my part for Canberra than I will do some advertising for my humble city.
Visit Canberra!Well, that's it for now, tomorrow I have 8 lessons in school, so a long day to survive, and then to top it all off I have a visit from my betreuerin, the lady from YFU. I don't know how well I am going to be able to speak with her, I don't...she is old and I don't feel comfortable with her, or want to speak to her, or see her, let alone want to tell her if I ever have problems...well, we'll see how it goes then.
Keep on fighting for peace, my humble soldiers in Melba High...
(I have to come up with witty remarks that I can put on the end of my blog, desperatly.)
Vera was here at 4:45 AM
Thursday, March 23, 2006
YFU Middle-Seminar
OK guys, I think you should all be worried. I am infected with a deadly, dangerous virus... (very infectious, as well, might I say, so watch out when I come home!!)
YFU Virus! =P
As some of you could know, I was in Berlin last week for my YFU Middle-Seminar (MS). It was so much fun, so, to justify how much fun it was, I am going to post all about it. And you all have to read it! *evil laugh*
Anyway, enough with scaring of all the friends, I'll start.
Warning: This post will be VERY long!It all started about...a long time ago, when I got sent a book telling me to pick out a MS to go to in February or March 2006. Man, I was so stumped, I didn't know where I should go, and I was so bummed out, because I wanted to go to Media, but couldn't. That was in the holidays, when I went down to Austria. It seemed like such a long time away, wow, March, that's nearly the end of my year. So I picked out Theatre, or as the Germans like to spell it, Theater. All I knew about was the seminar was from the 11th March till the 18th March, and we wanted to go and look at some theatre pieces and learn stuff.
I also knew I had to prepare a project for my seminar. I was way too lazy on that front.
I didn't even read the booklet, because it was way too hard for me to understand and no-one was there, or willing, to help me understand it.
So, on the 11th March, which was a cold, snowy and...did I mention cold?, Saturday. I packed my bags in a rush, because I totally forgot to do that the night before, ate breakfast and jumped in the car. The first time I met one of my host-brothers was when he drove me to the train station.
It was so cool, I saw Mouna, she comes from the French part of Switzerland, who I got to know in Braunschweig (BS) in the International Week. She had just come back from her Seminar in Berlin, which was really weird. She told me to say hi to Yara and someone else for her, I totally forgot by the time I got to Berlin, but I remembered.
I waited on the platform till my train came. It was one of those sleek, cool, fast trains. I was like, woohoo, score! Little did I know, it was written on my ticket, the funny thing was, I hadn't even had time to look at my ticket to see what kind of train I was travelling with.
I got on, said goodbye to Caro (my host-sister, in case your wondering), and the train started.
Yeah, the train ride was boring, the people next to me spent the whole time bitching about some lady, and there were a whole heap of Soccer fans in the train, going to Wolfsburg. Most of them were drunk and loud.
I got to Berlin at about 4pm and found my way to the U-Bahn station, which is how we got to our...place. I'm not sure if that was a hostel or what.
It is so cool, the U-Bahns travel every 5 mins in Berlin, it is such a good public transport system there. Sydney should be put to shame, Melbourne too.
Anyway, I saw some other people together, who were holding a YFU piece of paper and looking exactly so confused as I did, so I went over to them and was like, "Are you guys with YFU too?"
Trust Vera to ask the obvious.
Yea, we all travelled together without problems, which was really good.
I got to know a few people, Hanna (Finland), Nino (Georgia), her host-sister Britta and Victoria, and I have had a mental blank and have no idea where she comes from.
When we got to our destination, Fehrbelliner Platz, we got out, looked around and walked off, hoping we were heading in the right direction. We were, which was good, and as we were walking towards our hostel, I talked with Britta. She's from Germany. it was funny, she was the first person I met from my MS, and she was the last person I said goodbye to, on the train home.
A/N: Not to drag it out or anything...Sorry!! (But this is as much for my memory as for you all to know what I did!)
Anyway, we finally found our place, after much, much confusion. It looked pretty cool from the outside, they were doing construction on the outside or something, but it doesn't matter. I'm not a snob.
We got inside and found some "Teamers", which were the people from YFU, the supervisors. They were all in the 20s, all do heaps of stuff for YFU and were all on exchange somewhere.
I don't even remember who did all the welcoming, giving out of the name-buttons and the all-important signning of death releases, but I think it was Yara, seeing as she came the next day and informed me that I hadn't signed the piece of paper. (I don't think it was a death release, but I honestly forgot!)
We got given some numbers and tried to find our way through the house.
With the girls it was so easy, you come in the door, go around a little corner and then you find some steps, and they go up to the girl's rooms. We were on two levels, but lucky for me I was on the first level, because I was way too lazy to carry my stuff up another flight of stairs.
My room. No. 27, next to our room was a teamer, and on our floor were the showers and toilets.
Sometimes in the morning it was so...wet. It was disgusting, but I think it was the price to pay, when we didn't have to go very far for the toilets and showers.
Anyway, the first girl I met from my room was Romina, she was really nice. We talked a bit, and I explained how I had just changed families and stuff, and just as it got to the sensitive stuff, she just kept on asking questions, which really turned me off saying anything to anyone for the whole week. Well, about my other family. I can't even look at pictures of them anymore, that is how much they hurt me.
Elena came in, she and I became the best of friends by the end of the week. Then, sometime in the next few hours all the other people came, we got shown around the house, we sat around talking and got welcomed.
We got introduced to all the teamers, the rules and our lovely calendar, then introduced ourselves. One cool thing was that Chelsea from Passau was there as well, although we hung around with different people. It was still heaps good to see each other again though.
The rule board was great, with little illustrations. Like, everyone in their own bed. No sex. Hehe. It caused alot of amusement on the first day.
Anyway, we ate dinner, which was, like everyday, bread and rolls, with cheese, meat and if we were lucky sometimes there was a different type of meat. It wasn't too bad I guess, it's not like I ate the meat or anything anyway.
Saturday night we got into our little work-groups, which we called AGs, and got to know each other. In the AGs we talked about our problems, did our look back on our year, talked about the speecehes we had heard and stuff. So, it was a very important part of the seminar. But, of course, we did have so much fun anyway. (Han and Nat, like small groups at WWJ).
The two leaders in my group were Mira and Ina. It was really weird, everytime I spoke to Mira I felt like I was talking to my Mum, because she has the same name. It was a bit freaky, but I got over it. Then we had Nino, Eduardo, Isto, Maira, Michelle and me. I think that was it. If I forgot anyone, meh, it's not like anyone is reading this post still.
After the get-to-know session in our AGs we all got to know each other. Stayed up and talked, did whatever we wanted. I don't even remember what I did on Saturday night, but I remember thinking, man, Saturday night in Berlin...isn't that cool?
Oh yeah, I got heaps of little plaits in my hair, and they stayed in there till about Wednesday, when the situation was becoming really bad and I had to wash my hair. They looked cool, if I might say so myself.
At midnight we all had to be at home, they did a bed-Check, which basically involved us all going to our rooms, them looking on the name sign and checking everyone was there. then we were allowed to do whatever we wanted, just not go outside.
It was great, because my room was always the first, so we would go back down straight away and score all the good seats on the sofas. We never told anyone though.
After about 11:30 all the teamers went and had a meeting in their room, so we could really do whatever we wanted.
We all went to bed sooner or later.
And that brings us to...
Sunday 12th MarchOn Sunday I volunteered to wake everyone up. =D I was already awake about 15 mins before 7am, which was the wake up time, because it was light and I just couldn't sleep.
I went downstairs to get the stereo, which was supposed to wake everyone up, and scored it.
I had a little problem trying to figure out how to actually get it on, because it was like...weird, but I figured it out eventually. Anyway, turned on the radio as loud as it went and went and woke everyone up. That was heaps of fun!!
I got back to my room and they were like, Vera, you're making yourself very unpopular, but no-one even said anything, I don't think half the people even get woken up by me.
Breakfast was always at 8am, it was our choice if we ate or not, but everyone was so hungry, the whole time, so we all ate.
The other compulsary time, apart from Bed-Check, was "Ansagen." that was like our notices time, when we would get read out the things that were important, what we were doing in the day, what time the people who were going to the theatre had to leave in the night, who was going etc. Some of it was really important, like, when the guys got told that they had to air out their rooms, because it stunk. Like, reeked. So, everyone had to be there at 8:30.
We did a round of the city on Sunday, so that we got to see the cool buildings and stuff.
We got in a bus at 9 and started off. The guide was a guy, and he does the tours every year for YFU. He was an exchange student as well, but you wouldn't believe it, because I am gathering that he is pretty old. (YFU Germany was formed in 1957!)
Anyway, he was really interesting and told heaps of cool stories, funny little things. Normally it would have been pretty boring for me, because I have already sen the city of Berlin and have a general idea of the history, but there was something about this guy who just commands your attention. The teamers also said that they go on the trip every year, and even though it is the same thing it is always interesting because he tells little stories and stuff. He was cool.
In the bus I sat next to Geraldine, who comes from Germany, she is the host-sister from Juan, who comes from Columbia. At the beginning of the week we were heaps good friends, but by the end of the week we weren't talking at all, just coz we both found our own friends in the MS. Weird people.
Yeah, it was snowing the whole day, which wasn't so much fun, but it was really pretty anyway.
Just cold and wet. Like in our room after everyone had showered.
This was when Yara came and informed me I hadn't signed the bit of paper. Yea, I totally forgot to sign it, it was so embarassing, because I had filled in all my details, just not signed it yet. I didn't mean to though. You all know me too well, hey?
Came back, ate lunch and I think it was on Sunday that we all had a snowball fight. We all went outside and just pegged and pegged. It was so much fun, but by the end of it I was so hot, and it was bloody snowing. We were all totally wet and exhausted, but we had to end our fight because we had AGs again.
This time in our AGs we looked back at our year. Looked back and talked about it, if we wanted to. Did some drawings, stuff like that. YFU is really keen on stuff like that, and it sounds really dumb and corny, but I swear it helps heaps. I am not allowed to republish anything said in the groups, not like I would want to, or remember for that matter.
It's really funny, it seems like such a long time ago, when we did these things. I have to keep on looking back onto a picture I took, which is on my camera, to see the program, so that I know what we did.
We always hung around the house, well, most of the time, between our afternoon activity and dinner, and just played games and got to know each other.
One of the most memorable games was butt-wars with Yara. I don't remember what day we did it on, but it was so much fun. Basically you lean over, hold your hands together behind your knees and try to make the other one fall over by ramming into them. It was so much fun, and you wouldn't believe it, but it really is tiring after a while.
We also played that game we have played once or twice in drama, where you have four chairs and the people sit on the chairs, somehow twisted over each other, and then the chairs get pulled out and the people should stay together.
There was a game where we were all in a circle and you basically have to walk around in a circle sitting on each other, you won't get it until you see a video of us doing it!! At the end of it Ina wanted to0 be evil or something, and she pulled me and herself out of the circle and the rest of the people fell over. I think she did it out of spite, because our circle worked so well!! =P (Joke Ina!!)
There were many games, let them all reside in my memory. R.I.P Games from MS.
Sunday night I got to go to the theatre. I had picked out one of the plays that was on saturday, it was called "The Seven Days of Simon somethingorather." There were about 10 of us who went to that, and two leaders came with us as well. It was actually pretty cool. The guy in the play wasn't too bad, and the girl just outshone the whole two other people. It was funny, but sometimes they spoke really fast, which got complicated to understand after a while.
Before we had a look in some backyard things that they have in berlin, we also got some coffee (something which Yara seems to need quite alot) and had chats.
Juan and I talked alot about music, for example. OK, really, we didn't do that, we were just being random.
It wasn't snowing anymore though, which was really cool. But the ground was still slippery, so people can slide, and it is so much fun. I swear, one thing I will miss when I go back home is going to be the sliding. It is so much fun.
At the end of the piece we travelled back to our station, but we didn't want to go to our house, because we were allowed to stay out till 12, so we wanted to use it.
Well, actually, because I am 15, there is a law in Germany, and...because of this law I had to be at home by 10pm or have a teamer there.
I felt so bad, because I wanted to stay and it was after 10pm, so a teamer had to stay as well. But, it ended up that both teamers came with us anyway, so. Yeah.
We got in the bar, which is about 100 metres from the station, got all comfy and started reading the menus when Yara kindly reminded me I am not allowed to drink anything. She is a teamer and therefore, will uphold the law. Well, it wasn't too bad, she didn't drink anything either, and Claudia, the other teamer, drunk nothing as well. So, the girls.
We got home OK, did the same things...sitting, talking, eating, singing, dancing, the crazy things youth do when they are alone in a big house practically without supervision.
Monday 13th MarchMonday started exactly the same as Sunday. Couldn't sleep, it was too light, I went down a little earlier, to get a good place on the sofas, we ate brekky and had our announcements.
Today at 9 we had, yet another, thing to do with our AGs. It wasn't bad, don't get me wrong.
One Teamer called Angelika (no, not like from the Rugrats), talked about something while we were sitting in the big room.
She called it "The Inner team", because we are all made up of heaps of little voices that tell us things. Sometimes they are good and bad, negative or positive, optimistic or pessimistic, etc. They all say different things and as exchange students our "voices" (exchange students
aren't crazy!!) inside our heads are louder and very different to normal peoples. They are ever-changing...I really can't remember what she said, to the point.
We went into our little groups and talked about it again. Drew pictures like YFU loves us to do. Weird thing as well, we got our drawings back, which we did in our language courses. It was so weird, to see this thing that I wrote a while ago, and be like, wow, I can't believe I thought that! It was so weird to get it back, YFU have surprises up their sleeves the whole time!
Our group was so fun this day, we played a great game with a newspaper. What you do is everyone picks a name, someone famous, a body part, fruit or anything. It doesn't matter. We played with so many things, it isn't funny.
Then you stand in a circle, somebody is in and then somebody shouts out the name of something. The person in the middle has to try and hit the person with the rolled up newspaper before the person whose name was shouted out says another name. It can go really fast sometimes.
A few tricky rounds were when we played with other names, like, Ina was Vera and I was Isto. It was so confusing. We also played a round where we used all the names we had gathered in the whole game, which was completely tricky.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, was lots of fun.
A/N: To get rid of the monotone of this blog, I thought I would mention that it is sunny and beautiful outside right now, some flowers are even coming out!! I am in my element!
Yea, ate lunch, set off to the "Bundestag." That is basically the Parliament House of Germany. Naturally, coming from Canberra, I could compare the two, and I must say, although ours is pretty cool, with the tapestry and stuff, the other one is cool because it just has so much history. But they are both exactly so cool, in their own ways. I don't want to offend anyone here.
On the way there we saw the Brandenurger Tor, which is like a massive gate. Well, that's what it is. It is really cool, but I must say the funniest thing was when an un-mentioned person, who had complained a little before, that she needed coffee, came up and said she had scabbed two coffee lollies, and held them out. She was so happy with herself, she offered me one and I just thought, na, you can keep it.
I listened to music with Elena for alot of the time too, we learnt that we have almost the exact music taste as each other, which is really cool!
When we got into the Bundestag it was pretty disappointing, we didn't get to see anything except for the crazy tower at the top. We had to ask all these people what they think is Typical german. It was really funny because we would start off talking to them in German, it's just natural for us now. And then most of them would look at us funny, as if we are idiots, then say something in English. Then I would step in and speak to them in English.
We found, out of about 20 people, only about 4 people from Germany, and so many probably about 15 of the people spoke English.
Just a little break, about our languages now. Most of the teamers were in the USA, so they all have American accents. There was one host-sister who went to Ireland for 6 months, then there was me. It was so great, to talk to each other in English, and just hear the accents. Although none of the teamers spoke English with me, except for Ina (she was in California, it was Californian) and Yara (she actually had a strong German accent as well, so I couldn't tell where in the USA she was.)
I love Irish accents. She sounded so cute when she said F*** Off. Hehehe.
Anyway, back on track.
I am not sure what we did when we got home from the Bundestag, all I can do is guess, and I will say hung around and talked. Like always. I sound bitter about that, but it was SOOOOO much fun.
So on Monday night we had, well, nearly, free time. We could do what we wanted. Some people went to the movies, some people stayed home. I did not want to go to the cinemas, we were in Berlin and I wanted to go out and talk with people, socialise, you know? I could have gone to the cinema anytime I wanted to, here.
So, some of us went to a bar.
It was great, walking around Berlin looking for a cheapish bar. There isn't such a thing. Eventually we found some bar and setlled in there. The search wasn't in vain though, I tought Thomas the word
dodgy. So he can integrate it into the German language. I have done an evil thing, but it was so great, to hear him say the word!
We sat down, got settled, talked, did everything someone does in a bar, except for me, and this time Alisa, and we didn't drink. =P
It was fun,
you can have fun without alcohol people!!
I am living proof of that.
People tell such good stories, and you're OK. We had so many good stories, we all laughed the whole time.
Eventually we had to think about setting off, and after we all paid we all walked out of the bar, never to find the dark, stingy corner bar again.
We found a U-Bahn station and went in, finding a way to our station quite easily.
We found out we had a little wait, which in Berlin with the U-Bahn is about 10 minutes. (Those people will die when they find out about some of the terrible bus systems in Canberra!)
The teamers decided to make it a little embarassing or something, I am not sure what goes through those minds, and they started singing songs in the station. Something about a banana or something, I don't even know what that song was, and the funny thing is that I sung it in fron tof the whole group. OK, I must admit, in the train itself I sung the Joe song, but it doesn't count!
Teamers are so embarassing sometimes, but sometimes the kids are just as embarassing! That's when I was like, OMG, how fun would it be to do something like this as the teamer? I would love to do something like that with kids from YFU, I would find it so good, it's just a pity there is nothing like that in Australia. But we'll sort that out later. =P
Got home, bed-check, talked, normal stuff.
Tuesday 14th MarchBe right back, got to check my camera. =P
On Tuesday morning we had freetime. How did I forget that?
Yea, so five of us, Matei I think, Juan, Elena, Britta and I got in the U-Bahn and travelled towards KaDeWe, which is a really big shopping centre. Turns out that it doens't open till 10:30 or something, and we were there way too early for all the shops to be open, so we walked down the street and looked at any shop we found that was open. It was so deserted, it was so weird seeing the middle of the city, Berlin, without millions of people pushing around. It was so lonely. Luckily for me I was with my good friends Britta and Elena.
Our whole morning was wasted, because KaDeWe was sooo expensive, we could have slept in and gone later somewhere else.
But we didn't.
Yea, we took a picture in KaDeWe, and this beefy guy came up and was like, you're not allowed to take photos here, it is strictly against the rules. We were like...ahhh...he was so beefy.
We came back like good kids, exactly when we were supposed to. When we got back we ate lunch and then went to the Berlin museum of our choice. Most of us chose the Jewish museum, it tells them story of Jews in Germany. I think the other people, they were a group of about 5, went to "Checkpoint Charlie."
Yea, caught the trains and stuff and got to the museum, looked around.
We were there for about 4 hours, and I wasn't even through all the exhibitions yet. I swear, you would need days to go through that place, I was only up to the part where the Nazi regime started.
It was disappointing that we had to go, but we had to go anyway.
One funny thing, there is a stall in about the middle of the exhibition where you can buy coffee and stuff, it was so weird.
We got back and we were all so exhausted, I think the nights till 3am and the long hard days were getting to some of us.
We ate dinner, bread and cheese, like normal.
After dinner I was so finished, I couldn't do anything. I wanted to just lie down in my room undisturbed. the bad thing was a group was in our room, and I had to leave. They found me.
Yea, so I went to my group and we had a little family motivation seminar, where we saw some plays and stuff, from the teamers. Went into our AGs, talked about it. Again, did some stuff that YFU really likes.
YFU really are a cool organisation, and although we have to do some weird things, every single little thing helps at least one person, and they just want to help us with these things, to make our year the best year possible.
YOUTH FOR UNDERSTANDING ROCKS!!
Anyway, sorry for my little outburst.
After our AGs we were supposed to present our projects. I totally forgot my project.
Yea, this time we went up to a room in the boys area, and presented our projects there. The room was great, it was exactly like my room, but without people. That means nice comfy beds too. We all sat down and started.
As I had to do my project...that was so bad. I actually did my project, just so you know, and it was all finished and everything, but die to unavoidable circumstances I couldn't bring it with me. Yea, so I just sat down and talked about my week in Braunschweig, when I was here for the International Week.
We only had 4 projects in our group, and all of them were relatively short, which was great. We were finished pretty quickly.
We had to vote on who got to present the project on the Gala-Night, and it was funny, because we all got one vote. It could have turned out pretty badly, but one guy got another vote as well. But, that means our projects were all so bad as the others.
We had to wait till all the groups were finished, so we stayed in our room and talked. Ina and I had a nice pillow-fight, which was actually quite fun. It's great to break loose sometimes, and just...let your kid out. We talked and waited around, just having fun. One girl in our group, Michelle, brought her acoustic guitar with her, and our group also sung a song from "Die Toten Hosen", who are a German rock band. They are really good, I really like their music. The song is called "Alles aus Liebe" (Everything's from Love), and is quite depressing, but it is a nice song. Naturally, is in German though.
Anyway, we sung that song quite often, which I found pretty cool. It was like our group thing.
After the other groups were finished we all went down and gathered again.
I talked to Ina for a little while in the room, she asked me to stay behind. She was really nice about it, tactful or something, asking if I am going OK.
OK, to be honest I was so...sad, somehow, I wasn't very happy, even though I was having the best time in a long time, but I just said that in the moment I was going OK. Yeah, I kind of regret it, because I desperatly needed someone to talk to in that moment, but she told me she was there for me if I ever needed to talk. Ina is such a sweetie.
Yea, so we went down and it was pretty late, I am not sure if I went to bed or not. No, I wrote in my diary to compensate for not talking. (I get confused, which days I went to bed early and which days I stayed up late.)
Wednesday 15th MarchWednesday was a really hard day for us. We had alot of stuff to do. Got up, like normal, ate, I really can get mundane sometimes.
Yea, on Wednesday we had an Impro-Theatre workshop. This guy came to our house and we played some games and stuff with him. It was really fun, I learnt lots of cool games and stuff that I can use for the drama-production when I get back to Melba. =D
It really was tiring, but it was so much fun.
We played this game where two of us sat on chairs and then there were two of us behind, with the arms through our armpits, so it looks like one person.
We had to imagine we were on a TV show, and had just invented smething. The people in the front row didn't know what we had invented though, and the hands had to try and show us. It was so hard, you wouldn't believe it...na, I'll just show the people from Melba drama when I get home. (I can't wait to come back and direct the play...)
The guy stayed for about 3 hours, till about the normal time when we would eat lunch.
We didn't eat lunch on Wednesday, we made Lunch Packets and took them with us. We went, once more, with the U-Bahn (I swear, I know the routes of the U-Bahn soo well!!) and then with the train and bus.
This time we went to see the Wannseehaus, a house on a lake, where heaps of stuff happenend, to do with the Jewish people. I don't know really what happened there, because I was so dead that I couldn't do anything. I didn't even manage to look interested, or remotely alive. It would have been quite interesting, the house, don't get me wrong, but the problem was, we were all soo tired, most of us were in the Jewish Museum the day before, and it was nearly the same thing, and the guy who did the tour spoke and spoke and spoke. He took us through about two rooms when he was speaking, then...he explained so much and, it was just so bad!
Normally it would have been really interesting though. I found a lady who had been forced to move out of my old town because she was a Jew, out of the town Schönebeck/Elbe.
The guy left us to our own devices after a while, and we looked around for a while, then got our things together and left again.
On the way back Elena and I were singing songs from Sister Act, the movie. It was so cool. We have so much in common, Elena and I. We got in the bus finally and set off, all of us totally exhausted.
When we got to the train station, I couldn't d0 it anymore and just closed my eyes in the train, falling asleep almost instantly. I was so dead, and already felt that a disease was coming.
It was funny, when we had to get out, one of the teamers, Nicholas came and and wanted to wake me up, but just as he came and stood over me I opened my eyes and was like, Hello.
Alot of people wanted to go to the supermarket and buy stuff, but I couldn't. I think I was the only kid who didn't go and buy stuff.
I walked back home with...someone, and then put my stuff away and fell asleep instantly on the couch. It looked so funny, Angelika, Ina and I were all sleeping on the sofas, all exactly so tired as the other.
Thoughts were going through my head, and I realised that I still had to go to the theatre on Wednesday night, and I was so buggered.
Juan came back, because he felt bad that I was home by myself and thought I would be bored, but I was lying dead on the sofa, and then I felt really bad, because we couldn't do anything because I was so finished.
I think I basically hung around in a stupor till dinner, didn't eat much for dinner and then had to leave. By this time I was just operating on automatic pilot, doing what I had to do and hopefully not looking like a zombie at the same time.
To get to the theatre we had to walk pretty far, and I was just like...yea.
This time I watched "Shakespeare's works". It wasn't actually Shakespeare, it was a comedy, just aimed so that everyone has fun.
It was actually pretty good, I thought, it was a little fast, and we, the exchange students, didn't understand it all, but I tried my very hardest!
I scored the best spot...the seat with all the teamers. Great. Yeah, it wasn't so bad.
Viky, she got called up to the stage and had to act with the people, it was really funny. Really all she had to do was scream, and she did it pretty well, to be honest.
Their aim was to present all of Shakespeare's plays in 90 mins, and at the end they were like, yea, we still have a little time. So they went through Hamlet, I think it was, really fast. Then they still had time, and went through it back-to-front. It was so funny, at the beginning they all lay dead on the ground, and then rose to life. It was great. You just had to laugh and clap with the other people.
After the play we still had time, and no-one wanted to go back home, so we went on a walk, looking for a karaoke bar. It took soo long, and in the end we didn't find a bar. We just walked around pointlessly. OK, yes, we found Dunkin' Donuts, that was pretty good.
When we got home on Wednesday I just went straight to bed. I was so tired, and I said, to someone, "Yea, tomorrow I am going to be sick."
Famous Last Words.
Thursday 16th MarchToday...it was so damn hard to get up. I was so dead, still.
In the morninig we had a pretty...serious talk. The history of theatre.
OK, it wasn't such a great talk, because it was pretty long, but I must give the teamers credit, the did try really hard with it. The presented theatre pieces and they were really good. They tried really hard.
Somehow my concentration wasn't there.
It was funny, when they played one of the pieces, and Yara played the 1st, 2nd and 3rd God. She had to jump between the labels, and spoke with herself for about a minute. That is like...that happened somewhere else, I remember it. But I am not sure where it was.
Ate lunch, I was so sick by then, I couldn't eat what they gave us, even though I tried. We then travelled again, this time to the "Deutsches Theater."
We got a tour in the theatre, which would have been really cool. If there weren't a few problems.
1. The guy spoke so quietly, we couldn't even hear, let alone understand, what he was saying.
2. When we asked him questions, he didn't have the answers. He knew, literally, nothing about the theatre. Like, how many seats are here in this theatre? Umm...I'm not exactly sure...but I am going to say...alot.
It was so bad.
Chelsea, who I knew from my language course in Passau got really sick in that time and left. None of us knew until later, but she went to the hospital. (I think our seminar was cursed to be sick. All of us.)
We were allowed to stay in the city, and do whatever we wanted after the tour, and I went to the city and did some shopping. We were a group of 11, argued alot about who would go where...you know how it goes.
I was trying to be the leader and take control, because I am a control freak, and eventually we all sorted it out, but not without people being pissed off at each other. Really. I hate girls sometimes.
The funny thing was, I had the ticket for us 5 people, and two wanted to piss off, and I was like, yea, I don't care, doesn't matter to me, because I have the ticket and I'll get home OK.
We shopped for a little while and then travelled home.
Something really annoying...I looked at the plan and saw how we would get home. I picked out a route and was completely sure it would work. Stuff like travel plans, I am good with stuff like that, not to be up myself.
But, the others didn't trust me. They kept on saying stuff like, We are completely wrong, we have to go to the U7, we don't have that connection here, we'll have to walk and find it. Annoying stuff.
I was like, guys, take a chill pill. Stress less, I know where we are and we will get home OK.
We got home about 5 mins before we were supposed to, it was perfectly timed!!
We all ate dinner and things, but there was a little problem. And indeed, the girl who went to the hospital, Chelsea, went with Yara. Now, Yara was in her own room, and she had all the money, the theatre tickets and all our personal information in her room. So, naturally, she had to have a lock on her door.
Now, can you imagine what happens next?
All the people want to go to the theatre, but they don't have the tickets, because they are in her room. And it's locked.
They solved it so, like YFU, who are completely innovative would, and she sent the key to our house form the hospital, by taxi. So all the people went, in the hope that they would get in OK, without tickets. The key came OK, and one of the two teamers who was still at the house went around delivering tickets.
We were one teamer, Mira, and about 5 kids. We were all alone. talked, drunk tea and stuff, tried to find something interesting to do.
Three of us, me included, went to the bar down the road. We had to be back at 10pm, because I was there, and we left at 9pm, but it worked out all OK.
We had alot of fun at the bar. =D
I got home OK, tried to wait for a while but couldn't, because I was feeling so shitty, and went to bed.
At about 11:30 a girl came in and I was like, Ohh...told her that I was feeling warm and cold and warm and cold, and she put her hand on my forehead and was like, shit, I'm getting a teamer.
Yea, I lay in bed and was like, *twiddling thumbs.* Two teamers came and one of them asked heaps, felt my stomach and stuff, trying to figure out what was wrong. They both left again and Claudia came back with a thermometer, and a mandarine. The mandarine, she said, was a get-better present from the teamers. It was, yes, completely hard, but it had a little smiley face on it, and that was cute. It was a nice thought.
Anyway, she took my temperature, told me if anything should appen to get worse than to get one of them and they also put a sign on our door, informing everyone to be quiet.
I tried to get sleep, I couldn't. About half an hour later heaps of people came and up down the stairs, because of the bed-check, and then they all went.
One thing, one of the girls, namedly the girl that I "shared" a bed with, came in and lay down on her bed. She was crying, but obviously didn't want anyone to know.
I was completely dead and sick and tired, but I thought I should try and make her feel better anyway. Yes, that is how nice Vera is!! She didn't realise, and a little bit later I finally fell asleep.
Friday 17th MarchFor those of you actually still reading, it is nearly over.
At first I didn't get up. I couldn't do it. I was so exhausted. I eventually dragged myself out of bed and wanted to drink something, so I went downstairs, but they were all still waiting, so I went back up and lay down again.
Later Claudia came back and took my temperature. It beeped and stuff, she looked at the screen and just said, "yea, I am going to suggest we go to the doctor." I had such a fever. Urgh.
I drunk some tea, we asked Nicholas if I could go and I got ready. The bad thing was, I missed out on something which was really important. When we were by the doctors our AGs did a "look into the future", you know, a look into the next part of our year and what we want etc. The shitty thing was, I would have really liked to have done that, because I think it really would have helped, because of the new family, basically a new beginning that I have now. I am really bummed that I missed that.
Yea, they were doing an "energizer", so we had to wait, then someone got us some money and we set off. It took so long to walk there, and I was like....urrrgggghhhh...the whole time. So groggy. I knew I could sit down, by the time I got there though, so that kept me going.
Apparently the people in my AG asked where i was and the teamers just said not here. Point out the obvious. =P
The first doctor wasn't there, and they sent us to another one. I won't go into detail about what the doctor did *shudders*, but the end result was that I would get some paracetemol and cough medicine, and that I should get some rest and take it easy for a couple of days. After we sorted out the whole chaos, we set off, for the pharmacy. We got to the pharmacy, bought up big, with drugs, and walked off again.
By the time we got home I was so finished. I was so tired, I jsut wanted to flop into my bed. Problem was that there was a group in my room, but it was good because they were nearly finished. I had to take some pictures for them and then half of them went, and I got to lie down and die. I talked with some of the people for a while, then they left and I lay down, trying to fall asleep.
I didn't sleep very easily, because I was so cold, and then I went downstairs, only to find that my group were making photos. Woot. I was included there, even though I looked so bad. Ina asked me how I was going and I said OK, we took some photos then we had to watch a video about the history of Germany.
I was forced to sit there in the back row and "listen." I nearly feel asleep, and nearly fell off the chair numerous times, but I survived. It would have been interesting, if I could actually sit through and see everything, because Ina studies History, an could explain it all a little bit more, so that we could all understand. It helped, was alot better.
OK, lunch. Didn't eat any lunch, but I did eat the desert, which was yogurt. Yummy.
After lunch the teamers all disappeared and we all started planning for our Gala-Night. the teamers said that they rocked the whole week for us, so we had to rock the last night. Our organisation went pretty well, we all did things, we all helped.
Half way through we had to do something for the teamers, which was tell them what we liked and didn't like. By doing this, we all got given red and green dots, and had to put green dots for the things we liked and red dots for the things we didn't like, on the timetable, which told us what we were doing everyday. The thing with the most red dots was the Goodbye talk, which we hadn't even had yet. That was scheduled for Saturday morning, but we all anticipated and knew that it would be the worst time of the week.
After we did that, my group came up to my room, so I could lie in bed and help at the same time.
We did a play, about the week. We basically paid out things that people have done in the week and took the bugger out of people. I played Ina, one of the teamers, which was really fun. We got to pay them out, and I sung in the train station and stuff like that. Coincidentally, I didn't know the words of the song that she sung, but it doesn't matter. they all laughed anyway.
Another guy paid out the guy from the theatre, Juan did felix, who tripped over in the dining room and Viky did Thomas, who dropped his plate of yogurt and just said, Shit Happens.
It was really funny, and although it did take a little bit of time to organise, it was soo worth it, when we saw the whole faces and when they laughed the whole time. It was so great!!
Our Gala-Night, I am going to say that was tops. I was drugged up, OK, so that I could do everything, but it didn't matter.
We set the tables and things, organised roses for the teamers, did signs and things (I drew the signs =P), it was cool. I think the best thing were the candles. They put heaps of tealights into a shape, saying YFU 2006, and when all the teamers came into the room they were all alight.
Naturally, we couldn't leave them on, because we needed the space for our things, so the teamers all got the honour of blowing out the candles.
We performed our play, which went off without a hitch. =D
the worst thing of the whole night was when Anuj presented his prject. He spoke for an hour and 10 minutes, and, he spoke the whole time about
beer. It was so boring, everyone was falling asleep. He was really offended at the end of the night, but...yea.
After our program was finished we pumped up the music and danced, ate, talked, everything.
I was not tired at all, I actually felt really good, so I danced quite alot and ate quite alot of junk. Big mistake there.
Eduardo got the idea to burn CDs for everyone, with heaps of pictures and things on it, so people got busy with that while we were all being lazy.
Eventually, at 3am, the CDs were finsihed and we all got conned into cleaning up and going to bed. We did it, because we were all so tired anyway, we just didn't want to leave.
The Gala-Night was seriously, one of the better nights of our week!
Saturday 18th MarchNearly finished. Woke up, had to pack and things. I was going OK, my head hurt and I was coughing like mad, but I trudged on.
We all ate breakfast for the last time, I even managed to shove something down my throat!!
We then had our Goodbye thing. The activity with all the red dots.
It was so sad. Nicholas and Berit did the speech, they said something along the lines of...
This seminar was a time to get away from your years, to take some time out and think about what you have done, where you want to be and what you want to do etc. This seminar was really good, each and every one of you are great people with birght futures etc etc. (Like what people normally say in corny speeches about leaving.)
One of the bad things was, it was so sad to leave. I never really thought that on Saturday I would have to leave. I kind of thought we still had alot of time with each other. Alot of people were crying. Really emotional.
The teamers all got up the front, most of them crying, and all said thankyou. The applause that followed was so loud and deafening, I don't think you guys could even imagine it unless you were there.
Then came the hugs and goodbyes. We all hugged and cried, I think all of us wanted a little more time with each other. I wanted to get to know the other people, Elena and I were just starting to get REALLY close. I do miss some of the people form the seminar really badly. (I am listening to the song from Die Toten Hosen...it is sad. =()
I never wanted to leave, I was really scared of what was coming. I wasn't sure, because I have just changed families, what was coming. I just wanted to stay somewhere were I knew that everything was OK, where I was happy, where I was sure I had friends. Where I felt safe, but everything that is good has to come to an end.
I think because the goodbyes were so emotional, I wanted to throw up. I tried to go up to the toilets, which were closed, so I had to go to the toilet on the guys side. I was so close, but I didn't throw up, which was good.
Just to be sure Claudia took me into the teamers room to take my temperature again. It was all OK, but what was cool, was that there was a sign in the teamers room, saying...
"We really are a cool seminar"It is really true, we were such a great seminar.
By the time I got down, most of my friends were gone. Elena was still there, which was good. She was always there for me, I was always there for her. We will be there for each other for a while, I think. Such a friendship doesn't come and go easily.
We sat around for a little while, then left. I said goodbye to Ina, who is honestly, one of the coolest people I know from YFU. She said some words...I am not going to repeat them, because they are personal, but I just smiled when she said them. Then she left and I never saw her again. Like in a movie. =P
Anyway, Elena and I went together, to the station. I wanted to say bye to her on the platform, when she left, and her train only left 20 minutes before ours. And the better thing was, it was a little late.
On the way there, I started singing songs in the train station and stuff, like all the teamers had done. Elena was like, you would make such a good teamer. I was like...thanks. =D (I think it would be great to be a teamer.)
It was so hard, when we had to say goodbye. Elena and I bawled our eyes out. It was so sad, because we knew...it was the end. It was the end of our seminar and we were going home. It was so hard for us to say goodbye, we hugged and hugged and bawled.
As she left, I saw her in the train and we both waved, giving each other a smile. I don't know, sounds corny, but that made me cry harder. I was in the train station crying so hard. I miss Elena so much, already.
Anyway, then we had to get our train. Our train pulled up, I got in and found my place and cried some more. I wasn't anywhere near the people from my seminar, because my ticket was booked alot later, but I went and visited them after I had calmed myself down.
Our train pulled out form Berlin and I knew my seminar was over. Bummer.
When the train got towards Braunschweig Britta came and visited me, and it was weird, because she was the first and last person I saw. She and I were pretty good friends too, and it was hard to say goodbye, she was the last...but we did it.
I got out of the train and went home, stuffed and sick. I went to bed at 2pm and didn't wake up till the next morning. I was so sick, I really was...I think my body held it out till I got home and then just collapsed, letting sickness take over.
I basically lay in bed from Saturday till Thursday. Sick. Urgh. It wasn't so much fun, and I am still completely sick, with everything, but I am getting heaps better. On Friday I went to school, which was...different. I hadn't been to school for nearly two weeks, which was a shock.
I don't think it was good, that I became sick after the seminar, because it meant I had alot of time to think about things. I thought alot about the seminar and what we did there. I thought alot about things we did there, I did some things we learnt in our AGs. I was kind o f dwelling on a shadow, something that was gone already. It was hard, but...I really don't want to forget this seminar either, because it was probably one of the best weeks in my year so far.
A week where I was happy the whole time. What a great week.
As for me, now I am a little bit better. My family are great, and tomorrow I am going to a YFU Meeting, again.
But for now I am going to leave you all, I love you guys, peace out,
Vera was here at 11:24 PM
Thursday, March 09, 2006
Going TodayWell, today is my last day here in Schoenebeck. It was quite an ordinary day, but I will tell you what happened anyway, just because I feel like it.
I got up at 6:15am, even though I could sleep in till 7am. I got up because I am trying to upload all of my photos onto a site before I go, so that my father can copy them. I love you Dad, thank you so much!!
I had breakfast, got ready for school and talked with the parentals here, and then set off on the bike for the last time.
Oh, my purple, ugly bike, how will I ever forget you?
Got to school. Well, on the street before the school I saw one of my friends, who was walking, and I stopped and walked with her.
Got to school and talked to everyone for a bit, then the bell rung and we went inside. I had English, we actually write a test in English. But it was easy, so it is not like it matters. I gave my test to the teacher, even though it was completely pointless. She said my German grammar and things are really good, and there was only a few mistakes with some things in German.
Cool.
Went on break, went outside, I froze my arse off, like every other day. Nothing special
Went to German, talked about short stories. It was actually really good today, and I said quite alot in the class, compared to normal. We are doing short stories with the theme, "To be Foreign," so it does kind of relate.
Said goodbye to the teacher, who is really nice, and young. She is probably the only young teacher in the whole school. She is nice.
Went to Chemistry, here is where all the note-passing etc happened.
There is this guy who sits in front of me, his name is Phillip. He is really nice, and if I am allowed to say it, good looking too. We have gotten on well in the last few weeks as well. In the middle of the boring lesson he passed me a note. It said,
"I think it's a real pity, that you're going away now, just when you are so good at German and have so many friends here, when you are doing really well."
I was shocked...I was like...Uhhh...
We wrote back and forth.
Me: It was my decision, and I think it is for the best, it'll be hard, but I wan't to do it.
Him: Yea, fair enough. When it isn't so great with your family. It was a good time though, it was funny with you.
Me: I didn't really do much, but thanks. It was a great time, except when we had Mrs. Schadow.
Him: I can understand that. I know, we never really spent anytime together. But I think you're cool all the same. No idea, but you have a cool radiation/ charisma. (No idea what he meant here...)
Me: Thanks. You know that cool is an English word yea? I really didn't talk with many people except for my friends in the school, so it is nothing special.
Him: Maybe it's your accent. (Yes, I have an accent when i talk German!!) No idea, hopefully you will have more luck in Braunschweig.
I didn't write back, the paper was full and it was the end of the lesson. This guy is so sweet...<3.
And no, I am not embarrassed to say that in front of my parents.
Had another lesson of Chemistry, but we wrote a test. The whole lesson, I did it, but I didn't give it in, because the teacher said not to.
Then it was lunch break. That was the best lunch break I have ever had, we took pictures and stuff.
French. Urgh. I hate it, but I sat through it, without falling asleep. That's always a plus! Had maths, which was my last lesson of the whole time here.
Maths is always boring, but it seemed to go pretty fast, when I think about it.
At the end my friends all told me to wait, and we all went out together and stood in the corridoor. They gave me some presents, which was really sweet.
I got a book, which they all wrote in, completely full with stuff from them. I also got some kind of stuffed toy, a penguin and a bouncy ball. It wasn't much, but it was sweet. We all hugged each other and we all promised we would write to each other.
Phillip came up and we hugged as well, he seemed to hang on for a while...lol!
Anyway, we all went our speerate ways. The coridoor goes in four directions, two went behind us, one went left and one went right and two were in front of us. Us is me and Debbie, btw.
It was such like a movie, all walking away from each other, in different directions. It was really sad, but I still had Debbie.
But I did it. I got out of the school, said goodbye to my friends and didn't cry once.
It was only when I got to Omi Margit when I cried. I bawled and bawled. She bawled. It was sad.
I gave her a present and then I left her apartment, went downstairs and out the door, back over the road to our house. I was bawling.
Now I am here. A few minutes ago Oliver came in and gave me a rose, apparently it is Women Day or something. Never heard of it. Smells nice though. He took my luggage down, with a little help or hindrance from me. I finished them about ten minutes before he came in.
So right now I am uploading photos still, and writing this. I intend to go and take some last photos of the house and stuff as well.
I am so excited to be going to a new house. Naturally, I am really scared, at what they will be like. I really am, and I hope they are OK. I know it'll be great in school, I already have so many friends.
So, I will talk to you guys next when I talk to you guys. It could be in two weeks or it could be tomorrow, I have no idea.
But, I love you all, I thank you all for the support and I miss you all so badly.
All m love,
Vera was here at 2:43 AM
Sunday, March 05, 2006
I'm LeavingWell, yes. I have writen that correctly.
I am leaving Schoenebeck.It didn't work out very well here, with the family and school, and...that has led me to my decision to leave, and try and actually enjoy the last few months of my exchange year. I am going on Wednesday already, probably sometime in the day.
I am headed towards Braunschweig, where I was for the International Week. Not with the same family, but I do know the family I am going to be staying with. I am so excited to be going there. The daughter is great, I know her a little, and I hope the rest of the family are great as well.
I have friends there in Braunschweig, and I have seen the school. I know it is a great school, they even have a hockey team!! The school here and there are so different, I think the school in Braunschweig is probably more like my school at home. I am so happy.
The teachers are great, the students are somehow...different...and the school is in the middle of the city! How much better could it get?
If you have a free period you can piss off to a café or go shopping, something they don't even have here. Cafés, I mean. Of course they have shopping.
Well, people from home, if you want my adress to send me things, then you are going to have to find a time when I am on MSN and ask me for it, or ask my Mum for it. And in the meantime,
I would say it would be recommended
not to send me anything at this adress.
Also remember that I may not be able to check my email for a long time, so I may be a little slow replying, and that I always appreciate comments on my blog. =P
(And my b'day is around the corner!! Less than three months!
Don't forget. )
Next thing, leave on Wednesday and then go to Berlin on Saturday, so I will be there for a total of two days before I leave again. Great, but I don't think I can stand it much longer here. I don't want to explain what is going on here over my blog, but if you ask me politely, maybe I will tell you...one day. Either by email or when I get back home, which is scarily close!
Well, that is all for now. I think my friends at school want to throw me a leaving party, but...it's a little too late. But, I will try and update on Tuesday, to tell you all how it's going, how my last days at school were.
I love you all,
Vera was here at 5:26 AM
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
Back And SafeWell, back from Braunschweig.
I don't really feel like updating this right now, I don't know why, but I think I am far too lazy to type anything. Therefore I am only updating saying that I am back.
I had the best time last week, I really did.
I loved it so much, I never wanted to come back to this place. It was so hard for me to get in the train, and getting out at Schoenebeck, it was so bloody hard. I didn't want to come back, I wanted to stay.
I found lots of friends, both International and Germans, who are totally great. I know I will go and see them again, especially the ones in Braunschweig. I will do whatever I can to do that.
I have to go partying with them all again. =P
Anyway, I loved it there, and I want to go and live there now. I loved it there so much. Did I already say how much I loved it?
Well, we are making progress to finding a family in that school, which would be totally great. I really hope that it works out.
In case you have missed it guys, I am probably changing host-families, because there are so many problems here, which I don't really care to explain. It seems that I have had to explain and justify myself to so many people over the last few weeks, I just want that you guys trust me in what I am doing.
Easily, I am just not happy here, and I never was. OK? the truth is there. I hated it here from, nearly, the start.
Great. I thought it could get better, but it didn't. It only got worse and worse. I tried to fool myself and tell myself that I could be happy, but now I realise I can't be. Ever.
How appropriate that I realise it when I get on the mark to only four months left. That's a scarily short time, but I know that if I go to Braunschweig that I will be happy.
I can only hope that I get a family there. I love it there.
Now I am waiting for a phone call that will change my year. I am shitting myself waiting, wondering when they are going to call up. Grrr.
Anyway, having said more than I wanted to, I am going to go now. Don't know when I will be able to write again. Maybe tomorrow....don't know.
I love you all,
Vera was here at 6:49 AM
