Tuesday, September 20, 2005
On the weekend I went to a YFU meeting in großkorbetha, its a really small town, which is funny, since groß means big!
It was great fun.
We had the option of going on Saturday, the students and host siblings and staying the night, or coming with your parents on Sunday. I chose to go on Saturday though.
I met Pablo, the other guy from YFU here at the train station at 12:10 and the train left at 12:19. We waited around for a little bit, then got on the train and pissed off to großkorbetha.
Pablo kommt aus Chile, he comes from Chile and he can speak English, so we talked on the train heaps. His German is even worse than mine. The train we were on went to Halle, and then we had to get off that one and get on another one.
Amidst the squealing, squeaking, groaning of the train and Pablo and my jokes of "oh, someones dying in the next carriage" and "before you know it this part of the train will break off and we'll be going the other way", well, nothing happened. The only thing we could do to enteratin ourselves was make jokes about the train.
When we got off the train we were the only people on the platform, then these two guys walked up the stairs and walked towards us. The were people from YFU who came to take us to the place we were staying.
There is 28 people form Sachsen-Anhalt now. When we got to the place, I think, well, I don't know what it was, we got out of the car, got shown by this midget from Romania where we could put our stuff and got our name tags. We were originally going to sleep in tents, but then looking at ht e weather we decided it was too damn cold to sleep outside, and we all slept in a room together.
There was already 4 students there, a girl from Romania, two from China and one from Finnland. We sat down at the table and ate some cake, then we got talking. Well, I talked as much as I could.
It got really cold in the shade, so we moved out into the sun. It was still cold. We sat around some more, more people showed up and we got to know them all. Then we started playing games. We played some name games and German memory games, then it started raining. We moved under the shelter, then more people came.
I usually hate those games, but, well, yes, they were very boring.
We sat around for quite a while talking, and then we realised there was a soccer ball. And so began the tradition. YFU peopl from Passau played dodgeball, we play soccer.
It started as Robert, me, Emmi and Robert's host sister Jana just kicking around, then more and more people joined in until it became the cool thing to do.
I think we must have done that for about two hours, then we had dinner. By then I think there was about 10 students and two host sisters. Dinner was good, I ate these really good hot bread rolls, which I am totally addicted to now.
After dinner we hung around for a while, then the Romanian showed us around her town Großkorbetha. It's pretty small, we ended up going to the soccer field. We hang around at the soccer field for quite a while, maybe for about half an hour. Jana, Robert, Emmi and I were talking, they're all really cool people.
When we finally realised it was dark we thought we should probably leave. We got to the gate and low and behold, it was closed! We ended jumping over the fence, because that was the only way we could see out.
I got over the fence second, and then alot of people started climbing over all at once. It was about my height.
I took a look around and on the other side of the building that was beside the fence was an open gate with a spinny gate barrier. I was telling all the people, but none of them heard me.
Finally everyone except for one was over the fence, and she refused to climb over it. We told her there was a gate on the other side of the building, but she wouldn't believe it. People had to go back in and get her to prove it to her.
We walked around for a little while, some people wanted to go to the shop and buy something, but when we got there it was closed. So we walked back.
I talked to Jana for a little while on the way back. Although I thought she looked a bit dodgy when I first saw her, I got talking to her and she is sooo nice! Sure, she looks a little rough, and is a bit rough, but she is totally genuine and caring. She is the host sister from Robert. She went on the YFU program to Latvia, and she is now hosting Robert, from Latvia. They seem really close.
Then I talked to Robert and Emmi on the way back. We talked about our language course, our experiences and our reasons for coming on this exchange. We all had such different reasons.
We got back to the campsite last, because we were walking slowly and droped behind, and by the time we got back there were two little fires in a trash can. We were really cold, so we reserved our spot next to the fire.
After a while we got sick of standing, and Robert said he would take off his jacket and we could sit on it. It was so sweet. We sat down for a while, and then the smart people thought to crack out the chairs. We sat on the chair and started talking again, and then Jana came and joined in.
We got hungry, so we went into the dining room and there was apples and lollies on the table for us. We grabbed a handful of lollies and an apple, then went upstairs, Jana got her easter choclate and I got the chocolate Omi Margit gave me for the trip. We sat around the campfire eating apples, lollies and chokky. It was good.
Some people wanted to go to sleep, so we all went into the room we were sleeping in, made our beds and some of us went to sleep. By then it was a little colder, but we went outside and sat around the fire again. About an hour later most people had gone, but Emmi, Jana, Robert, some YFU guy and I were still there. We talked some more near the campfire, then Isa joined us. The fire was slowly but surely going out, but I had to be the person I am and get a stick and play with it. When the fire went out we went inside to the dining room and ofund alot of people in there talking.
There was the Asian block, the Spanish block (with two people) and the English bloc. Quite interesting once again. By then we were all full of chokky and lollies. Robert told us that his friends told him by the end of the year that instead of walking down the street, he would be rolling down the street because he wil be so fat. Pretty funny.
Highlight of the evening, well, one of them:
Robert: Wie spät ist es? (What time is it)
Xiaolong (Crazy Chinese guy): Jetzt? (Now?)
Me: Nein, in zwei Stunden. (no, in two hours)
Ahh, robert and I burst out laughing. For the rest of the night and the next day everytime we asked what time it was and whatever we would say that. Hilarious, but a little immature. Whatever.
Most of the English bloc went to sleep, it was only Robert and I left, we talked ofr a while and then we went to bed. We got up there, got our stuff, got changed and stuff then tried to sleep.
The sound of people talking was drifting up the stairs, and Robert and I lay in our beds talking in whispers, mostly complaining about somehitng or another. Mainly the cold. The we realised a window was open, but we were too lazy to get up and shut it. We spent the next half hour argueing about it in whispers. By about 12:30 Robert got sick of hearing Chinese, so he got up, we downstairs and said "Alright folks, parties over. Go to bed now or shut up" Then he wlkaed up the stairs and got into bed.
After about another hour of whispering we got told to shut up, so we lay in our sleeping bags awake. I think I got about two hours sleep. Every so often we wold make the occasional sarcastic comment about how comfortable the floor was or how war it was. Well, actually he was complaining about the cold.
Halfway throught the night Jana started sleeping on my feet. For about an hour I was paralysed. Ironically, this is when I got my sleep. When I woke up, Jana was still on me, so I kicked her off. Then I turned around to the other side and Robert was lying in very close proximity to me, with his head on my makeshift pillow of my jacket.
I woke him up, or tried, then I kicked him off it.
For the next hours I watched the room get gradually lighter until the first person stirred. It was Claudia, one of the host sisters, then Jana and Robert woke up. We all sat up talking and eating Jan's chokky. MMM...
Hmm, I've written alot...
We sat around talking for a while, got brought coffee in bed and then got changed and ate breakfast. It was really good, there was those rolls and yogurt, which I have become addicted to now.
After breakfast we played some more soccer until about 12, wehn the parents came. We sat and talked about our home countries, Lorena the Colombian, Robert, Jana Emmi and I, then we went and sat down at the tables, because we were asked to.
We had to introduce ourselves and our families, and my family walked in just in time.
After that we ate lunch, talked for a while with people and then us soccer people went and played soccer. I met this really nice girl, one of the betreuers, ( a leader kind of person who takes care of you.)
More poeple came and joined our soccer circle and we had more and more fun.
We played for ages. In between my family and I got our photo taken.
At about 3:30 we left. We took Pablo with us, because he lives in the same town and his parents weren't there.
I felt sad saying goodbye to Emmi, Jana and Robert, because we had become incredibly close over those 24 hours. Especially Robert and I and Jana and I. But I will see them agian...Thank god!!! I cant wait to see everyone again!
We walked ot our car, got in and drove away. The nice betreuer and some people were following us, because they didn't know the way out.
I hope Robert and Jana got home OK, they had to catch the train.
On the Autobahn our car got up to I think about 230 km\h. How cool is that? Travelling at that speed seems normal now, travelling at 110 seems so slow now! I htink the people here are alot better at driving though.
We finally got home and I was tired, but I didn't go to bed.
Today Pablo and I went to our first Deutsch lesson, its good and all, but I don't really like the teacher much. Shes old, scary and fat. lol. But if it helps me I'm all for it.
I thikn that's all.
My wekend was so amazing, and I met some great people. I can't wait to see them again. We have a monthly meeting in Magdeburg and are having a Christmas\stay the night party at Xmas, which I am really looking forward to.
One more hting, I think I might see my friends from Passau again. At the end of the year there is a seminar in Berlin for all YFU people in the whole of Europe, so hopefully I'll see my friends there. Hopefully I get to go.
Oh yeah, and Blue Heelers Complete Season One comes out on DVD soon, on November 3rd. How cool is that?? If any of you want to get me a chrissy pressie...:)
Tschüß.
Viel Spaß
Vera
Vera was here at 2:12 AM
