Singapore

We arrived at Singapore Airport an hour ago and are now waiting for the connecting flight to Auckland. See you all tonight.

Abschied

Everyone has had a great time and the students will find it difficult to say goodbye to their host families. We will meet tomorrow morning between 7 and 7:30am at Berlin Tegel Airport and we will begin our homeward journey. The students will bring back many happy memories of their stay in Germany and they will look forward to hosting the students from the EHG school in March / April 2010. At this moment it seems that the flights will be on time and we will arrive in Auckland on Saturday at 11:30pm. We look forward to seeing you all at the airport.

Thursday 3rd October

Hallo everyone =)
Thursday was a great day. It was the day that we all had been waiting for the whole trip. Oktoberfest...!!! We started out the day by travelling for a few hours into Munich, where we were to do a tour around the city first. Unfortunately we were late for our tour as there was a bomb scare just as we were driving into the city and our bus was delayed for a while. However we eventually got to where we had to be, met our guide and begun our tour through Munich =). Everything was so beautiful and very old, and we felt that the history was still very much alive. We saw lots of georgeous old buildings, visited the Frauenkirche and saw some famous beer gardens. We also saw the new town hall which had a glockenspiel that played and little statues danced around in the front of the building. It was really cool. But then the real fun started! We got on the U-bahn and travelled to the square where Oktober fest is held. It was amazing, so many people, cool rides and beer. And I have never seen so many Lederhosen (leather pants) in one place in my entire life! It was halarious, but so cool to see some Bavarian culture. Most if us went on an exciting ride of some sort, ate some food and then visited a beer hall. The beer halls were so massive and completly full! Also everyone inside of the tents seemed to be the best of friends haha, funny that... There was lots of music, talking and also quite a lot of dancing on tables! After we had laughed at the drunks and taken some funny pictures with them, we left the beer halls to go souviner shopping. A lot of the girls bought matching t-shirts which said "good girls go to hevan, bad girls go to München Oktoberfest" and the boys bought big hats that look like beer mugs, which we foung really funny. Sadly our time was soon up and we had to get back on the train and go back to Lechbrok (where we were staying), but we still had an amazing time and many of us have already promised to make a return trip sometime in the future!
Marissa

Monday in Berlin

Hello all!

Happy Birthday Roshani! :)

As this week is project week at EHG, the kiwi group first attended one period with a class of students who are doing their project on NZ. Got the class to sing happy birthday to Roshani before settling in to watch a dvd about the north island of NZ - this was of course in German, which gave us a great oppotunity to practice our German in a context that we are familiar with. It also tempted some of the group into exploring their own backyards when they return home - there were a couple of places mentioned that none of us had heard of before!

After this we walked to the train station, only find our train was an hour late - so much for Germans being punctual!! When we finally arrived in Berlin we quickly walked to 'the Story of Berlin', which is an exhibition showcasing the history of the city from the past 800 years. We spent about half an hour in there and then were taken on a guided tour of a nuclear bomb shelter, which had been installed for the cold war. As we discovered, however, it only really provided people with a false sense of security, for there were flaws in its creation, such as the cramped conditions, lack of food and quality of air, that meant the lucky 3600 people that got in were still likely to die anyway. We then moved back up to the exhibition, had a bit more of a look around and completed the worksheets we had been given. Due to the train being late we had to rush a bit, but we still got a decent glimpse into the history of Berlin, as the exhibition was very informative and comprehensive.

We then walked along the Ku'damm (a big shopping street) towards the 'Ka De We', which is the largest department store in Europe. We were then allowed to run wild for an hour both here and along the Ku'damm, and many of us found ourselves overwhelmed by both the size of and the prices at the 'Ka De We.' I think some of us could have used a some more time to look around a bit more, however we soon caught our train (on time this time!) back to Werder.

All in all, a good day had by everyone. Hope everything is well back home!

Imo xox

hey everyone Laura here!(i know my family will be happy to see i have finally written something on the blog)
today my sunday started off with my host family driving me to Dresden, yes this is the same city Katie visited last week also. Stopping off at the famous Mc Donalds to have breakfast(their breakfast menu is infact different to NZ). Then carrying on our 2 hour drive to Dresden.
Arriving there was amazing my host family pointing out buildings left, right and centre. we finally parked the car,(my host dad wanted the cheapest carpark). then we walked through the old city as they call it. my host dad paid for us to be shown the city by bicycle, saving us from walking in the cold and rain :). the poor tour guide was asked to speak english, but in the end he spoke as much as possible and susan translated the rest. the city was amazing all the old buildings and other sights to be seen. my favourite sight had to be the Frauenkirche, which is the main church of the town, they rebuilt it after the war, but it still contains old blocks from the orginal building.
After our lovely tour we went to have some nice lunch, as we were starving. once ,lucnh was done we went in the Frauenkirche and up tower to look out over Dresden, not only was the view amazing but the inside of the church took my breath away, it was soo stunning and beautiful. once we had climbed up and then back down the millions of stairs, we went to the porcellin musuem, it was very interesting.
For the rest of the afternoon, as girls do we went shopping. i had a very enjoyable time seeing another city of Germany and i am very grateful to my host family for taking me there.
Thats all for now
take care everyone
Love Laura :)

Saturday

As you already know we are back in Werder, and I'm sure I speak for all of us when I say that we all slept well that night. Our last weekend is spent with our families and today I awoke to a typical German breakfast of warm rolls, cheese, salami, ham and quark spread. It is much colder in Werder than it was last week. It was only 10 degrees.Ritchi (my host) had a match of football in Werder, unfortunately he lost 2-0 however German football is much more serious and is almost professional. No real plans for tonight, tomorrow I am going to a football match in Berlin against Hamburg. Hamburg will win as Berlin is in a 8 match losing streak, however Ritchi is a Berlin fan so I will shut my mouth.
All for now.
Benny

Wednesday in Bavaria

Happy birthday Jessica!!

After a delicious breakfast at our accommodation, we climbed on the bus and headed for the cheese factory. Our tour guide only spoke German, which was interesting, but the significance of the shelves of hundreds of massive cheeses, the rooms full of equipment for making cheese, and most importantly the lingering smell of slightly off milk were not lost on us. In short, we learnt that it takes a lot of time (up to 9 months) and effort to make cheese. There was also a short tasting after the tour, which went down with varying degrees of success with different people. (And that was only mild cheese!)

Then it was back to the bus for a long(ish) drive to our lunch stop in a village called Garmisch-Partenkirchen, which hosted the Winter Olympics a while ago (anyone know how long?) The trip to Garmisch-Partenkirchen took us through Austria briefly, much to everyone's excitement. Unfortunately, we soon discovered that Austria is very much the same as Germany, so our excitement was rather unfounded. Garmisch-Partenkirchen was very pretty, though, and made very good pretzels, as some of us discovered!

After lunch we headed for the Zugspitze, the highest mountain in Germany. We took a 4km gondola to the top, where we got completely spectacular views of Germany and Austria- mostly alps- for about 140km around. We left the mountain via a cog railway through the hillside, which was a lot less exciting than the gondola, but a lot nicer for those not comfortable with heights.

After that we went stright back to the holiday camp, where we relaxed and had dinner- including a birthday cake for Jessica.

An unforgetable day was had by all, and the weather was very kind to us. I won't forget those wonderful views in a hurry!

Trip to Bavaria

We spent Monday travelling by bus. The journey was made very comfortable by the friendly and relaxed bus driver. Eight hours travelling seemed to pass by very quickly. Our holiday village in Lechbruck is very cosy and we have a beautiful view of the lake. We are woken in the morning by the sound of goat bells. The students are finding out what it is like to go flatting, only they don't have to cook as we have breakfast and dinner in the restaurant. The weather continues to be superb and today we had a fantastic day visiting Neuschwanstein Castle. It was breathtaking and the views from above down over the lake were magnificent. As we have limited access to the computer the students cannot use the internet. They don't seem to have withdrawal symptoms. All are happy and are looking forward to tomorrow's outing to the cheese factory.

Sunday with host family

Today the start of the second week begins and I woke up not in Werder, but in a B&B outside of the exceptionally famous city of Dresden. My day began with a one and a half hour scenic bus trip that took my host family and I throughout the most exciting part of the city. The newest place that we drove past was the BMW car factory, entirely made of glass that can stack around 40 new cars vertically, right the way around the massive cylindrical shaped building. Dresden was heavily bombed during WWII, and the few remains of the original city date back to the time of Saxons. Then we took a look inside the Frauenkirche (church) which is the most famous building. I had no idea a church could have 4 levels of seating and an interior so beautifully decorated! Next, we enjoyed a light lunch directly outside the church at an Italian restaurant. I am absolutely sure i will never have a lunch quite like that in my whole life again. The atmosphere + view + perfect weather + fine food = a once in a lifetime experience. As if i wasn't overwhelmed enough, our last activity was to view the green vault gallery/museum of "Augustus the Strongs" magnificent collection of thousands of artefacts, all of which were exceptionally valuable and intricately designed. I am told that a limited number of people are admitted to the castle museum everyday and that we were fortunate to be amongst the few who have been admitted. The distance from Dresden to Berlin is over 180km and we made it there in 1:45hours with the Autobahn and no speed limit! I will let you calculate what the average speed was! The perfect weekend that enabled me, who has never travelled outside New Zealand, to broaden my perspective even further on the world. Being the only student to make an entire weekend visit there, I will be forever in my host family's debt - so thankyou to them for the best weekend of my life! Auf Wiedersehen from Katie

Friday at Berlin

An early start for us, we caught the early train to Berlin to make it to the Reichstag before the swaming crouds and endlessly long lines. Arriving at Berlin Hauptbahnhop (which is bigger and grander than Auckland Airport) we took some group photos. Then we walked to the Reichstag and made it into the line. While waiting we whipped out the ipods and plugged it into Roshani's speakers. Like true Kiwis we made the most of the boring line waiting experience by singing and dancing and entertaining not only ourselves but also other tourists around us. Inside the Reichstag we walked up it's glass dome and were able to see the whole of Berlin City from above. The view was really magnificant. Later we visited the Holocaust Memorial Museum underground and walked throught it in silence, reflecting on the event of the holocaust. I think this part of the trip was so important for all of us as we each found our own message that the holocaust brought to us and were able to really feel for the victims of the holocaust. The experience was so powerful and touching. After this we made our way to Potsdamer Platz Arcadium Shopping Centre. Here the girls of our groups went wild with shopping, and some of us tried the sky scraper tall ice creams at the cafes. A great end to the day! Hope all's good at home and the weather clears up. Really looking forward to Munich :p Sarah xx

Film Park

hey there NZ
So today we visited the film park. As soon as we got there we had to rush off so we weren't late for the first show. It was an animal show where they displayed animals which had been trained to work in films. The animals were cute but i dont think that many of us could understand what the presenter was saying, except for something about little red riding hood. After the animal show we had a little bit of free time which, not suprisingly, most of us used to buy food. We then went to the TV studio to watch how the make different types of tv shows such as the weather, talk shows and soaps. The most exciting part was waving to the cameras and seeing ourselves on TV. Then all of us minus the teachers went to the 4D film experience where you watch a 3D film but your seats also move around and there is wind blowing to make you feel like you are in the film. The last thing that we did before leaving the park was watchin a stunts show. This was my favourite part of the day, with fighting, fast cars and various items exploding without warning. It was very exciting. hope all is well at home
Rachel xxx

Berlin Tour

Wednesday 23rd September 2009Berlin Tour Hallo NZ!!!! WOW!! Another exhausting but immensely exciting day. Today we strolled through the magnificent city of Berlin and indulged ourselves in a potent concoction of history, politics and warfare. First we caught a train to the famous Brandenburg Gate which is a symbol of Germany's victory over France. After a furious spate of camera clicks, we met our extremely knowledgeable and energetic tour-guide called Summer. She started by telling us about how Germany conquered France, and hence the square on which the Bradenburg Gate stands is known as the Pariser Platz. As we turned around, we saw the Hotel Adlon at which, Summer said, Michael Jackson performed his highly controversial baby dangling act. As we had all previously assumed that it had happened in an American hotel(for some strange reason), this fact quite surprised us. Next was the Holocaust Memorial, where lie the thousands of unmarked Jewish graves. Walking amidst the rows upon rows of brooding graves, the temperature trickled to a clammy chill. The air was silent, grave, deprived. The light dimmed mysteriously and the atmosphere was eerie and desolate. One could almost hear the frightened, heart-rendering cries of the Jews long gone, and feel their pain. The footsteps I took sounded like staunch men in boots were marching behind me, coming after me. I quickly turned around- no-one.... As the graves grew taller, we grew more intimidated. But as the end neared, our footsteps became normal again, and we positively craved the glorious warmth of the sun. It almost felt as if we had escaped a concentration camp to freedom, light and joy. It really made me appreciate my care-free life. It was a deep experience, one never to be forgotten, and one from which, somehow, we all matured, as the noisy rambling walk previously taken to the Holocaust Memorial disappeared. Summer then told us about a museum nearby where the names, ages, method of death and a few other basic facts about the 6 million Jews killed are recited continously in the background. Guess how long it would take to finish? 6 years and 7 months.....I felt a shiver of absolute horror tingle down my spine and goosebumps emerged. For the first time, I fully realised the enormity of all the deaths. What a terrible, terrible tragedy it was!!!!!!! Next we stood 11m above Hitler's personal bunker. After the story of how exactly Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun committed suicide there, we saw the old headquarters of the ‘Luftwaffe’ (air force), which is now used as a tax office for the people of Berlin.We then finally caught a glimpse of the long-awaited, famous Berlin Wall. With pieces missing and crumbling here and there, it was not exactly the impressive structure we had anticipated. However, as Summer described the guards and protection previously placed there, we saw a vivid image of an almighty, powerful, stern wall in our minds. Afterwards, we went to Checkpoint Charlie before stopping for a lunch break there, during which I bargained in German, mind you, for a magnificent Russian Army Cap. Satisfied by the €10 reduction in price(Haha!), we proceeded onwards. We then went to a square called Bebelsplatz where 10000 great German books, written by well-known authors , were hurled into a raging bonfire and destroyed. We then ended our tour at the Berliner Dom, after which Summer left and we celebrated our successful tour with chocolates. Yummy!!!!! All in all, it was a highly memorable day, and the experiences will never ever be forgotten by me nor anybody. With LOTS of LOVE, Aparajita Goswami PS- Sorry that this is SUCH a LONG blog entry, but I enjoyed myself SO much that I got slightly carried away. Ok, VERY carried away..... Tschüsiiii :)

22nd September

Hallo NZ :)
Today we arrived at school early to meet up at 7:45 am. Unfortunately, I had to wake up around 6 am to accompany my host to their zero period.(Although I ended up going to Katie's class, French, since Caren had a test)
Then we walked to the train station where most of us bought a newspaper (as we were in it!). We got off the train after two stops and from there had a long walk before we finally arrived at the grand Sansssouci palace. The interior of this palace was amazing with all its elaborate gold designs (a lot of it was fruit!) and beautiful paintings. Sans Souci translates as "carefree" or "without worries" and was the palace of Federick the Great. His dying wish was to be buried in a tomb beside his favourite dogs which we got to see outside the palace.(Two dogs which had bitten him were buried on the other side of the palace...)
Frau Zimmer introduced the competition today where one of the tasks was to count the steps leading up to the palace( A LOT).
Afterwards we had free time in Potsdam where we shopped for souvenirs, chocolate(or cute pig shaped marzipans in Sarah's case) and had lunch.
Sara, Marissa, Joerdis, Anne, Rachel, Katie and I then played badminton in the school gym while we waited for our hosts to finish school.
It was a very fun day... and now my host family is taking me out to eat Spaghettieis! :D (Ice cream in the shape of spaghetti) Yum!
Hope all is well at home :)
Tschüss!
-Jessica :)

first day of sightseeing

Hi guys.
its Meg here.
so today was our first day official day. we were warmly greeted by Herr Ritter in the foyer. during his speech lots of students came out and stared at us. first we had two lessons with our hostbrothers and hostsisters. i had a double lesson of art and then sport. after that we meet in the foyer and students from the school took us around Werder explaining some of the history and stories of the places. we walked to Werder's island and looked at the two churches and the windmill. after that we headed to our first german eiscafe (ice cream cafe)=P. we also visited a fruit growing museum and a fish restaraunt both of which Werder is famous for. at the fish restaraunt there were lots of real fish heads on the wall which was quite strange. after that we went to the ballroom where the Ernst-Haeckel Gymnasium have their graduaation dance every year. we also had our picture taken for the newspaper's article that they are writing about us.
when we arrived back at the school the hoststudents had organised a nice selection of traditional baking and drinks for us to try while Frau Zimmer und Frau Delegrosso and Aparajita told the german students a little bit about us and our wonderful country.
we then went home with our hostfamilies for some food and much needed sleep to be ready for tomorrow...

tschüs

First Day in Werder!

Hallo alle!

Hey guys Farhan here, I will be speaking to you about my first day with the Hoeppner family. Getting home from the airport I realised that I was not so tired so we decided to see Werder on land and by lake. When I arrived at the Hoeppner's home I was greeted by a furry guest called 'Goddi', my host family's dog, this friendly fellow jumped into my lap when i sat down and said hello with a lick to my cheek. We travelled through Werder in the forest walking Goddi and saw that this little town had a lot in common with our own home, Auckland. The scenery was a big similarity as we saw ourselves surrounded by trees and bushes as if we were in New Zealand, Werder is a very beautiful town. We then came back home and drove down to the docks where we unhooked and drove around one of the Werder lakes in my host families' boat. We took many pictures of the water and land surrounding it as we drifted around the lake, conversating and just relaxing on my first day in Werder. Overall it was a lovely day and I hope we will have many more like it in my 3 week stay, in Werder

Bye!

Arrival in Berlin

We finally arrived on time at Berlin Tegel. The two flights went smoothly and everybody has gone home in excited anticipation with their host family. The weather is gorgeous (26 degrees and blue sky). We will all meet tomorrow morning eager to explore Werder.

Transit in Singapore

We are here now in Singapore, it is 7:10pm local time and right now we are checking our facebooks and bebos to talk to our friends at an Internet Terminal. Everyone survived the 11 hour flight, some a little more exhausted than others, but in general the enthusiasm is still shared. The landing was a bit unsteady, and Katie found the entire experience incredible, and was the only one to avoid boredom. The temperature is 26 degrees, which is really hot for 7pm!

Many of us are nervous about what we're going to say to our hosts

We're now off to go exploring the airport for 3 hours, some of us showering and trying to get fresh. The Airport is massive, 3 hours might not even be enough.

Bis bald!
Chirag

Auf Wiedersehen

Die Schule wuenscht uns eine gute Reise.

Phone Cards

Hallo!
I have been using "Talk 'n' Save" phone cards for ringing family and friends in Germany.
It's only 2.2 cents a minute, works most of the time and I would really recommend it if your parents want to call you when you are in Werder. It is MUCH cheaper than ringing directly.

Bis bald (Samstag um 9 Uhr am Flughafen).
Frau Z.

2 More Weeks!

I don't know about u guys but I'm pretty psyched =D

Final Logo?

Okay guys so this is with the whole "Auckland - 2009 -Werder" thing put in. =D Couldn't really get the whole thing perfect, so consider this a draft of it. Suggestions and comments =)

Text added in =)

Alright so here's what I'm thinking for the text as well? Any suggestions or comments =)

Kiwi Logo

Okay so this one is a lot less formal i think haha
Should we have the emblem with "Auckland - 2009 - Werder" on top or just the kiwi do you think?

-Chirag

EDIT: Maybe we could have the emblem on the back instead and then all the names below it?

Polo Shirt Design =)

Okay so this is just like a draft for something i had in mind. Im gettin photoshop soon so il perfect it soon but jus wondering if you guys like it? It's an emblem of "Auckland-2009-Werder" with the New Zealand Flag crossing over the German Flag underneath. I think it would look pretty cool, but yeah just comment please. =)

Click on the photo to get a closer look =)

Das sind wir

The Students have started counting the days. On Friday we came together to have a photo taken. Two students did not attend, so I will post their photo later.

4 months to go

We are 17 students and two teachers from Lynfield College in Auckland/New Zealand. We are travelling to Werder / Germany in September 2009 to visit our German partner school and to get to know the German culture. Above all we want to practise our German in an authentic setting. This is the website of our German partner school and here you can read about the last school trip to Germany in 2007.