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 :)