Last Day of School

Friday was the last day of school and you could barely call it school. It started normal time, so we had the usual ride to school, but when we got to school we went to the big hall instead of class. It was here that the junior years (5-6) and the older years (11-12) met for Christmas songs. Together we all sang songs, reading the lyrics from the projection of the front wall. There were English songs and German songs, and I was able to sing both. It was fun squished on the back row all singing together. A gemütlich end to the school year, and a good way to build Christmas spirit. After the 2 periods of Christmas singing, we had German. Of course we weren't going to have actual class, and the student convinced the teacher to play a fun game instead. The game we played was called 'Regierungsbank', government bank, and the aim was to have the 'bank' run by all girls, or all boys. Everyone had to sit in a circle with one chair empty, and our names were written on slips of paper and were handed out. The person to the left of the empty seat would call out a name to join them, and the person with the corresponding name on their paper would move, including those on the table. You then swap names, so to get the bank filled with your gender you had to remember who everyone's names. It was a fun game, and a good way for me to learn the names of those in my class. The guys and the girls both won once, which was nice. After that game we played a game of celebrity heads, 'Wer bin ich?', using teachers, which was hilarious because we got such questions as 'are they actually a cool teacher', or 'are they older than 50?' (we said yes, but apparently we were wrong and the Deutsch teacher looked scandalised). Next was Pause, and we ran around trying to get teachers to sign a note for Anja, saying it was okay for her to go on Wintercamp - leaving it to the last day, my speciality. After Pause we had a class party in geography class, with a bunch of the younger years as well. It was chaos- children eating lollies, making craft, Christmas songs on repeat. Annkathrin, Janina, Anja and I all squished into one corner and chatted among ourselves, waiting for the waffles to cook. Did I mention the waffles? Well there were waffles. There must have been 3 waffle makers going at once, all around the classroom, and one of them was set up next to our spot. After the waffle boy had made a couple of batches I thought it was an appropriate time to get my own, so the next batch I practically jumped on a waffle as soon as it was done, and after finding where the puderzukar was I sat down to enjoy the warm waffly goodness. The chocolate waffle mix was cracked open soon after that, and the girls ordered two from one of the waffle makers for us. When they arrived it was glorious - chocolate waffles are much better than normal even without icing sugar. The waffle boy next to us started making choc waffles as well so I managed to get a whole one for myself. Nom nom nomAfter the geography class school was over, but instead of going to the bikes and heading home, we went to the train station instead and caught a train into town - what's better than a student rally to finish the school day? We were a bit early for the rally though, so we decided to do some shopping, but had to ask directions first. Just our luck, the first 2 people that we asked couldn't actually speak German! What is with these tourists? But eventually we found our way to the mall where we went shopping for an hour, until it was time to go back to the rally. By the time we got back to the hauptbahnhof quite a crowd had gathered, and I got a taste of what it must have been like back in the day of student rallies against war and such - apparently there are still uni students walking around with dreadlocks and plaid. I haven't mentioned what we were all doing there yet - we were gathering to support refugees in Hamburg. On our march through the city we called out things such as 'refugees are welcome here' and 'Kein Mensch ist illegal – Bleiberecht überall!' which translates to 'no person is illegal, the right to stay anywhere'. It was really cool, seeing all of the people who care so much about those in need. We ended up at the Rathaus, where a bunch of refugees spoke about their troubles, and how much they want to have a life and education here in Germany and Hamburg, but can't. It was different from anything I have been in before, the feeling that I was part of something bigger and more important than myself. Eventually we had to separate ourselves from the rally though and go home, so when the mass passed a train station we slipped away and got on the next train.  

I've never seen so many people with dreadlocks in my life

In front of the Rathaus

I didn't have much time to rest though when we got back home, because we had to leave to go to a family friend's party. We walked there, seeing as though the house is only two streets away, and were greeted warmly. There wasn't enough place at the table for us all at dinner, so the kids stayed sitting on the couch, that is - me, Anja, the two daughters of the birthday woman, and the two cousins. After a while I had to go back home to skype home - it was Andrew's birthday and I had been meaning to get in contact with everybody for a while. After speaking to everyone (minus Mahalia because she got back from work late and was still asleep), I went back to the party, expecting it to be just as boring as it had been before. When I got back though, Anja and one of the girls were up in her room, so I joined them, and slowly the rest of the teens joined as well. I ended up having heaps of fun, playing Uno and various card games with snacks and the music turned up loud. I even ended up winning a couple of rounds, even though it was my first time playing one of the games. The cousins had to leave at one point, so we all went back down and found out it was late - almost 1 in the morning. The daughters, Anja, and I went back upstairs after the others had left and played another game, then it was our turn to leave. I'm glad the walk wasn't long, because I felt like I was going to fall asleep on the spot. It was a very long day, but a great end to the school year.

Illness and Misadventure + Musicals

So, I guess that the rain on regional day was bad for me because the next day, and the next 2 days, I was sick in bed with a cold. I literally slept all day, or read. Tuesday I was a bit better and was able to watch 3 Star Wars movies in a row, preparing for the new movie coming out. It was lucky I was a bit better on Tuesday, because Anja had a performance at her other school that I had to watch. It was late, and Lorenz and I rode our bikes to the school. Soon after we sat down in the hall it began, but it wasn't quite what I was expecting. Before the actual performance, we had an hour or two of speeches and interviews concerning freedom of speech and refugees. It was interesting, but also boring, as I couldn't understand much, except for the interviews in English. The host discussed how in other countries reporters and the like cannot talk about what they want to, how people can't speak out against the government or religion. They also interviewed a couple of reporters and bloggers who managed to flee to Germany, and they spoke about the things they have gone through. Then, finally, it was the drama performance. 3 small acts about the subject, then it was over. Anja didn't have any major roles, but was still very good. After it had finished we rode home and I went straight to bed (that isn't even a surprise at this point).

Wednesday I was well enough to go to school, which I was happy about. I did get an early day though, and managed to watch another Star Wars movie when I got back home. I did end up going back to school though, because there was a Christmas concert. Katinka, one of Anja's friends, had managed to save us seats, so after ditching our bikes, Anja and I squeezed through the crowds to sit down. The concert was really fun, with various music groups from the school performing pieces. Some were Christmas carols, but some songs had nothing to do with Christmas, like the teacher's song 'People get ready'. My favourites were the jazz band and the senior choir. Through the night they sang a lot of songs that I had sung with vocal at home, so it made me a bit homesick, but not enough to make me not enjoy the night. Anja and a couple of others also presented a check to a charity for €14,200.00 (or something like that) from a charity walk they did last year.

On Thursday it was Lorenz's birthday, and after school we went into town for dinner. Anja and I caught the train and we met Ute at the Rathaus, where we were having dinner. Lorenz's train was late, so when the grandmother arrived, we went inside and got our table. Because we didn't have much time, we had chosen our meals before hand so we could order immediately. I had picked Labskaus, because it is a typical Norddeutsch food. I wasn't really expecting what arrived though. Who'd have though that minced corn beef, onions, potato and beetroot would look so much like brains. It was good though, after you get over the texture. The egg on top helped as well. Lorenz arrived shortly after we ordered, and we had a nice family meal. After dinner we bid farewell to Ute's mother, and caught the train to the harbour. It was here that we caught a ferry over to the musical side of the harbour - where we were going to watch 'Wunder von Bern'. Hamburg is famous for its musicals, and the fact that the only way to see them is by catching a ferry over. The ferry was nice though, and it was beautiful to see the lights of the city from across the dark water, hearing the lapping of waves against the side of the boat and feeling the cool air against my skin. I really understood what Robert Gray talked about in his poem 'The Late Ferry', about how small it all seems, discovery and all that. (Thanks Mrs Elliot for making me think of English class while I'm in Germany). The ferry ride was over far too quickly, and soon we were docking and walking up to the musical building. Inside is impressive, and we handed in our coats before entering the hall and taking out seats. When the doors closed and there was no one else in our row, Anja and I spread out, taking up 4 seats. The musical was amazing, one of the best I've seen, even if it was in another language. It was easy to understand, even if I didn't get the complexities. 'Wunder von Bern', or 'Miracle from Bern', is a musical set in post WW2 Germany, and follows a young boy and his father who just returned from a Russian prisoner of war camp for 11 years, and never knew his youngest son. It also follows Germany's need for hope, which comes in the form of their miracle victory at the 1954 World Cup Final in Bern, Switzerland. It was a funny and moving piece, with great musical numbers - everything you could want. I totally recommend it to all those musical lovers out there, but perhaps get the subtitled version. All too soon it was over, and we collected our coats and headed back to the ferry, then caught a train home. It was late by the time we got home, especially for a school night, and I had a big day the next day.  

Dinner at the 'Parlament' in the Rathaus

Blurry picture of the musicals from the ferry

Wuner von Bern!

Hamburg Regional Day

Every so often is a day where all of the stipis in an area get together, along with their hosts and other previous stipis, and hang out. Since I live in Hamburg, I went to the Hamburg regional day, along with the others who lived around, except most of them lived further than 20 minutes. We all met outside the Hauptbahnhof, missing one because Helen missed her train. Together we went to a cathedral, and climbed billions of stairs to get to the top. (There were many stairs). We eventually got to the top, and although the view was amazing, it started raining. When we finally went back down, we found Helen and her host, and headed to the Rathaus. We split into groups then for lunch, and the stipi group decided to explore the Weihnachts market. Matthew and I were in charge, because we'd both been before, so I introduced the others (who wanted it) to apfel punsch. After wandering around for an hour or so it was time to meet up again with the others for our guided tour of the rathaus. We stood in the entrance hall for a little while waiting for the tour guide, and admired the architecture, watching as at least 3 couples had wedding photos. Although the tour was in German (and rapid German at that), I still managed to understand some stuff, and appreciated the architecture and gilded artworks that covered the building, much more impressive than our local council building I can tell you that for sure. After that was dinner, and we walked a while until we got to a restaurant on the harbour. The stipis had our own table, managing to squish all 6 of us where 4 were meant to sit. One look at the menu and it was easy to see what we would eat - I think curry had been sorely missed by many. That being said, the curries that we ended up eating were no where near as hot as they would have been in Aus, 2 chillies on the menu barely tickled the tongue. After dinner we went back to the Weihnachts market at the Rathaus, and we (the stipis) got lost, aka we were lagging behind the larger group and suddenly couldn't see the others anymore. Needless to say we were a bit worried, and wandered around outside the market for a while until we managed to ring someone. Turns out they had just gone inside the markets, and sent someone to pick us up. We ended up just hanging out alone anyway, finding the others when we wanted to go on a Maccas run. We were in fact allowed to go to Maccas, and enjoyed the 2 euro McFlurries until we realised one of the girl's train was leaving in 15 minutes. In panic we all ran to the hauptbahnhof, without telling the rest of the group where we were going, but managed to get there in time to put Lauren on her train. While we were gone the rest of the group slit up, so our hosts came to retrieve us from the station and we all went home, ready for sleep after a long day of catching up and getting lost. It was a really fun day, speaking with the others after so long and building friendships. It was weird, because most of the people I had only met one or two times (the Victorian stipis only at Abu Dhabi airport), but we all got along like we had been friends for years. I guess the shared experience, and being the only Aussies around really formed a bond. It was great fun none the less, and I can't wait to meet up with them again at Winter Camp!  

Stipi selfie from tower

View from cathedral tower 

Dinner selfie! Notice 4/6 wearing our GASS jumpers..

Weekend of Castles and Weihnachts Markts

Friday night after school Anja and I went into Hamburg proper, where we met up with Lorenz (the father). We went to the Weihnachts markt at the Rathaus, and drank Apfel punsch together. We wandered around for a while, buying Schokokussen at the market and walking along the edge of the Elm, admiring the lights. We also ate some dinner - kartoffelpuffer - which are mashed up potato pancakes deep fried and eaten with sugar and apple sauce. Lorenz called it an all-you-can-eat-buffet, going from stall to stall eating everything I hadn't tried before, but I got full pretty fast. Before we went home we detoured to another out-of-the-way market that was supposed to be really good, more modern, aber it wasn't quite what we expected. The walk was nice though, through a different part of Hamburg, and my interest got peaked for the Hamburg dungeon. To get back to the Hauptbahnhof from the other market was cool, because the closest train station was under the river, and was really new. It was massive and echo-y, with blue tiles everywhere that made it feel like you were underwater. There was even a ship encased in glass in the centre of the platform. We didn't get home too late, but I'm always tired over here so I went to bed pretty early.  

Anja and I across the river from the Rathaus Weihnachts Market

Rathaus Weihnachts Market

The next day was Saturday (obviously) and Lorenz and I went to visit Ahrensburg Schloss, a beautiful castle in a nearby town. We took the car for once, probably because there was no train station nearby. The castle itself is in the centre of town, on a big block. The castle sits in the middle of a small moat, and is surrounded by a large park area. While is is relatively small for a castle, it is a startling white in colour, with decorative ridges and towers, and all of the furniture inside is period and was the real furniture used by the inhabitants over the years. Ahrensburg Schloss was built in 1586, by an envoy of the King of Denmark, but the next owner was Heinrich Schimmelmann in 1759, who fixed it up after years of disuse, renovating many parts. You have to put on special slippers before entering the rooms, to protect the tiles and floorboards. Mine didn't really fit though, so I had to walk strangely so that they wouldn't fall off. I got the audio tour - in English - and loved walking through and listening to all of the interesting history and tid-bits, learning the back stories of various paintings and statues. The artworks in the rooms were particularly cool, including the room with paintings depicting various foreign scenes (including a monkey feeding colourful birds nuts), and the various paintings brought back as souvenirs from different parts of Europe. It was a bit of unfortunate timing though, because the rooms that were closed for renovations were opening the day after, so we didn't get to see the library, or the highest floor. At the gift shop I bought a cool period headband, then we left the castle and circled it from the grounds, seeing all of the decorative architecture and the sundial. Lorenz and I then went into town for a little bit, stopping by the Weihnachts market for a lunch of sausages.
We went out as a family soon after we got back, and went to another castle. We didn't do a tour of this one though, because the main attraction was the markets that were held in some buildings off to the side. Like normal Weihnachts markets, this one had the sweets and stalls, but inside there were boutique stalls selling bags, clothes, and various home wares. I didn't buy anything, but looking was still enjoyable. On the way home we stopped for dinner. The restaurant was cute, and I assume it sells strawberries while in season, because outside was a large strawberry shaped stall (closed), and a strawberry shaped play equipment (in used by many children). It was nice inside, and I ordered roast beef, which I didn't expect to come out cold... apparently that's how it is served in Deutschland. After dinner we went into another room where there was a large Christmas shop, and spent some time looking around in there before heading home. (to bed)

View of grounds from Ahrensburg Schloss

Fashion at it's finest - the slippers

Sunday, after going to a different church close to Ahrensburg Schloss, Ute and Lorenz took me to the Museum of Hamburg. We caught the train in to Hamburg proper, getting off at a stop next to the Hamburg Dom. It was only a short walk to the museum, and soon we were there. The exhibitions were really interesting, all about the growth of Hamburg over time and Germany's history. There were even a bunch of old canons and model ships. All of the history was really interesting, except for the room just filled with model trains. I learnt a lot about the history of Hamburg, but eventually we had to go back home, school day the next day and all.

View of Dom from museum

Hanging with Matthew

I have mentioned it before, but there is another stipi at my school from Victoria - Matthew. He's pretty cool. Anyway, one Thursday we were able to hang out after school, because we both have several free periods at the end of Thurdays, perfect for going into town and back before dinner. So after our day had finished Matthew's stipi Erik dropped us off at the train station and pointed us in the right direction, then it was up to us to find our way there and back. It was pretty easy though, only having to change once (we almost didn't get off - whoops). I had a curfew of 10 o’clock (which is 22:00 Germany time), but Matthew had a curfew of 6:00, so we only had a couple of hours as the train trip back is longer than half an hour. We still had a lot of fun. We were planning on going straight to the Weihnachtsmarkt at the Rathaus - the council building, because that is apparently the best Christmas market in Hamburg, but the stop we got off was several blocks from the Rathaus, so we visited a couple of other markets along the way. We also went down to the harbour, and looked out onto the beautiful water, while eating some yummy pastry ball things we got at the market - I can't for the life of me remember the name of it, but they had a slight orangy taste and were served covered in icing sugar - yum! On the way to the Rathaus markets I had the great honour of passing through the 'Europa Passage', which is a big shopping centre. It's not that impressive, but when Matthew came into town with his family they made a big deal out of it, and so he did the same for me. It was quite funny just walking through, literally 10 meters from one entrance to another. We eventually got to the Rathaus markets, despite our detourm and they really were quite impressive, especially the entrance arch. Soon it was time to get to the train station though, so we had to pull ourselves from all of the different stalls selling delicious sweets, sausages, and homemade wares to rush through the streets of Hamburg and find the station. On the way though we realised we still had another half an hour till the train, so when we passed the impressive building that was Starbucks, we dropped in for a coffee (and free wifi). Although I don’t drink coffee much (especially the fake syrupy stuff Starbucks sells) I thought I would try some Christmas coffee. I ended up buying the toffee-nut latte, which the best coffee I have ever tasted, but it was interesting! Apparently Matthew is a difficult name to understand for Germans, as unlike me my fellow Aussie didn't decided to give a nickname and received a coffee for Basti. The Starbucks building itself was cool, as it looked like a mini Greek temple, complete with columns. We ended up getting on the train in time after our coffee break, and I felt quite accomplished getting to my stop after navigating a foreign train system. I ended up walking home from the station, and although it was kind of freaky in the dark (dark at 5:30 - I’m having serious UV deprivation), it was still really pretty to see all of the gemütlich Christmas lights and the stars. I ended up getting home much earlier than 10 o'clock like I was expecting, but had a great day and was able to see more of the beautiful city that is Hamburg, my home for the next couple of months.