aussie footy game

On the day after the briefing day, I went to a Australian football match with my 'whole' host family, so my older host sisters and their partners came as well. Australian football or 'footy' is a unique sport and very different to European or American football. The game we went to was the last Adelaide Crows game for the season 2014. It was really fun to watch that and luckily they even won!! 

they are playing on an oval instead of a rectangular field and there is no norm for the size  

I took the photos of the oval and the other ones are from the internet, just to show you a bit more of the sport.

                                                         

 



                                  das logo:

first meeting day of all inbounds (in August)

Hey, I am really sorry that I didn't post anything for the last 4 months I'm feeling really terrible about that! I have summer holidays now, so I finally got organised and started writing a diary/ journal for myself and decided that I'm gonna post about everything that happened so far in the right order, that's why this post is about our in- and outbound 'briefing day' we had on the last day of August.
 I just realized that I haven't posted a photo of me in my school uniform yet, so I'll do that here as well.

that's me on my first day of school wearing the winter uniform

We had our meeting at the Nunyara conference centre near my school and it was a compulsary event for all students from my district D 9520 and our 'neighbour' district D9520.

We are 5 inbounds in my district, coming from Sweden, Italy, Switzerland, Austria and Germany. In D9500 are 7, from Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, France, Belgium and Finland.

It was the first time we all met each other, so we were really excited and looking forward to that. In the beginning of the day, we all had coffee and started excanging Pins for our blazers. After that everyone had to come into a big conference room where the Chairs of our districts introduced us to everyone and took a photo of us.

 

a group photo of all students in and from my district

  

obviously paying attention while the chairman is talking

Then inbounds and outbounds split up and we inbounds got told all the rules again and told everyone a bit about our self, as did the rotatians and rotex students who were there.

When that was finished we finally had lunch and a bit of free time, which we spent sitting outside in the nice spring weather. Because we were all so excited about finally meeting everyone we took heaps of photos.

having lunch

having a break afterwards

and of course taking photos

all inbounds

In the end we all had to go to the conference room again, where two rotex students told us about their experiences during their exchange year.

the view from the conference center, down at the city and the sea behind it 

You'll here from me again, soon, my next post is gonna be about the things that happened in September.

finally a post

I still can’t really believe it but I’m already more than 2 weeks in down under! 

I'm sorry for those of you who were waiting for a post that I didn't write anything before.

The flight was very long but luckily I was able to sleep most of the time. I met some other exchange students in Dubai and we wanted to sit together but the people at the check in said that it isn’t possible so we were all sitting in different parts of the plane...

                                            my first view of Adelaide (from the airplane)

After arriving in Adelaide we had to wait an hour just to get our stamp for the visa in our passports and then we had to wait for our luggage and had to queue in for the customs duty. More than 2 hours after landing I finally met my host family.
My host family is living in the hills close to Adelaide so we only had to drive about half an hour to get home and we stopped on the top of one of the hills to have an amazing view of Adelaide at night.

 My host brother was waiting at home so I met him, too before I went to bed very soon.( after almost 30 hours of travelling I was looking forward to that very much).

                                                    first thing I saw in the kitchen

On the next day (Thursday) I went to the uniform shop of my school with my host mum to buy one for me. 

                                   the uniform is kinda ugly but I have P.E. 4 times a week 

                                   so I only have to wear the formal uniform once a week! 

                                   (there's a special P.E. uniform which is quite comfy :) )

On Friday I went to school to meet my “buddies” (some girls who were looking after me and showing me the school the first days). I also went to their classes with them because I had to wait until the afternoon to choose my subjects. Everyone was very welcoming and friendly and they all were excited and wanted to know if I’m in any classes with them.
I have to do maths, English, science, history and PLP and had to choose two additional subjects which are music and P.E.
I think music is my favorite so far! I joined the school choir which is a lot of fun and I’m also taking part in the school musical which is awesome!!
School starts at 08:35 but we always have a meeting in our “home group” before we have to go to our classes and finishes at 15:25. Sometimes my host parents are taking me to school but most days I’m taking the bus. 

All the other students are still very friendly and I already made some friends.

                                              every student gets his/her own diary

I went to a Rotary meeting of my host club last Monday and also had some other meetings with my counselor and other responsible persons.

On my first weekend here the husband of my counselor was having a birthday party and I was going there with my host parents. My counselor had also invited a girl from Sweden, who is hosted by a club nearby, so I was already able to meet another exchange student!! We were both very happy about that and I met her again on Wednesday, when she was doing her presentation about Sweden in her club. It's really a lot of fun to catch up with other exchange students!
 Some people asked me what I’m usually doing during the week/ everyday so I’ll tell you a bit about that:
I usually go home  right after school and do anything I want to do at home, but on Monday night I have a dance rehearsal and on Tuesday a choir/singing rehearsal for the  musical.

 On the Saturdays I can basically do what I want so I can meet friends or do whatever..
This weekend for example, one of  my host sisters and her husband were coming over and the whole family  watched aussie football together because “our” team, the “Adelaide Craws” were playing.
Australian Rules football seems to be as popular as soccer is in Germany and everyone is looking forward to the matches each weekend.
On the next Sundays I’m always having a 4 hours long musical rehearsal.

                                                    the poster for the musical

In the areas around my house/street are a lot of trees (all Australian gum trees) and if I’m lucky I’ll see some koalas soon. Sometimes there are even kangaroos!!  

                                    beautiful neighbourhood on my way to the bus station

                                                               gum tree 





                   I hope it was not too boring and I’m sorry for any mistakes in grammar.

Flight/ leaving dates !!

Good news to tell- finally I got my flight details and booked my flight to Adelaide ! *-*

last weekend the travel agency send me two booking options, either the 6th of August or the 29th of July and I booked the one on the 29th because I want to be there as soon as possible.
The 29th is the last day of the school year here in Germany and I'll leave from munich airport in the afternoon, so I'll be able to go to school, get my school report with all my grades and say good bye to all my friends there.
I think it's great to leave immediately after the end of the school year !
firstly I'll fly from Munich to Dubai (which will last almost 6 hours ) alone, and then I'll fly from Dubai to Adelaide, but  luckily together with a girl from northern Germany and also with a French girl, which is good because doing a 12 and a half hours lasting flight on my own would be very boring!

I GOT ONLY 73 DAYS LEFT UNTIL AUSTRALIA !!! THAT'S AWESOME!

can't wait !

I got my invitation for my second orientation ( preparing-weekend) yesterday and I'm looking forward to it so much!! it's in the end of June but time wents by so incredible fast that it won't really  feel like 2 months of waiting. (I hope so :3 )

That's also a bit scary because the first orientation was exactly 100 days( about 3 months) ago and it feels just like it was yesterday even though 3 months sound  like  a very long time ..
In 3 months it's July and I'll probably already be in Australia !!
as I said, it's a bit scary but basically I'm very happy about it because I'm looking forward to going to down under so much !! I really can't wait!

I already got the proof that the Aussies are as friendly and welcoming as I got told. :)
I received a couple of emails from my counsellor , my first host family and even from my school.
And they are all very very friendly and make me already feel very welcome there ! also my school really seems to care about me, that's awesome !! They chose a few girls, who have the same interests as I have, to be my "buddys" during my first weeks, which means that they will show me the school, help me with problems and try to make the beginning easier for me. I think that's a really good idea and it takes away my fears about my first day in school !

I don't know my leaving dates yet but I'm staying in contact with my host family, my counsellor, my school and a lot other people from Australia and I get new informations every few days , that's pretty awesome, because each of those days I receive a new email , turns to be  immediately into a happy and great day ! :D

I'm already so damn excited and getting more and more excited every day, so I can't even imagine how excited I'll be during the last week in Germany ??!:o 

by the way.. I also addet a new section with informations about Australia, my host district and Adelaide, it's named "host country" and I also put a google maps location in, so if you don't know where Adelaide is you can look it up there.

I'll keep you updated,

xoxo mimi 

HOST FAMILY !!

I can't really believe it yet but I already know my first host famlily!
Until last sunday I didn't know more than my host country and now I know everything.
Thats pretty awesome!
I was very tired and in a  bad mood because even it was sunday I had to get up very early for a church thing, but then I saw that I had received an email from my organisation. They told me that I'll live in Adelaide and they also told me which school I'll attend...
AND the most amazing part- also my first host family. After reading the email I wasn't tired anymore I was very happy excited. That definitely made my day!
They are on vacation now but they will be back next week and tell me more about them.

I can't wait to go there!!!!
Adelaide seems to be an amazing city and my school also seems to be very good.

cheers for now,
Mimi 

Adelaide

1. Orientation

Hey,
today I finally have enough time to write about my first orientation. I already  wanted to do this much earlier, but it's going to be a long post and I just hadn't had enough time to do it earlier. But now I have a week off so I can do it.
I hope I won't forget anything important because the orientation was already 2 months ago.

WHAAT ?! 2 months ?! time wents by so incredible fast !!!

I'm sorry for any mistakes in grammar or anything else!

The orientation was in something like a youth hostel in Bad Sulza, that's a little village in Thuringia and all inbounds and outbounds of the rotary district 1950 which contains the north of Bavaria and whole Thuringia had to participate there.
We had to be there about 5 or 6 pm on friday and the great thing was, that Bad Sulza is so far away from my city that I had to leave school three hours earlier ! I had to travel a long time with the train but  it wasn't very boring because I was travelling together with two other boys.
Everyone was very excited when we got there! I was really excited when I came into my room the first time because we were about six girls in every room and we didn't know each other and there were also a few of the inbounds in each room. In my room was an australian and also a finnish girl.
First we had some time to talk and to get known to each other in our room and after that we had dinner.
After dinner we all had to go to a meeting room and they told us the rules for this weekend and a bit about rotary and stuff like that.
Later we made a big camp fire and all of the inbounds had to sing their national anthem. That was very funny! But we (the outbounds) had to sing some German folk songs that was very embarrassing because I'm from Bavaria and a lot of the folk songs were special ones from Thuringia and I had never heard them before but I had to pretend to know them ..after that we were allowed to do basically what we want until we had to go to bed.
On Saturday after breakfast we all went to a special  indoor swimming pool where the water was salty and in one part of the buliding was something like a cave were we had to be quiet because there was music played under water that was awesome !
After lunch the inbounds had to do an German exam and the outbounds hat to go to a meeting room again and we had stay there almost the whole afternoon..that was very long !!
But they told us a lot of important informations and things about our exchange year.
In the evening we played some "group games" that was very funny !

BUT we were all just waiting for sunday because we got told our host countries on that day !
That was very very exciting !
We had to make a queue in front of one room and we had to do it in the order of our family names in the alphabet and everyone had to go into that room alone.
This moment was also very emotional because some of us came out of the room very happy and others started crying because they didn't get the country the wished to get ..

After that there didn't really happen anything important anymore..

We all had an awesome weekend and a lot of fun together with the inbounds!
It made us all even more looking forward to our exchange year..

It's very hard to imagine how it really was if you haven't been there, because it's almost impossible to describe this time even though it was just one weekend ..

                                 
                                       This is a picture of all inbounds and outbounds

money money money :)

Today I have some good news about money ! :)
Even I don't have to pay the familiy and things like that and even the rotary youth exchange is much cheaper than other organisations every exchange is expensive .. :/

BUT there are some possibilities to get enough money to be able to do it !
In Germany you can get money from the state if your parents don't earn enough to  pay everything.
That's really helpful!
My mother sent in the application for that kind of money today and the chances for us to get it are very high :)
That is one of the good news !

The other one is that I got a holiday job for the first week of the Easter holidays!!
That's great, too because I really need a new mobile phone before I'll go to Australia and with this job I can earn the money to buy one.
That's awesome *-*

[an alle deutschen: Falls ihr denkt ihr könnt kein Auslandsjahr machen, weil eure Eltern nicht genug    verdienen erkundigt euch einfach mal über das Auslands-Bafög]  

Mitten in den Vorbereitungen-TAG

Ich hab den TAG hier von Celine und Pati geklaut, weil mir die Fragen gut gefallen haben :

Frage 1

Bist du schon aufgeregt ?

Ja, aber nur positiv, weil ich es einfach nicht erwarten kann endlich loszufliegen.

Also eigentlich nur Vorfreude :)

Frage 2

Hast du schon Bücher zum Thema Austausch gelesen? 

Ja, 2 die wir von meiner Organisation bekommen haben. Aber ich lese auch viele Blogs, vor allem von denen, die auch nach Australien gehen.

Frage 3

Hast du ein Abschiedsbuch? 

nein noch nicht und ich bin mir auch noch nicht sicher ob ich eins machen will..mal schaun :)

Frage 4 

Wann hast du deine VBT? 

Ich hatte  anfang Januar schon ein Vorbereitungswochenende, bei meiner Orga heist das "orientation" und hab Ende Juni nochmal eins. 

 Frage 5

Wie geht es dir gerade? 

Eigentlich ziemlich gut weil ich seit ich mein Land gesagt bekommen hab eigentlich meistens voll gut drauf bin, weil ich mich so darauf freu!

Frage 6

Hast du einen Tipp für alle anderen die auch ins Ausland gehen? 

Eigentlich nicht wirklich, außer vielleicht, dass man die Chance auf jeden Fall nutzen sollte und dass es es auch wert ist, ein Jahr in der Schule zu wiederholen, weil einem das Auslandsjahr auf jeden Fall viel mehr bringt!  

Falls ihr  irgendwelche Fragen an mich habt, fragt einfach !:)
mimi 

what'sgoing on in Venezuela !!

As an outbound in the Rotary exchange program, I also know some pupils, who are  inbounds here in Germany rright now.

- Outbounds = students who are in the prepatation progress of doing the exchange year

- Inbounds = students who are doing there exchange right now

They are all really  awesome people!!
And one of them is from VENEZUELA and is sharing a lot of videos and other links about the protests in her country. She made me realize how bad the situation for the venezuelans really is.
They are suffering under the gouvernment's behaviour for almost 20 years now !
It's really important for her to let the people everywhere know what is happening right now, especially because she isn't there right now to stand up for a better future of Venezuela.

I think as exchange students we all care about other people and also what's happening in the world ..
so please, please watch the following video ! :) 

England

hey there, I'm sorry for not posting anything the last two weeks! But I wasn't at home for the whole last week..
 I was at an English school as an exchange student for one week.
It was absolutely awesome !! :) and  makes me even more looking forward to doing the exchange year.
I lived in a family in Burghfield near Reading, which is about 40 minutes with the car away from London.
The daughter of my host parents is also 16 and she stayed at my house in October for one week as well.
I went to school with her ( the Willink school,which is in Burghfield) and it was great!
All of her friends and all the other students have been so kind and friendly to me and made me really feel very welcome.
The British school system is very different to the German system so it was very interesting.
I made already so many experiences and had so much fun even it was only for one week !!
I don't know if you have seen the news during the last days but if you did, you know that the Southengland is totally flooded and there are a lot of storms at the moment.. and well.. I can tell you it's true! It was raining almost all the time and the wind felt sometimes like it could blew you up in the air every moment. 3 of 4 roads from Reading to Burghfield are blocked because they are flooded and you feel like you would drive between a lot of lakes. Also some houses on the way have been flooded and the military had to pump water away. 
But despite the bad weather I enjoyed every single moment there.

CAN'T WAIT TO GO TO AUSTRALIA !!!!

xoxo

other exchange students blogs

luckily I know some other exchange students who help me and who also have very interesting blogs!
I'll post the links of their blogs right here.

thehistorybehindthesmile.blogspot.de

usadiaries2014.blogspot.com

www.rahel-goes-abroad.blogspot.com

http://thesesummerdreams.blogspot.de

verenas-american-dream.blogspot.de

awayinnorway.blogspot.com

bin-schon-weg.blogspot.com

merles-usa-auslandsjahr.blogspot.com

www.lisabecomesaleprachaun.blogspot.com

denmarkhereicome.blogspot.com

melanie-in-der-usa.blogspot.de

www.celinevaacostarica.blogspot.com

http://mein-auslandsjahr-2014-15.blogspot.de/

Meine Bewerbung

soo..da ich jetzt das translate-gadget dazu hab kann ich auch mal auf Deutsch posten.. (:
Ich denke ich werde trotzdem meistens auf Englisch schreiben aber ich will heute etwas über meine Bewerbung für den Austausch erklären und das ist relativ kompliziert.
Da ich meinen Austausch über Rotary mache, muss ich der Familie die mich aufnimmt kein Geld bezahlen, sondern meine Familie muss auch einen Rotary-Gastschüler aus einem anderen Land aufnehmen. Das heißt, dass die Bewerbung dadurch noch aufwendiger ist, als bei den meisten Organisationen. 
Als erstes muss man sich beim Jugenddienst-beauftragten vom nächstgelegenen Rotary-Club melden, dass man gerne ein Austauschjahr machen möchte. Dieser schickt einem dann den Link zur online-Bewerbung. Da muss man zuerst alle möglichen Felder über sich selbst ausfüllen, das ist auch schon mal mehrere Seiten lang. Dann muss man noch lauter Infos über die Eltern und alle Personen im Haushalt angeben. Damit ist der leichte Teil erstmal geschafft, aber dann kommt die Hauptarbeit:
Ein ca.1 1/2 Seiten langer Brief über dich selbst, in dem du z.B: auch Selbsteinschätzungsfragen beantworten musst. Die Eltern müssen auch einen Brief über dich schreiben, außerdem muss du verschiedenste Fotos von dir in die Bewerbung einfügen. Man muss von der Schule auch die letzten 4 Zeugnisse übersetzen und beglaubigen lassen und ein Lehrer deiner Wahl muss eine Art "Gutachten" oder "Eignungsbogen" für dich ausfüllen. Dann fehlen nur noch einige Formulare und natürlich noch die Bögen für Zahnarzt, Arzt & Co.
Da Rotary eine internationale Organisation ist, ist die ganze Bewerbung (auch die Briefe) auf Englisch.
Ich bin auf jeden Fall froh dass ich den Stress schon mal hinter mir habe, hat aber auch von September-November gedauert..
nächstes mal schreib ich wahrscheinlich etwas über das erste Vorbereitungs-Wochenende das ich schon hatte..

excited

hey (:
this is my first post and I think  it's the best to start with telling you what I already know about my exchange.
I'll leave germany at the end of july and I'll stay there for one year. 
I'm already very very excited and can't wait to go there!
I don't know yet in which part of australia I'll be and I also don't have a hostfamiliy.
At the moment there is nothing changing...that's making me a bit angry because I hate waiting!!
I'll probably know my familiy in may or june but I'll have 3 different families because I'm doing my exchange with rotary.
I will post something about what I had to do for my application soon and of course always when something changes.
(I'm sorry if I've done any mistakes with grammar or something)