Our RYE Connor Ovens was becoming concerned about whether he would get back in time to begin university in March 2021 so a few weeks ago started a conversation with his family, his host family and the District about this. Here are some excerpts from Connor’s latest report.
How is it going with your host family and any host siblings? Amazingly, I have a host brother who lives with us half the time along with his girl friend (and the other half of the time at her house) and we get on great. We hang out all the time and I am slowly Australian-ising him -- he now eats vegemite every day for breakfast and enjoys AFL with me. I also went on a small holiday with him, his girlfriend and two of their friends a few weeks ago. My host parents are also super good and we’ve had some small trips the last couple of weekends together as well around Germany.
How has it been returning to school? Are you happy with the school friendships you have made? My friendships at school are great and I know I will definitely be coming back and visiting them in the future, I’m really happy with that aspect. But school itself is pretty average, I used to really enjoy school at home where I was engaged and busy/learning. Here is the opposite in that I can’t really participate much in my classes due to the high level and fast nature of the German being spoken. My everyday German is very good now and I can comfortably maintain conversation but the last year of school level in German is a bit much; and due to it being the last year the teachers don’t have the time to come explain everything to me a second time, which I fully understand. The novelty of not having to do homework or tests was cool for the first month or so of exchange but wore off pretty quickly. It’s frustrating to feel so unproductive for 5 days of the week.
Do you feel safe and well cared for on your exchange at the moment? Yes, my host family has made me feel super welcome and comfortable and so that’s been really good!
What is the current Corona virus situation like in your region? The cases are somewhat high (1500 or so per day in the whole of Germany) however it’s been pretty stable at that level with no new outbreaks or spikes recently.
What are the local restrictions like?, ie wearing of masks for school, public transport etc? Limits on numbers in gatherings, no large events, masks in all shops, public transport and schools. Nothing much has changed and probably won’t for the last two months of exchange.
Have you been able to get away and where have you visited since your last report? Yep, I was able to travel with my host bro, his girlfriend and two of their friends a month ago about 4 hours south of my city to a lake where we spent the weekend swimming and paddle boarding. That was really cool and the weather was super warm. Then two weeks later I went on a trip to the Wasserkuppe (a gliding plane hill) with my whole family and some family friends. It was really pretty here and we did some hiking and went on a luge (summer sledding) down a hill which was also fun. I also visited an animal park at both of these trips with my host brother. And then last weekend I went to the very north of Germany to a town called Kiel where there was a big sailing event called Kieler Woche. I went there with my host dad and a friend of his who has a sail boat, and we sailed in the parade with around 400 other boats through the fjord and out to the ocean. That was really cool.
