January through to April, my first 4 months in Germany, A recap -

Photo 1: I have just landed and met my first host parents, Kay Evers (Left) and Kerstin Evers (Right.) I was very tired from the 10+ hour flight from Dubai as you can see from my hair. However I was very excited to begin my 1 year exchange in Germany and I was complimented on my German as I arrived, which was a great thing as not fitting in with other people because of the language was a fear of mine.

Photo 2: This was one of my first days in the German school. I began school on day two as my host family said my German was very good, which was a relief. I wanted to make some new friends and experience the German school system. This photo is from Wipo, which is short for World Politics and Economics.

 

I have begun to realise that the German school isn’t necessarily harder, only the teachers aren’t as helpful as in Australia. Take maths for example, which is my best one of my best subjects. We learn something new and then have time to practice it in Australia, while in Germany you learn it and move on, with no time to ask questions and understand the topic. While this may

push the students to learn this, some people don’t understand it. I believe there should be a mix of

Australian helpfulness and German determination in the schools to motivate the students to learn more and push themselves.

 

The German school system also is separated, with kids who are good with handwork, in a different class to the science based kids. The German schools also learn more

languages, French, Italian, Russian, English and Spanish, English and Italian. English is compulsory

and French or Italian is also compulsory.

Photo 3.  This is of my first Rotary club meeting. The clubs don’t meet as often but are twice as big.  At the meeting I we were given a North German fish for a meal, which was fairly interesting. To say, I mainly eat salmon, this fish was different and truly an experience in itself.

The speaker gave a talk on Artificial Intelligence and all about its uses, problems and drawbacks.

 

I met my 3rd host father at the meeting and found out he is a coach of a soccer team. I began playing for the team a week after which was also good for me. I met other boys outside of school and they were all very helpful. Unfortunately I don’t have a picture of the team, but in the next extended recap I’ll include a group photo of the team.

Photo 4: This photo is of the Inbounds and outbounds of district 1890. This was the first time I have met them as most of them can here in July. We went ice-skating in Hamburg and had a good time.

 

On a different note, still regarding the rotary district, the Eurotour is still happening in our district, (unbelievably!) The coordinator will let us know of the details at the end of April.

Photo 5: I went with my host mother and 1 host brother to go get ice-cream. I though this would be a small ice-cream, in a cone or with a spoon but I got this huge serving all to myself. Ice-cream eating is very different in Germany to in Australia. We went to an Italian shop that only sold ice-cream and ordered an ice-cream each. They also have many different ways of serving it. They have an ice-cream pancake, where they put it with berries and a pancake with the ice-cream. My serving was a “small,” which in Australia would be equivalent to a quintuple scoop serve. I chose salted caramel, (as one obviously should went eating ice-cream.)

Photo 6: I was invited to the cinema with my host family and we went to see Parasite, which is very, very good and won a Oscar. The cinema was very different to the Warrnambool Capitol Cinema, were you have 1 line for tickets and pop-corn and drinks, but 1 like just for pop-corn and one line for drinks. They also had a spread of different lollies, more than 60kg I’d guess, set up like a Sugar Station in Melbourne. This was very different and interesting for me. Heide is also around 30,000 in

population, like Warrnambool, but seems bigger and has more “stuff” everywhere. In this photo I am with my host father Kay, about to go into the film.

Photo’s 7: Easter is a bigger thing than in Australia. One thing is that my family does is paint eggs in colour a decorate them. I these photos I am taking part in the tradition. I also found that they don’t celebrate Easter with chocolate often, unlike our family.

Photo 8: More of a silly photo, this is of my host brother Lukas with my Aussie bucket hat which he seems to enjoy. Exposing my host family to Australian traditions. For my host mum’s birthday I baked ANZAC biscuits, which were taken rather well up from everyone. I have also been given the nickname “Koala” as I often sleep after school when I come back, like a Koala.

Photo 9:

With my current host family, they live right at the edge of the town, and there are many running tracks that I have started to learn. While running through a smaller town, I came across this Ferrari in someones driveway. Something different about Germany is that many people drive BMW’s, Mercedes and VW cars. Unlike in Australia where we drive more Asian made cars. People

begin driving at 16, and keep practising till 18, where they take a test. They don’t have L’s and P’s

on rear of the cars however.

Photo 10: Around the start of April, I went with my host-father to Kappeln, where he has a boat that he sails often. Once done helping, we both went through the city and no-one was basically there.

 

Kappeln is a major tourist town, by the water and April is normally a big time for tourists. However due to COVID, the town was very quite. I am hoping that it can clear up so I can maybe see more German towns and experience German culture.

 

Overall recap: From landing in January to March, the weather was very rainy and cold and I was beginning to get into a good school rhythm. April has however been mainly at home, sometimes going out with Bailey, the dog, or going for a run. It has been nice to sleep a bit longer each day and my German I’d personally say has improved rather well while at home. Instead of listening and trying to understand what is been said in school, I’m talking often with my family and trying to complete German grammar books, (sometimes unsuccessfully.) I’ve fitted in well with school, as my previous German helped my talk and “slot it” with the other kids. All smooth sailing so far.