Weihnachten und so weiter...

Hi again! Right... Where to begin!

Where I left off, I suppose.

On the 21st, Lissi and I got on a train at 8am, that travelled at 300km/h, to Nürnberg where we met up with my good friend Madeleine and her family, who are here on a family trip through Europe. The first thing we did (after an excited reunion, of course) was get on another train to the beautiful little town on Bamberg.

This church celebrates its 1000th birthday next year. I know. Bamberg was virtually undamaged after the war, unlike most of the region around it, because there was fog when bombs were being dropped. Thus, little Bamberg stayed intact.

We went to a traditional German pub for lunch, and I had this traditional Bavarian meal: a meat-stuffed onion. Weird.

After lunch we took the train back to Nürnberg, where we had a look at the famed Christmas markets.

We took a horse and carriage around the market. Very fun :)

After that awesome day came two days with much more drama than we would have liked. On the first day, while Lea was out, she was hit by a car. It's not serious, she was just very shaken, but the driver drove off and no one on the street helped her. Very stressful for everyone. The next day was our last day at school, and everyone swapped presents. I'd been feeling pretty bad for the last few days - extremely tired, slightly cold-y. Later that day, wandering around town with Lissi to get some last minute things for Christmas, I felt really strange - disconnected and floppy etc. Lissi sent me home as she could see that something was wrong, and I proceeded to faint on the UBahn (underground train) on the way back. I was by myself, but the German public (who had ignored Lea when she was in trouble) were amazing. One woman held my hand as I lay on the benches of the UBahn stop (one stop from home) and a bottle of Coke, plus paramedics and police all appeared out of nowhere. Lissi turned up about 10 minutes later (after I remembered the names of my host family... took me a few panicked moments) and took me home, very slowly. I'm perfectly fine, we think it was probably just a mix of being so tired and the general stress of being on exchange and the drama with Lea the day before. So nothing to worry about, just a bit of drama to spice up my travel stories!

This was me about twice a day for the last 4 days. Knackered. (Thanks host dad for the gorge photo)

And then it was Christmas. The celebrations continued for multiple days, but it started on Christmas Eve with a few families that they celebrate with every year. Christmas Eve is the night they do all the presents etc. It was lovely :)

My presents :) I wasn't expecting anything, so I was so happy and felt so welcomed!

 On Christmas Day, Lissi's family all came to Munich to have lunch together. Cue more presents, more food, more family.

Lea's boyfriend Budi and Paul, my host brother :)

Cutest cousin in the world (except Emily, obviously), little Gabriel. He initiated the hug, and boy was it strong. Hence my crazed expression :P

The cousins, holding Ringwurst - an incredibly delicious sausage. Shaped in a spiral.

The next day we drove up to Johnny's home town to spend some time with his family. More food, more presents, more Christmas.

Grandma went a little crazy with the plätzchen baking. This is about 2/3rds of it.

Time for a geography lesson.

 Then we drove about 20 minutes to the town where Lissi's family lives, where we stayed for two nights. The town itself isn't tiny, but practically the whole Götz family live on this street, so you just had to look out the window to check which aunt was coming for breakfast.

Then it was back to Johnny's town for lunch before heading home. This was an amazing Basilica.

Johnny's family.

So yeah, that's what I've been up to! Still a wee bit headachy from hitting my head when I fainted,  but not tooo bad. And it was lovely to meet everyone :) Missing home a wee bit but this week marks the halfway point - and with it comes incredibly mixed feelings.

Hope you all had a wonderful festive season.

Alles Liebe,
Camille xx

Frohe Weihnachten, everyone.

Just a quick message to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a fantastic holiday. I've been a bit sad in the last few days, partially because of a couple of family dramas (I'll explain later...) but mainly, of course, because it's my first Christmas away from home. My host family has just been so amazing though - both parents have talked to me separately, saying they know the next few days will be a bit tough, but they're really happy that I'm here and will do their best to make me feel like a part of the family. And they really have - for barely a minute have I felt excluded, from their thoughtful gifts to the lovely extended family who I've quickly fallen in love with. Plus Skyping both parents and grandparents didn't hurt either. We're away at Johnny's home town for the next couple of days, but I'll try to get a decent post up after that.
Miss you all. Hope you have a nice much-needed rest :)
Frohes Fest! xx

More! More!

This week has been another amazing one. A selection of my activities...:

I've done a couple of expeditions into the shopping district. Clothes-wise, everything I've bought has been from Zara. Much love for that shop! I have purchased a grey cable knit jersey, a navy blue cardigan and a thoroughly impractical but very pretty cream lace t-shirt with a black Peter Pan collar. Happy girl. Other stores, like H&M etc are great, but we've been there predominantly on weekends and before Christmas everything is CRAZY busy. It's very difficult to move - in the stores, on the streets, even in cafés! So not too much has been investigated... yet.

Last weekend I was lucky enough to be able to catch up with my exchange student from my trip to Paris last year, Pauline! My host family here were so lovely, letting Pauline stay two nights (kicking Lea out of her bed... oops) and taking the two of us out exploring. As Pauline said on the way to the airport: "They are the nicest German family I've ever met!!" (In response, I asked her whether she knew any other German families. "No," she said, "but it's still true.") It was really nice to be able to relax and have a gossip with a friend - I'm not quite at that stage with Lea yet and I was dying for a real hug, so Pauline came at just the right time :) She got on really well with the family, and the family also loved her too. They've exchanged addresses, emails, Facebook friendships and intentions to use each other's houses when travelling :D

On Saturday we went shopping and later that night went to Tollwood, a big winter festival in Munich with stalls, music, food and performances. It was so, so busy, just like everything else on weekends, but it was still nice to have a look around and it was beautiful in the dark.

We got our first proper snow over the weekend, and it's continued until today as well. Fingers crossed it'll last until the weekend for Christmas! Therefore, excuse all my excited snow photos :)

On Sunday with Pauline and Johnny, my host dad, we went to BMW World, the Olympiapark for the 1972 Olympic Games and had a wander around a few different areas of München.

The first BMW ever made.

The Olympia Tower

Going up in the high-speed elevator to the viewing platform of the Olympia Tower. 175m up in less than 20secs. We felt a wee bit ill...

... But it was worth it for the view!

There was a rock music museum in the tower... No I'm not sure why.

Hand-written song lyrics by Freddie Mercury.

 We then decided it was time to get some lunch - more bratwurst on the menu! Delish, as usual.

This is a memorial to Michael Jackson in front of the hotel he always stayed in.

 We visited the Frauenkirche - the main church of Munich. It was beautiful, but I didn't find it as magical as the ones I'd visited previously like the Baroque church or the white one.

This was amazing - outside the Frauenkirche, it's a model of Munich city, all accurately proportioned. It's designed for blind people, to feel how big the Frauenkirche is compared to the rest of the city. Most buildings have Braille beneath them naming them. Really cool.

Inside the Frauenkirche.

This is the "Devil's Footprint". Legend is, the Devil made a pact with the builder of the church that he would finance the construction, providing it had windows. From where this footprint is, if you look down the church, you can't see any windows at all - the builder tricked him. The church was already consecrated, so the Devil couldn't enter - only stamp his foot in the entranceway. Thus: the Devil's Footprint!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

Time for a hot chocolate, methinks. It was delicious!

Then we had to say goodbye to the lovely Pauline :(

I spent quite the while making these 'candles' out of biscuits and Haribo lollies for all 80 of Johnny's students yesterday. It was fun!

Last night Lea and I went back to Tollwood, the big festival, to go to a circus show! Firstly, being a weeknight, the ground was much, much less unpleasant and crowded, so we had a look around and I made a purchase or two :) The performance was truly outstanding. A mix of live music, circus and monologues, it was nothing like what I was expecting but I absolutely adored it. Somehow it just felt so honest - three big, hairy Swedish guys dancing and being so graceful in their tricks and singing and playing a bunch of different instruments and talking to the audience about their broken hearts. Really, really great. I left the big tent both wanting to laugh and cry, and I immediately bought the CD to bring home some more mellow Swedish music.

Today was the first day I went to school without Lea - she was home sick. I was a wee bit nervous but it turned out to be absolutely fine, the girls talked to me and made sure I knew what I was doing and where I was going. I like them a lot :) On the topic of school, I've revoked my decision to get my own timetable. Unlike at home, or probably just because they're younger,  the Germans have one class that they go to almost all subjects with. I feel like if I stay with them for most of it, even through German and Italian and Sciences that I remember knowing, I'll become more of a member of the class.

The funniest thing that happened this week was a new boy in Klasse 10D (my class, duh). After a few hours he approached me, asking, in a perfect Kiwi accent, if I was from NZ. I was amazed - turns out he's just come back from a 6 month exchange in Johnsonville, of all places. We had a good chat, and he's often seen wearing his pounamu which reminds me of home :)

Looking forward to Christmas. Sounds like there are going to be a lot of people there, both on the 24th and the 25th. Busy, but exciting. I miss home a bit, would really like a nice hug from Mum and a game of cards with Dad, but nothing horrendous as of yet (hopefully never!) Besides, I'm meeting up with a very, very good friend of mine from Wellington who's on a family trip tomorrow. Much excitement to be had, and hopefully that'll solve my hug craving!

Hope you're all well. Miss you!

Alles Liebe,
Camille xx

The First Full Week

Hi again everybody! Time for another instalment. I know it's only been a few days since the last one, but it feels like an age to me, plus there's so much to tell! I ended with Nikolaus last time, so since then...

I have been to school. It's gradually getting easier, understanding things as well as fitting in with Lea's friends, but I think I'm going to talk to one of the teachers tomorrow about getting my own timetable. Apparently (according to Megan, one of the girls who went on exchange last year) it makes all the difference in making you feel more independent and make your own friends. So yeah, I'll try to make that work. It's a bit scary, the idea of not being with Lea the whole time, but I know that I have to start being less reliant on her. With her friends, I get annoyed because I can feel myself drifting into my shy-Camille-on-exchange persona rather than what I'm usually like, which is frustrating because it means that, in turn, her friends are slightly less outgoing. We're getting there, though. There are a few of her friends that I really like, and once I get more of a handle of the language and get a bit more confident with it, then I think I'll be heaps better.

I have also been to a ballroom dancing lesson! I was really nervous that it would be awkward and no one would speak to me, but it was so much fun. 6 girls including me, plus one young male instructor that everyone was clearly in love with. He was really funny and asked me a bit about New Zealand, while trying to teach me tango and jive. I can remember a little bit. Although I felt awkward and gangly, he said I was pretty good, and learnt in an hour what the other girls had learnt in a few years haha!

Beforehand, Lea, her friend Nadine and I all went through another Christmas market (they.are.everywhere) and splurged on some delicious fresh fruit and chocolate kebabs.

Fresh raspberries. How could I resist?

On Friday afternoon, some of Lea's friends came round to bake Plätzchen, or Christmas cookies. It struck me just how similar it was to NZ - a bunch of teenage girls, hanging out, baking, listening to music, gossiping about boys, giggling. Although I didn't understand much of the conversation, I felt like one of the gang.

We woke on Saturday to the first proper snow I'd seen. It wasn't particularly heavy, but nonetheless very exciting! Lea, her boyfriend Budi, her friend Luzi and I went wandering about to do film something for Budi. I really wasn't that sure of the details, but it was fun playing with the snow a bit anyway. 

Sunday morning was very quiet - Lea, Budi and I had been out at a friends the night before and it seems like weekends are mostly a time for relaxing here. The afternoon, however, was one of the best yet. Lea had to stay at home to study because she's got tonnes of tests this week, but Johnny and Lissi and I went out to do a sort of tour of Munich. We wandered down a few shopping streets (everything was closed because it was Sunday. I thought that only happened in little towns!) and saw a few sights along the way, such as this beautiful Baroque church, just built in amongst the other buildings on the street.

We also visited another Catholic church that was entirely white inside. So different to the other one, but both stunningly beautiful.

As well as a bunch of other little things, including a building built in the 1200s (old buildings are very rare in Munich now because so much was destroyed in the war. You forget sometimes that Germany, oh-big-momma-bad-guys, actually suffered a lot too.)

Finally we went for a walk through the Englischer Garten, the most massive park right in the middle of Munich. It houses the parliament buildings and royal houses I think, plus great expanses of green.

We stopped at the kiosk to have a warm drink, as it was freezing - Johnny and Lissi had Glühwein, I had a hot fruit punch with whipped cream on top. It was absolutely delicious.

Finally, we went to the Schwabinger Christmas market by night. It had the most beautiful atmosphere - live music, chaotic, tonnes of arts and crafts and hot food and paths that went everywhere and lanterns strung up all over the place.

These are called Flammbrot. And they are really quite peculiar, but rather delicious. The smoke behind us is from the oven that they're cooked in.

My favourite joke of the week: Johnny, my host dad, asked me, in German, if I liked eating kiwis. Cue an incredibly shocked, disturbed, incredulous look from me, a confused one back from him, and general hysteria once we figured out he meant the fruit. Teehee.

Hope everything's going well at home, gearing up for Christmas! Miss you all.

Alles Liebe,

Camille xx