May 2013
1 post
“Jeder Anfang endet irgendwann, doch irgendwann kam viel zu schnell, viel zu viel...”
– Ein Teil - Cro
January 2013
23 posts
Incase anyone still cares, here's my first...
Presentation for Rotary International District 9670. Gabby Brand, RYE 2012, D9670 Australia – D1810 Germany
Beer, sausages, bread, Oktoberfest, beer, punctuality, Lederhosen, schnitzel, beer, soccer, smoking, Hitler, and beer. While these may be a few of the most well-known German things, I discovered in my exchange year that there is a lot more to the country I now call my home. Germany is a...
"The Call", by Regina Spektor
It started out as a feeling Which then grew into a hope Which then turned into a quiet thought Which then turned into a quiet word And then that word grew louder and louder ‘Til it was a battle cry I’ll come back when you call me No need to say goodbye Just because everything’s changing Doesn’t mean it’s never been this way before All you can do is try to know who...
This is REALLY it.
I am now officially dressed in the clothes that I will be wearing when I arrive in Australia. How weird is that?
So, this is it. Thankyou for reading my blog over the year, and bis gleich!
I had packing down pat, right?
Until my bag, which was at 18kg, somehow jumped up to 26kg.
I’ve gotten it down to 24, and am leaving it that way, hoping they won’t mind about the extra kilo.
My problem now is that my laptop doesn’t fit in my carry on bag, and I can’t carry it separately coz I already have the maximum number of bags…
It's 12am.
I am leaving Deutschland TODAY.
This is it.
How do you say goodbye to the city that has raised you from the child you were all those months ago, to the city that has become your home? Every shop, every street, every landmark. Remscheid is MY city and I know it better than I know any other city in the world.
More to the point, how do you say goodbye to the COUNTRY that has become your own, your home country, with your native language and...
I went out for dinner last night with friends form...
Waiter: How are you all?
Someone: A bit sad.
Waiter: Why?
Someone else: Because she's going to Australia.
Waiter: But that's good, Australia is nice!
Someone: But she's been here for a year and now she's going back.
Waiter: Oh, you're FROM Australia and now you're going home?
Me: Yes.
Waiter: Oh, well that's sad. You're right.
When I told the Germans it would start snowing again when I had to leave, they told me I was crazy. So what happens less than two days before I have to leave? IT’S SNOWING!!
I have way too much stuff to fit into two days.
I do not have time for anything, omg. Three more whole days left in this country. Sleep is not important!
Also, I now have returned insomnia, but at least I know why now. Turns out I can’t sleep if I’m stressed - which was pretty much my whole life until I came here, then I slept perfectly every single night, except for the night before my best friend from Mexico left to go home, and...
Over a year after finishing my HSC,
I have finally finished school FOREVER and I am so unbelievably happy!!!
I went Monday (the first day back) and today, and had been planning on gonig tomorrow as well but after nearly killing myself having to get up at 5.50am today, I decided to sleep in.
Which means, I’m finished! ARGGHHHHHH!!!!
I've been bitten by a turtle.
Bet no one else who reads this (apart from the owner of the said turtle) can say that! Be jealous.
“The sign of intelligence is that you are constantly wondering. Idiots are always...”
– Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev (via cavaalier)
I'm sorry I really don't have time to blog.
Life is hectic, life is hectic, life is hectic. I really don’t have time for a detailed description of what I’ve been up to, but here are a few hints of how my last week will look:
Today (Sunday): Farewell dinner with all host parents and current host sisters at a Chinese restaurant, then ice skating with host sisters.
Monday: Two periods at school, appointment by an official place...
One week to go.
It feels surreal to think I’ll be leaving so soon; I don’t think it’s really sunk in. To think that I will actually be with my family and friends in just over a week is really strange. Have I even seen my family face to face? Haven’t they always just been there on my laptop screen? And how will it be, when my friends and family here become just faces on a screen? It’s weird to think that I am...
Oh Deutschland, mein Liebchen.
Nothing goes as planned Everything will break People say goodbye In their own special way All that you rely on And all that you could fake Will leave you in the morning Come find you in the day Oh, you’re in my veins, and I cannot get you out Oh, you’re all I taste, at night inside of my mouth Oh, you run away, cause I am not what you found Oh, you’re in my veins, and I cannot get you out...
Meine Lieblings (das heißt, meistens benutzt)...
Voll
Scheiße
Geil
Na?
Und alle zusammen, z. B. Voll scheiße/geil, na?
29.44kg to Australia.
Sent!
And the lady reckons it’ll only take about two weeks, GEIL!
Country differences.
I arranged last night to meet my Ecuadorian friend today, at 11.05am. I got there a few minutes early so raced into the book shop first, but got back to where we were supposed to meet at 11.05am. Was she there? Of course not. And did she come before we were supposed to catch the bus together? Ofcourse not.
So I carried on my day, as I had a schedule that didn’t allow me to wait hours for...
I have made the absolute best ever goodbye present...
December 2012
62 posts
Silvester in Deutschland.
When I try to tell the Germans that New Year’s isn’t that big a thing in Australia, they ensure me that it’s not in Germany either. They’re wrong.
I found the Sydney Harbour fireworks yesterday (two hours after they’d already been on) and showed me host sister. She wasn’t anywhere near as amazed as I thought she’d be - at 12am I founf out why.
I WATCHED...
The packing war is over.
Yesterday I officially finished packing my giant suitcase (which is both too big to fly with and too big to send with the freight companies my host dad was able to get me a discount for), ready to send. I actually finished at only 23kg, when I was paying for a maximum of 31,5… so ended up chucking stuff in I hadn’t been plannig on taking home, until I got it to 30,4. This made me...
I realised I should try to watch the Sydney...
Problem being, I realised this at 2am Australian time.
How’s 2013?
And I’m sick of crying when I have too many other things to spend my time on.
Something I am sure about.
Have you ever stood in an airport and walked away from three of your parents, your best friend’s parents, your best friends and a number of other good friends either of yourself or your best friend (because apparently she’s the one who needs support), and your sisters?
Well, neither have I. And it’s not something I’m looking forward to.
I’m also sick of people...
Das Leben ist gut. Das Leben aber ist schwer.
With only two weeks to go (exactly, as of today), I feel I should explan how I feel. Only, I really don’t know. My head is complete mush, consisting of:
YAY! TWO WEEKS, and I’ll be HOME, with my beautiful little SISTERS, and a new room to decorate, and everything to unpack, and YAY, life can begin!
and
OMG my life is ENDING in two weeks, I won’t be able to go out by myself...
I can't translate this, sorry.
Gastbruder: Wie viel Freunde hattest du dieses Jahr?
Ich: Ich habe doch viele Freunde, wie kann ich die zählen?
Gastbruder: Nein, Freunde!
Ich: Ja, ich habe doch viele!
Gastbruder: Freunde?
Ich: Ah, FREUNDE! Keine.
Gastbruder: Warum hattest du dann keine?
Ich: Weil du mich nicht liebst!
Two weeks, 75 euros.
I have never been so poor as I am now.
Weihnachten in Deutschland - Teil 8.
Well, it’s over. I survived the Christmas marathon, as my host sister called it.
It started on Sunday (23rd December), with my first Christmas party. It was the equivalent of my family’s Boxing Day, for everyone who knows us - only a different family, on a different day, in a different country. It was my extended third host family, at my host grandfather’s house (next door to my...
Adding to that,
it’s just started to get dark, at 4.15pm.
So I guess my dad would actually have a point about using available sunlight in this case.
Thankfully, I don’t go outside anyway.
Just a quick note, before I get onto the Christmas...
about sleep cycles.
It has ocurred to me lately, that when I go home I am going to adjust to a completely different sleep cycle. Basically, Germany taught me to sleep in. I have still be topped by every one of my host siblings, but I definitely sleep past when dad would say the day is already over.
Nothing happens in this house before 12pm. Today, for example, Iwoke up at ten to nie. Stayed...
So I have gotten about a thousand German messages...
It’s not even, it’s tomorrow!
How can it be Christmas, when the shops were still open this morning? When people have gone out? When the tree was only finished yesterday and the presents were under it today? When there are no Santa sacks, and we haven’t left grass for the reindeer yet, and we haven’t gone to sleep quickly so that Santa could come? We haven’t woken up...
Weihnachten in Deutschland: Teil 7.
THE CHRISTMAS TREE
When I came home yesterday, I walked inside to find… a Christmas tree! Turns out it was brough it a bit earlier than Christmas Eve (the afternoon before), and my host sister and I got to decorate it last night wth lights (first time I’ve had a tree with lights!), tinsel but pieces only like 40cm long rather than long strands that go round and round, baubles and real...
I'm still awake and it's Christmas in Australia.
Does that mean Santa won’t come to me?
That moment when you realise you're missing out on...
And, you know, your family.
I have this massive hand written summary of three...
And the idea was, to type everything from it that I still don’t know.
So I started today, and it was going good, until…
I discovered that I am MISSING A PAGE.
The world cannot go on.
Also, on packing...
I think I may officially have things under control!
I have informed my host sister that I have between 25 and 35kg of things to ship (probably around the 30kg mark). She will inform my host dad, who will give me a quote.
Cross your fingers for me!
Weihnachten in Deutschland - Teil 6.
I really should save some of these up so I didn’t end up with so many parts - I had originally thought I’d end up with like three or something.
Anyway, this one is about Christmas lights. Something Germans don’t really have.
I mean, they have them. They’re in the shops. They’re on street lights and giant trees in the city and other public things.
But, as far as...
Weihnachten in Deutschland - Teil 5.
THE CHRISTMAS TREE
Germans, unlike most Australians I know, don’t put up a tree on the 1st of December. Because, quite simply, they use real trees. And if they bought one so early, it would die way before it was actually Christmas.
Yesterday, however, my host mum bought our Christmas tree. Only I haven’t seen it yet. You wanna know why?
BECAUSE IT STAYS OUTSIDE UNTIL CHRISTMAS EVE.
...
Today is the 22nd of December.
Eleven months down.
Three weeks to go.
They took FOREVER to get back to me, but hey, I...
Sehr geehrte Frau Brand,
hier ist ein Link, wo Sie unsere Fahne noch käuflich erwerben können.
http://www.universalhandel24.de/premiumflaggen-aus-aller-welt/deutschland-diverse/flagge-remscheid-100-x-150-cm/
Gerne kann ich Ihnen noch andere Dinge zur Verfügung stellen, wie z.B. Kulli, Tasche etc.
Sie können gerne vorbeikommen und sich etwas abholen.
Für weitere Fragen stehe ich Ihnen...
