Gosh, what a busy kiwi I've been these past few weeks. School has started up again, as has my German course after school and summer is definitely packed up it's bags and gone on holiday - I don't blame him, it's damn cold here. I say it's cold, because it't about the temperature of a New Zealand winter - on average about 6-10 degrees every day, grey, rainy and windy. (Not enjoyable to bike twenty minutes to school and back every day, but I must say that I am making rain pants a fashion trend.)
Last weekend I had a Rotary weekend in Soltau, and I have made an incredible group of friends there (mostly Americans, I say "Y'all" a lot now..) and I feel like finally I have settled in. Finally, there is a part of me that doesn't want to come home and leave my amazing host family or the wonderful friends that I have made. I have another Rotex weekend this weekend coming, and I truly cannot wait. It makes me so sad to think that I will only be with these amazing people perhaps four more times before boarding a plane and leaving them all behind (however if they get their way and all goes to plan, operation 'Kidnap Emma at Airport and take turns hiding her under everyone's bed' will take off like a breeze and I'll stay as their wee pet until its time for them to leave too (Julia, my host sister wants in on the plan too). It really isn't fair that we're divided into two year groups, meaning that we have no chance to bond with the old exchange students that have already been in Germany for six months when we arrive and already have their 'friends for life' sorted, and then make the exact same bonds with the newbies only to be torn away from then when we are at our closest. It's really not fair.
Oktoberfest is happening at the moment. Yes, that's right, Oktoberfest in September. I love how logical Germans are. Also, Christmas is slowly approaching around the corner. Or, in the case of my family and I at their supermarket, suddenly dumped in front of us in a mountain of boxes laden with as many different variations and forms/flavours of gingerbread that one can imagine. So for us, Christmas was more of a slap in the face and several days of hard work, and it is here.
However, another highlight of this year was the weekend that has just passed. At first it started off at a bit of a low as we had a wedding on the Friday night. Did you know that in Germany everyone wears black to a wedding as it looks 'classy'? I was mortified and felt like I was dressing to go and mourn the death of someone at a funeral rather than show my happiness and celebration of two people's love. And, none of my black clothes were 'appropriate', so I REALLY felt like I was going to a funeral clad in a mid calf length dress of my host Mum's. No wonder one man thought I was 22 - I looked like a mum. Anyway. We weren't actually invited to the ceremony itself, only the reception afterwards. We arrived at 6 and stood outside for an hour chatting, before finally heading inside. First, everyone insisted I HAD to try traditional Hochzeits Suppe, or, Wedding Soup. To be quite frank, I'm not sure why everyone was raving about it - it was quite literally chicken stock with tiny sausage meatballs and rather artificial looking cubes of egg floating in it. I don't think it'll be something on the menu at my wedding. There was a buffet as well, however my host mum, sister and I all ate something funny and had tummy pains for the next two days. I started chatting to a very friendly American man, as there wasn't much else to do and I knew absolutely nobody there (including the bride and groom.) They had a DJ, and eventually he started playing some music I knew - South American music actually, and I got up to go and teach my host sister the very fast Cha-cha the South American exchange students had taught me from my Rotary district before being swept off my feet by the 27 year old German who insisted "It's okay that you can't dance, I'll teach you! This song is a traditional German Waltz. Here, I'll lead and make all of my movements strong to show you what to do." I tried to tell him that in fact, the fast paced song was indeed NOT a waltz, and that I knew the dance to it and he just shook his head saying "No, no, you're doing fine!". He had very clearly taken dance lessons, and had really paid attention as he marched/stomped me very slowly and purposely (however not purposely on my feet) across the room, and I could see him mouthing 'one, two, three, one, two, three' as he stomped. I was not impressed, as I already know through Philine how to Waltz, Disco-fox and Cha-cha. And then, out came the wedding cakes. Marzipan or Cherry, my two loathed flavours. I'm not usually one to pass down a slice of cake, but these two happened to be the only exceptions I can think of. The rest of the night the DJ played German folk music or ACDC - my host dad Stefan was in heaven, and actually stayed until 4.45 in the morning - we left at 3am. Yes, we spent 8 hours at the reception.
However the next day more than made up for it. When my new host family asked if I had any wishes of anything to do it Germany, I had only two; to see Tarzan and The Lion King on Broadway. And this day, one of my wishes came true. I saw Tarzan the Musical in Hamburg, and I am still pinching myself to come to terms with the fact that is really happened. If you don't know the story, Tarzan is a man who lives in the jungle swinging on vines. He was raised by a family of gorillas who found him as a baby after his parents were stranded after a shipwreck and murdered by a Jaguar, and he thinks he is gorilla. Then, one day he meets another creature that looks a bit like him - a woman named Jane, who teaches him to speak and that he is human, not in fact, ape. And of course they fall in love etc. and it's all a lovely story. Well, let me tell you the musical is even better. I could not believe my eyes when someone stood up in front of me (Julia and I were seated right at the top on the overlooking level) and leaped off the bannister - it turns out that they were in fact a gorilla, and attached to a wire that meant that they could fly and swing all around the entire auditorium. The whole theatre was full of flying, swinging, springing monkeys and it was truly incredible. There were also some gorillas attached to bungee wires, meaning that they were springing, flinging and catapulting themselves around the stage, into the audience and from the ceiling. The walls of the entire auditorium were lined with green rope vines. which meant that the gorillas actually swung from one side of the theatre before grabbing onto the opposing wall and flinging themselves out into the air again. It was truly breathtaking. The music was also amazing, as was the fact that all of the performers were singing perfectly live and in tone while swinging, flipping and flying around the theatre. Even Tarzan as a boy was incredible, doing flips and cartwheels and backflips all over the stage and moving exactly like a monkey. Honestly even now I just can't comprehend what my eyes were seeing. I actually can't describe it. Here are two links I HIGHLY recommend you watching that sow just what a phenomenon It was:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3TDret_L3Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PZdaVKMJcI
Please watch both, I can promise you that you will not be disappointed.
Then, after Tarzan Dillon, my best exchange student friend here who is from America but is living in my city messaged me and asked if I wanted to go to our cities Oktoberfest in Luneburg that evening. My host family said yes, so off we went to the fair. To be honest, we did not need the three hours that we had arranged to stay for. The fair was in a park, and had a few rides like a Horror House rollercoaster (Dillon forced me to go on it, so I held my jacket over my face and closed my eyes for the entire ride, only opening them once to see a person dressed as a Zombie leaning across me and tugging on Dillon's jacket because the wagon moved so slowly that they could do that, so I screamed and kept my eyes closed for the rest of the ride), food stalls with currywurst/bratwurst, sugar and spice coated almonds, crepes and little donut ball things that to be honest were the consistency of old stale donut, and only had a light powdering of icing sugar on them so actually tasted quite awful. We bought banana and nutella crepes, and were bored after the first 40 minutes. However, now I can say that I went to Oktoberfest!
The next morning was all hustle and bustle again, as Christine and I went off to a horse show in a town about 1.5 hours away by car. I did my best not to fall asleep in the car. When we finally arrived, I could not shut up about our A&P Show. I told them all about how mum and I always take a day off work/school and go and spent a magical day each year talking to horses, eating yummy food and getting sunburnt while lying for hours on the grass hill overlooking the arena. This horse show was a little different, as it really was all in the arena - we had assigned seats and everything. Of course, there was also a lot of food trailers selling the good old crepes, brat/currywurst and coffee/cake as well. The show opened with a marching band all mounted on horse back, and got only better from there. There were two riders that cam out riding TWO horses each, by standing one foot on the back of each horse and galloping around the arena like mad men, dressage and show jumping performances as well as a parade of carriages from the 1800s with the drivers all in the original clothing belonging to each carriage eg. the milkman, beer carriage, hospital carriage. There was also the famous 16 horse drawn carriage as well - truly amazing! Christine and I were in absolute horsey heaven and could have stayed there all day. Sadly though, the show eventually did come to an end and we had to pack up and head back home, only to find that not only had Stefan burnt the bread that Christine had put him in charge of to a crisp, but that Anton the dog had then eaten the burnt remains of the bread and we had nothing for school lunches the next day. We walked in to a bombsite, as Stefan and the boys stood around a mixer on the bench, mixing what looked like brown water with sand or mud sunk to the bottom, insisting that they followed the recipe down to the t and that they had no idea what had happened. Christine was not impressed, and I went off to bed with a tired migraine after my very eventful weekend.
Well, as you can see I am now having an absolute ball and loving it here (apart from the cold!). I hope all of you lucky sods are enjoying your Spring, and I will see you in exactly 110 days!
Love you all,
Em
