Off skiing!

Ok a quick update!
Christmas has been and gone! Onthe 24th we had a day of preparation and so on, we made churros in the mornig which were totally delicious! We went to church in the afternoon, it was unusual hearing the familiar story in a different language! But nevertheless, cool! After church we had fish fondue for dinner which was really different but really cool. We had tuna, shrimp, red snapper and seeteufel(really weird looking fish), the red snapper was delicious! The fondue was more like poached fish but it was good! After dinner, we had to go to our rooms while the christ child came! Perfect time to skype mum, dad and tom to wish them a merry christmas! A bell rang to signal we could come out and so we did, presents under the candle lit tree! Super cool! After opening our gifts we had a small supper and just chatted! The next day, Christmas, was spent with food preparation in the morning! The realtives came over and we ate! Red cabbage, dumplings and venison with a brilliant gravy/sauce! After letting the stomach settle we were back for round two! Dessert, the most amazing pannacotta with berry coulis, so good! i certainly felt like a few buttons had burst! Haha today we are going on a ski trip to austria! Should be wicked, ive never done much skiing so it will be different for me! Nesselwängle is where we are going if you are interested!
Hope you all had a lovely christmas! And sorry that its been hard to post comments up on this blog! I thought it was easier!
Charg xx

The days leading up to Christmas

So this week has been pretty busy for me! Tuesday was a great day as I woke up to snow! Schnee woooohoo! Finally! It was very pretty and very quiet, we walked to the train, as shown in the photo, and it was cool! It snowed practically all morning! I went to speak to some younger students (14/15 year olds) about New Zealand! I had prepared a lot bunch of pics on a power point but the computer wouldn't work so I just had to talk! It was hard, particularly trying describing the beautiful landscape! Anyway I'm presenting after the break to some people in my year which will hopefully be better! On Tuesday evening we had our concert! Haha it was a bit of a laugh but glad its over, sorry I don't have a picture from the night! On Wednesday after school we went to Laura's and hung out, it was good, and we just chilled. On Thursday we had liturgy at school, which I really did not understand! Only the 'Our Father'. We ate these nice sponge cream things a boy brought for the class in chemistry and then could go home! Chilled as! We headed to Karlsruhe in the afternoon with Julia for a spot of shopping! I bought a green scarf ( as seen in the pictures) I love it! The streets were quite busy but nevertheless the Christmas spirit was around (and not dampened by the light showers!) Friday! So we started the day of with a run, oh man it was so good, I needed to do some exercise! Really badly! During the day we made biscuits and decorated them with Laura when she came round. I used the New Zealand and Kiwi shaped cookie cutters! It was wicked! At night we dropped a few presents to Kathi's friends (however only Michelle was there). While at her house we watched the Brazilian song ' Ai se eu the pego' by Michel Telo. Watch it if your up for some cheesy Portuguese music that gets stuck in your head! Haha! Christmas here is celebrated today (24th) so its different to home, I'll experience it and then give you the down low on my next blog update!
Lots of love,
Merry Christmas to you all,
Frohes Weihnachten!
Charg xx

Weekend #2

I'm just going to write a quick blog entry to let you know what's been happening. I've been pretty darn busy! School has been school, really looking forward to holidays which start in the mid of this week. We are still practising for our singing concert which is on tuesday. Dreading that but it will be quite a laugh! Yesterday we went to Durlach tower and Karlsruhe! The tower was really cool, we took a cable car up to the top and then took the stairs to the look out on top of the tower! It was a bit blustery up there, but it reminded me of home :) the view was amazing, the Rhine valley is incredibly flat and we could see things that were 50 km away (including a nuclear power station) I have some pictures! After this we went to the centre of Karlsruhe by s-bahn, it's like a tram but fast like a train! Haha Karlsruhe was buzzing and we got some langosh at the Christmas market before heading on to look at the schloss (palace) it is very pretty and I rather like the old grandeur of buildings here. Karlsruhe, thanks to an old earl, fans out from this palace. There are 32 streets off it, all at even intervals. Apparently it was so that if you were anywhere in Karlsruhe you can see the palace (and think of the vain earl) haha! We had a look out from the top of the palace and you could see the fan shape! We saw many people returning from a football game, which I assume they lost since everyone looked so glum :( we left the palace and went to a conditorei overlooking the Christmas markets. I really could not stomach much more food but we had a hot chocolate and shared some cake. Later we went out to a dinner party at a friend of the family's house. It was really good, five of us young guns played monopoly while the adults 'mum-danced' (not like my mum though; she's got the moves like jagger) haha it was quite amusing. The fam also had a cat so I tried to charm her! Their son had been to New Zealand so it was cool to find out about his stay in our country. The food was totally delicious! Nom nom nom :) we resumed our game of monopoly but didn't finish coz we had to leave. It was two in the morn! Hahaha! We are heading to Strasbourg today, and I am very excited. Later I'll update you on my time in France. Pictures are: Kathi and i at the look out on the tower, me infront of the palace, the view from the palace and Kathi and i mucking around in the palace museum! Turns out this entry has not been so quick! Haha
Char xx

Weekend #1

Yesterday we went to Maulbronn! It is a very quaint little town about 30km away from here. The settlement has an old monastery which dates back to the middle ages. We went and had a look around, the buildings are very cool. I like the older architecture as I we don't have any in nz! The monastery is set up around a huge square. The storage building is 9 stories! Absolutely massive! I wonder how difficult it was to build! After a good nosy about we hopped back in the car and drove to Durlach, an old suburb of Karlsruhe. From what I have been told, it is the expensive part of town. We went to the Christmas markets, YAY! We ate this thing, the name escapes me but anywho, it was like deep fried dough with cinnamon sugar topping. It was totally delicious! I went and bought my first Christmas market mug, in which I drank a hot choc with cream, so good. The market had a medieval theme which is traditional here in Baden-württemberg. They had stalls with bows/arrows, another with metal weaponry and even a metal worker on show. At the weaponry stall the guy was telling people how they broke people's bones with this metal axe- he must really like his job! Just before we left the market I went and bought some freshly roasted caramelised macadamia nuts, they were so good, like sooooooo good! Yum yum yum. And my host mother bought oblaten which is like flavoured wafer, in fact it just looks like the host at communion but larger. We headed home and made spätzle for dinner, it's like traditional German noodles. It was quite a laborous meal to make but fun! We had it with cheese, bacon and onion, and it tasted heaps like macaroni cheese!
Today I went for a run with my host mother, it was so good to get out in the fresh air and hit the pavement. Hopefully I can go for a run every second day at least. I have a few pictures, one at the Christmas markets, one at the monastery (storage building in background) and another making spätzle!
Char xx

Schule

An update from me! Well I've now done a full week at school! Ah it's been crazy, anyway some of the interesting things about school..
- breaks; they have so many breaks over here! Its so weird! Nice though. And in the breaks everyone hangs out in the hallways even if it's a five min break.
- my school is colorful, no jokes, the lockers are bright colors, the walls are red, blue or yellow! It's so unusual, but it is really happy.
- over here they still use black boards? So weird, there are like no whiteboards (none until I found one today)
- there are little kids around! I think the youngest ones are ten? They are so cute!
- best thing is three times a week we finish at 1.. Beautiful.
Anywho, some stuff I've done at school; i've been taking a variety of subjects but only classes with people my age, including German, bio, chem, maths, sport and English. English is by far my favorite, they all have brilliant English and it's amazing. Sport is fun, we played handball and it was nice to actually be doing something and naturally I showed everyone I don't 'throw like a girl'! I struggle to understand lots and so often just zone out. I am taking music with Kathi which is totally hilarious, we are practicing for a Christmas concert and the lesson is so embarrassing. Twenty or so people singing Mary had a baby and joy to the world. I can't keep a straight face for most of the time.
Sadly we have had no snow yet, ironically it is too warm. Even though I think it's still cold! Tomorrow we are visiting Maulbronn where there is an old monastery and Christmas markets. I am really looking forward to it.
I hope other people are reading this who aren't only my parents! Oh and everyone here is very nice, in the picture I am with some of these nice people haha!
Char xx

i am here!

I arrived last night in Germany and a lot has happened since my last post! We left Wellington (on a beautiful day) after several delays. It was sad to leave but i was so excited for the trip ahead. Holly and I were seated together and so the fun began. In Auckland we had a meeting with everyone and had a feed. We didn't board until late so there was a bit of waiting around to be done. On the plane we had dinner and then tried to catch some zzz's- unsuccessful, i slept for two and a half hours. The time whittled away slowly and we got to Los Angles 11 and a half hours later, about 1.30 local time. Transit was super boring but it was nice to have space to stretch out and freshen up. Holly, Lydia and I did some stretches and they were so good! Our flight to London was only 9 hours long and was much the same as the last one, only two hours sleep and playing games on the tv's. Finally we got to London and had four or so hours to spare. I was absolutely knackered and we just sat and watched the day go by. The airport was bustling and it was a relief when we could finally board our flight to Stuttgart. Although it was mid afternoon the sun was going down :( Our flight was more turbulent in a smaller plane but I just wanted to get there. It was lovely to be greeted Kathi and her family! The ride home i don't remember much of since i was so dozy, but we went on the autobahn and it was so busy and everyone drives like 140km/h; so different. I arrived at my new house, had a small meal and then went to bed. My sleep was wonderful. I went to school today and I met so many new people, not sure i'll remember their names though. I am still really tired and as writing this am trying hard to stay awake, its only 3.45  in the arvo.

until my next post
xx Char

nearly time to go!

Tomorrow I'll be tripping off to Germany. I'm incredibly excited and yet slightly nervous about going out of my comfort zone! It will be certainly difficult leaving the summer sun for the freezing winter. I'm hoping for a white christmas or snow at some point (several points!); because it's so pretty! 25 or so hours of flying is definitely going to be hard, how am I meant to sit still for so long! The movie selection on the plane is looking pretty good and so that and the company of my school friends, will keep me entertained.

xx Charlotte