Bam goes the Berg!

So today we went to Bamberg. It was pretty cool minus the Churches with the bones, skulls and graves of their Saints to worship...that made me fairly uncomfortable. I say this because we went to two Churches and a third one was on offer....somehow "Nein Danke" seemed an appropriate response to more Pagan ceremonial worship. I swear I was waiting for some VooDoo or fire dancing to start, but was sorely disappointed....not that I think that's a bad thing!

Bamberg is amazingly beautiful, the old Rathaus (Town Hall/Government building) is built on a bridge between the river so it's pretty cool. That seems somewhat of a poor description but it's difficult to describe. It has cobbled streets perfect for tripping up foolish high-heel clad women, over-decorative Churches that have more gold than a jeweller could ever hope to lay eyes on and after all that it has a large river that rus extremely quickly and yet houses are built around it, the Rathaus is built upon it and the town seems to be made up of extreme hills and bridges.

After that we spent an hour and a half driving home. This was despite the fact that it took 30 minutes to get there....I think Hans' "Scenic route" was another way of saying "I took the wrong turn off and now we're lost." It allowed some good photos though and I got to see all the little villages surrounding my own little village-Grossgündlach.

I have now spent an entire week looking like a blueberry with my puffy blue jacket. Sometimes I like to mix things up a bit with my long white puffy jacket-the Snowman look it TOTALLY in this winter. Sometimes I get to wear my red coat if the Germans aren't looking but they maintain that it "Is just not warm enough" but despite knowing that they are probably right, I will prevail....

I hope all is well!

Music was pumping and regrettably my head is now thumping.

Ok so I went clubbing...I said I wouldn't and I did anyway....AND I LOVED IT!

Once you got past the creepy guys fondling me and having to say "STOP I DON'T LIKE IT!" every thirty seconds then realising they don't speak english and having to tranlate it politely to "Bitte lass dass", then getting past the fact that a particular guy kept on trying until our little posse had to team up to get rid of him, then it was great! The club was packed, our group were....wasted to say the least (well most of them-five out of 13ish chose not to drink....I was one of the five) and the music was great. Plus the club had poles which drunk or not most of the people gave a shot, although the club was so packed that if you really tried to pole dance you'd probably take out two eyes and break a nose with your round house pole kick, so most just did the awkward shuffle next to it, not quite sure what to do.

We weren't allowed out late so we were home by 12 so I attempted to call family and friends to no avail, they don't understand me....In fact, seems I won't talk to Andrew for quite a few months at this rate!

We went shopping and I managed to buy MORE black, as if my entire wardrobe wasn't all black already, then Laura's grandparents came over and gave me more money for Christmas than I could take without guilt and I just sat there like a guppy....auf Deutsch of course!

Kewl well I'm exhausted, got up this morning to make some calls that no one except for Mum picked up, that's ok, but I'm going back to bed.

Hope all is well.

Geil oder GEIL.....

Ok so these last few days have been a trying time! I love being here don't get me wrong but at dinner last night I nearly slept in the melted camembert and I sense that would a) Been a great photo opportunity, b) Burnt my face, c) Not made me feel any better or d) All of the above! Oh yes, jet lag burns, I swear I'm barely functional by 7:30 but the Sikora's maintain that I must stay up if I want it to get better....they hate me!

Other than that though it's great. I switch randomly between english and german just to keep the Germans on their toes. Shame their english is so good, grade 13 is studying "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde and make our Literature class look special needs and the year 10's were openly discussing bulemia and bi-polar disorder...in english. It makes me hate on them, but then I remember how helpful it is when I forget what I'm saying and speak Ginglish and they understand. Like today when I said to Laura "Kann ich bitte go to the shops so I can some socks kaufen?" then we laughed....

So I found out today that "Geil" which all the Germans say, is not simply awesome/cool, but also Horny. So when they say "Ich bin geil" it has several meanings....that makes me uncomfortable considering the boy who sits behind me at school says it...a lot.

So this weekend I'm going shopping with my new-found friends, they have all studied abroad which becomes a subject of amusement when they all have different english-speaking accents: American, Canadian, British etc. then we shall go clubbing in a few weeks, not sure what German clubbing is like but I guess I'm about to learn!

Hope all is well!

Here and all is clear...except the sky, it's raining.

Ok so I have to admit the keyboards here suck my will to live, no QWERTY for Giorgia, not even an easily accessible @ symbol....only thing that makes me angry in Germany as it turns out!

After a 36 hour trip I'd rather forget, with several stop-overs, green plane food and me not keeping anything down...at least I got to know the flight attendants well! It was finally over, just to run into 2.5 hours of airport security....anyway.

The family made me a poster, gave me a gingerbread heart and a teddy and proceeded to go to insane lengths to make my stay comfortable...including Laura giving a girl evil eye for commenting on my rather unattractive shoes.

The shoes, another thing that unfortunately makes me want to kill people. My usual fun, loving and easy-going nature here in Germany was interupted by the British Idiot who after nearly three weeks has still not sent my shoes, so today in three degress I wore moderately unnattractive shoes with extremely unnattractive socks....Lets just say I wasn't feeling the new look!

I feel oddly comfortable though, Germany looks exactly like you'd expect, quaint little churches and traditional houses in the villages that are roughly 100m apart and all! Unfortunately the germans make it easy for me to speak english so I have to refrain from sliding into laziness and considering their english classes (today they spoke fluently about relapses into bulemia and bipolar disorder) I see how easy laziness could be!

I did get to correct the english teacher who continued to say the omnicient (I know right!) narrator plays an AMBIGUS role....I tried not to tell him, but he said it wrong 12 times so I had to step in....ambigUous.

So I'm happy, healthy and loving Germany!

Hope all is well!

Should I close my eyes?

Have to admit, everyone asking me "Are you nervous?" "How are you feeling?" and other assorted questions is really making me uncomfortable, I mean it's not like the Germans are going to eat me, at least I hope not, I wouldn't make a very good bratwurst. Anyway I'm not stressed about leaving for ten weeks, into a different family, into a different culture, into a different language....I'm good, really. 

No in all honesty the constant questions are more nerve racking than the actual trip, I'm kind of desperate to leave Australia really. The sun is beginning to come out and my Ranga sense is tingling, it says stay indoors or head for winter, I've chosen the latter. So I'm quite excited, obviously I'm a teensy bit concerned about my German skills....or lack of, but other than that I feel OK. 

Andrew will cope (I hope) he'll work all holidays and then buy me diamonds and life will be great because I'll be sparkly, Mum is so desperate for me to leave I swear she could pack my bags and drop me off at the airport tomorrow and Dad and Gina? Not sure really, they gave me a camera and despite being told materialism isn't a good thing, it does make me happy. My new Lumix TZ10  makes me  very happy in ways it shouldn't. I'll name it soon, like I do all my electronics. It seems the most mature approach to personalising your belongings, my old camera was so scarred from dropping it he was Potter, then there's the iPod Ledger, who I got just before Heath Ledger..My favourite...died. That's about it for naming things, wouldn't want it to get weird or anything!

OK well I haven't really achieved anything in this post, all I wanted to say was that I feel OK about Germany, wouldn't mind if all those little things like packing and dentists appointments and things were done and sorted though!

Hope all is well.