Doug's Blog #1

The flight to Singapore was very boring, seven hours to Singapore with a 90 minute wait for the changeover and then a 12 hour flight to Munich. I received a warm welcome from my host brother, Johannes and his parents. On the first weekend, I did a lot, I played "Bauern Golf" (farmer's golf). It consisted of hitting a small along a course with a wooden stick with weird looking head that looked like a shoe. I also went to a market with lots of stalls. Monday, 29th September was my first day at the school, it was quite an experience. It is so different to Australian schools in every way: class layout, teaching style, equipment and attitude. When a teacher is out of the classroom there is a lot of noise but as soon as he or she enters, it is silent and students become serious. The following day the classes were quite boring but sfter school it was interesting as our train from Rosenheim was terminated and had to wait to catch another until we got to Raubling. On the Wednesday, I did the first of my Powerpoint presentations to one of Frau Kreplin's Year 9 English classes. It went very well, I did half of the presentation and Josh, the other. On Thursday, we went to see the Mayor of Bad Aibling, Herr Felix Schwaller. He was a very nice man and spoke no English and Mr. Kusch translated. Many questions were asked of the Mayor and he gave interesting replies. We had a small tour of the town prior to this. Later, we went for an ice cream. On the way home we went shopping in Rosenheim, the girls looked for clothes and we just generally browsed. Friday was a public holiday, German Reunification Day ( Tag der deutschen Einheit. The plan was for Oktoberfest, a one hour train ride to Munich ( Minga). I was amazed at the massive crowds but it was ok. We met Lsura and Allison's family. We went on three rides. The first one travelled at 100km and at 6 g's of force, the best ride I have ever been on. The second was a rollercoaster and the third went through a mine, it was fun. We then had something to eat and eventually caught the train home. On Saturday the 4th of October, I went on a flying fox and on a downhill sled. The view from the flying fox was breath taking and the sled was a complete thrill. For dinner we went to a Bavarian inn that had a brass band playing. I slept well that night. On the Sunday, I went to Salzburg airport to Hangar 7, the Red Bull hangar complete with all sorts of Red Bull gear, race cars and planes, even a Cobra ( American attack helicopter). After that we went to a small café which had paraphernalia from World War 1.