Rob's first post

I’ve spent just under a week in Germany and already have experienced so many things. The plane trip over was pretty ordinary which was expected, sleep was little and movies were put on in succession. When we arrived at our final destination (Munich-Germany) we all seemed to be pretty excited. I was pretty sleep deprived and it was a weird feeling walking off the plane and realizing you were in a different country.

Nico and Christian (Nico’s Dad) were waiting to greet me at the airport. After a quick introduction we left the Airport and headed off to Will’s exchange partner’s house (Jonas) to have a Bavarian breakfast. It was really good  and I particularly liked the Weiβwurst which is a traditional Bavarian sausage.

 The Broβ’s house is really nice and it is the only house made out of wood on the street. Nico’s Mum and dad are easy to get along with and they help me a lot with trying to understand German. Nico has 2 brothers and one sister. Yannik, Nico’s older brother is the coach of the Ebersberg handball team and they are very good. Sara, Jonas and Nico all go to different schools around the area which might sound very unusual but the public transport here is so good that they have so many options for education, work…etc.

The first day at school was very tiring. We woke up at 6 and caught the bus at about 7. The Bus ride is only about half an hour long so it is about the same as in Australia. I didn’t understand any German and found it very difficult to try and start a conversation. The school is about the same size as Bright’s but it is built up, not across and we have more and better areas to play and do sports.

In the classes it seems to me that little work is done by most students compared to Australian schools although this is just my opinion. Most of the classes at the moment are pretty boring apart from Maths because I can work in that. I think as my German progresses I will be able to interact in the classroom making it more interesting.

In the afternoon on Monday we went bowling and had lunch at Jonny’s Bowling ,a short walk from school. My bowling skills were not very good and I didn’t do too well but I still had heaps of fun.

 An average afternoon is going down to the local supermarket with Nico’s friends and chilling there. At first I found it boring and frustrating because I couldn’t understand what they were talking about. But I soon got to know them and understand bits of what they were saying. Nico’s friends are all really nice and are good at helping me learn German and explaining things if I don’t understand.

In my travels I have seen an  Igal which is German for hedgehog. It sat curled up in a ball just outside the main supermarket. It was quite small and didn’t move an inch when we came over to see what it was.

At night we sometimes play board games. One that we have played several times is really fun and is called Tac. It is a lot like trouble and even though I am not very good at it I enjoy it a lot.

On Saturday we went into Munchen with Nico’s friends. After they did a bit of shopping we went to the Oktoberfest the biggest and most well-known festival/carnival in Germany. It is really big and the amount of people is enormous. We didn’t stay there for long but just walking through it gave me the impression of what it is all about.

On Sunday we went on a Rad tour on a bike ride into the Ebersberg Forest, a neighbouring town from Grafing where we live. it was a really nice ride on an open dirt road surrounded by forest and during our ride we stopped at the Art forest which was really cool.  Objects from the city have been placed in the forest and been incorporated  into the landscape.

Rob