London

Hey guys,

I hope you're all good?!
I just came back from London on Friday and I'm already working again....

London was sooo amazing and I had so much fun!!!
We left on Sunday last week at 6am at my school and arrived at Calais (France) around 3.30pm to take the ferry to Dover (England). The ride on the ferry was better than I thought it would be... I didn't get sick and we listened to music and ate a lot :D We arrived in London around 6pm and left for the city after we arranged all our rooms. We went to Covent Garden, a big market hall with lots of little shops, and from there to Soho and China Quarter. In Soho they have all kind of chinese and japanese restaurants so we had something to eat there and went back to the hotel as it was getting late and we had to be back at 11pm.

Port of Calais

Cliffs of Dover

On Monday morning we had a sightseeing tour and went to see all the main attractions in London. We stopped at Buckingham Palace, the Memorial of King Albert and at the river with the view on Tower Bridge and the Tower of London. Afterwards we all went to Camden Lock and the market and had free time there. Camden Market is great... there are so many cheap things you can buy and so many people selling different things.
In the afternoon we went to St. James Park and had a look at all the squirrels... they're soo cute!! ;)
From there we had free time again until 11pm... so I went shopping on Oxford Street with some other girls haha. If you want to go shopping in London... Camden Market is cheap, Picadilly and Oxford Circus have lots of shops and Regent Street is quiet expensive ;)

Memorial of King Albert

Camden Market

 

On Tuesday we went by our bus to Oxford. If you ever go to London you should go to Oxford even if it takes 1 1/2 hours to get there. Oxford is a small city with lots (and lots) of old, pretty buildings and lots of Colleges (and Universitys). Our teacher organised a ralley for us so we got to see a little of the city and had time for some shopping afterwards. At Christ Church College you can even see the dining hall from the Harry Potter movies, but sadly it costs 5,50 pound.... and it was lunchtime so we couldn't go in.
At night we had free time so we went to Picadilly Circus with some others and the went to Soho fpr some food. On the way back we stopped at our train station Kings Cross St. Pancras to see platform 9 3/4 from Harry Potter.

Clock Tower in Oxford

 

Radcliffs Camera

Christ Church College

Picadilly Circus

Kings Cross Train Station

Wednesday morning we climbed up the Monument with it's 311 stairs to get the stunning view over the whole city!! It's absolutely worth all these stairs ;)
Afterwards we had an hour free time before we had to be at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, so we went to the Modern Tate (which wasn't half as interesting as I thought it would be..). We got to see the Globe Theatre from the inside and hear about it's story and the had a workshop afterwards. The guy who did that with us was just hillarious and I was laughing al the time!! :D
When we had free time again I went with some friends to St. Pauls Cathedral (I just love it!!!), but we lost them there, so my class mate and I went alone for some sightseeing ;) I wanted to see Big Ben ( the cock tower with the big bell, called Big Ben) and Westminster Abbey. Then we to Leicester Square to look for the movie programm of that week... We found the M&M Shop and went back to the hotel for some lunch. At night our teacher took us to Brick Lane in Spitafield, where Jack The Ripper once killed and all the Indian Restaurants are now. In front of every restaurant is at least one Indian who makes you offers and tells you how great his reaturant is... they all try to get you in. Nearly our whole class ended up in the same restaurant so we all sat on this massive table that went straight through the whole room :D haha

Top of the Monument

St. Paul's Cathedral

Westminster Abbey

Thursday was already our last day in London :( In the morning we took the train and then walked underneath the river Thamse to Greenwich and the Royal Observatory with the Prime Meridian (the line on 0° longitute, from where everyone measures their time and all the other longitutes east and west of it). We had some free time in Greenwich and had a look around this small town, where a flea market was on that day ;)
We went on a boat for a cruse on the Thamse from Greenwich to Westminster for 2 hours. It's great how much you can see from the water. We spent our last time shopping (for food :D) and then went on the bus at 5.30pm and left for the ferry in Dover. We arrived in Bremen around 7am the next morning and we were all so tired, because most of us couldn't sleep very well on the bus... just like me who turned around every haln an hour -.- When I was home I was soooo glad to see my bed and went straight back to sleep :D

Tower Bridge

London Eye

Clock Tower of Big Ben

On Friday night my friends and I went to the opening fireworks of the 'Freimarkt' (the biggest fun fare in North-Germany), but it was so packed with people that we just had a look around and didn't go in anywhere. We'll have time for that for the next 2 weeks ;)

That was my busy week.... but it was soo much fun and I certainly want to go back to London, because I still haven't seen everything :D

See you soon
Lea

Home sweet home!!

Hey guys,
I hope you're all doing good??
I'm back since 8 weeks now and I didn't have any time to write.
It's really sad, because I wanted to do it all the time, but I've been too busy. Now school started 4 weeks ago and I have even less time.
Every day during the week is planned out, but luckily I don't really have long school days. I'm back to dancing and so happy about that!!
I also started theory lessons for my drivers license 3 weeks ago and already had 6 lessons.

(ahh have to change everything because I already wrote this text 2 weeks ago on the train, but didn't have time to type it until now...) but nevermind... the original:
"I'm on the way to Cologne for a Returnee Party from my organisation. I'm quiet excited to meet a few of my German friends, I met in New New Zealand."
In fact it was great... we were dancing and talking all night :D

The trip with my family has been great, but I'll do an extra post about that (it probably has to wait a little because we did so much and I don't have time to write all that at the moment.. sorry about that before hand!! )

When we came back my family and friends welcomed me at the central station and I spent the next weeks meeting all my friends, charing stories and showing all these amazing photos (all in all I took about 31,000!!!!! :D hahaha so it took a while to show them all ;)).
Still everyone is asking how it has been, how I liked it, if the people were nice etc.
I can just say for myself:

It has been the most amazing, stunning, inspiring, great, funny, exciting year of my life (and I hope more are to come ;)). I met soo many nice, fantastic, funny, awesome people and I will never forget them and I hope I can keep in touch with everyone...
This will be hard, especially when I start my exams and the project that will count as my 5th mark in my A-levels.
That's why I'll try to continue this blog, so that I don't feel too guilty about not answering you all with one of my looong messages (you just have to be happy with short ones) ;)

I hope this blog will go well and I hope someone will/ might read it...
It's also for me to keep up with my English, because I already notice my spoken English is getting a little rusty :(
I still read and watch movies in English, but it's just not the same like speaking and thinking in English all the time. I really miss that!!!
Oh and please correct me when I'm making some big mistakes!! Thanks :)

Okay, back to my experience in NZ.
I just want to tell everyone how much I loved this year, to animate the peole that have the same opportunity to experience a different country and lenguage.
It's the best thing you can do if you have the cance and you have a little self-confidence (you should have seen me before I left... so damn shy and really not confident about myself...).
I learned so much in this year and I mean no one can ever take these memories and great experience away from me. I wouldn't have been able to change that much (for goog I suppose), if I would have stayed here for the year.

You don't even have to leave for a year! It's hard in the beginning and everyone is diffrent about settling in.... I've been homesick for the first 3-4 month I guess, but you get to live it.
I think 3 month is not quiet enogh, because you are slowly settled in after that, found new friends, really enjoy school, get into the new lenguage (no matter where you go.... for French, Spanish, English etc.), feel like home and then you have to leave again!
So I think you should at least stay half a year or more, what ever you can afford (I know something like this is very expensive!!) and how long you think you can stay away from home.

New Zealand has just such friendly people!
No one in Germany would ever thank the bus diver, would ever be that helpfull if you look lost, would ever greet you on the street even if you don't know them. Most Germans are quiet stressed, look grumpy and would just mind their own thing. Some are nice and helpfull, but it's just not the same like with Kiwis!! I miss all the open hearted, easy-going, friendly atmosphere with other people!!
I guess you dodn't have to go that far away to experience something new, a change and get lots of experience.
Depending where you live and what you'd like to get from this exchange. People, nature, school, lifestyle is different in every country. It changes more or less, depending on what you are used to.

So take your chance (but just if you want to do it.. not because your parents want you to do it ;)) and get your own great experiences and memories in other countries! I can just recommend it :)

New Zealand Pancakes

Scones with jam and cream

Skittles!!!! love them :D

Soooo.... it's weird to be back here... first I expected everyone around me to speak English.... and I always wanted to talk to everyone in English, but I guess I got over it now ;)
BUT!! The day before yesterday (yesterday was a public holiday - the reunion of Germany) I finally got to talk English again (except from school), with a man on the tram (who asked me why my English is so good!? ahhhh :D)... afterwards my boyfriend and I talked English for a while, which was quiet fun!!!
The bad news are I have a tendovaginitis (not sure if it's the correct English word..) sine 2 1/2 weeks...

I'm really busy with school now and all the exams will start soon after the next holidays in 2 weeks (& 1 day), but I'll spend one of these weeks in London!!! I'm so excited to go there again and I want to see soo much. I went in 2010 for the first time and it was just great!!
Will tell you everything about the trip when I'm back ;)

Since I'm back I still haven't finished decorating my room, but it already looks really comfy I think ;)
I love being home, because I finally have all my cloths back, my friends & family and our big garden (sadly it's raining all the time now... so I'm not keen on going outside if I don't have to ;)).
Although I miss New Zealand and everyone there lots!!! I've been feeling homesick a few times already :(

So flowers from our garden:



Will never forget NZ!! ♥

 

hmm... what else... I've no idea...
Will just post the next time when I have something more to write about ;)
Just tell me if you have any questions about... Germany, Bremen, myself etc!

See ya soon
Lea  ♥

International Program - Lots of fun

Wednesday, 2nd November 2011

Kia Ora :)
Ahhhh now I haven’t written in a month :( Need to tell you quickly now what all happened.

We’re officially the winner of the Rugby World Cup :D (Okay since a month and not really big news if it was in the German newspaper already). The Kiwis bet the Wallabies with 9:8 after an exciting match (not the Kiwi’s best) and took the Cup home. What an exciting evening that we celebrated with Pavlova and fireworks.

On the 1^st November was the last official school day, the Thursday we had only 1^st period and then the last assembly to farewell year 13. From now on I have 3 MONTH of holidays!!!
Or more or less 3 month, more likely 2 and one month full of fun and trips :D
To welcome the holidays we went swimming after school, the first time in the sea… it wasn’t that cold. Even if I’m usually the one that doesn’t want to go in I forced everyone this time :D
After we urgently bought some shoes we went to Senior Prize Giving… After someone told us that we don’t have to split up into years and houses (if I haven’t told you yet.. we have houses like in Harry Potter :D), we finally started. It was a really nice evening with a few tears and lots of cheering :)

Because I hadn’t planned anything for Friday I spontaneously went swimming with my friend J. and in the evening went to a bonfire with fireworks... and grilled gummy bears :D

On 5^th November was Guy Fawkes Day, a day to celebrate (because Guy Fawkes didn’t manage to blow up the parliament), so we bought lots of fireworks and lighted them all that night… sadly you can’t buy fireworks for New Years Eve (only if you saved them or you go to Auckland to watch the big fireworks) :( so a New Year without rockets…

„Remember, remember the Fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot;
I know of no reason why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.“





In the following week we made a photo book and on Monday we had a fun ‘end of year lunch’ with all the internationals :)

My favourite internationals ♥

Last week from Monday to Wednesday we went camping in Pakiri. Our toilet was a little hut with a hole in a wooden box… therefore really nice... and that’s what it smelled like :P
The shower wasn’t too bad, at least we got water and if you were quick it was even warm from the sun :D
Otherwise the camp was pretty… awesome :D with bonfire, swimming in the sea with huge waves and an hour horse riding :)
But you really didn’t need the Sandflies… nasty things -.-

Pakiri Beach

Our tent site

Thursday was a free day and on Friday we went shopping… with 40 and more people :D we should do that in Germany as well ;)

The weekend was really relaxed with reading, doing nothing and watching X-Man with my hostfamily.
Today we went to the Kauri Museum, for some not that interesting but I liked it :) The way was the best on the whole trip, because NZ showed the best of it’s nature again ;)

See ya Lea ♥

Busy but still alive

Monday, 24th October 2011
Kia Ora :)

I actually don’t have that much to talk about, but I thought I’ll just show you I’m still alive.
The holidays are nearly finished, just today and tomorrow left. Then we have school again, but only for 1 ½ weeks :D

I actually wanted to spent most of my free time on the beach, but the weather wasn’t good enough -.-
Therefore I spent my time at the movies :D Hahaha
We watched ‘The Three Musketeers’, ‘Footloose’ and ‘Johnny English Reborn’ ;)
I went to a birthday party and had a sleepover at a friend’s place.
Sadly we had to say good bye to some friends, who should have arrived in Germany and the rest of the world already and who we’ll miss here…

Last week we had Japanese Festival in Orewa as well :)
We watched a Tea Ceremony and drank (disgusting) seaweed tea *ugh*
We made Origami, learned how to write our names in Japanese and did Yo-Yo fishing (to fish water filled balloons out of a water pool with a paper hook ;)).
Later on we watched a show with massive Japanese drums and bought some other things :D
The best thing for me was wearing a Kimono :)

Okay, what else?!
The All Blacks bet Australia and are playing France in the Final tonight.
Australia won against Wales and got the third place, so tonight it’s about the cup.

 GO THE ALL BLACKS!!

That was it for now. I’m going to tell you later on if we smashed them!!
Now I’m going to enjoy my last two days of holiday.

See ya :)
Lea :)

Holidays

Sunday, 9th October 2011

Kia Ora lovely people!

Firstly I’m sorry that it’s nearly a month again that I have written something…

The reason for that is, that the last month wasn’t that interesting to write a new post about.

 We have HOLIDAYS since Friday!! Even if I’m not as excited for the holidays as usual. It’s probably because school is so much fun over here and I’ve no idea what to do in all my free time. Some of the internationals are leaving… so on Friday we were crying a bit already :(

After school it was so hot, we had to buy some ice-cream :D afterwards I went to the beach with my Japanese friends and really enjoyed the day.

After the holidays (9.10.-24.10) we have one week and Monday and Tuesday of the next school week left. The Wednesday is our last school day, so everyone’s gonna go crazy and we probably finish after lunch. On Thursday we have Price giving and from there on the exam time begins. Therefore we don’t have school ;)

Our really awesome Judy organized some trips for us during that time. I’m going to go on each one of them except three (I already did two of them) so my month is going to be like this:

  7.11 - 11.11: Photobook & IELTS (Englisch lessons)

14.11 - 16.11: Camping in Pakiri

18.11: Sylvia Park & Movies (no idea what that is :D)

21.11: Kauri Museum (riesige Kauri Bäume bestaunen)

22.11: Paintball *yaaay*

23.11: Tiritir Matangi (some kind of island with lots of native birds)

25.11: Te Hana Marae (a Maori village)

28.11: Piha (Beach)

29.11: High Ropes

30.11-2.12: Cooking :)

So my next month is quiet busy.

Afterwards we have to go to school three more times and from there on we have holidays until 30^th January :) Therefore 9 (or 10 if you count the Wednesday) days of school left this year… shall I be happy about that??

Today the weather was beautiful again so I decided to go for a walk, that finally finished after 3 hours :D Haha that happens when you walk around Orewa River.

Okay have to go, watching Rugby :D
Go The All Blacks!!

Sunny regards from New Zealand
Yours
Lea

R like Rugby World Cup, Rotorua and Rafting

Tuesday, 13th September 2011

Kia Ora,
the weekend is over and a new school week starts.

I enjoyed my free week with sleeping in and just doing nothing. After I had my two hours art on Thursday, we went to the beach with this beautiful weather and there we got sunburned for the first time -.-

On Friday it finally started: the Rugby World Cup 2011 in New Zealand and I'm taking part :D
Therefore we went to my hostfamilies friends to watch the fireworks and it was just amazing. Meanwhile in Auckland the biggest party New Zealand has ever seen started and even on TV it was fantastic!! :D
Sadly we missed the Haka and the first minutes of the game, because we got in a traffic jam after everyone wanted to leave at the same time.... Nevermind, the game was amazing and we won against Tonga 40 - 10.

On Saturday I had to get up early again to be at school on time. From there we went about 4 hours in a Van to Rotorua. In Rotorua we got picked up and got our wetsuits. Our guide told us how to react and what to do, how to hold the paddle, when we have to paddle forwards or backwards and how to sit in the boat.
There we go.... the first waterfall was around 2.5 metres, the second on 2 metres and the last one around 6 metres high :D I was so glad that I didn't fall out off the boat or we flipped over!!
However two of the boys fell out after we smashed into the wall :D
But otherwise it was great fun and the weather was nice as well.

After that we went into the Gondola and up the hill, just to go down again in a Luge. Everyone who comes to New Zealand should do that I think, it's sooooo much fun :D
We were sleeping in a little hut and after dinner in Rotorua we went into the Hot Pools :)

On Sunday we went to Wai-O-Tapu a thermal 'city', where we watched a Geyser breaking out (hope you can say that in English??), saw some Mud Pools and sulfur pools. Actually really interesting (even if it's smelly) if it wouldn't have been raining that heavily and we wouldn't have been soacking wet :(

Auckland Skyline



Rotorua from Gondola

Wai-O-Tapu Artist's Palette

Lady Knox Geyser

So a really good but wet weekend.
Beginning of the week it was still raining and I hope we'll have some sun soon ;)

Greetings from wet New Zealand
Lea ♥

About traffic, busconnection and the daily life

Monday, 5th September 2011

Kia Ora :)

I'm already in New Zealand since 6 weeks and time passes by so fast (okay I write that in every post, but it's true). It feels like it has only been 2 weeks since I'm here.

Unfortunately I still don't know when I'll be going home, because my parents can't book a flight yet. But I guess it's around 11 month left (or a little more).

The weather this week wasn't that nice, lots of showers and rain. At least last weeks weather was gorgeous, so we spent the weekend on the beach. On Sunday we finally went to (the beach of) Red Beach. The beaches here are just amazing and this fresh salty air. I'm gonna miss that so much when I'm back home!!

Orewa Beach

Red Beach

On Friday I went out for dinner with some friends and yesterday I went to Auckland. Because it takes us about 1 hour to get there, we left at 10am and were driving through Auckland for another 1/2 hour before we got to the Outlet (Dress Smart in Onehunga).

The traffic here is just horrible sometimes!! You have to wait hours for the traffic lights just to stop 20m further again at another one.
Then there aren't traffic lights at each crossing and sometimes I'm really scared of getting run over by a car that come around the corner, when I cross the street.
So a pretty dangerous way to school :D
As well as the people on bikes who don't have a bell or ask you if they can pass, no the just drive past you how they want... left or right and you get narly run over again ;)

Another hting that annoys me: the bus connections! If you miss your bus you have to wait an hour for the next one (at least on the weekend, but when do I take the bus during the week??). Most of the times the busses aren't on time and we once had to wait for the bus for 20min, just to miss the second bus we had to catch -.- As well you have to somehow understand the bus timetable, which doesn't even has my busstop on it, so we have to look it up on the internet each time.
There is a positive thing as well: all the busses have a ramp for weelchairs (which most of the German busses don't have), just needed to notice that ;)

Last Thursday we went to the Wavebox in Albany. There you can surf on produced waves (wet) or on a surfsimultation (dry). Of course I didn't go in the water (even if I regreted it a bit afterwards).
You could climb on the walls, go down a massive slide or play pool as well. The surfing was still nice and fun to watch. It's obviously not that easy to stay on the board (I couldn't even stay on a surfboard with real waves for more than 5 seconds) :D

This weeks we have 'Mock Exams' (final exams) at school and the Internationals who are here since 3 month now don't have to write then, therefore we are off for one week ;)
However my art teacher said we can't do exams so we all have to come to school for 2 hours to finish our paintings. Therefore I have to come to school on Thursday, not happy... but it's art ;)

Oh and I booked my South Island tour and I'm sooo looking forward to it (even if it's in January) :D *yaaay*

Nearly forgot: 'HAPPY FATHERSDAY'!!! Thats today in New Zealand, as well as my hostbrothers birthday.
So we went to Auckland with the whole family to have a walk in the harbour (yeah sounds interesting :D), because they built all kind of things for the Rugby World Cup. There is a massive Rugby ball (from England) next to the Ferry Building and a big hall behing it, to party after the games :D

It starts in five days and whole New Zealand goes crazy, because it's RUGBYTIME!! :D
Go the All Blacks!!

Rugby Ball in Auckland Harbour

Regards from New Zeland, that finally gets some Spring ;)
Lea J

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Oh and I changed my blog layout, I hope you like it?!
I really need to catch up with my posts... don't wanna write them all when I'm back home ;)