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

________________________________________________

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 ;)

Bremen

Hey guys :)

I was just wondering if you like my blog and/ or have any advices for me (what I could change, what I should write about, what you like/dislike)??? Would be nice if you would just leave a comment ;)

And now something more actual.... I still haven't translated all my other posts, but I thought I could tell you something about Bremen :)

We're the red dot is :D

First you can just google all that :D
Bremen has a population of 547,535 people (november 2010), just because everyone asks me about that and I just can't remember :D
what else??

Kassler, Kochwurst, Grünkohl und Bratkartoffeln - delicacy in Bremen (it tastes better than it looks :D) - Wikipedia

Bremen is a hanseatic city and is located at the river 'Weser' and during the day (or at night time) it's really nice to sit at the medieval harbour 'Schlachte'.
The 'Schnoor' is the oldest quarter in Bremen and the 'Bötcherstraße' is quiet famous as well :)
The centre of Bremen is the Market Square (Marktplatz) with the town hall, 'Bremer Dom' (cathedral) and the statue of the 'Bremer Roland', a knight that protected the city. Close by are 'The Bremer Town Musicians' (Bremer Stadtmusikanten) - the donkey, dog, cat and rooster from the Grimm fairy tale.

Schnoor - Wikipedia

Bötcherstraße - Wikipedia

Market Square



Liebfrauenkirche (church)

City

Bremer Roland

Town Hall

Bremer Dom

Bremer Town Musicians and me with long hair

Does anyone know the story??
I'm too lazy to translate the whole story, but you can read it here if you're interested (I really like the story ;))

http://german.about.com/library/bllesen07dual01.htm

sadly they don't have all the cute pictures like in the books :(

I'm living a bit outside the city centre, and go to school in anoother borough as well :D
We'll go into city for shopping, having ice cream and meeting with friends.
I'm also going (or used to go) twice a week for dancing (Ballroom and Latin) ;)

I acually don't have that many pictures of Bremen... just because I'm used to be there, so I just took a few before I left.

Our soccer club is 'SV Werder Bremen' (I'm not that big into soccer :D) and we even used to have a kiwi soccer player: Wynton Rufer.
And (interesting for me) the 'Bremer Grün-Gold-Club' (Green - Gold - Club) won the world championship in latin formation last year ;) (and theis coach is the owner of my dance club).

We get snow in winter so everything get's beautifully covered in white :) evern if that isn't the best for driving somewhere on the icy streets...
The last winter was one of the coldest with - 20°C at night (glad that I wasn't home), whe it's usually around -10°C.
Probably still to cold for you?! ;)
In summer it gets around 30°C, but we had hotter summers as well with more that 40°C. Some days it's cooler and some it's really hot, so that everyone is lying in there garden (in the shadow of course) or hanging around in one of the open air pools.

We don't have a beach which is really sad, but we can drive up to the 'noth - 'or ' east sea', which is quiet cold the whole year.

I'm living with my parents and my sister, my grandparents and my aunt live in Bremen as well.
The rest of the family lives all over Germany, so I don't see them that often.
We have four big hospitals (why am I writing this??) -one is across the street from my house with a nice park and a runnig track.

When I go somewhere close to my house I use my bike (like our shopping mall, or my friends place, my grandparents house...), otherwhise I use bus and tram :)
We have trains as well, but I don't really use them except when I go to another city ;)

Train Station - Wikipedia

Tram in Red and White - colours of the 'Bremer Flag' - Wikipedia

We have lots of small parks in Bremen, but the ones I sometimes go to is the 'Bürger Park' (biggest park), 'Rhododendron-Park' (obviously with lots of rhododendrons ;)) and the 'Wall Anlagen' (you come along when you walk into the city from some busstops).


Wall Anlagen - Wikipedia

We have a few big events in Bremen:
in winter of course the 'Christmas market' (Weihnachtsmarkt), then during easter holidays the 'Osterwiese' where we have a big fire on easter and around that time we have lot's of small carousels and people selling all kind of food. The biggest event for everyone is the 'Freimarkt' (named the fifth season and the oldest fair in Germany :D) is the biggest festival in northern Germany, celebrated in the last two weeks of October. sooo looking forward to go this year *yaaay*

Freimarkt *__* - Wikipedia

So I think that was it :D If you have any questions about myself or Bremen, just ask me.
I don't bite, I promise ;)

So have a nice evening
Love Lea ♥

About snow and nice weather

Sunday, 21st August 2011

Kia Ora :)

Since today I'm away from home since 1 month, but it doesn't feel that long. That time passes by sooo fast here and the weekend is nearly over. I can't believe that I have less then one year left....

In the last week it was winterly cold and New Zealand got cought in a snowstorm. We had snow in Auckland and it's the coldest winter since 40 years :D
In Red Beach we just had rain and hail -.-
But something like hail is really special here and my host brothers were really excited, because the didn't know it. During lunch break it started to hail again and we were sitting in the library and suddenly everyone ran to the windows to look at the hail!! Hail.. Helloooo??? That's nothing exciting for us, same as snow. We have that every year :D
But on the north island it's a sensation and everyone is going crazy about it ;)
They're complaining that it's too cold and sit in front of the heater, that's what I call winter not 10°C :D

But I' fine with warmer temperatures... I'm glad that the weekend was so nice :)
Yesterday and today we had warm 14°C and the sun was shining beautifully.
Therefore we could enjoy the birthday cake outside and could have a picnic on the beach :)

On Wednesday I surprisingly got a parcel from my family with lot's of Haaaaribo!!!
Last Thursday I went with my NZ Studies- class to the West Coast to go SURFING!!!
It was quiet cold but with the wetsuits we weren't freezing ;)
it was absolutely AMAZING!! :)
I had so much fun and the teacher was great as well. I didn't manage to stay on the board and feel off all the time but I had a great time.
As I'm still here for quiet a while and the it's hopefully getting summer soon, I'll probably be trying to get on a surfboard again :D
Sadly I didn't bring my camera, so I had to use my phone...

The schoolweek was like alsways and passed by as quick as always. I'm getting used to walk to (and back from) school and to life here.
I looooove walking on the beach, so I took some pictures with my friend ;)

I'm going on a school trip to Rotorua in 3 weeks and tell you about that later.

Love
Lea

View from our balcony

Orewa River

Way to the beach

Clouds everywhere :D

Surfing in Muriwai

Away from home since 3 weeks!!

Friday, 12th August 2011

Hey guys :)

Here some news from me, now that my internet is working again *happy*
The first school week was really relaxing.. like everything here :D

On the first day at school we did organisation stuff, got to know the school, talked to some kiwis and made our timetable.

The next day we went to a sheep farm (Sheep World, what else?! xD) and saw one of the shows. How you catch the sheep (with dogs), sort :D and shear them, and we were allowed to feed the lambs *_*
Because we still had time we went in the bush :D
Palms and differnet trees and tropical plants all mixed together :D and it just looks so amazing... sadly all of the pictures are blury because we were half stumbling and sliding over the bridges and tracks ;)

Sometimes you had the feeling of beeing in the tropical rain forest :D and these huuuuge Kauri trees.. aww I just loove this nature ^^

Then on wednesday was our first school day. In the first two hours we went with our buddies through the school (it's soo easy to get lost there :D).
School starts at 8.40am (40 min later than home in Germany) with a 20 min Form Class... sounds interesting?! Hmm.. not really.... if you don't have nice and funny people to talk to ;)
The teacher strats the PPP (Daily Notices) for the day which includes Informations about sports, events and regular school life.
You actually just sit around being bored, talking or nearly sleeping :P
From there the lessons of 1 hour (45 min in Germany) each starts until Interval and later on Lunch.

After 5 hours (of lessons), school is finished at 3.15pm.
After that we mostly go to the beach or walk home straight away.
Around half six/ seven we have dinner, where we chat a little bit (next to eating of course) and after that I already go to bed...
That's how fast a day passes by, then its's weekend and the next we is gone as well.... way to fast.
I can't believe it since today it's already 3 weeks that I'm away from home and in 2 days it's 3 weeks in NZ. From then it's around 12 Month and I'm flying home again.... but that time is not yet.

After I changed my timetable two to three times I have Maori (language of the natives), Art, Catering (cooking and garnishing), Food Tech (cooking and nutritions), Dance (a bit like ballet and free dance), Creative Pattern Making (Fashion, making your own cloth) and New Zealand Studies.
So just fun subjects, that pass by so fast.
In New Zealand Studies we're going surfing on the Westcoast (where the best waves are) and I'm really looking forward to that :)

We have A and B Week here so that the subjects are devided equaly. In Week A we have Year Assembly for me Year 12 and in Week B we have House Assembly. The school has five houses: Blake, Mc Laren, Sheppard, Batten and Nepia (my house), like in Harry Potter :D They're named after famous Kiwis :D

The lessons are really relaxing compared to school in Germany... ;) And the teachers are really easy - going as well.
But school is so much fun, especially if you get to know so many different people: we have Spanish, Brazialan, Italian peolpe, a French guy, a Swedish girl, lots of Japanese, my Czech friend and a few (or more) Germans.
So a good mix next to all the Kiwis.

My hostfamily is still amazing :) The food is sooooo yummy and I'm always eating to much -.-
Therefore I'm going to look for some sport and will go to the gym at school.

The weather is not that bad anymore and it was just raining for two days (in two weeks :D) and it's hopefully getting warmer in the next time, because usually spring starts in September over here (when autumn starts in Germany), we'll see ;)

Hmm.. sadly I was homesick in the last two weeks.. not a really pleasant feeling :( but I already managed to survive one month, how hard can another 12 be??
I already feel home here in my crazy little world (don't worry I still miss my German friends and family ;)).

Last weekend my friend and I went to the Mall, shopping of course :D But we couldn't find the busstop when we wanted to go home, so in the end we had to wait 45 min... Typically us :D
So I don't know what else to say... just going to bed... I need way more sleep here than at home *yawn* Good night!

Sheep dog

Lambs *cuuute*

Kauri Tree

See ya Lea ♥

My hostfamily

Sunday, 31st July 2011

Kia Ora :)

Wednesday we went to the Auckland Museum to watch a 'Maori Performance Show'.
They demonstrated the dances and customs in Maori culture... in the end they did a haka :) That is the wardance from the Maoris, it is performed by the national Rugby team of New Zealand before each game as well. The frighten the other team and get rid of their nervousness... ;)

On Thursday we went to the hot pools in Waiwera, it was actually just a swimming pool with water between 31°C and 48°C. So not everyone was that excited.. but I I enjoyed it... really relaxing :D
The best thing that day was, the way to the hot pools: we stopped at Orewa Beach *__* The beach close to the place where I'm gonna live soon ;) It was sooo beautiful (two pictures in the previous post).

In the evening, my friend and I wanted to go to the beach, but we couldn't find it :D haha we went wrong somewhere and were totally lost - my orientation isn't good at all :P
It was still fun and after dinner my hostmum went with us to the mall.

Friday was our last day in Auckland, so we wanted to go to Devenport to eat Fish n' Chips, but something went wrong with the order.. so we had none...
Therefore we just went shopping another day :D

Yesterday (30th July) we went from the Auckland Museum to Orewa College (my school from tomorrow on) and got picked up there from our hostfamilies.

Like I said before we have two dogs and a cat in the family and I just loove them *__*
Tigger (the cat) slept on my lap, while we were watching Rugby - All Blacks (New Zealand) against Sprinbocks (Australia).
I think the game is quite violent, but it's really popular in New Zealand. My hostbrothers are both playing.

My hostdad is from Holland and can speak a little bit German, but of course we speak English. That works quiet good, but I still have problems with answering...
My room is small, but nice and my hostfamily is great :)
My hostbrother always tells me lots of things I don't know about :D
The food is really nice and way more German then I thought... we had chocolatepudding with ice-cream for dessert ;)

Today we went for a walk with the dogs... and now I have a sore back from that -.-
We went through the par to my school, so that I would know the way.
My hostbrother had to climb on a tree and over a fence to get the ball for the dogs back.. I wasn't that happy about it I guess :D

Walk to school

School starts tomorrow.. for the Kiwis :D We start school on Wednesday and we start at 8.40am (40min later than in Germany ;)). Yaaay I can sleep longer then usually :P
I'm gonna pick up a friend and then we'll walk to school together. On the first day we'll get ti know the school and on Tuesday we're going on a bustrip to see a bit of the area around Orewa ;)

I still can't believe that I'm already here since more than a week... the month will pass by quickly and the following 12 as well ;)

See ya :)
Lea ♥

Finally here!

Tuesday, 26th July 2011

Kia Ora, how the Maoris say :)

I already landed on the 23rd July at 10 am (local time) in Auckland, New Zealand, but I haven't had time then to post something - sorry :(

New Zealand is sooooo beautiful....
One time you have the feeling you're in Ireland, because the grass is so green. Then you see palm trees everywhere and you're in Spain. The other time you see conifers (hope that's the right english word :D) and think of Germany, as well as the houses are really american.
The shopping streets are one store or restaurant after the other - Hongkong.
So everything at once :D

The 22 hour flight was really exhausting, because I haven't been sleeping that much... We had around 3 hours stopover in Singapore and wasted our time and/ or had a shower.
Sfter that we continued the journey to NZ... :)
When we arrived at the airport we had to go through the passport check and the immigration, to wait for our hostparents afterwards.

My hostparent (for this week) are really nice :)
Furthermore I'm here with two other girls, from who one is staying in the family. The other girls is going to Orewa College with me and is living in Red Beach. That made me really happy, because before that I didn't know anyone from my school.

The first day we went shopping and just wanted to go to bed as soon as possible -.-

We managed to keep up until night so that we wouldn't have that much of a jetlag :D
After that I slept as good as I haven't been in a while (especially not on the plane ;))

In our preparation week they divided us (around 96 germans) into groups and each got an English speaking teacher. On monday we 'should' have learned something about school and the schoolsystem.... 'should'... I haven't actually learned something about it.. but nevermind :D
After that we went to the Sky Tower (328 meter high) and had a great view over Auckland on 220m.

We went home later on and spent the whole day in the living room, because there is the only heater. It was 6-9°C and it was raining -.- Winter in the north of New Zealand ;)

Today we were learning about food in NZ and we tried some as well, like L&P, coco-cookies, ice cream and other things. Our teacher brought his drums and was playing something for us until we could have a try :D yeah that's all about food :P

We went to the harbour later on to catch the ferry. Along the Skyline of Auckland we went to Rangitoto, a volcanic island (which volcano errupted the last time 400 years ago, if I was listening properly :D)

So that we can skype in the morning my roommate and I get up at 5am and go to bed at 8pm. After a exhausting long day pretty reasonable ;)

I miss you all sooo much and I was soo happy about the book my friends and family wrote for me and I already had to cry on the plane :'( But I get used to be with all of you guys even if it's pretty hard...

I'll write the next time when I'm with my actual hostfamily and will upload some pictures later :)

See ya and good night (it's already late here)
greetings from New Zealand
yours Lea ♥

Sky Tower

View of Auckland from the Sky Tower

Auckland Museum - Marae

Orewa Beach

My beach for the next year :) yipppie!!