AbenteuerZeit (AdventureTime)

My newbies and I went on an adventure to the Kaiser Wilhelm (The Minden Monument) on Thursday. The newbies are Tyler from the USA and May from Thailand.

We rode our bikes to Porta Westfalica and then hiked up the hill to get to the monument. It was so exhausting but refreshing as well - seeming that the way down gave us a fresh cool breeze.

On the way we saw a lake that we have decided to visit more often - maybe swim. We met a lady with a cute dog who spoke with us and showed us the way, listened to a guy on the bagpipes, ate sausage, Hanutas and Tim Tams. We all decided that Thursdays will now be a day where all of us meet up and go and ride around Minden and Bad Oeynhausen exploring places we have never seen and learning new things (also to get a bit of exercise in there).

We took so many selfies and I felt so happy being with them and doing this with them.

Change of Families (09.08)

So today I have changed families again, I am now with the Rademacher's. I don't really know what to think like I am upset because I really like my second family but I was also excited as it is a new family and lastly I feel sort of happy about it as it will make it easier on my old family. With the baby and the moving of house, of course an exchange student on top of that would be very stressful.

It is not normally planned for my exchange, I had to change for certain reasons mostly because it was too much for my old family. However I am really happy with this family. My host father is an absolute film nerd and we watched two movies that night. He has a whole library of movies, in blu ray and 3D, a great sound system and a projector.

My room is in the keller and to be honest I like it, I get my own bathroom which has a sauna and I can do a lot of things by myself like dance like crazy, pretending to act in a zombie apocalypse, paint and basically it is like my own sanctuary. It is good to have a sanctuary in places unfamiliar, places that are not necessarily your home. It helps me think and get reacquainted with my old self back in Australia, opposed to this new person I am living with in Germany.

I would say that I feel like I am a whole different person here, it is not necessarily bad nor good - it is just ... unique? special maybe? I can't quite pinpoint it.

However I am happy with my family: I have two brothers, one older and younger than me and they have a cute dog called Lena but she is a bit shy - I need to spend some time to gain more of her trust.

Baltic Sea (29.06-08.07)

My second host family and I went to the Baltic Sea for the rest of the holidays. It was so great I really enjoyed my time there. We did Stand-up Paddleboarding, Windsurfing, watched movies every night (most of them were in german), ate a lot of snickers ice cream, drank a lot of fritz kaffee and cola and admired the amazing sunsets that nature gave us every night (okay that was a bit corny but I thought it suit well).

I got to spend a lot of time with my host siblings also and I started to become good friends with my host sister and I was really happy about that. I was starting to feel very comfortable with my new family and I was always enjoying myself. Sometimes I would feel a bit ill to do some of the things and sometimes I would feel a bit off, but they were always understanding and gave me time to get into the day.

I enjoyed playing with Charlotte (my baby host sister) a lot and was starting to become very quaint with her. It was a really good holiday and it was fun to take photographs with my host brother.