Week 1: 27/09/15 to 04/10/15

Hobederi all

This sure has been one hectic week, as my fellow exchange students would surely agree. Stepping onto the plane at Tullamarine airport was like no other feeling, the start of an adventure, saying goodbye to Australia knowing that when we come back we will be changed people (with hopefully a lot more knowledge of the German dialect and culture!). From our quick visit to the hot and humid Singapore airport, to finally making our way to our host families homes in the beautiful Bavarian countryside. Those first 48 hours were a whirlwind for me, as it was only my third time on a commercial jet, let alone travelling overseas to a non English speaking country. The language barrier has been a bit of a shock for me, as my over confident "I'm pretty much fluent" attitude about my "mastery of the German dialect" got shattered when I arrived at Munich airport to discover everyone was speaking a different language. That's right, you read it correctly; a different language! for the past week I have mostly had to get Alina to translate for me, but I can feel myself improving. Many times I've gone to ask a question in English and thought to myself "... Hold on, I know how to ask this in German"

We arrived at Munich International Airport at 5:25 am and were immediately thrown into action. Breakfast was a traditional Bavarian sausage called a Weisswurst along with an array of meats, breads and spreads. My host family and I then met up with Zoe's family and off we went, walking up one of the local mountains to a restaurant about halfway up. There we were served afternoon tea, and for the adults, beer. The scenery was amazing, every car trip on that first day, and days to follow, I was glued to the windows in awe.

On Wednesday we were to go to Oktober Fest. Zoe, Callan and I were all anticipating this with excitement. After school (which finishes at 12:55) we put on our traditional wear, for men, Lederhosen, chequered shirt and white socks, and for girls a dirndl with black shoes. We caught the train all the way from Rosenheim to Munich, along with perhaps hundreds of others doing exactly the same thing. As we arrived at the gates of this massive event, I looked out and all I could see was people. People everywhere. Pushing our way through the crowd (some of which had had a bit too much to drink) I began to realise the scale of how big this thing was. Beer tent upon beer tent upon beer tent, all filled to the brim with people. These were no camping tents either, each one fitting 10,000 people. And all this that I speak of was just in the drinking section, let alone all the rides and games filled with flashing lights and loud music, basically 800 ways to spend your hard earned cash. The atmosphere in the beer tents was like nothing I could ever put into words. The feeling of 10 thousand people, all singing and dancing as one, the energy in the room. People bustling, jumping on tables or making out in the corner. The whole experience was just amazing and I will never forget it.

Along with that, I have taken a gondola up to one of the mountains, and visited a ski resort that doubled as a flying fox and luge/summer tobogganing centre during the non winter months. My host family is so nice and I couldn't wish for better people to help me experience this amazing country.

There is so much to write about, and I could go on and on and on. The teachers have told me to try to keep it fairly short though so I better sign off. This first week has been one of the best times of my life. I have learnt so much and I just cant wait for all the new experiences to come. I will leave you with some of the many photos of my time here so far.

All the best, and yours sincerely

Clyde