I recently returned from a class trip to Scotland. In Germany they have what is called a “Project Week” for everyone in the 12th class. Its supposed to be an “Abschluss feiern” (literal translation “finishing party”) as everyone will be doing their big exam in the 13th year, but it doesn’t really make a hell of a lot of sense considering they all still have 2 years of school left. Doesn’t matter what I think though, just a bit of a background insight to the trip.
In the Project Week we were given 3 choices of trips; Scotland, London and Italy. Well considering I have already been to London (got the accent down pat too, thanks to all the old British films force-fed to me by my many cousins) and to Italy (and to France, Egypt, Luxemburg, Holland, Switzerland etc te he he) I figured Scotland would be good to add to the list. Plus I like laugh at the men wearing sk…umm...the traditional kilt.
So the plan was to take a bus from Berlin to Amsterdam (a full day driving) and from there a night ferry to Newcastle and then to Scotland with the bus. Sounds nice and simple but we need to add in what can only be described as the “German factor”. See, Germans need to have a plan. No matter what they are doing, there has to be a plan involved. Whether it’s going for a walk or going for a drive, there needs to be a map, a spare tyre/pair of shoes, 2 sets of clothes appropriate for different weather conditions, and at least 2 friends need to be informed of where they are going and when they are expecting to return, therefore guaranteeing the quickest possible search and rescue launch if anything were to happen. (Luckily my host family are not like that at all, are much more relaxed. So much so that we usually don’t bother informing the 2 friends.)
After 7 odd months living here I still haven’t managed to fully grasp the concept of this whole planning thing and often get a bit of stick for my relaxed, “she’ll be right” attitude. (There is a point to this whole rant, its coming!) So the German factor struck again about 2 weeks before the trip when I was chatting to some girls from my class about how long the bus trip would be. They asked me who I was sitting with on the bus and I said I’d see when we left. They looked a bit shocked at that and then explained to me that I needed a plan. They had a plan, a plan that had been formed about 6 weeks before the trip was supposed to start. It seems everybody else had a plan too, as everyone I asked already had a “Bus Buddy”. I personally found the whole thing a tad ridiculous and, in the end, a bit annoying as over the whole 5 days you were expected to sit with the same person, in the same seat and talk to the same people (i.e. the ones surrounding you). Only on the last day did I manage to break tradition and even then it was only because my bus buddy fell asleep over the 2 seats, leaving me seatless. But I’m getting a bit ahead of myself here, back to the beginning.
So as you can tell, I managed to acquire a bus buddy and on the 7th of October at 6:30 a.m. 42 of us met with our suitcases and passports and chose the seats that were to be ours for the next 5 days. So began the 7 or so hour bus trip. Not very eventful really, just driving. We watched a film in German which is always fun and stopped every couple of hours for a public toilet break…again always fun. The problem with the public toilet system in Germany is that you have to pay up to 80 cents just to sit on a not-too-sanitised toilet seat on which many have sat before you, do your business and leave. Whereas in the clean green fields of New Zealand you get to do the same thing but for free! In fact, it’s more then likely that the New Zealand public toilets are actually that little (but very significant) bit more hygienic because everyone tries to avoid them as much as possible. This is due to the fact that we all assume that they will be disgusting because they are free and therefore must be “pretty budget.” On the other hand, everyone in Germany assumes that the public toilets will be in good condition because you have to pay to use them. This ensures maximum usage, thus producing the consequences of maximum usage (I won’t indulge in the details). And the clever thing about the whole concept is that by the time we see the state of the toilets, we have already paid and so are unable to back out of the deal.
The next leg of our journey was with the ferry that we nicknamed “Titanic”. It was a massive thing with 3 or 4 restaurants, a night club, a sports bar and a café with a kid’s room. There were 4 of us to a cabin (which were absolutely tiny) and we basically had free reign of the boat. The next day was my birthday and so I decided to stay up till midnight just to see the dawn of my 18th year. In the night club they had a very good live band so we hung out there for the night, sometimes dancing when a favourite song came on. The real bugger of the night was the fact that the teachers said we weren’t allowed to drink any alcohol, not even a beer. Considering the fact that I was turning 18 and I wasn’t even allowed to have a “prost” it was a bit of a downer. It wasn’t made any easier by the fact that the 3 teachers were sitting in the corner of the club keeping an eye on us. So I ordered a Pina Colada without alcohol in it and gave them a sweet smile when it arrived. Whether they saw me or not I don’t know, but they didn’t say anything.
It was getting closer to midnight and most people had gone to bed (as far as I was aware anyway). The few that were left were there for me which was really cool and we all kept checking our watches. Next thing I knew the band had finished a song and were telling the crowd that it was my birthday and sung Happy Birthday to me! I looked around for the culprit and all of a sudden there were heaps of people from my class that had snuck in without me seeing. Luisa gave me a card that everyone had signed and a Big Ben money box from the teachers. Everyone gave me a hug and said Happy Birthday…it was really amazing!
The next morning at breakfast the teachers congratulated me and those who weren’t there in the night came and gave me a hug. It was a fantastic beginning to what turned out to be an absolutely fantastic week! We visited a couple of castles the first day and then travelled to the small town of “Tulibody” where we were to be collected by our host families. It was absolutely hilarious for me watching my classmates waiting. The way it worked was that we had groups of 2 or 3 and then would be in a host family together. For me, it was just yet another host family to meet and greet (the Scottish were my fifth) and its almost second nature now but at the same time really tiring. It will definitely be good to get back to original family of Blankenbyls in January, but not a day before I have to! Anyway, back to the bus. Everyone was really nervous and every time a new car pulled up, every single person watched with a very worried look as the people climbed out and claimed their pair. What was the funniest though was the whispering that went on when the host parents got out of their cars and we got a good look at them. Immediately people would turn to their neighbours and remark on whether or not they wanted that particular host family. It was fair enough too, if you were to judge people purely by what they looked like; there were some pretty interesting characters that made their way over to the scared-looking group of German students (and me). So eventually everyone was distributed to their respective houses and were left to see if they had luck or not with their host families.
On the second night in Scotland, we arranged to meet up and go to the local pub, thus contributing to our Scottish educational experience. At 7 we met up at the bus stop and the plan was to head to the pub when we were all there. After waiting for a while half the group got fed up and went off to do their own thing while the rest of us stayed there and waited for the others. Eventually they showed up, followed by about 20 kids. “Kids” being the age of 10 or 11. When the kids saw the rest of us they kept their distance a bit and stood there looking menacing. But hey, they were just kids right? We all kinda laughed a bit at them and then headed off. As we walked up the hill, doors of various houses opened and more kids slipped out into the night. We looked around a little nervously but even so, I couldn’t help but laugh, with the scene reminding me of movies I had seen. The leader of the pack of kids started yelling something at us, looking back at her friends every so often to see if they would laugh at her comments. They started to get closer and we did our best to ignore them. We crossed a road and suddenly they stopped and just watched us walk away. It seems we had left their turf. So, a little relieved, we arrived without being mauled at the Scottish pub of the village. We all pushed our way in and took up 4 tables, giving the pub the impression of being very full. Being the resident English speaker of the group, I suddenly had a lot of people calling my name asking if I could order for them. That’s where it got interesting as I am terrible at switching from English to German all the time. So began a very chaotic evening of me translating, ordering and basically playing bartender. Was lots of fun though and was good to be in a friendly New Zealand-like pub again.
We eventually all moved into the room next door so we could fit and asked for some music. The lady gave us the cds to choose from and so Tom Jones blasted through the speakers. It was a good night with lots of good people.When we headed home we were once again struck by the Killer Kids. This time they were armed with eggs. Under attack we tried to stay cool but ended up running for the hills, with me cracking up the whole way. We swore that next time we wouldn’t be caught off guard and so the next night I brought a couple of eggs from my host mum, just in case. (Un)Fortunately, there was no sign of the Killer Kids the next night and so I didn’t have a chance to use them.
Over the week we visited various different castles and also the Whiskey Distillery from “The Famous Grouse”. Having the bus with us the whole trip was really good because it meant we could leave what we wanted in it when we went places and didn’t have to lug everything around. All together the group of us would have taken over 1000 photos of the same thing and now a night is being organised so we can look at them all!
On the ferry back the teachers gave up when they saw the waiter approaching us with a load of 4 euro beers. The band was not so good this time so we all made an appearance at the sports bar where they had a dj and were playing the usual techno songs that are really good to dance to up to a certain point. Anyway, the conclusion to the night was getting one of the teachers to dance with us. He needed 4 or 5 beers before doing so but he did it and we all cheered him on.
The trip itself was not hugely eventful but I got to know lots more people in my class and things are looking much better school-wise. Enjoy the photos!
In the Project Week we were given 3 choices of trips; Scotland, London and Italy. Well considering I have already been to London (got the accent down pat too, thanks to all the old British films force-fed to me by my many cousins) and to Italy (and to France, Egypt, Luxemburg, Holland, Switzerland etc te he he) I figured Scotland would be good to add to the list. Plus I like laugh at the men wearing sk…umm...the traditional kilt.
So the plan was to take a bus from Berlin to Amsterdam (a full day driving) and from there a night ferry to Newcastle and then to Scotland with the bus. Sounds nice and simple but we need to add in what can only be described as the “German factor”. See, Germans need to have a plan. No matter what they are doing, there has to be a plan involved. Whether it’s going for a walk or going for a drive, there needs to be a map, a spare tyre/pair of shoes, 2 sets of clothes appropriate for different weather conditions, and at least 2 friends need to be informed of where they are going and when they are expecting to return, therefore guaranteeing the quickest possible search and rescue launch if anything were to happen. (Luckily my host family are not like that at all, are much more relaxed. So much so that we usually don’t bother informing the 2 friends.)
After 7 odd months living here I still haven’t managed to fully grasp the concept of this whole planning thing and often get a bit of stick for my relaxed, “she’ll be right” attitude. (There is a point to this whole rant, its coming!) So the German factor struck again about 2 weeks before the trip when I was chatting to some girls from my class about how long the bus trip would be. They asked me who I was sitting with on the bus and I said I’d see when we left. They looked a bit shocked at that and then explained to me that I needed a plan. They had a plan, a plan that had been formed about 6 weeks before the trip was supposed to start. It seems everybody else had a plan too, as everyone I asked already had a “Bus Buddy”. I personally found the whole thing a tad ridiculous and, in the end, a bit annoying as over the whole 5 days you were expected to sit with the same person, in the same seat and talk to the same people (i.e. the ones surrounding you). Only on the last day did I manage to break tradition and even then it was only because my bus buddy fell asleep over the 2 seats, leaving me seatless. But I’m getting a bit ahead of myself here, back to the beginning.
So as you can tell, I managed to acquire a bus buddy and on the 7th of October at 6:30 a.m. 42 of us met with our suitcases and passports and chose the seats that were to be ours for the next 5 days. So began the 7 or so hour bus trip. Not very eventful really, just driving. We watched a film in German which is always fun and stopped every couple of hours for a public toilet break…again always fun. The problem with the public toilet system in Germany is that you have to pay up to 80 cents just to sit on a not-too-sanitised toilet seat on which many have sat before you, do your business and leave. Whereas in the clean green fields of New Zealand you get to do the same thing but for free! In fact, it’s more then likely that the New Zealand public toilets are actually that little (but very significant) bit more hygienic because everyone tries to avoid them as much as possible. This is due to the fact that we all assume that they will be disgusting because they are free and therefore must be “pretty budget.” On the other hand, everyone in Germany assumes that the public toilets will be in good condition because you have to pay to use them. This ensures maximum usage, thus producing the consequences of maximum usage (I won’t indulge in the details). And the clever thing about the whole concept is that by the time we see the state of the toilets, we have already paid and so are unable to back out of the deal.
The next leg of our journey was with the ferry that we nicknamed “Titanic”. It was a massive thing with 3 or 4 restaurants, a night club, a sports bar and a café with a kid’s room. There were 4 of us to a cabin (which were absolutely tiny) and we basically had free reign of the boat. The next day was my birthday and so I decided to stay up till midnight just to see the dawn of my 18th year. In the night club they had a very good live band so we hung out there for the night, sometimes dancing when a favourite song came on. The real bugger of the night was the fact that the teachers said we weren’t allowed to drink any alcohol, not even a beer. Considering the fact that I was turning 18 and I wasn’t even allowed to have a “prost” it was a bit of a downer. It wasn’t made any easier by the fact that the 3 teachers were sitting in the corner of the club keeping an eye on us. So I ordered a Pina Colada without alcohol in it and gave them a sweet smile when it arrived. Whether they saw me or not I don’t know, but they didn’t say anything.
It was getting closer to midnight and most people had gone to bed (as far as I was aware anyway). The few that were left were there for me which was really cool and we all kept checking our watches. Next thing I knew the band had finished a song and were telling the crowd that it was my birthday and sung Happy Birthday to me! I looked around for the culprit and all of a sudden there were heaps of people from my class that had snuck in without me seeing. Luisa gave me a card that everyone had signed and a Big Ben money box from the teachers. Everyone gave me a hug and said Happy Birthday…it was really amazing!
The next morning at breakfast the teachers congratulated me and those who weren’t there in the night came and gave me a hug. It was a fantastic beginning to what turned out to be an absolutely fantastic week! We visited a couple of castles the first day and then travelled to the small town of “Tulibody” where we were to be collected by our host families. It was absolutely hilarious for me watching my classmates waiting. The way it worked was that we had groups of 2 or 3 and then would be in a host family together. For me, it was just yet another host family to meet and greet (the Scottish were my fifth) and its almost second nature now but at the same time really tiring. It will definitely be good to get back to original family of Blankenbyls in January, but not a day before I have to! Anyway, back to the bus. Everyone was really nervous and every time a new car pulled up, every single person watched with a very worried look as the people climbed out and claimed their pair. What was the funniest though was the whispering that went on when the host parents got out of their cars and we got a good look at them. Immediately people would turn to their neighbours and remark on whether or not they wanted that particular host family. It was fair enough too, if you were to judge people purely by what they looked like; there were some pretty interesting characters that made their way over to the scared-looking group of German students (and me). So eventually everyone was distributed to their respective houses and were left to see if they had luck or not with their host families.
On the second night in Scotland, we arranged to meet up and go to the local pub, thus contributing to our Scottish educational experience. At 7 we met up at the bus stop and the plan was to head to the pub when we were all there. After waiting for a while half the group got fed up and went off to do their own thing while the rest of us stayed there and waited for the others. Eventually they showed up, followed by about 20 kids. “Kids” being the age of 10 or 11. When the kids saw the rest of us they kept their distance a bit and stood there looking menacing. But hey, they were just kids right? We all kinda laughed a bit at them and then headed off. As we walked up the hill, doors of various houses opened and more kids slipped out into the night. We looked around a little nervously but even so, I couldn’t help but laugh, with the scene reminding me of movies I had seen. The leader of the pack of kids started yelling something at us, looking back at her friends every so often to see if they would laugh at her comments. They started to get closer and we did our best to ignore them. We crossed a road and suddenly they stopped and just watched us walk away. It seems we had left their turf. So, a little relieved, we arrived without being mauled at the Scottish pub of the village. We all pushed our way in and took up 4 tables, giving the pub the impression of being very full. Being the resident English speaker of the group, I suddenly had a lot of people calling my name asking if I could order for them. That’s where it got interesting as I am terrible at switching from English to German all the time. So began a very chaotic evening of me translating, ordering and basically playing bartender. Was lots of fun though and was good to be in a friendly New Zealand-like pub again.
We eventually all moved into the room next door so we could fit and asked for some music. The lady gave us the cds to choose from and so Tom Jones blasted through the speakers. It was a good night with lots of good people.When we headed home we were once again struck by the Killer Kids. This time they were armed with eggs. Under attack we tried to stay cool but ended up running for the hills, with me cracking up the whole way. We swore that next time we wouldn’t be caught off guard and so the next night I brought a couple of eggs from my host mum, just in case. (Un)Fortunately, there was no sign of the Killer Kids the next night and so I didn’t have a chance to use them.
Over the week we visited various different castles and also the Whiskey Distillery from “The Famous Grouse”. Having the bus with us the whole trip was really good because it meant we could leave what we wanted in it when we went places and didn’t have to lug everything around. All together the group of us would have taken over 1000 photos of the same thing and now a night is being organised so we can look at them all!
On the ferry back the teachers gave up when they saw the waiter approaching us with a load of 4 euro beers. The band was not so good this time so we all made an appearance at the sports bar where they had a dj and were playing the usual techno songs that are really good to dance to up to a certain point. Anyway, the conclusion to the night was getting one of the teachers to dance with us. He needed 4 or 5 beers before doing so but he did it and we all cheered him on.
The trip itself was not hugely eventful but I got to know lots more people in my class and things are looking much better school-wise. Enjoy the photos!
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Us on the ferry back..JPG)
This is Louisa...not a very flattering photo...
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Anna and I
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Michelle and I...keeping warm with my cool new scarf.
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This is the whole group of us...spot the scarf!
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Umm...I'm no sailor but shouldn't there be lifeboats here???
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Oh, well now my confidence has returned.
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Titanic
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Lexie, me and the boat mascot.
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Elina and I
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Me, Jenny, Elina and Lena. (refer to non-twins in Harry Potter post.)
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Awesome view.
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The Chateau
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Carston, Sebastian, Luisa, Louisa and Christine
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Loch Lomand
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Us in the pub at Tulibody. Recovering after the Killer Kids Episode.
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Caro, Michelle and I at Loch Lomand
Thats it!
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4 comments:
Cool! Thought another blog entry was well overdue :)
My mum would be so jealous!! Its been a lifelong dream to go to the land of her ancestors he he :)
Yea it definitely was...your mum should just go!
Auch aye lassie those wee bairns off the estates are wee shites!!!
you dont write on this anymore...i had to make a blog for german at uni.....i have to write a fairytale now..fun fun
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