Arrival

---

Been 4 days since I arrived and just slowly getting used to the differences. So far I have talked to 5-6 people since i arrived that includes Carinas Family. First couple of days didnt really do much just get used to the time zone and have a look around the Village. The roads here are a mixture of tarseal with The "town" bit being cobblestoned road. They are incredibly skinny and the driving here is on par with asians. Dont look and dont care about anyone else but themselves. Althought there is one really stupid rule where you give way to people coming out of streets to your right. Eg your driving straight and the person to your right wants to go left at the T-intersection you have to stop and let them go. This creates some interesting situations when people are driving to fast.
So Far I have been to Oberhausen's CentrO mall which was once the largest in Europe. Went on Saturday afternoon for about a hour and the place was packed easily a couple of thousand people wandering around looking in the shops, was crazy. They have this Hollister shop in there which when they deem it to be too busy they make people wait outside like at a Club inbetween velvet ropes with a "bouncer" being a topless man wearing just shorts. (will try get a photo next time).
Then on Sunday we went to Xanten in the afternoon. This is a old Roman town with quite a lot of it still standing or having been restored. There was a cafe that was from the 1600s and the massive church had a crypt that was a memorial to the concentration camps and the men from the town that had died as martyrs trying to save or hide others. While here we went into a cafe and took Sina ( Carina's) dog inside with us. There we about 3 other dogs just sitting inside on the ground while there owners were eating/ drinking. This was a bit unusual compared to home where the dog just sits outside.
Today and yesterday I went to Carinas school which is also a bit different from home. The rooms all have chalkboards and no whiteboards. The teachers use written notes note computerbased powerpoints and they still use OHPs. A bit weird considering Europe is supposed to be more technologically advanced than us. The school system and marking is much better than ours tho with a range of 6 marks 1-6 with + and -. They get 2 marks one aural and one written which are then added together depending on the points with each being out of 15 and then divided in half for a overall mark. Way better than NCEA.
I've now got a book to learn German from although the whole thing is in German. Including the task instructions. Next week I'm going to visit where i will be working and in the weekend going skiing with another ex international for 2 days which will be heaps of fun. Will try to update this once a week if I do something interesting. If nt then maybe every 2-3.

---