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Published: September 30th 2007
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Neurrupin
This was downtown Neurrupin Okay so I know I've been slacking on the blog recently but please forgive!
Well I finally had my first rotary function last weekend which I was quite thankful for. On friday afternoon, five other exchange students and myself left for Neurrupin, a small historical town about an hour outside of Berlin for our Rotary orientation. Now I was actually pretty nervous for this weekend because these would be the people that I'd be meeting with all year and eventually experiencing Euro Tour with so first impressions were crucial! Anyways the trip to Neurrupin went by smoothly and we arrived at the youth hostel (which really just reminded me of a university dorm) safe and sound.
Immediately after getting off the bus, we met a whole bunch of exchange students that had already arrived but whether it was the language or the North American connection I somehow clicked with a girl from Carson City, Nevada and spent a great deal of the weekend laughing and talking with her. Once we had met some of the other exchangers we got assigned to our rooms where I stayed with Julia from Nevada, Kat from Australia and Margo from New York, definitely
First night!
Mostly english speaking people haha some nice girls! The rest of the night was spent having dinner and talking with everyone.
The next morning we got up bright and early to take a boat across the lake near our hostel to the small town of Neurrupin. Rotary supplied two guides (one in german and one in english!) to take us around the town to the see the sights. Apparently it had been the sight of a great fire, Soviet occupation and the home of a great German architect! Who knew! Luckily we had nice weather the whole weekend which seems to be a rarity for me in Germany and even got ice cream during our free time. In the afternoon it was back to the dorms for a traditional german lunch, potatoes and ham with gravy complete with saurkraut and a briefing of the rules from the District Inbound Coordinator Herr Loch (translated in english thankfully!).
Saturday night we traveled back by boat to Neurrupin for supper and a bit of a disquo at a nice little restaurent. All of the countries had to do a presentation on their country after supper so some of the South American countries did traditional dances and
Enjoying some ice cream
Left to Right: Julia from Nevada, ME!, Kole from Washington and Daniel from Ecuador music, Japan taught everyone how to do origami and what did Canada do? Of course we (and by we I mean the one other girl from somewhere near Toronto) did the I am Canadian beer commercial speech!
Sunday we took a little walk around the lake near the dorms (and by little I mean an hour and a half hike through the forest that none of us wanted to do) and said our goodbyes after lunch. I dont think I could explain how much fun I had in this blog entry because I've never met so many cool people from all over the world! It has made me just that much more excited to go with them on Euro tour in April and spend all this year together. It doesnt matter whether you're from Canada or Ecuador or Taiwan, everyone seems to have a common interest in having fun and meeting new people which is maybe why it's so comfortable to be around them.
So enough about the exchange weekend! I thought I'd list off some things that I've noticed that are different between here and home!
School
1. There are no morning announcements at school, just a
Julia and I
Love this girl! This was in the boat going over to Neurrupin bulletin on the main. level with club news and upcoming events.
2. No lockers! You take your coat with you to all your classes and your books.
3. You can bring coffee, juice, water or whatever you want to drink to class.. there arent any water fountains!
4. The teachers dress in jeans and pretty much whatever they want, so casual friday everyday.
5. Kids in class actually participate! Can you imagine? haha
Random
1. It's rare to see a dog on a leash in Berlin, you'd think in a city with 3.4 million with cars and buses everywhere that'd they want to keep their dogs on a leash but nope these dogs just slowly walk beside their owners, perfectly well behaved.
2. The movie theaters are assigned seating so once you choose your movie you can choose where you want to sit in the theater too!
3. Feel free to have a beer at the movies too because not only do they sell alcohol in the subway but apparently at movie theaters too!
Prices
1. Alcohol here is cheap, 6 Beckers beers will run you under three Canadian dollars at a grocery store but go to a restaurent and
Exchangers
Left to Right: Germany, Germany, Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela, Chilli, Germany, Ecuador, Ecuador order a cocktail for 5,6,7 Euro so pretty expensive.
2. Going out to restaurents in general is more expensive for me than home.. darn exchange rate!
3. Clothes: 40 Euros for a pair of jeans at H&M and 20 Euros for a shirt so still a tad pricey
Anyways, I have to go watch Deutschland vs Brasilien in the soccer finals on tv! This week I have wednesday off from school because it's the day of German Unity apparently so I think a bunch of exchange students are planning to come down and go to a big concert. Plus this is my last week of German language classes so that's another reason to celebrate! 😊
Again forgive the typos! I love reading everyones comments and messages so feel free to do that! Miss everyone back home and hope everyones doing well! 😊
Tchuss!
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Scott
non-member comment
Soccer (football)
HAHA you're little story at the end reminded me of when I was at the montreal arport and me and thomas decided to go to a restaurant. ANYWAY! this was during the world cup and a game with germany was hapening later that day. The Chef in the restaurant was german and throughout our entire meal you could hear him Chanting "GERMANY!" in the background.