Maddy’s Report -April 2010

In Australia I always viewed exchange as an opportunity to travel, I’d always wanted to travel, hearing the stories my parents told me about the world made me dream big. When I heard about Rotary Exchange I knew this was perfect for me and I remember Rotary giving us a chance to pull out, I never gave it a second thought though, I knew what I wanted to do and I went for it. Now here, I see this isn’t just about travelling, it’s a huge learning experience, you are starting a new life from scratch, the realization might scare you at the start, but this year is about discovery. Discovering new, interesting friends you would never have met, having close to a second family, but most of all I’m discovering myself, I’ve learnt so much in just these 3 months about myself and how I feel, the problem is I can’t even explain it in words. I see the world so differently now.

THIS MONTH: Lübeck 1

On the 1st April (April Fools) during breakfast my host father told us that the main bridge we were meant to cross was closed due to some construction going on, so we have to go a much longer way. My host mother wasn’t that pleased because it meant we had to leave earlier and arrive later, but she did the research and found us another way to go, just as we were leaving my host father simply said “hehe, April Fools” it was a very entertaining car drive. We arrived in Lübeck earlier than we first thought. 4hours later we were in Oma’s living room drinking tea, the only problem….. we were drinking out of 50 year old cups that Oma and Opa received on their wedding day!!!! And I was pouring the tea!!! I ‘d regretfully told my family beforehand that the oldest church in our town was 40 years old, they all thought this very humorous, so while I was pouring Julia would make sly remarks like:

“Careful Maddy, they’re older than the church in your town”

“Maddy what would my Oma do if you broke them?”

I think I was shaking at some point.

The next day was Friday and Glenn Methven and I had organized to meet up and tour the city with my family. Lübeck is a stunningly beautiful place! The weather was perfect, a clear blue sky with BEAUTIFUL, GLORIOUS, WONDERFUL SUN!!! All in all it was a wonderful day. The next day was Easter Sunday, I thought I would really miss my little brother Jules waking us all up at 6am (we made a rule that it can be no earlier) and looking for Easter eggs, but funny enough I had replacements, Julia’s cousins joined us that day, it was a wonderful day that I will always remember because it meant so much to me, they included me in everything and treated me as part of the family.

Lübeck 2:

On the 16th April we again went to Lübeck to celebrate Oma’s 70th birthday, I made her a birthday collage filled with all the photos I took in Lübeck two weeks ago. It again was an incredible weekend.

Another thing I’ve learnt here- Ich hasse Kunst. I am so incredibly bad at art that I can’t even simply copy a postcard. I do try, I try so hard sometimes but it ALWAYS ENDS UP LOOKING LIKE A 5 YEAR OLD DRAWING, I can’t help it!

On the 24th April I went and participated in my very first protest, it was so exhilarating, being in the atmosphere, It was for Atomkraft, we were protesting against nuclear power, we were to hold hands and see how long the line went, 146,000 people attended, which is amazing.

It was a very long exhausting day but it was worth everything to be. On the 29th April I’ll be on EURO TOUR, and I can not be anymore excited than I am right now. Tschüss Maddy