Still in Good ol' Deutschland, not for long tho hehe :D

Hey friends and family (and pets), yes family I DO expect you to read this to Sully and Gilpie :D On Wednesday i’m going on the church Sweden camp for two weeks (that’s half the time I’ve been here! It already feels like I’ve been here forever lol), ekk, thought I’d catch up on the blog before I have a months worth of stuff to tell ya!! Lol............I’m sorry...this is gonna be a long one lol...if you’re really that interested then go ahead but I wont be mad if you don’t read it all haha....

17th July Friday– went painting! Biked it to Eva’s friends house where she had a gorgeous room with paint pots and the walls all painted, so pretty

we painted for bout 2 hours, just watever we wanted, abstract etc. Me and rach were the only people over 10 lol. The little kids all painted the same thing lol, a island with a palmtree on it. Ah dear, I’d like to do an experiment with kids one day, put them all in different rooms and see what they paint as opposed to all together. Afterwards we went to rach’s youth group – deeper. That was really cool. They sung English songs at least haha, and I met a really nice girl called Teresa, she’d been in Australia and loved it and could speak awesome English, I got a free drink from the ‘bar’ coz I was new. They sung songs, had a talk by a cool guy called Stephen (which is a really common name here I’ve realised) but I couldn’t understand a word. And then we watched a movie – ‘No Reservations’, which is in English, but they watched it dubbed into German, and then put the subtitles on for me in English!! Hah it was hilarious. Such a lovely movie too :D. I also met another girl who’s name I forget, but she looked about 18 but was 22, spoke awesome English as well and had just been to Africa translating from German AND French into one of the languages in Africa for her course she’s doing...WOW!!

18th July Saturday- wow. Awesome day. Me, Helmut, Rach and Helge went on a 10k walk to visit 4 castles (or the ruins of what once were castles). We got lost at first and had to climb up a nearly vertical slope argghh I nearly, nearly died lol. But then it was ok and we got to the first castle, so SOOO amazing!! And old and beautiful, a lot of it was still there and you’re able to climb on it and all that. When we were on the top Helmut told me to look over to one side and he pointed at this massive forest in front of us and said once half was France and one was Germany hah. Of course there was no difference, but it was cool standing nearly in the middle of two countries lol. The weather was of course really lovely and then by the time we’d got to the second castle it was completely pouring with rain lol. German summer lol. We then passed another castle and me rach and helge braved the steps (they were steep, wet and slippery lol) up to the top and were rewarded with...mist so we couldn’t see a thing lol, still really cool tho. We walked back, didn’t see the 4th castle coz it was just too wet and we were tired. We had lunch at some random place and then drove to the ‘Thermalbad Baden-Baden’ (like a indoor bathing place, so nice, all heated and with these places you can sit and it’s like a spa but like in a seat in the pool, and spouts of water. Anyway we spent hours there just swimming and mucking around. In the main pool inside there was a mirror on the ceiling so when you were floating you could see if anyone was coming hehe. I don’t have any pictures from it coz you weren’t allowed to bring your camera. But it was really lovely. Afterwards we got an icecream and went home, fell into bed, so tired, some days are just lazy and nothing happens, we just read or play canasta, guitar and eat lol...and then other days about a hundred things happen and you can hardly stop for breath.

19th July Sunday - went to church, nice service, obviously a lot of funny stuff was said but I didn’t get a word lol. A few people were baptised and I realised how similar it is to Australia in many ways. Went home, and had spaghetti was salmon sauce, WOW, so good. I asked Eva if she has a recipe but apparently she just makes it up!! Then Eva and Helmut went out till about 11pm lol and me and rach just played cansta (I spilt milk ALL over the cards and then rach won by about 3500 points) *CRY*

20-22nd July Monday to Wednesday - Monday we went shopping for ‘quickdry’ stuff for Sweden, I got a shirt, swimming top and a rainjacket (which I didn’t have) so that was awesome to get that. Also Eva’s friend lent us both a heap of stuff so we wont have to buy it. We also went blueberry picking in Berg with Eva, her friend that lent us the clothes and also the one we went painting at the other day, Iris. Iris’s daughter and Powl, her grandson, arghhh he’s so so cute I love him hehe. Played some guitar with rach playing piano aww was cool, had a blueberry milkshake hehe sooo yum!! And bike ride with Helge and rach. He had one of those lie down bikes! Very hot lol. Tuesday went shopping in Karlshure for some paint, Eva found the one she wanted and was very excited. Afterwards in the afternoon me, rach and helge went down to the ‘pool’ in Neuberg. We biked it there, it was about 30C!! The pool’s just a massive lake, but the clearest water I’ve ever seen, there were lots of people coz it was so hot but it was just lovely and the water was all sparkly, *sigh*, I reckon I liked it better than a beach. There was a kiosk and we got some icecream (that seems to be all I eat here lol) and then did some German wordfinds haha, we must have looked like such nerds. Lol. Wednesday we got to chop up the old coathanger thing they had coz they were getting another one from Ikea. (which they pronounce Ekea lol). So much fun, got to really hit it lol. Tried to learn rollerblading with helge and rach, I was a lot better than I thought I’d be, I just can’t stop lol. When we got home we watched ‘The Jane Austen Book Club’ on my laptop eating helge’s mum’s wedding cake coz she’d just got married again lol, yum. The movie was awesome I loved it...and in English with German subtitles hehe yay.

23rd July Thursday – went for a walk. Had potato pizza for lunch, so gooood! Want the recipe but they made it up again lol. Practiced guitar, still rubbish but getting better J we had to run over a baby chick that had fallen out of a tree in the driveway with the car coz it wouldn’t have survived and we couldn’t think of a more humane way to kill it, ugh it was sad. We went to a free Barbara Clear concert coz Eva and Rach really like her. I did too by the end, she’s got an amazing voice and guitar skills, mad. Had a funny conversation with some random guy who asked about my ‘fair trade 40HF’ t-shirt that I find myself wearing every second day coz I’ve only got 3 tshirts lol. When he realised I wasn’t German coz rach was translating what he said he’s like “ohh so you’re from down under ay?” (lol everyone calls it down under hehe). Then he went on bout the Aboriginals and that they’re getting in way of compensation for the whole stolen generation and what the government is doing. He seems to be quite informed but it just sounded like he was having a go at Australia lol, which is prob justified since the Aborigines haven’t been treated that great at all and are still disadvantaged after all these years. The rest of the concert was good and she got a standing ovation, and so she should, so good for a free concert in a nice place with comfy seats front row seats!!

24th July Friday – Eva and I left about 9am to go pick wild mushrooms with Dave (Iris’s daughter’s husband) who’s Australian and lives in the Blue Mountains (they just came from Australia to visit Iris) and photographs dogs. He was funny and it was AMAZING to hear an Australian accent after all this time. His was more Australian that mine, was hilarious. We got heaps of mushrooms. The place we went is ‘top secret’ and only Eva knows about it, so there were heaps there. It was in a forest (plantation) and we went up and down the rows of trees looking for the mushrooms. We went back to Iris’s house to show off our findings, Dave declared us the ‘hunters’ lol. Went back home and “listened to Adam and Joe, BUT I listened to the podcast not the live show” (lol lucy I really miss singing that with you all the time, I sing it anyway though lol). We prepared the mushrooms and then went back to Iris’s house to cook lunch together. Was fun, there was about 11 people altogether including Iris and 2 other random guys and the grandma, Iris’s two daughters, dave, helge and rach and eva. Phew. The mushrooms were made into a sauce kinda thing and we had a sort of noodle, but it was different and one of the best things I’ve ever tasted. The food is so so good here. Mmm. Desert was strawberries and cream with chocolates and biscuits. It was funny, we had two Australians and 9 Germans, which was nice coz we all spoke more English than there would have been if just I’d been there lol. Later that night me and rach went to ‘Das Fest’ a MASSIVE festival, mostly young people and lots of loud music and food, and it’s FREE, but you’re not allowed to bring any drink or food in with you. So amazing though, they’ve got quite famous bands playing and it’s free. Soooo many people though, and all drinking and smoking lol. Got on the tram and it’s absolutely packed. Lol some guys must have heard me and rach talking English coz they drunkenly asked me where I was from, I shouted Australia!! And then ran away with Rachel lol. I had to hold her hand the entire time we were there basically coz if you’re not joined onto someone and you’re trying to get through the crowd you lose them lol. We watched a couple of hours of concert, and met up with Helge and his brother and brother’s friend. Went back to a friend of Helge’s place, gosh they were charismatic, hmm not really but there was nice fire burning and we kept warm at least. It was about 12 at night then and we met up with Teresa (from rach’s youth group) back in the Fest and then all drove (6 people in a 5 seater car lol) to Maccas and had a ‘McSunday’ lol for 1 euro. By the time Helge dropped everyone home it was about 1:30am lol. All in all a VERY busy day lol.

- this is me, Rach, Teresa, and Malta's friend all in the back seat of the car ekk lol.

25-26th July – Saturday and Sunday - slept in so late Saturday coz of the night before, eventually went downstairs but Rachel would let me in the kitchen and made me go back up to my room lol. In a while she came up with a tray, she’d made me breakfast in bed nawwww. Bacon and scrambled eggs on bread, tea, natella and jam (not altogether tho of course). Don’t get much better lol. After lunch we went for a bike ride. Well, I rode a bike and Rach rollerbladed. We went down to the Rhine and had peppermint chocolate while watching the ferry go across the Rhine and back lol. I’ve learnt to cycle without hands, a fact I am incredibly proud of lol. There’s so much lovely flat area that I can go really fast and then do it without hands, coz I can’t when I’m going slow. I might even post a video, I’m that proud, seriously...i just always thought I’d be one of those people who would just never be able to ride a bike without hanging on for dear life, or be someone that can skip stones, which I forgot to say I learnt to do the other day!!!! I was literally jumping for joy lol. My best was 5 skips (is that was you call them? Or is it bounces?) I dunno but I was really pleased I’d learnt something hehe. Saturday still at about 3:30pm me, Rach and Eva went to Karlshure and stayed till about 12:30 lol. Me and rach looked around and especially at the ‘castle’ there that I’d seen the last time but not had a good look at We also went around the gardens, which were beautiful and played a bit on a playground

Then we went to Das Fest again, I brought a bag lol for only 2.50 euro :D and it came with little badges saying Das Fest hehe. We wondered round a bit, gah there were so many people, absolutely crazy. Lastly we saw a band, there was no singing, but they had a sax, trumpet, bass, drums and keyboard and were awesome!!!! Everyone was dancing, and it was in this little tent with about a hundred people packed and around gah. On Sunday I woke up at 8, promply feel asleep again and woke up at 10, realising what day it was. Lol everyone except Helmut had slept in and missed going to church. After everyone was up and breakfasted we all went for a bike ride through France and Germany, couldn’t tell when one ended and the other began lol, just assumed we did go through France coz we needed our passports. On the way Helmut told me all this stuff bout WW2 and this ‘pond’ we went to and about the legend of this gold chariot that crashed into one of the rivers you ‘can sometimes see when the moon is full, but if you touch it you die’ hehe. He’s funny. We got ice-cream, I promptly spiled some of it down my shirt, actually down rach’s shirt since I was borrowing her top lol. But it was very very nice, caramel with salt, boysenberry and marshmallow. We biked back and there was this AWESOME path with all these beautiful sunflowers lining one side with the field behind it *sigh* I’m really gonna miss the bike rides when I’m back in the Hills...lol After we came back me, Rach, Helge and Malta (Helge’s brother) went to the fest AGAIN lol...didnt like it this time, too many people. We got up on the hill and had a good view ............. But then I tried to get down again and go for a walk around while helge and rach stayed and listened the main stage, I should have gone straight down the hill because I got squished between people for about half an hour trying to get out, everyone was shoving so much!! Argh...there was a time where I would have fallen over coz everyone was pushing so much but because we were so packed together everyone around me was holding me up lol. Anyway when I got to the gate where I came in to wait for the others to go home there were hundrends of people behind it trying to come in and booing because they wouldn’t let them, I couldn’t understand what the police were saying but I reckon there was just too many people. Lol one guy made a run for it and this quite large security guard went charging after him, I was in stitches lol. THEN a lot started wading through the river that run along the outside of the place Das Fest was held. It was SO funny, people were taking off their pants and wading through and then putting them on again. So gross though coz Sunday was the last day and for three days straight there’s been guys peeing along the side of the river instead of using the stand up toilet things provided. But the guys were being all heroic and carrying the girls across and all that lol. The police came to the bank but fat lot of good they did, they were just laughing and letting them through, I spose if you had to go around for the whole night in wet pants that was punishment enough haha. Finally we got everyone together and went home. Me and rach watched ‘Step Up 2’ on my laptop and ate black potato chips, so good.

WOW YOU MADE IT CONGRATS! And now it’s Monday...and really all I’ve done is pack for Sweden, walk octavio, eat and type this blooming thing up lol. Missing you all heaps, love you all. Mother and father could you please print this off and send to grandma or let her know what’s happening coz I just know I wont have time tomorrow thanks. Hope life in general is going awesomely for everyone. :D LOVE. HUGS. GIRAFFES. God bless, i’ll be back in two weeks :D xoxoxoxooxoxoxoxox

Ps. I had the weirdest dream about Coles turning into this really weird place and I’d just got back and they’d made a really small Coles and then a big one. But it was all really different the registers were really high and strange colours and you could see all these bakers with baker’s hats on behind the registers and other rooms and stuff and you could see the checkout chick through a little hole but that was all. Argh it was horrible...and SOPHIE! Oh my gosh, please don’t ever dye your hair black, because you had!! In my dream and you were this awful goth person and were completely zoned out and I was so worried lol. Ohh and tell Robyn she was in the dream as well, I talked to her for a bit (in the dream) and she was all angry with me coz I hadn’t sent Coles a postcard or something HAHA!!! man it was so real, I woke up scared as. (ohh and friends, I have had dreams with all you guys in it too lol, I’m not just dreaming about Coles haha....it’s just this one was last night and I remember it coz it was so amazing strange).