Schnee, Karneval und so weiter....

You probably noticed that I stopped in the middle of telling you about Australia. I got bored. I figured if I was bored writing about it then you all were probably bored reading it too. I know what you really want are the photos but unfortunately they are still not ready. Soon I hope!!

Meanwhile, here in Stuttgart life has been crazy to say the least. My class is going well but it seems to be especially time consuming this time around. Last week I even had to prepare a short presentation about the USA. Now there are just a few more weeks before the course will finish so we wont be slowing down much anytime soon.

Life with my German family is still going well but also very, very busy. Sabine and I have lots of goals, projects and plans for Lara which is wonderful and exciting but requires extra preparation and planning on my part. Otherwise things are great. My relationship with both girls continues to get better. Lara still tries to be the boss with me but I'm not allowing that, which she is learning.

Last Monday was Lara's Birthday which made this a very interesting week. We had a party on Monday with a few of the boys from Lara's class and then another party Wednesday for all the family. It was a very busy week with preparations and people around and a very difficult time for Lara. Changes in her schedule and having so many people around who are not usually there is very challenging for her. It made for a challenging week for the rest of us as well.

This week is the start of Karneval here in Deutschland!! I haven't quite figured out the whole meaning of Karneval and it seems to vary depending on where you are in the country but basically I've established that Karneval means party, costumes, party, party, party and don't forget the costume!! I don't know what more to say except that Germans like to party. But the costume is definitely essential with this one. Very important.

In other news Stuttgart has been completely covered in snow since I've returned from Australia. I think we managed one week where the snow was melting and a few days without snow in sight. I think right now we probably have somewhere around 6 inches of snow in our garden. It doesn't look like the snow is coming down very heavily but I don't think it has really stopped falling in the last couple of days at least. Of course here life doesn't stop like it does at home. Buses and trains still run and don't think that you'll have a day off of school my friends. Life continues as usual around here.

These are some pictures I took last week. This actually looks much better that what is outside now. Here the street and the walkways are clear but that's not what it looks like now.

My house.





Our garden.


That's the cat, Giovanni, running to get inside before I close the door.


That's about all my news for now. I hope you are satisfied after such a long blogging hiatus on my part.

As usual, I miss you all!!

K.

The Alice

And the story continues....

After the Great Ocean Road we enjoyed a long morning at Jens' house. I was still jet lagged and he had just driven all day and all night, we both needed sleep. In the afternoon we took the train into Melbourne and enjoyed an evening in the city. We walked through the city a bit and Jens played tour guide. We took the street car to St. Kilda Beach where we ate some dinner and just enjoyed a nice evening. Then we took the bus out to the airport (we were flying in the morning) and spent the night in a cheap hotel there. Good thing we were so close to the airport because we both woke up late the next morning and had to RUN to the terminal. Just to keep things interesting :D Anyway, we made it there in plenty of time. No worries.

Our flight took us to Alice Springs "The Alice" or simply "Alice", a small city near the middle of Australia. Here I saw the red desert Australia that I had pictured in my mind. And the heat!! Air conditioning was definitely a necessity here. Walking around you will maybe see a few groups of Aborigines but you won't find anyone else until you get to the shopping mall where everyone is taking refuge from the heat. In Alice we went to "Rex's Reptile Zoo" where we heard, and held, some of Australia's reptiles. They even had a Python which you could "hold" but I wasn't about to put that guy around my neck!! Jens and I also went for and evening camel ride. Apparently Australia has a very, large population of wild camels. They were brought to Australia to be used as pack animals and they have thrived. Camel fact: there are only two kinds of plants which camels cannot eat.

From The Alice we took a tour out to Uluru and Kata-Juta. We left at 6am in a big tour bus with a very nice group of only about a dozen, and our two tour guides. The drive was about 5 hours one way and as we drove we also past the Finke River which is thought to be the oldest river in the world, and which rarely actually has water running through it. Along our way, we also passed through Erldunda, the closest town to the center of Australia. These are just some of the facts and information we were given throughout the day by our tour guides. They had lots to tell us about Australia, the wildlife and the vegetation. Some were interesting and some not so. For instance, The Alice only gets 2-3 days of rain in one year, approximately 110 inches, 9-10 of which evaporates. We happened to be experiencing one of those 2-3 days of rain.

Before we actually reached Uluru we stopped and the Culture Center to read a bit about the Aborigines and to eat our lunch. Then onward to Uluru and Kata-Juta. We made many stops for photo opportunities all afternoon as one of the spectacular things about Uluru is the way it changes color and the daylight changes. We also had opportunities to walk around Uluru and Kata-Juta both. We kept an eye out for snakes though while we were walking, Jens was hoping to find one and I was hoping not to!! Interesting fact about Uluru: it is actually turned on its side (the rock layers run vertical) and you only see approximately 4/5ths of the rock while the rest is buried underground.

Our day at Uluru ended with a delicious meal prepared by our tour guides, complete with wine and champagne. We ate there all together with Uluru as our view watching the sun go down. We didn't quite get the perfect sunset photo that you might find on the postcards, but it was beautiful.

Christmas Day in Alice Springs was quiet. That's an understatement actually. Of course because it is Christmas Day everyone should be at home with their families. I've never thought much about it because I've always been at home with my family, but when you're staying in a hostel over Christmas and you would like to go out and eat something somewhere, don't go to Alice. After walking all over the town and finding absolutely nothing open we finally found one little cafe where we could eat. They had a lot of business that day, being the only place open.

From Alice we traveled on to Sydney!!!

Reality Shock

This is literally what I left in Australia......


and this is what I came home to in Germany.



I'm going to try writing this blog now but the jet lag I've felt the last few days has been like being drugged, so we'll see how it goes.

I just arrived, EARLY Wednesday morning after leaving a very sunny Melbourne with 44 degree weather, traveled 29 hours, arriving sometime around 5am, in a snow covered Germany (something like -3 degrees) , with a 10 hour time difference. Needless to say, I've felt a bit shattered the last few days. And I then there is the readjustment to being submerged again in the German language after 4 weeks only speaking English. Its getting better, slowly. :) And of course, it was all worth it!!

FYI, you'll have to wait for the photos because we decided to just use Jens' camera to make life easier. Therefore he has all the photos right now. They're coming!! But I can start by just telling you all the things we did.

It all began when I left Stuttgart the afternoon of December 17th and arrived in Melbourne on the morning of the 19th. The delay, the even LONGER flight, and then lay-over in China were all made a little more bearable by the people I met along the way. I was lucky enough to meet a girl in the Frankfurt airport who was also flying on my same flights to Melbourne. She was a few years younger than me, flying by herself for the first time and she was a bit nervous about it. We talked quite a bit since our plane was delayed a few hours. In China while we were finding our way we also met another guy traveling to Melbourne (German of course) and it just so happened that he was sitting next to me on our flight from China to Melbourne (don't get any ideas, he was on his way to visit his girlfriend). Before we parted ways we also found out that he and I were on the same flights home (how is that for coincidence? even weirder tho is that we again had seats next to each other!).

In Melbourne Jens was waiting for me at the airport and we grabbed some breakfast and coffee for me (very important) and then took the train out to his house which is outside Melbourne in the Yarra Valley. We decided then to take his car that evening and drive to Geelong for the night and get a head start on the Great Ocean Road in the morning. In the morning we set out and began driving the beautiful Great Ocean Road.

In planning our trip around Australia I was pretty excited about seeing the wildlife, most especially Koalas. As we began our drive on this first morning Jens told me that if we were going to see Koalas on our travels it would most likely be somewhere here along the Great Ocean Road. They aren't so easy to find tho because they are usually very high up in the trees and they sleep something like 23 hours in a day. I was determined to find one however. I was literally looking along in every tree along the road for my Koala. And then I saw him!! I was shouting in the car for Jens to stop, to pull over. I jumped out of the car and ran across the road.....and there he was, just sitting in a little tree right at the side of the road, eating away and completely unfazed by us watching him and taking numerous photos. Heuey was so cute!! Eventually tho we drew quite a crowd as every car that drove by stopped to see what we had found. So we drove onward.

We drove all along the coast, stopping for photos, dipping our feet in the water or just enjoying the scenery. I was reminded a bit of Hawaii as we drove. The smell of warm mixed with wet made me think fondly in particular of the Big Island. Jens and I also commented to each other how some parts really reminded us of Scotland's landscape. Maybe we just have a soft spot. In any case, the drive was gorgeous and provided us with lots to see, including the 12(ish) Apostles. We made it to a very small town just past the 12 Apostles where we asked for directions back to the main highway to Melbourne. Our directions led us along roads that gave new meaning to the term 'back roads'. There was absolutely nothing along these roads and hardly any signs to tell us that we were indeed going the right way. After driving a bit it started getting dark and it was then that we turned down a particularly dark road. We hadn't driven very far when we saw two little beady eyes in the middle of the road...our second Koala sighting!! Thankfully Jens reacted quickly and no Koalas were harmed. Of course, then Jens wanted to pet the Koala and pulled over to walk back and find him. I was watching from the car and felt like I was in a bad horror film. With my door open a crack I could see him fading in the dark as he slowly walked back toward the Koala, and then we heard the loud rustling in the trees!!
"Can you hear that Kaija?" Jens was asking me.
"Yeah."
And then, "but that's too big to be a Koala, don't you think."
"Uh, yeah Jens, that sounds bigger than a Koala."
Well, he didn't find the Koala, and we also didn't find out what was making such and noise in the bush. Instead we just continued on our way and made it back to Yarra Valley for the night.

I'll leave you with that much for now and you'll have to check back for more later :D