Melanie Kempton - QLD to Germany

Mon 02 Jul 2007

Melanie Kempton from Trinity Anglican School in QLD has nearly completed her semester program in Germany. Here is her latest news.

Hallo from Germany!

Everything here is going really great. The Scupins are lovely and they have made me feel very at home in their family. During the last 5 months we have made many holidays together, which have all been fun. This weekend we will drive to Brussels and so I am excited to have a look around Belguim.

At Easter time we were in Austria skiing. It was fun, however my family are very experienced skiers and after I had fallen over about 20 times on the first day, I decided to enrol in a ski course. It was fun and I met a lot of other people and we all learnt together! I loved being in the mountains. They are really amazing and beautiful, like something out of the 'Sound of Music'.

We have also travelled to Brunswick and Berlin, where I have gotten to know the extended host family. They are all great people and it was nice experiencing family gatherings, always with lots of food! And I have learnt many new card games from their grandmother.

Last weekend I was in München with some friends from Australia and some of the other exchange students. It was lots of fun, Munchen is a beautiful city with lovely old buildings, castles and heaps of culture. The streets are packed with markets and lots of people sitting outside, drinking beer and eating pretzels, sausages, bread or potatoes. It is very funny and I even saw a number of people walking around in Lederhose which was really great!

School has been a interesting experience. I am in a class with 24 girls and 2 boys, which was strange at first but I have made lots of friends. Everyone is eager to learn about Australia and teach me about Germany. Often the lessons are too difficult for me to follow and so I have really concentrated on learning German in this time....and hope I am improving!

Next week is the last week before summer holidays and everyone is really excited and planning activities for that week in classtime; cooking crepes, going for icecream (with our German teacher) and making breakfast with the class teacher. Again involving lots of food! I love trying new foods here. The amount of cake, cheese and bread is amazing. I think next week I will take some ANZAC bikkies to school for everyone to try, I have already made some for my host family and they turned out ok - all were eaten!

Paris was also an exciting time. It was great to see the city and to spend some time getting to know people from around the world. Sharing experiences and meeting new people has been one of the most exciting things about exchange. You can learnt so much by just talking to people, and I am looking forward to the summer holidays and hope that I can see a bit more of Germany.

My German host family is coming to Australia next month and so I am trying to remember how cold it is there, so I can help them with what to pack. It will be good to show them my home in Australia.

I have really enjoyed my exchange here in Germany and hope I can keep these experiences with me for life.

Thank you and best wishes,
Melanie Kempton