General news?

Since I have nothing incredibly interesting to write about it's general news. I'm thinking maybe the posts will get a bit less frequent until I take a trip somewhere, or at least until I start my English teaching course this coming Friday.

It's already February 1st in Hobart, here it's the afternoon of January 31st but the 1st of February signifies 1 year since I passed my provisional driving licence test. That means I can now drive without the P plate in the front and rear windows, and am only limited by the speed limit of the road, not a max-speed-of-80km/h rule. And for those of you saying I can't drive anyway, I technically can because I got an international driving permit from the RACT before I left. But that just means I can by law, in reality I have no car so you're right in a way. I wouldn't be surprised if I didn't drive this whole year but maybe if a friend with a car is feeling nice... who knows!

Yesterday at work, my supervisor asked me some questions about how I'm feeling after two weeks at the kindergarten. My only real concern was that I am told I should always speak English with the kids, which I said I will do once I've taken the course and begin teaching. But for now I just want to get to know the kids, plus, my German isn't going to become fluent if I am never allowed to speak it, and I really hoped it would become fluent since I'm here for the best part of a year!

QF (abbreviation from now on for quirky fact):
Tomorrow, Camilla and I and possibly Erin are going to a vegan brunch!
(It'd be cool to leave it at that but I should explain; we were invited by a guy called Mischa who is from Russia, also living in Dresden on a gap year, who met Camilla somehow last year and now I know him too. I like the Russian German accent.)

I love Triple J

Happy Australia Day!!
And what does that mean? Triple J Hottest 100 time!!!

So I was obviously really sad I couldn't listen to the hottest 100 at a barbecue somewhere in Hobart. But, I did compensate for it a little.

This morning I got up at 5:30 and at 6:40 walked to the hostel near my apartment and logged onto their wireless internet. I listened to Triple J via their internet stream from 6:45 til 8:10am, which was 4:45 - 6:10pm in AEDST, hoping to hear the thrilling end of the countdown!

I was a bit disappointed that they took so long because I recall number 1 being played last year before 6pm, I ended up hearing from song 16 down to song 5 and then had to run to the tram stop and only just get to work on time.

I predicted Kings of Leon's Sex on Fire would be number 1 and after I left, having found out MGMT's Kids was at 5, I knew Electric Feel would be still to come, as well as another Kings of Leon song, Use Somebody. So that means Kings of Leon and MGMT got 2 songs each inside the top 5! Well done to them. Mostly I was happy with the rest of the countdown that I read on Wikipedia.

I'm in group 11/12 today at work and these kids are a bit older than the kids from groups 3 through 8 that I was in last week, 5-7 years old or so. I find it better in a way, once they get to know me we have some conversations and they show me what English they know. I also read to them from a book about reptiles (in German of course) and had them all enthralled.

On the weekend, Erin was in Berlin and Milly and I played Monopoly amongst other things. It's the newer German version where you can buy things like the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. The money is increased to millions of Euros. Milly ended up winning but at one point I had hotels on all orange and got up over 25 million Euro. But Milly had hotels on other things and I ended up giving her all my properties and cash. Was fun though!

Quirky fact you say? Umm... you know the mobile ringtone company Jamster that has annoying ads on TV? Well in Europe it's called Jamba instead, and sometimes on MTV they have like 10 mobile content ads in a row.
That wasn't a very good one.

More good news...

Again, this post has come soon after the last one so read below as well!

I found out via an e-mail from my parents that my brother was named Dux of Grade 7 of 2008 at his school, New Town High School. Admittedly I didn't know they awarded a Dux at that school, let alone one for each grade. But it's good eh. Kit missed the award ceremony of course, having been in Paris at the time.

Good and bad news

Disclaimer: If you haven't already, still read the post below. I don't want this one distracting from my other real news.

I don't think this really deserves a blog entry but I'm going to be telling a few people about it and it will be easier to just go "read my blog eh!"

This morning, I had my alarm on my phone set to wake me up at 6:50. However, I didn't wake up until about 7:25 when the phone rang. It was my family ringing from Hobart, having arrived home safely. I checked my phone and it turns out that somehow, it had changed from AM to PM, and that's why it didn't go off. HOW LUCKY WAS I THAT MY PARENTS RANG!? I then used the next half hour to hurriedly get ready and get out the door, making my tram only just.

The bit I am referring to, however, is that during the call, Mum said she'd opened a letter for me from University of Tasmania, and it said I'd been offered a full scholarship for my course! But the bad news is that I can't definitely defer it. I have to re-apply for scholarships later this year, and hope that I get it AGAIN, this time competing against the current year 12 students. A good bit is that the lady on the phone, according to Mum, said she was very impressed with my results and thinks I have a good chance of getting a scholarship again.

I'm starting a new thing. Ending posts with a random quirky fact.

I have six pairs of shoes now. A lot, considering I am a boy, and that I am overseas.

Patrick

Schon wieder?

Translation: Again already? I mean I feel like I have more stuff to say but I only posted two days ago.

Firstly. That YouTube video I mentioned is damn hilarious!! Jack and Eleanor yell at each other over the Syrevilo song "See You Soon". WATCH IT! Link in previous post. And while you're there, subscribe to Jack's channel (the other videos he uploads). I enjoy them. Jack, you owe me some promotion.

Secondly, it's Tuesday afternoon, I'm in the middle of my second full day of kindergarten. Yesterday I spent the whole day in group 3, about 15 kids aged 3-5. Until I learn how to teach English sometime in February, my routine will be going to one of 8 groups for a full day at a time. I just hang with them, join in their games, talk to them, be a funny guy. I'm supposed to talk to them in English but they just don't understand me, so I am mostly using German unless my supervisor is watching. At 4pm I finish and take the tram back to my neighbourhood, I either go straight to the apartment or to a shop nearby to buy things. Then after I'm home I might go visit Milly and Erin (Milly points out her nickname is spelt with y not ie).

I want to buy a video camera maybe.

Tschüß from Patrick

Advertising?

What's upppppp?

For those of you who don't know, I am in a band. (Or I was, I have to put it on hold for now obviously)
It's called Syrevilo and just before I went away, we were in the studio recording our first album, called "Now, Then, When?". It contains 13 songs that the band have written over its 3 or 4 year career.

IT'S QUITE GOOD if I do say so myself. A couple of people I've played it to have reacted with "oh wow it sounds just like a professional recording!"

YOU SHOULD go to www.last.fm/music/Syrevilo, click on the album I think and download some tracks to give them a listen. Preferably, then, get in contact with Oscar or Rhys or Tim or Oliver and buy a copy (they never told me the price but it's value for money I'm sure).

Also, just this morning, I got word of a YouTube video by my second cousin Jack, that involves Syrevilo in some way. I haven't watched it yet cause it's still loading. But go to http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=o4CQlG8ZeM0 and watch it.

A second meaning to the title is that ad breaks in Germany are so damn long. Like, you get to an ad break in a movie, then surf other channels for 5 minutes or something, then go back to the movie channel to find yet another ad or two.

Right now, I'm going to the Dresden main station. Why? Because my parents and brother leave in approximately 2 hours. They're taking the train to Frankfurt, staying one night and flying out late tomorrow. So I'm kinda freaking out right now. They have a whole year of Hobart life ahead of them without me involved. It's scary, as. I only hope I feel a bit better within a month or so.

Goodbye, goodbye, good friends goodbye

PTN

Dresden!

I arrived in Dresden, the city where I will live and volunteer until mid-December, on Wednesday the 14th. I haven't been able to get on the internet since then, until now. It's Friday afternoon and I'm in my new workplace for the first time - a kindergarten called Pat's Bunnyhouse (how logical for me) that teaches kids in both German and English from a young age. Pretty clever in a way.

My apartment is located in the Altstadt, which means old city, but you wouldn't know it because there are tons of big shopping centres right near where I live! It's just a name from long ago that has stuck I suppose. It's on the eighth floor of a modernish apartment building and has 3 rooms - bathroom, kitchen/entrance foyer and bedroom/loungeroom, my bed is a folding out couch that becomes quite big to sleep on, although I'm not sure if I'm going to be bothered turning it back into a couch each day. I have a TV and DVD player, and thanks to Erin, a Nintendo 64 console. Erin is a girl from Melbourne also volunteering with my program, she volunteers in a different Pat's kindergarten in Dresden. There is also Camilla from NZ doing the same, in yet another different Pat's kindergarten. Both Camilla and Erin live on the fourth floor of this building, in a double apartment (they have their own bedrooms but share a kitchen and bathroom). I visit them in the evenings mostly.

So... now I've accessed the internet and kept you up to speed with what's happening. Ask me questions about anything though!

Oh and Oliver - I checked my e-mail and there were 20 there but none from Facebook saying you wrote me a message - is it my turn to reply? Am I an idiot?

Germany

Nothing extremely notable has happened in the past few days, so I thought I'd just fill you in on our time in Germany.

The first night, soon after I posted that last post, we stayed in Cologne (in German it's Köln) in a hostel right near the train station. Cologne has this huge massive cathedral that we didn't look inside but it towers over the area around the station nonetheless. We ate Chinese.

Next day, we took a train north to Bremen and were picked up by Mr. Arend Schmieder. We know him because his son Ole stayed with my grandparents in Tasmania back in like 1992. He took us north to a picturesque village called Frelsdorf. We stayed there two nights with him and his wife Renate. The second day, Ole arrived from Hamburg to visit us. In the evening, the four parents went to Bremerhaven to watch an Opera and Kit, Ole and I watched Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in German just because it was on TV.

Today, we left Frelsdorf and were first driven to Bremerhaven, then we took a train to Bremen, then to Hamburg-Harburg, then to Uelzen. That's the city where Friends' School's sister school, Lessing-Gymnasium, is. At the station we met Wiebke, the girl who stayed at my house in August 2007, with her mother. They helped us find accomodation. We are now in 2 double rooms in the Hotel Stadt Hamburg which is quite a nice hotel, I'm not too sure if it's in the price range we wanted but nonetheless we have one night of somewhat luxury before moving on to Berlin tomorrow, we think!

Tell your friends!
Patrick

What. The hell.

So I'm on a train. From Paris to Cologne, via Brussels, Liege and Aachen.
Yes, the train has wireless internet. It's not as good as it sounds because they don't tell you that it costs money until you're in your seat hoping to use it, and it drops out frequently.

When Dad bought these train tickets, he was assured by the man at the station in France that they would be covered just fine by our Eurail passes at no extra cost because our passes enable us to travel between France and Germany. We thought we had a route that involved stopping in Frankfurt. Only today, upon getting to the station, did we find out about this route. Anyway... just a few minutes ago, a ticket guy came up to my brother and me (Mum and Dad were in the food car) and looked at our Eurail passes and said "You have to pay extra because we are travelling through Belgium". I couldn't believe it. Cause Dad had been told by the ticket seller that it would actually be fully good mate.

I kept telling him "you have to tell it to my Dad, my Dad has to pay, my Dad will tell you this" etc. and he just kept asking for money from us. I knew the moment Dad found out he would be furious. It turned out to be 40 Euro in total I think. Now we've stopped at Liege and after more people get on, another inspector will probably come through. If he tells us our passes don't cover the trip I will probably break my laptop over his head.

Quick update to do with this website!

Please read my previous post as if it were my most recent. This is just a note to say I have looked through all the options available to me here and discovered a few things.

So now:
Comments
- Anybody at all can leave a comment on a post. Previously, only people with Blogger accounts could do it. Remember to sign your comment!
- Only today did I discover that some of my posts had received comments. Thank you heaps to Frankie, Luke and Kim. Especially Luke. I am very sorry I didn't see them earlier. It will now e-mail me whenever I get one so we won't have this problem again!

Alerts
- I have the option to send my new posts automatically by e-mail when I write them. If you want this to happen to you, so that you don't have to check here periodically, contact me somehow. In keeping with the above text, a comment would suffice!

Now read about my adventure below!
PN

What felt like the worst day of my life

You may have heard that on Monday, Mum Dad and Kit left me here on my own. They went to a small town north of Paris. The point is - I didn't know what to do. I wanted to meet people but how do I do that - walk up and say "Bon soir, je ne parle pas Francais"?

Eventually I just went out in the evening. I walked a long way before heading into the city centre. I went into “Guinness Irish Pub” which had a live band, playing covers. They must have done at least 4 sets of like 10 songs or something, they knew tons of songs. They played some classics like songs by Eagles or Rolling Stones but also some modern hard rock such as Metallica, Muse and even System of a Down.

After watching for a while, I went across the laneway to a pub opposite, and I heard an American voice outside. I said hi. We got talking. He was a 22-year-old from Boston who’s been living in Spain for the past year and a bit, teaching English as an assistant (ironically, probably similar to what I’m doing in Germany). He was in Paris with a girl from Belgium, who he works in Spain with, and an American girl, who also works in Spain but I think they only met in Paris coincidentally? Anyway, we had a drink or two in that bar, then another bar across town, then went into one or two more but decided they were far too pricey and they were getting tired at that stage anyway. I walked a long way home (no subway in the middle of the night) and crashed at 5am.

But that was just the beginning of what leads me to the title of this post.
Every 2 hours or so, I had to get up to walk to the sink and throw up. Then I would go back to sleep, thinking that would be that last of it. I thought it was because of the beer of course, but I hadn’t drunk that much so I was puzzled.

Next thing I know my family are home, it’s after 4pm. I let them in. I say hi. I vomit in the sink again. It turns out Mum had been sick as well. So now I reckon we both got some bug. I felt sick that whole day and slept. I felt bad because I lost a whole day of the trip where I could have done stuff. I even slept the entire night last night. I don't know how I slept for so long. Today I woke up around midday and we all went to the Musee d'Orsay (a famous art gallery). I still don’t feel like eating a proper meal yet though.

So in summary, I went out and had a great time, but then got sick for all yesterday. It feels SO bad when you are sick. Incomprehensibly bad. Is that a word?

Some French people suck.

I have this Eurail pass where you pay for it then get all the trains you want in 8 days of a period of 2 months...

anyway, we used it for my recent trip to Nancy, and I was on the train there and showed the guy my ticket, but he said it's valid only with the Eurail pass. I said oops, I have one, but it's not here, my parents in Paris still have it. Then he made me buy a new ticket for sixty euro.

Later I rang parents to say I'm gonna be in trouble on the return journey. They texted this morning saying they've arranged it at the station in Paris, the ticket guy will know about it. But he came along and didn't know about it. And I couldn't speak to him until a nice girl translated our conversation. And I pleaded my case and said he was supposed to have been told.

But he wouldn't listen. He asked me to buy a ticket and I said I haven't got the money. So he wrote out a fine, asking to see my passport and asking for my address, and I thought ok that's cool i'll just get it cancelled at the station. Cause I'll show them the ticket and the pass, AND my parents will remind them they said it was all FINE. But at the desk my mum just got told there's nothing they can do, we should probably pay the fine and then apply for a refund. So now, as I write this, Dad's waiting in line at the station to pay the fine. He wanted to just not pay it, but we thought it might jeopardise my future travel in France!

So that's my ordeal. Some French people are unbelievably nice, like the girl who heard me talking to the inspector and offered to help me. And some suck. Like the inspector, or the man who failed to tell him my situation.

Goodbye.

Oops.

Didn't update in a while.

Happy new year everyone!

I spent the midnight moment at Bastille, where I believe there used to be a prison, but at this moment there were just a lot of people having a good time. There were also people honking horns as they drove past or parking in odd places to join in.

Today, the second, I took a morning train to Nancy, east of Paris, to see my friends Lisa and Oceane, who I know cause they came to Friends' this year on the French trip to Australia.

Bout to go to bed. Night!

Patrick