May
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Thursday 1st - Maifeiertag

Monday 5th until Saturday 10th - English class trip to London
ICH LIEBE LONDON!! It was just so great there...it is hard to explain all the reasons...but everyone spoke ENGLISH (of course u would think that is a given, but it is so great for me!)...so of course i did...people here speak it...but it isnt the same.  I could start up a conversation with a complete stranger and we could both understand!!  There are also a lot of aussies there!!
It was a bit like my own personal Monopoly game...recognising street names, and even remembering the colours they were...(a little scary, especially for my friends...it confirmed my weirdness)...Park Lane and Mayfair...the most expensive in the game and real life!!
We saw all the usual tourist sights which were great...I have about 3 rolls of film from there!!!  Big Ben, Houses of Parliment, Tower of London and Tower Bridge, Buckingham Palace & changing of the guard, National Art Gallery, National Museum, The monument for the great fire of london...311 spiraling steps worth...i climbed them and the view was awesome (not for u mum...u walk out on to a balcony!), and Greenwich...now i have a piece of paper to say that i was there at 0° longitude, and also for climbing the step thingys...these are all the places you normally only get to hear about and see on t.v.
Oh...and there was a ``Oz Bar´´ around the corner from where we were staying...so of course i went there!!  My English teacher bought me a VB on the first night there!!  And on the last night I went there with my friends and I had egg and steak...unfortunately the deep frier was broken, so no chips or fish.  But while in London, i also had 2 pies..one steak chunks with red wine gravy, and puff pastry...the other was chicken.  I also had a cadbury crunchie bar...for a lot of ou...you will think this is strange, but they dont have all these things in Germany!!  Pies, sausage rolls, fish and chips...etc.
We also went to see Chicago the musical (the movie is in theatre's now with Richard Gere and Rene Zellweger, Catherine Zeta Jones) live at a theatre...and so much more stuff that i cant think of off the top of my head.  We saw a Shakespeare play ``King Richard II´´ which was okay...apart from the fact that we had to stand for the 3 hours of the show...it was at Shakespear Globe theatre...which is a reconstruction of the old theatres they used to be played in with no roof, etc...there was 3 levels of seating around the outside...but of course we stood in the peasant area!!!  And...we didnt see all of it...trips to the ``toilet´´ was the relief to sit down outside...as sitting was forbidden in the standing area.
Shopping was a big pass time, and the clothes were great...but unfortunately the exchange rate wasnt!!  We used the underground to go everywhere and soon became maters of it. Even when a train breaks down u only have to wait 3 minutes til the next one!!  And you could go anywhere with it!!
Had a quick stop at the Australian High Commission (Embassy) in London...very impressive on the outside...it is called Australia House...and is the first Embassy place thingy for Australia in another country...suprise suprise..it is London!  Didnt get to see much on the inside...it is all split up woth different offices and entrances and some parts were closed...i went to the reading room...and looked at some older papers then looked at the recent ones on the interent ...but it wouldnt allow u to look at email...only government approved sites...at least now i can say i have been to the embassy!!  I also now have 2 more stamps in my Passport...1 to get into England...and 1 to go through France on the way back.  I had no problems  getting into London.
The whole trip was great...but 5 days definately wasnt enough!!  I just wish it could have been a bit longer.  But I have now come closer to friends in my class here which is great!!

Sunday 11th - Muttertag (Mother's Day)
HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY MUM!!!  Over hear in the family I live in, they dont really recognise mother's day, and dont do anything for it...but that doesnt mean I was thinking of my mum!!

Kathy and Howie (family friends) came, and we had a great time.  I met them at the Station (easiest meeting point), at 9.30am...we drove to the Castle at the top, overlooking Marburg...then Renate (host mum) had to go to work, so i showed them around a bit.  Howard took a little bit of footage on the video camera, so he can show u (mum and dad) when they get back.  We then went and parked down near my school...more footage...and went to the old part of the city and we came to a bar...and of course i had to twist there arm to sit down and have a drink!! (NOT)... then we went back to the car...i called Renate and she came in and got us, and showed us the way back to the house and we all sat outside drinking coffee and eating cake!! (Kaffee und Küchen...very popular in the afternoon)  And talking about all different stuff.  It was great to see them and talk to them.  They left at about 2.30-3ish and were heading north.  It was absolutely great to see them, speak with slang and all and catch up on all the goss of there trip and back home.

Saturday 17th (My 18th Birthday!!!) until Sunday 18th - Rotary District Conference
This was in Frankfurt...and all of the exchange students stayed in a youth hostel together, which was good considering it was my birthday.  For the actual District Conference, we didnt do much...we said our name, where we were from, how old and our hosting clubs...and then the outbounds sung a song...apart from that the exchange students dont have anything to do...not as much involvement from what i've heard of our district conference.

Tuesday 20th - In and outbounds for RC of Marburg Cook for Rotarians
This was heaps of fun, with the exchange students from both Marburg Clubs participating, we cooked 'TYPICAL' dishes from our country, or for the outbounds, something from the country they are going to.  I made Vegimite on toast (haha, its amazing how many people dislike that here!!!) and Sausage Rolls (my first sausage rolls since arriving in Germany).  The others are: Piet (Sth. Africa), Kathrina (USA), Felipe (Brasil), Hendrik (to USA), Lea (to Mexico), Alexandra (to Brasil), Benny (to Japan) and Alex (to Finnland).

Friday 21st until Tuesday 27th - Berlin Tour (Rotary Youth Exchange)
The first couple of days we were in Herzberg, where the Mayore showed us around, and we stayed in host families, and visited the helicopter transport division of the Air Force!!  Then we went to Berlin, and saw all the main attractions...it was very interesting and lots of history, like the Berlin Wall, Reichstag, etc (i'll give more info later).  While there we met with a whole group of exchange students from Denmark on their Euro Tour...Quite a few of us met people from our districts back home.  I met up with Ryan and Alex!!  It was great to catch up with them!!!

Thursday 29th until Sunday 1st of June - Sports Fun in Kronberg (ROTEX)
This was just an overall great weekend, with lots of fun...like all ROTEX events are!!!...we did actually do some sports...track and field events where we got medals.