Hey y'all!

I guess I had best mention the last weekend of the holidays before I launch into the thrilling and exhilirating account of my re-entry into the dreaded Helmholtz Gymnasium.

So on Friday evening I headed down to the ol' Hauptbahnhof to catch a train. Rocked on up to the automatic ticket vending machines and bought me a ticket to Strasbourg for 12 euro. Not bad. So the idea was that I would meet a french family in Strasbourg and they would take me back to stay with them in the teeny wee French village of Selestat for the weekend! Everything went smoothly. The train (being German) was perfectly on time and I headed out of Germany for the first time yet, stopping over at a station in Appenwier beore changing onto a French SNCF train and heading into Alsace! Stepped off the train with my swagger on and in a pretty good mood (as I had just successfully navigated my way into another country on my own), and was met with a very friendly and very smiley Reys family! Problem was, they speak French in France. I had vastly underestimated the difficulty of switching between habitually speaking German and speaking French, which I had not done for a good three months. For about two hours, including the entire drive from Strasbourg to Selestat, I spoke a strange mixture of the rustiest French you have ever heard, terrible German, and the occasional English interjection when I was totally dumbfounded. But after those two very, very embarassing hours, I managed to get back into the swing of things and got my French back up to speed! It felt great to be able to actually communicate with people again!

So we arrived at the Reys house, and a whole load of old memories flooded back into my head! I remembered all the details of the house, I remembered the time we spent eating lunch in the garden together 9 odd years ago, and I remembered being the only person in my family that wasn't allowed to sleep in the cute wee alsatian hotel just down the road. It was a great feeling. Except for the exclusive hotel memories. So after a couple of filled donuts and a drink I felt back at home in a strange kind of way. Victor had a rehearsal for his Reggae band and invited me along to hear some of his music! Selestat has a really awseome facility where anyone can just come along, rent a room (incl. drumkit) and just jam out. So we went there and I heard this French reggae band, who, might I add, were actually really groovy! That night we went out for dinner, to a restaurant called "La Couronne" which has some of the best Flammekuechen in the region. When we arrived I recoingnized it as the very restaurant our family went two with the Reys 5 years earlier! It hadn't changed one bit - the meal was SUPER delicious. I mean come on, would you expect anything less from France?

The next day was really chilled, got up late, and then at around 12 we headed back into Germany to watch Rebecca (one of thie kids) play volleyball! So we arrived in Freiburg at about 1, and I got a tour of the school that Rebecca is boarding at. Next were the two volleyball games. They were actually really good to watch! In both matches the teams were really evenly matched which made for a very entertaining few hours. Rebecca's team narrowly won both games - and in my opinion deservedly! Though 14 year old girls volleyball may seem tame, it is not. The sheer volume of yelling that each team produces is enough to deafen 50 000 himilayan mountain rats. Thus I was somewhat audially impaired when I left the stadium but otherwise in top form.

We returned home, had a really nice home cooked meal and then headed out into the streets for Selestat's very humble but still thouroughly fun CARNIVAL. The parades and floats through town were pretty awesome and there was confetti EVERYWHERE! People and costumes would sneak up behind you with handfuls of it and shove it down the back of your jacket/shirt/pants. The other bonus was FREE LOLLIES! All the dudes/dudettes on the floats chucked candy at the crowd. Not gunna lie: AWESOME.

That night we dressed up old fashioned styles and went to a huge carnival party: 1800 people. This was part of the Selestat carnival and it was PACKED. The slightly concerning thing was that there was a HUGE volume of guys dressed as girls, all of which were trying to pick up girls. I thought French dudes were smooth. Small tip to French partygoing males: GIRLS FALL FOR GUYS DRESSED AS GUYS (IN MOST CASES).

The next morning was the continuation of the huge parade from the night before, which actually went straight past the house I was staying in! So after a totally scrumptious lunch I headed to the WINDOW to watch the parade. Once that was over we headed into town, bought some jelly donuts and special sausage that is only sold around the Carnival period, and before I knew it I had to head to the Selestat train station to catch the train to Strasbourg for my connection back to Karlsruhe. Turns out I left things a little late, and the fact that the train TO Strasbourg was 10 minutes late did not aid the situation. I ended up with 10 minutes at Strasbourg train station during which I had to find a ticket vendor, buy my return ticket to Karlsruhe, find my train outta France, and catch it. Strasbourg Gare was busy. And there were lots of people. And to top it all off, I had a bag to lug around with me. So after managing to buy my ticket within the first two minutes of arrival I was feeling pretty confident, and so began the mighty search for my train. All the confidence I had left melted away in the next 7 minutes as I frantically ran up and down the platform trying to find my train. I eventually deciphered the signs and sprinted toward the small local train heading to Offenburg, Germany. I reached it with 0 minutes to spare, just as the doors were closing. As I slowly drew my ticket out of my pocket to check the estimated travel time I noticed my hands were shaking like the audience of an Elvis Presley concert. I managed to miss my next train, and in faltering German I managed to cunnigly discover another train bound for my hometown, and snuck on board that one with a fresh bag of Haribo lollies in hand. Though I had no ticket, I was feeling a little risky and thought that rebellious behaviour would pay off in this case. It did. But only just. On the stop before Karlsruhe HbF, a typically German, moustached controller entered my cabin. I was truly terrified. Simply the size of his formidable moustache intimidated he living daylights out of me. I proceeded to be ninja, and avoid eye contact. He passed into the cabin below me, but not before he noticed that my feet were perched on the seat in front of me and barked a incomprehensibly German phrase at me. I got the idea and behaved like a good wee commuter immediately. You can only imagine the feeling of triumph when I disembarked!

The next most triumphant moment occured yesterday before choir, when Adrian (one of my new friends) and I decided to attempt a food-catching event the likes of which have never been witnessed before in this galaxy. We simultaneously lobbed cashew nuts over one of my other friends and AT THE SAME time both caught each other's cashew in our mouths, over a distance of about 8 metres. Anyway, this week has been my first week in my new school year. Moritz and my old classmates are doing their final school exams, making my presence in that year somewhat short-lived and pointless. So this week I moved down a year, to the 17 going on 18 year old class. AND IT IS AWESOME. The friends I have made in just two or three days are so cool, and some of my choir mates are even in my class. In addition to my new friends, I have a fantastic timetable consisting of Art and French as major subjects, and allowing a sleep in until 8:30 on Wednesdays and Thursdays :) On friday I only have two classes and finish at 12.

So life is pretty fantastic!

Anyway ima go help my host bro with his English study - BIG exam tomorrow!

Laterz y'all, and much love from the fresh prince of Karlsruhe.

Nic