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Hey evhreybody!
Expect a pretty long estimated reading time for this weeks edition of the Adventures of the Mighty Nick. Its been a huge week and some pretty cool things have been going on! Crayzay times!
So last week began in a rather conventional manner - the usual Monday and Tuesday routine, with the same lessons, the same old "nuthin' much" during each of my one and a half hour classes. When it got to tuesday night things got a bit exciting. Tuesday night was the last choir rehearsal before the highly anticipated choir camp which began the next day! We sung with joy and anticipation in our hearts as we all envisaged a glorious weekend filled with free time in a splendid music academy in the town of Kurnbach. Turns out that Kurnbach has about three houses, and smells of manure wherever you are - largely due to the fact that it is IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE. Anyway, thoroughly looking forward to meeting a bunch of new people and doing some super fun singing, I packed my bags and bought myself a reasonable stash of edible goodies to last me the trip. I met the choir at Marktplatz in Karlsruhe at around 8 o clock. Thing is, this was a pretty epic meeting. My first time hanging out with school peeps WITHOUT any prior acquaintinces, and it had to be the three day epic that was CHORFREIZEIT. So I hopped onto the tram (after witnessing a truly comic drunken german attempting to woo choir girls with his bald, dirty old drunken man style), and found myself sitting beside the choir master and holding rather awkward and limited convos in faltering german, probably offending him frequently with my poor use of the formal tense. Thank god Randy came to my aid. After about 30 mins of sitting in the tram listening to Angus & Julia Stone and projecting melancholy gazes out the window beside me (and actually also observing a pretty cool looking group of dudes and dudettes in the reflection of the window - hahaha CUNNING), I was approached by who I was later to know as THE MAN. I noticed several glances in my direction within the space of a minute from a blonde girl and an asian dude with rad style sitting on the other side of the tram. I knew something was up. My superhuman senses told me that that very asian dude was going to stroll up to me and invite me to sit with the peeps my age. AND HE DID. And so begun my newfound friendships in KURNBACH!
I found out pretty soon that these kids who had kindly invited me to sit with them were actually in the 12th class at my school. The very class that I was about to move into because of Moritz's big exams and end of school shenanigans! What a godsend! I now had a bunch of about 5 or 6 cool as friends - making the task of entering a new year in two weeks time thoroughly less daunting. So I was mostly quiet and listened into their conversation, trying to pick out the occasional word or two. Then one of the girls started talking to me. IN PERFECT ENGLISH. Turns out Jana had actually been an exchange student last year - living in the USA. Although having an english speaker around wasnt great for my german, it sure was pretty comforting to know that someone else could speak my language.
So when we arrived in the town of Kurnbach we went straight to the music academy. This place was amazing. It consisted of really nice bunk rooms and about 30 rooms made especially for musical purposes, each with a piano and great acoustics. I was in heaven. Oh, did I also mention the TABLE TENNIS AND FOOSBALL TABLES? THATS RIGHT. So after dropping off our bags in the corridors and planning our bunk rooms (I was with a select bunch of cool dudes: Randy, Timo, Adrian, Phillip, Denis, etc.) we headed into a music room - SINGING TIME.
The whole day was spent singing, aside from a short break of two hours for lunch. I have never spent so long singing before and never enjoyed it so much! It was super fun music and I was making friends as I sung along (and I'm not going to lie, I got quite a number of glances in my direction from the ladies in the Alto and Soprano section). Anyway, that night was free time! From about 9 o clock we played table tennis, foosball, and had a fashion show (which I partially judged). At 12 it was time to head up to our bunk rooms. A couple of girls snuck over from the other wing and watched a movie with the 8 or 9 dudes from my bunk room - The Pineapple Express. IN GERMAN. We ended up staying awake until about 4 o clock, just playing games and listening to music - it was a real fun time and great for friend making! By now, all of the guys in my bunk room knew me and I knew them, which was pretty great!
The next day, I sluggishly got up at about 8 am, only to lie in bed until there was no hot water in the showers. THE COLDEST SHOWER I HAVE EVER EXPERIENCED. It was so so so so FREEZING. But it woke me up pretty good! Day two was awesome fun, a couple of big 1 hour breaks to hang out with the awesome group, and a couple of walks around Kurnbach (and I mean AROUND kurnbach, lasting 5 minutes...) and A LOT OF SINGING. That evening was our last night at Choir camp, and we just mucked around, watched Germany's next top model etc, and watched another movie. Later that evening, Randy and I formed a comedy duo in one of the music rooms, turned the lights out, left the door open, and improvised. The room started empty and ended with about 10 people listening and laughing at our fusion of awesome German and English humor. I also did some harmonica, playing along to Dennis' Bossa Nova piano styles! That night was an even later night, hitting the sack around 5! I spent like 2-3 hours just talking to Randy and Jana in a strange mishmash of English and German, and believe it or not it was a really great convo :)
The next morning we were all completely destroyed. The epic two day singing saga had drained us of all will to open our mouths and project our voices in melodic fusion. But we still had to, for about 3 hours. By the end of the camp we had sung a total of about 12 hours, and slept for maybe 4. EPIC. So that afternoon we headed back to Karlsruhe in the tram, thoroughly tired and totally happy to have made a bunch of new mates! It turns out there is a big class trip to Normandie in France this year and maybe I will be able to go! I returned home to Durlach, enjoyed a hot shower and nice food, and then packed my bags for a weeks holidays! YES. I DIDNT MENTION IM ON HOLIDAYS Y'ALL! So after an epic two day school week I headed straight into the holidays, a 7 day extravaganza spent at my host father's place in Sophienstrasse, right in the middle of town. This was perfect, as I now had three great friends living in the same area as me! My friends Jana and Randy are like 10 minutes walk away. So after a pretty epic week it was time to relax and get an early bed.... OR go out with my new friends for the evening! We went to Aposto, an awesome italian restaurant with chandeliers, authentic seating and even an ITALIAN SHOE SHOP inside! After about two hours of chat and just enjoying each others company (I really like the European style of going out!), it was suddenly 1 am, and we headed our separate ways home.
Saturday morning came, and went. And then I woke up. We had a late brunch/lunch of scrambled eggs and a variety of awesome breads and meats in true German style, and then I headed out to Durlach in order to get a sleeping bag for that evening's journey into France! Moritz and I were invited into France to visit a good friend called Laurie, who it turns out could REALLY COOK. Unfortunately Moritz had fallen really ill, so I went without him! So after about 1/2 hour in the car sitting next to my friend Vali and trying to navigate with an iPhone in the dark we reached Laurie's house. It was an old french style house with wooden beams and antique furniture everywhere, and filled with the smell of home made spetzle and freshly cooked casseroles of mushroom, onion and white wine. MMMMMMM. So after a really nice time eating and enjoying friendly company we headed up into the loft of this old house, where the music was pumping and the party began. Unfortunately I was REALLY tired, and ended up leaving at around 2:30, arriving home at three and giving my host dad a big surprise when he saw me in bed the next morning! I had told him I would stay in France for the night and that was why I travelled to Durlach for my sleeping bag - now I didnt even need it!
Anyway after a lesiurely sleep in and another fantastic brunch, I headed out with Charly on his conventional weekend run. 11.2 kms in roughly an hour. PHEW. I honestly have never run for so long before, but I really enjoyed it and it was great to get out in the sun and run. Charly was great company and acted like a tour guide, giving me useful information about the surrounds and the history of the town! We returned home later that evening, completely exhausted but feeling triumphant in our running success. That night I headed back into Durlach to visit my friend Niko's house for a Risk night! His parents cooked an AMAZING traditional German meal with Sauerkraut and Spetzle and a roulade of beef. It was indeed scrumptious. We then proceeded to play risk for the next 4 hours, during which I was beaten soundly twice. It turns out Risk on an iPod is really a LOT easier than the real thing... Awkward seeing as I had previously mentioned how good I was at Risk, thinking I had it in the bag. I headed home at about 12:30 on the tram and hit my bed with a HUGE sigh of releif, relishing the fact that I didn't have to get up for school the next morning.
Monday was pretty cool, and pretty relaxed too! Another late morning rise followed by a delicious lunch and a visit into town! I had to buy a phone top up, so entered the local shop. SO BEGAN THE MOST EMBARRASING MOMENT OF MY TIME HERE. So I casually walk up to the cashier, acting real cool, buy my phonecard and some airwaves, and swipe the card. The cashier lady smiles and gives me my receipt and I stroll out of DM. NEXT THING i know it there is a crazy cashier lady chasing me out of the shop - I had forgotten the actual phonecard. So in my haste to obtain it I managed to spill the contents of my wallet onto the heavily populated pathway on Karlstrasse. An old man was kind enough to help me out and I managed to achieve the impossible, filling my wallet back up in time to meet my friends for icecream and then a walk in the Schlossgarten! It was so nice and sunny and the icecream was AMAZING! I had Mango, Apricot, and Lemon (I chose the Mango to make Mum jealous! Love you Mum!). Then I headed out to Obbereut and chilled there with my friends, which was a really cool time! I arrived home to a nice evening meal and then watched Transformers with my host dad Charly!
So its been pretty busy, but a really great time! Ill keep you guys posted with the next installment next tuesday after my first day in the 12th class!
Stay classy dudes and dudettes!
Much love,
NICKKKKKKKKKKKZZZZZZZZ
- comments
Mum Phew ... Nic - it is exhausting just reading what you have been up to this week! Have to say the mango ice-cream sounds interesting!!! X