Deutschland - An experience I'll never forget…

Looking across to my left, I see the brilliant streaks of orange light on the horizon as the sun sets on my last glimpse of Australia…

Looking across to my right, I see a group of excitedly chatting young people, all eagerly anticipating the months ahead. Their eyes twinkle with anticipation, smiles break out for no particular reason. Laughing. Is it nervous laughter? My heart beats a little faster…Germany was awaiting…

The plane trip over was so full of adrenalin, that I found myself in constant trouble with the hostesses for being too loud…not that anyone could blame me. It's not everyday that one receives the opportunity to go to Germany alone for 10 weeks, is it? It's a feeling so hard to describe, something that I'm sure I'll never quite feel again. Feeling, churning, running, smiling, laughing, happiness, anticipation…what were we all letting ourselves in for?

Overwhelming tiredness swept over me. I managed to bumble "Wie geht es Ihnen?" to my eagerly awaiting host father and host brother at Hamburg airport, before my mind was taken to another place. That was just it. I was in another place. Another country, another culture, another language. I was there, by myself, in the deep end. My eyes goggled as we reached 185 kmph on the Autobahn, rather miserly in comparison to the speeding BMW's and Mercedes Benz's that whooshed past in a flurry of metal and rubber.

Grey coldness, leafless stick figures and bleakness greeted me, total contrast to the sunny aridness I had left behind.

Talking of contrasts, my first day of school was a vast contrast to my last in Australia. Memories of my first day of high school flooded my mind…I was alone, understanding very little and unbelievably perhaps a little intimidated.

Ok. I'll admit it. I'm not noted for my timidness, so true to the Jackson name I stood up on my chair and yelled out, "Hallo! Ich bin ein Austauschuler aus Australien! Ich heiße Travis und ich bin sehr freundlich!"

After that, I became quite popular among the students of the Fördegymnasium in Flensburg. I made some really great friends, some I am still in regular contact with.

School was one of my greatest challenges and probably where I had some of my most fantastic experiences while I was in Germany. My normal school day started right on the dot of 6:30 am when my alarm clock incited my body to roll out of my deliciously warm bed. It was then a race to the bathroom, my younger host sister Taina was usually the victor, banishing me down to breakfast in my boxer shorts. Breakfast usually consisted of being lavished with all sorts of breads, meats, cheeses and yoghurts…all well and good if I had the appetite of an elephant. I then usually amused myself by attempting to read the 'Flensburger Tageblatt" before I bounded (or most probably dragged) myself up the stairs and into the bathroom.

My first few experiences in the bathroom of the 'Hake household' were interesting to say the least. I wrote an email back home after my first day in Germany, here's what I wrote first…

Maybe it's just a Flensburg kind of rural thing, but our toilet has two compartments. Hmmmm...how do I put this? The top compartment looks just like the normal, but much shallower. This is where the stuff gets deposited. To flush, one pushes down the flushing button for about a second and it whizzes your excretions down to the next compartment where it seems to stay for a good hour or two. Forever basking in my ignorance, I did not really know how to work this particular appliance and I simply closed the lid and held down the flush button for a good 10 seconds, waiting for it to peter out as it usually does. Well, I got a bit of a shock when it overflowed and I found the bowl to be full of yesterday's business. I didn't know what on earth was happening and the water didn't seem to be going away. I eventually found a plunger sitting conveniently next to the toilet and gave the few stray logs a bit of a poke and (thank God) the water started to subside. I am glad to say that I've learnt from my experience and I only flush for the required second. I've also taken to watching it go down, just to make sure. Don't want to leave any surprises for the next person! In retrospect, I suppose it's not a bad system. It certainly saves water. But to tell you the truth Mum and Dad, I certainly appreciate our good old toilet in downtown Mooroolbark…

So after spending as little time in the bathroom as possible (except the mandatory five minutes to do my bothersome hair), I was off to school, enveloped in darkness, a blanket of black and grey stretched across the sky disallowing any sun to streak through. In fact, I was well into my second week of Germany before I saw the sun. I do believe the sun is a rare phenomenon in the north of Germany.

Sometimes though, I'd step outside to a crisp, clear morning; stars twinkling overhead as if someone had just switched them on. Halfway through the school day, a brilliant sunrise would greet us; I'd stare transfixed out of the window, wishing that it would never end…

School in Germany took me back to days of no pressure, stress free learning. I really enjoyed the test of joining in on the class discussions, no matter how intellectually challenged I might have seemed. I managed to top the class in Maths and English…then successfully failed all my other subjects. Learning Latin and French is probably hard enough in English, but in German?
I joined the school a Capella choir, and sung in a number of concerts before Christmas. Singing in the cold, smiling, laughing and Santa hats…

I can still remember the burning numbness of my fingers, the icicles I had for toes and the tip of my nose completely disappearing when I went for one of my regular jogs. I love jogging by myself. It brings an inner satisfaction and peacefulness and one is able to soak in their surroundings without any distraction what so ever. My house in Flensburg was on the edge of a huge forest of deciduous beeches, and situated only 200 metres from the coast. I'd spend hours exploring the forest, marvelling at its stark beauty and the way the sun would peep through the branches and illuminate the fallen leaves below. I wrote this in an email before Weinachten, after just coming home from one of my regular jogs…

Just you, a beautiful, white capped forest; the sun setting behind you in a blaze of scarlet orange...not unlike someone stepping on a mandarin in slow motion; a moon rising between two twisted trees, slowly making love in the snowy twilight; a silver pathway across the tranquillity of a receding sea; a beach so white that you'd think it had been snowing...hang on a sec…the beach was snow. (Interesting feeling running along a beach that had snow as sand.)

I can't express it at all, it was just beautiful. I actually got lost on that jog...wasn't my fault. You'll be glad to know that I made it home safely, this is not really someone else typing this while Trav is still searching for Twedter Tal number 5…

I'm not often lost for words, but I was genuinely absolutely dumbstruck when the door of our lounge room was opened on Weinachten, allowing the glow of a hundred candles to fill my senses and touch me deep inside. Weinachten was such a special time in Germany, my first spent away from my family, but I felt closer to family more than ever. My host family were just wonderful, so full of kindness and caring. I wrote this home on Weinachten…

It's 21:00 over here, finished opening presents and Christmas carolling etc. I will never ever forget this. Unbelievable. It's just so special. We're having fondue for Abendsessen, it's just about on the table. Should go.

They're just too nice. I was speechless; I felt a huge lump in my throat…I couldn't move. I received more presents that I usually would at home! Wirklich! It all weighs just over 6 kg. Don't know what I'm going to do. Solveig and Hennig said they would post it home for me...I said no, that's ridiculously expensive, they said 'Bitte sehr....'

Dear oh dear....what a night....and it's only beginning....just so special....I can't believe it.

I've never been a great believer in saving the best for last, but in this case, I think I have. Perhaps my most wonderful memories of Germany were the times shared with the wonderful GASSies from Australia and Germany. From standing awestruck on a slippery bridge at Neuschwanstein and soaking in the atmosphere of a traditional German pub to missing buses in Rothenburg and singing songs in Berlin…we did it all. These memories will never die away, memories that will live on through seeing them, in real life. The memories I talk about are the people; the truly great friends of my German experience.

I managed to convince everybody to scrawl a few lines in my journal on the plane on the way back. Gareth, a NSW GASSie wrote this, summing up my thoughts exactly…

The whole idea of the trip was to learn about new things and meet new people. Who'd of thought I'd have to go all the way around the world to meet some of the greatest people in my own back yard…

The end?

No, it's only just beginning…