Saturday

Today some of the girls and I went to Berlin to go shopping (of course!). We caught the train and then the underground train. We went to shops such as H&M, Pimkie, Zara, Forever 21, Bershka and the Hard Rock Cafe. A lot of the stores were 2,3 and 4 stories high! A new thing for me. We tried some German Currywurst (Sausage with curry powder) and it was delicious. We then caught the underground train back to the train station to swap to the other train, but had to run to make it in time. We went home for a bit before heading out to an easter bonfire. There were many people. There was music, dancing and a big bonfire. We tried Bratwurst mit Brötchen. For everyone back home, it's a sausage in a bread roll/bun. We were there for a while and it was tiring, but we had a lot of fun.
-Jade Guptill

Dresden/Osterwochenende

We spend this Easter weekend with our homestay families, which means everyone is doing something different. My family and I drove down to the historical city of Dresden, about 3 hours away from Potsdam. Dresden is home to the Frauenkirche, the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister Art gallery, and much more. I also went to Sächsische Schweiz, the site of a medieval fortress ruin atop a mountain. On Saturday we went on a tour of Dresden, and visited Festung Königstein, or Fort Königstein. It also began to snow so that was choice as. On Sunday we went inside the Frauenkirche and the Green Vault of Dresden. That was superb. Also bonus I have a hotel room to myself. 

By Ollie Rusden 

1. 

   

   

   
   

Ostern / Easter

Karfreitag / Easter Friday

We got to sleep in today :) Today was the German version of Good Friday so everything was closed. We stayed at home and Caro and Saloni came over and we played soccer in the garden with Eli's little brothers. Then we played Mau Mau (which is like uno but a bit different). For late lunch/dinner we had this yummy pasta stuff and a mini pizza. Dessert was Grießbrei mit roter Grütze which is a bit like mousse and berry mix. Then we made a music quiz and sat by the fire. And now I think we are going to watch a movie in German, so tschüss :) (by Maddy)

Potsdam und Werder - Kino und Bowling

On Thursday we caught a train into Potsdam and visited the film museum to watch a movie. The movie was about the famous german writer Goethe and the book he wrote called 'The Sorrows of Young Werther'. Though everyone grasped the concept of the film many of the finer details went over the kiwis heads due to the fact that it was entirely in German but that is to be expected, being in Germany watching a German film. After the movie ended we had some free time to go shopping. Then we went bowling in the evening in Werder where it was discovered that though some students have a talent for bowling some really don't (we should have put the gutter guards up). We are spending Easter weekend with our host families. (by Alice)

Werder

Besser spät als nie, oder?   On Monday we went to Ernst Hackel Gymnasium for brunch and a little tour of the school. We then went for a tour led by students around the city which was quite nice. They showed us many old buildings that I have now forgotten the names of. They showed us the mayor's building and we met the vice mayor of Werder and listened to an interesting speech about the history of the city. Although his English was not the best and he didn’t know a few words we still understood what he was saying with the help of Frau Zimmer, danke. Monday was very cold, about 7 degrees, and what made it worse was that it rained quite often and it was very windy. Although the weather was not the best we had a fun time on the tour.

Potsdam - the city of Kaisers and Kings

Today we visited Sanssouci Palace and park. Sanssouci was home to Frederick the Great, a former king of Prussia. In the palace we saw hung pieces of artwork and large patterned silk tapestries on the walls; we had to wear big slippers over our shoes so that the marble and wooden floors wouldn't get damaged. The park was simple. Plenty of trees and statues, and a small Chinese style, light green tea house which Frederick used whenever he had tea. Also in the garden was a terrace with 132 stairs (which some if us counted for a chocolate) that led up to the grave of Frederick and next to him, his beloved dogs where the weather decided to rain on us a little. All in all another good day and our exchange partners picked us up later to do activities of their choice with us, mine was to play monopoly with another exchange partner who came over to my place to play on the Wii :) (by Vicky)