Berlin wall

Wow, I take the internet for granted at home, but things are a bit harder here. At the backpackers we have free access, so thats good. Today we went to see the Brundenburg Gate, and while we where there, we witnessed a movie being made. I don't know what the movie was, but it seemed to be one of thoes end of the world kind of things. Maybe they will screen it on SBS eventually! lol.
Moving on from the gate, we visited the German parlament. It has a special system of mirrors on the roof to totally illuminate the parlament with natural light. The roof is made of glass, so it is completely transparent. The imagry in that is pretty significant.
Also we visited part of the old Berlin wall, and the old Russian torture chambers. It is still really hard for me to imagine that all this stuff has happened in my lifetime. Again, it was hard to decipher the German in the exhibits, but we managed.
We also paid a visit to the Sony Centre, and explored 4 levels of electronic magic. I played with so many gadgets that I couldnt really afford, including one of thoes robot dogs! I want one of the laptops that I saw there, but I think the 1999 euro price-tag was a little steep. that converts to about AU$3800... not quite in my spending budget.
After the sony centre, I came back to the hostel and did some washing, because all my clothes stank!
Missing the Aussie summer, -Andrew

Berlin

Well, we arrived at our backpackers accomodation in Berlin. It's not as bad as I thought it could have been. We arent in a seedy ppart of town (from what I can gather) and the bathroom we are sharing is only shared with other people on the tour with us. Things other than that seem to be shaping up really well, the students we have met so far all seem really nice, even if they are a little older than us.
Since I last wrote, we have visited the Meißen porclain factory, which was really awesome. They had a display of the history of the company as well as an interactive display about each stage of the manufacturing process. We also went to see Dresden, which reminded me alot of Melbourne. I went shopping there, and found a nice wool coat. Also we visited the Hygene Museum, which wasn't quite what I expected. The museum had many displays outlining lots of different aspects of the human body. Things like ageing, food, the senses, body language and sex were covered. I'm sure that it would have been much more interesting if I actually could read German. I still enjoyed it.
We also went swimming on one of our free days, which was a quite different experience to going swimming in Australia. The pool was indoors and outdoors, even though the temperature outside was only zero degrees! The pool was a wave pool with a water slide, and some other bits and peices.
The German students are here now, we are going out to dinner, so I have to go.
Peace and love, Andrew

In Germany

Well, I got to Germany safely and managed to find me some free internet access. I know it's taken over a week too, but I have been so busy having fun in the icy cold. It's about 3-4 degrees every day now, and I'm told it is going to get colder. I have bought a set of thermals to wear all the time, and I am still hunting for the perfect jacket. Hopefully that will be found before we get to Berlin (Sunday) because it's supposed to be very windy there. A couple people have compared it to Moscow!
So far we have seen where they design thoes sexy BRAUN products, also where they do research into future trends in color and fashion. We saw the Köln cathedral, and did some shopping there. There was also a Chocolate musium in Köln, which housed a miniature chocolate factory! We have been to the first site of the Bauhaus design school, and toured a small Bauhaus musium. Tom and I keep getting in trouble for looking in the musiums too long!
I'm having a blast over here, and can't wait till I will be able to show everyone my photos. I'm missing the beach weather, but I guess I will still have plenty of that once I get back.

Only an hour to go! (sort of)

I'm all packed, passport is all set, tickets are in my carry on bag, and I think I will just about burst if I have to wait much longer! The plan of attack goes as follows, I'm going to the airport with Mum, Dad, Peter and Phil. We are aiming to leave around 4.30ish, but I think that will probably turn into about 5.00! Typical for my family. Then, once at the airport, we will have a bite to eat before I have to check in and meet up with the rest of the group. Then we have to kill time for the next couple hours while they organize us all to go through customs and that kind of thing. I think our plane is actually supposed to leave at 10.25 or something like that.
I'm not sure how long the flight is, but I'm packing a couple reader's digest magazines to keep me occupied. I looked up the emirates website too, they seem to have a pretty good selection of channels to choose from and lots of games to play during the flight. One of the things I read that I hadn't seen before is apparently they have a channel that has views from the exterior of the aircraft. I guess you would be able to see parts on the plane too? It will be interesting to find out what that's all about. I may have read incorrectly though.
We arrive at Frankfurt airport at about 6am! Just in time to start off our day of sight seeing and touring. I think I will be half dead by the end of the day.
I'm so excited, but a little worried at the same time. I'm not sure what I'm worried about, perhaps I'm just anxious. I've organized three different currencies, US dollars, Aussie dollars, and Euros. I hope I wont need all the different currencies, but just in case.... Dubai is where we have a stop over, and from what I've heard, they only really accept US dollars. Maybe some shopping? I don't know. There are so many things I don't know, I'm excited to be able to find out.
I don't know when I will be able to blog next, so if you don't hear from me, I'm most likely having a really great time!

Yesterday I had a birthday celebation with my family. (Grandpa and Grandma pictured) We went to the park for a BBQ lunch, it was very nice. I fly out tonight, so I have to pack my bag and make sure I have eveything!  

Last night I went to the hawthorn pub with lots of people from uni and other places, and we all had a blast. The idea was sort of to celebrate by birthday, as well as the end of exams and going away to Germany. Pictured here is Evan, Gavin and Myself! 

Arrg! Exams!

Today's exam went as well as could be expected I think. I will pass, so thats a relief. Only one more exam to go, and tomorrow night I am free! at least until Sunday night when i fly out to Germany to continue studying for uni! LOL. No rest for the wicked.
Today I activated my new VISA debit card, and used it once as an ATM card, and once as a credit card. It's so exciting, all these things happening at once! I also had a church council meeting, which was long, but reasonably un-eventful.
I started trial packing for Germany, and all my clothes that I want to take plus the suitcase weigh about 10kg, as far as I can reckon using our dodgey bathroom scales. I think I still need to sort out all my little electronic gizmos, cause they are going to be annoying to pack any time before the last second!
Nite Nite, I'm off to bed. Big exam tomorrow!
-Andrew

3 more sleeps

I have just 3 sleeps to go before I leave for Germany.
Yesterday I didn't study one bit. The day was a write off. The morning was spent going to the US consulate in Melbourne to sort out my US passport. (and my brothers' US passports too). All went reasonably smoothly, but it did take a little time for them to process all the paperwork. There was so much security on the consulate that half that time was spent getting in and out of the building! On our way back from the city we went shopping for my birthday presents, and came back with a 1GB SD card for my camera, and a spare battery for my camera too. Then I had to goto work, and on my way home I stopped off at Rita's place to borrow a suitcase for the trip. All our suitcases have broken wheels or are too big, so I borrowed one thats just the right size (I hope!).
Later this afternoon I have an exam, it's worth 80% of the subject and lasts for two hours. I hope I can do well on it, considering that I haven't studied for it over the last two days. I'm sure all will be ok. I'll let you know if anything terrible happens and I fail it or something.
Anyway, I have to get going, I have some errands to run before I leave for the exam.
-Andrew

With just 5 more sleeps, I spent today studying. I think I have most of the content for the exam down pat, I just need to be confident. Tomorrow I'm going with Mum to the city to get my US passport application done, and then on the way back we are going shopping for anything I might need for Germany. I'm going to start packing tomorrow I think. This photo is a Circada shell Phil found in the front yard. I was playing with the micro-focus on my camera, so thats why it's on here. I thought it looked pretty cool.  

Isn't it one of the most gadgety clocks you have ever seen? That's going straight to the pool room. Thanks John and Jeff! 

6 Days.

I know everybody is probably sick of my little countdown, but I like
it... so Ha! There's 6 days until I fly out. I got an e-mail today
saying our tickets are available for collection from the Prahran office.
So I think I will go over there before the exam on Thursday. Thursday's
exam is "Engineering Materials", and will be worth 80% of the total mark
for that subject. The rest of the marks are made up of tutorial
activities, assignments and lab reports. I'm not sure how well I have
done in the other tasks, so I know I have to do well on the exam. 80%
weighting is a little steep I think, especially since you only have 2
hours to earn all those credit points. Today I spent the day with Evan,
Anthony, Gavin, Weeks and Wan, going over last year's exam paper. Half
of the material I understand, and the other half is pretty fuzzy. We had
two different lecturers for both topics in the subject, so maybe that's
why I remember parts of it better than others. I think I like Aaron's
teaching style better than Derry's, although both are better than Jamal.
I guess it's ok, because I don't have to think about Jamal's subject
ever again. (unless i unexpectedly fail dynamics!)
The other part of the day today was spent looking at a past exam for
"Manufacturing Technology". It wasn't too bad, so I've decided I wont
stress to much over that one. The Manufacturing Technology exam is only
worth 60% of the mark for that subject, so that takes off a bit of
pressure. I still want to do well though.
I had better start thinking about what I want to pack for Germany! it's
not long now. I think I am going to borrow a suitcase from Barbara, seen
as all the ones we have around here have broken wheels or are too big
for little old me. I think I want to take all my gadgets, like my Palm,
and my phone. I'm not sure if it's a good idea though. If I do take a
phone I am going to take the LG one, it's been stuffing up lately, and I
don't really care too much if that one gets lost or stolen. I plan to
get a new phone (on a plan) when I return to Australia anyway.
Anyways, enough of my mindless babble. I should go and cook some food
for tonight's dinner and perhaps look at some more revision stuff to
prepare for my exams.
-Andrew

In exactly 7 days time I will be on my way to Germany. Yesterday I had my first little celebration for my birthday. Chris, Jeff, John and I had a pool party. Chris was kind enough to offer his spa/pool for the occasion. It was a worm night out, and even warmer in the spa! It got to about 41 degrees in the water before I decided it was too hot for me. Cooked lobsters came to mind for some reason. It was a fine evening, and I had a really good time. Jeff and John gave me the coolest clock ever for my birthday, which was really sweet. Anyways, I had better go and get some sleep. Tomorrow I have to be at uni by 10am for a studdy session with Evan, Anthony, Gavin and Weeksy. There might be others too, I havent heard. Catch you all later. 

Just 8 short days.

In just 8 days I will be in Germany. Can you tell I'm excited? Yesterday's sunglasses shopping trip went well, I think. I tried on almost every pair in each shop we tried. I found one pair in each shop that I liked. One was a Ray-Ban pair, that was $250 and the other was a Dirty Dog pair, for $130. I doubt I will get either pair. I liked the Ray-Ban pair better, but I know it's damn expensive. Why oh why do they have to make nice things expensive? Maybe we should all ponder that point...
Today I need to plan out an activity for the Sunday school kids to do tomorrow during church, and I goto work at 12. Tonight I am going for dinner at Chris's place, and I am planning a dip in the spa after dinner. I hope the weather stays hot, I could get used to this.
Anyways, I had better get on with my day. Hope all is well wherever you are.
-Andrew

9 days left!

There are just 9 sleeps left until I am jetting off to Germany! This morning I had my first exam, Machine Dynamics. I was dreading it, and didnt feel like the class had covered the material properly, so during swatvac I was sort of left to my own devices. Fortunately, I revised most of the material that was on the exam. there were only 3 questions that I wasnt sure about, (that's 30 points out of 100), so hopefully i will score around 70ish. I will be happy with that.
Anyway, now that the terror exam is over, I can focus on more important things, like shopping! lol. I've organized to go shopping tonight for things I might need while I am in Germany. I also need to make a birthday wish list so people know what to get me. So far my list consists of a spare camera battery (Canon NB-4L), some sunnies that dont make me look like a fish, new clothes are always welcome too, and I need a power adapter plug for German to Aussie plugs. My 20th birthday celebration is on the 11th of November at the Hawthorn Pub (thats on burwood road). I am aiming to get there about 9pm. All are welcome.
I had better be off, it's after 2pm and I havent eaten lunch. Then I will set about doing some practice exams and organizing for Germany!

The 10 day run up.

There are now just 3 exams and 10 'sleeps' standing between me and my plane to Germany. Can you tell I am excited? I think I have pretty much everything organized, but I havent started packing yet. I have to concentrate on more important things before I leave for Germany, mainly those 3 pesky exams. Tomorrow is the machine dynamics exam, which is going to be the hardest one. I have been attempting to study for the past couple of days, but havent really been that successful. Yesterday, I cleared my calendar and sat down to work on it. I wasnt happy, because it seemed that all the questions I tried were hard and I couldnt do them without looking through the book for formulas or looking at the solutions to get started. I pray that I will be able to do a bit better today. Tomorrow is the real exam, it starts at 9.30am, and lasts for 3 hours and 15 mins. This exam time is different from the 'official' time, because all the people traveling to Germany will be out of the country when the rest of the class takes the exam. I think we get a special set of questions too, let's hope they are easier!
Enough doom and gloom, I goto Germany in 10 days!! I cant wait! I havent been this excited since... ever! I'll be over there until just before Christmas. When I get back, I will have Christmas with Mum, Dad, Peter and Phil, on boxing day (the day after Christmas) my Mum and Pete leave for the USA. I dont know when they come back, but I think they are staying for a couple weeks at least. Phil and Dad are hatching plans to go to Queensland to visit Auntie Lorraine and Uncle Ross. I will probably have to work, so I dont know if I am going anywhere or what's happening. Chris's family is going to hire a holiday house near Phillip island, and I've been invited to go there with them. I just have to see who I want to tag along with now.
Anyways, I should really hit the books, tomorrow is D-Day after all.
-Andrew

Yesterday was Janet's 50th birthday. She had it at her house, and it was a pool party! The day was lots of fun, and I managed to escape sunburn, which is a first for me.