Getting into a rhythm

So that was a two month blackout or so.

Sorry about that guys. I really have no excises for that, other than everything just kind of settled into a very busy rhythm. It's not that new stuff hasn't been happening, there's been plenty of new stuff which I can share here and now, its just that I'm adjusting to the rhythm of life here. A couple weeks ago I was thinking about writing a couple entries, but then all of the chaos associated with the holidays rose up, and I have had no time from one day to the next. Before the holidays, most of my time outside of school had been taken up by soccer training with the local soccer team.

The backup field of TSV Allershausen, used for training and youth games

Because of complications obtaining a players, I have been unable to make an appearance for any team here yet, but I can reveal that as of yesterday the license has arrived, and I will be able to play games in the spring. 

If there's one thing I've learned at my school, it's that music is a SERIOUS business at this school. I'm going to try and get a video of some of the students plying and put it up here, but at the moment I have nothing. Just suffice it to say that I have seen and heard some amazing things here at school. More to follow on this.

I also visited Tierpark München (the zoo) on a day off and got to spend some time in Munich. With the holiday season well in swing now, the Mercedes-Benz company has set up their multi floor display building with a curtain covering 25 windows. Every day starting December the first, one of these curtains is lifted, revealing a new luxury car, in a sort of fancy car advent calendar. That is the full extent of what I know about it, and I didn't get a chance to take a photo, but if you want to see a photo, I'm sure one is available on their website. 

A pair of Galapagos turtles

I also got a chance to visit a former nazi airfield on the outside of Munich. After the war, the US used it as an airbase for their own purposes until eventually turning it back over to the West Germans. The airfield remained largely abandoned until purchased by the Deutsch Museum. The Deutsch Museum, based in Munich, is a museum devoted to technological advances, particularly in machinery. The airfield has been converted into a home for all of the aircraft that the Deutsch Museum owns. Many of the planes are still fully licensed and able to fly, and there really is an extraordinary number of planes in the museum. I got to sit in a fighter jet cockpit...

good luck figuring these out

The museum is really amazing, and I highly recommend it.

Finally (for now), I visited the city of Regensburg, about an hour north of Allershausen. First off, Regensburg should not be confused with Ravensburg (where the jigsaw puzzles come from). I got them confused, which is why I'm saying this. Regensburg is famous for its big church, lying on the meeting place of two rivers, and the 1000 year old bridge that crosses these two rivers. I was not able to see the bridge because it was being restored, but I was able to get a picture by the church. 

That's all for now, I'll be back soon with some holiday stuff for you guys. Again, sorry about the long absence, but there'll be quite a few coming over the next couple of weeks, including a trip to Austria.

Berlin

Hello Everyone,

Sorry that I didn't get my post from the weekend in the alps out to you guys yet. I am still waiting on a couple of videos to complete the entry and, once I get them, it will be posted. In the meantime, here is the entry from the Berlin Tour I went on with my fellow exchange students.

Some of you may know that I'm kind of crazy about history. One of the key reasons for my coming here was so that I could experience some of the history that I so often read about in books and in school. However, I was not prepared for the feelings that come with experiencing the places where this history happened. nowhere on earth are these feelings more powerful than in the city of Berlin, which has been the centre for so much of the political history of the 20th century.

This church, almost completely destroyed during allied bombing at the end

of the second world war, has remained in the centre of West Berlin as a monument ever since.

One of the facts that shows how involved Berlin is in the past century of history lies in the fact that there are still 13 operational nuclear bunkers scattered throughout the city. Although (hopefully) after the end of the USSR the need for these bunkers has been significantly reduced, many remain in operation. In a 5 star hotel near near the Brandenburg Gate (you may recognize it as the hotel from which Michael Jackson dangled the baby out of the window), there is an elevator leading from the penthouse suite to the bunker below the hotel, for the private use of whoever happens to be spending 13, 000 euros for the use of that room on that particular night. 

In the city, although much of the legacy was removed, you can still feel the ghosts of Nazi Germany in the city, and the relics of a time gone past. However, credit must be given to the city of Berlin, and to all of Germany, for the way that the people here deal with the past. All Germans will admit that what happened in the past was a truly horrible event that destroyed millions and millions of innocent people. But to put this history on display for people to come and visit and see and learn about what happened here in the hopes that such an event may never again occur takes a kind of strength that I have neither seen nor heard of in any other circumstance ever. 

Of special note is the Holocaust memorial located about a kilometre from the Brandenburg gate. Although controversial, it is a very significant monument and a must visit in the city. Below is a panorama of the view from outside the monument, while above is a view from inside.

The other significant, even more recent historical event that has shaped the city is the division of the city into East and West sectors and the separation of those sectors by the famous Berlin Wall. In fact, 

The Berlin Wall today at the East Gallery, still in its original place. 

Scattered throughout the city are several museums about what life was like in East Berlin, and it really is incredible. Of special note are the Berin Wall museum at Checkpoint Charlie and the DDR Museum, which shows off artifacts from everyday life. One of the main features of the museum was the standard car of that time, made out of plastic due to metal shortages. These cars had to be ordered and often took about 13 (no typo) years to be delivered to the family that ordered them.

Of course, there are other relics in the city, which was the capital of the influential Prussian empire until 1871, when Germany became a nation. If you are not that interested in history, or if you have a short time in Berlin, you have to visit the Story of Berlin exhibit, which covers all of the topics of the history of Berlin in one place. It is a fantastic exhibition that I truly enjoyed going through. 

My fellow Canadian exchange student Christina, myself, and Lukas, who went

 on exchange to Canada, in front of the Brandenburg gate, the symbol of not just

 old Prussia, but of the reunified Berlin.

All of the exchange students with our walking tour guide (to whom I have to credit much of the information used in this entry) outside Humboldt university, a prestigious university with former alumni including Vladimir Lenin and Karl Marx.

However, if you are a big fan of history and want to see what the past looked and felt like, there are two places you need to go to. The first is Stalin's office in the chateau at Potsdam, where the treaty dividing Germany was drawn up and signed. Although very little of the chateau is open for exhibition, standing in the red office where Joseph Stalin once devised how to split up the German nation is a powerful and intimidating feeling.

although photos are not allowed in side the chateau, I got a 

picture of the red star flowers growing in the garden.

The second place you need to stand is this parking lot:

Underneath this parking lot is the buried bunker in which Adolf Hitler killed himself when the Soviet Army invaded Berlin. To this day some of the vandalism scrawled by Soviet soldiers remains on the pillars of the Reichstag, the German Parliament building. The symbolism is unmistakeable. Unlike some of the other remnants of the Nazi regime (the headquarters of the Luftwaffe was turned into a tax office) this part was destroyed in order to deprive potential pro-nazi supporters of a rallying point in the days and years after the war ended. 

In the end, the relevance of Berlin in the 20th century cannot be understated, and it is an amazing place to travel to both for the tourist experience and for the deeper feeling of history on seemingly every street you walk past.

I'll leave you today with a photo from the roof of the Reichstag. I'm sorry if this entry was a bit history centric, but that was really the best way to approach my trip in Berlin. I know I enjoyed it very much and I have to give credit to my fellow students, who supplied many of the pictures. If you have any questions about the city, my exchange or a quick point, post them in the comments and will get to them as soon as I can.

More Schule

Hello again,

So, there are only two more entries left before I am back in the present, and I have to admit that it feels pretty good the out of the woods there. Apologies again for not writing on time, but I was pretty busy over the past couple of weeks with soccer, rotary trips, and a few school things. In fact, I can tell you guys in advance that i will be going dark again for the last week of October because i will be on a Berlin tour with my fellow exchange students here in District 1841 (Bavaria). So, for the first time, here is some advance warning that there is no point in checking the blog for that week, because I will probably not be writing.

Now, as promised, a couple of things about school has begun for me. I think that the best way to do this is to go through each of my classes in order of how they appear in the week and then describe essentially any differences between them and the Canadian courses.

First thing on Monday, I have Grade 11 art class (Kunzt). Those of you who know me can stop laughing now. It is true that I have not taken an art class since Grade 7, when I wrote on my grade 8 electives selection form "Please do not put me in art" no less than 6 times. However, it is a good opportunity for me to meet students, and it also has the added bonuses of not being an academic course and fitting into my timetable, so there you have it; I am in Art Class. I am also in a Grade 10 Chemistry (Chemie), and French (Französich). Unlike in Canada, the division of Subjects begins mud earlier, so by Grade 10 the students have been taking separate Chemistry, Biology, and Physics classes. French begins in Grade 10 here, so I am taking French from the very beginning. However, the pace of learning has been so fast that I think that we will have caught up to my French level by Christmas. It is like this with all classes here, since the school is a Gymnasium. I am also in Grade 11 English, grade 9 and 12 History (Geschichte) and grade 10 Geography. Here, History from grade 9 to 11 focuses entirely on the 20th century, while Grade 12 focuses on the Abiteur (which I will get to later). Geography is a very technical course, even in Grade 10, requiring a lot of thought and memorization which you do not see in a geography class in Canada (I really enjoy geography if and when I know whats going on). I am also in a Math 11 class and two PE classes, one of which is a soccer class, the other of which is a swimming class. However, although these classes have specific topics, no more training occurs in these classes than you would have in a normal PE class in Canada.

Finally, I have the Seminars. These are massive projects, which take a year and a half to complete. beginning in Grade 11, students can choose a school subject and perform a project related to that topic. This takes two different forms, an a practical real life application of a project (for example, in my math based seminar, the class is constructing a math app for use on smartphones) or a theoretical massive research paper (for example, in my geography centric seminar, the students have to write a paper on the sustainability of a city of their choosing). these projects change every year, so there is no guarantee of exactly what you will doing from year to year. However, these projects result in you gaining important life skills for the future, such as how to properly write an informative paper and/or organization, resource management, and team cooperation. I'm sure no student in Canada wants more work to do, but I think that these courses should be introduced to the British Columbian education system.

Thirdly, and finally, the Abiteur. This is the Gigantic pre-graduation final exam that all students in grade 12 must take to graduate. This test covers all curriculum that you have learned in the Gymnasium and is controlled and administered by the state of Bavaria. For those of you from Revelstoke, imagine a challenging provincial exam on everything you learned in High School that you are required to pass to graduate. For the most part, the entire Grade 12 year is spent preparing for this exam, and after the exam, much like Graduation in Canada, the class will sometimes go on an "Abi-Trip" which is typically a vacation to a sunny resort somewhere in the Mediterranean. There are brochures for two different trips available to look at in the school, and at some point in the year the Grade 12's decide which they would rather go on.

That is all for my school description this time. Once again, if you guys have any questions about the education system in Germany or recommendations for future articles, please post them in the comments below and I will get working on them right away. My pile of draft ideas for blogs is dwindling, and I would very much like to fill it up with new ideas. Again, thank you for reading, and I'll be back with some mountain adventures very soon.

Ladies and Gentlemen.... Oktoberfest

Its been a week since it ended, and I still can't quite believe that this is a real event,

Oktoberfest is considered to be one of the most stereotypical German events, and while this may not necessarily be true, it is still one of the must see and do events here in Germany.

This article will be mostly about a trip that I took with the other rotary exchange students, if for no other reason than because that is the trip that I have a couple of pictures of (my phone is still not up and running, so no camera for me).

Helen, Mikayla (two American exchange students), and I at an entrance to Oktoberfest.

So, obviously, the stand out expectation of Oktoberfest is the beer tents, and yes, they are absolutely insane. There are about 12 to 15 gigantic beer tents arranged in the centre of the festival, where most of the participants spend their time. However, other than the beer tents, there are many things in Oktoberfest that I wash't expecting to see. First of all, the gigantic roller coasters. every year, Oktoberfest has two or three temporary roller coasters set up for the event. The traditional olympia coaster features a track that includes, among other things, the shape of the olympic rings. In fact, the entire oktoberfest is set up like a carnival, with lights, games, and rides everywhere.

the Hollenblitz, a gigantic indoor roller coaster complete with 

a waterfall and flashing lights in the shape of a giant tree

There are carnival games, food stands, and small beer tents littering the sides of the wide avenues that people have to walk (or stumble, depending on how your night is progressing) down to get from ride to beer tent to carnival game and back again. Shout out to the police that are monitoring the entire event, from providing directions in the subway to organizing lineups and admission into beer tents. Its a massive project that they run consistently at a very high standard, so well done to you guys.

Oh, yeah, another couple of stereotypes I have to shoot down; Oktoberfest doesn't run for the duration of October. It runs in the last week of September and the first week of October. Secondly, The festival is a Bavarian festival, not a German festival. Although it is the biggest party that is held in Germany, there are carnivals in some of the western cities (such as Köln (Cologne)) that are comparable. Finally, Lederhosen are traditional bavarian clothing, and often they are some of the highest selling products in the souvenir shops that can be found throughout the city during Oktoberfest. However, many people who are going will buy one of these imitation pairs and wear it to the festival. Apparently this commercial side of Oktoberfest has only emerged recently, and, at the moment, if you go to Oktoberfest in ordinarily clothing you will not stand out from the crowd. however, while you are there, try and find a Bavarian in the very traditional pairs of lederhosen, down to a feather sicking of out of the hat. It is a very impressive thing to see, and a real glimpse into a very old culture.

Anyways, obviously go to Oktoberfest, it is one of the landmark German events of the year, and I'm sure at some point I will come back to it. If you have any questions about Oktoberfest, I may be able to answer them, but only if you post them in the comments below.

Thanks guys for all of your support and reading, I'll be back in a couple days with more blog for you guys (and maybe, I dare to hope, a working phone)

My new Fussballklub

Hello again everyone,

So I said soccer was going to be a big part of this adventure, so here is the first instalment of my soccer adventures in Germany. I am now training with the local team here in my village, TSV Allershausen.

Just to be clear, here in Europe, many clubs, especially in the smaller villages like Allershausen, the football clubs are not only football clubs, but also athletic clubs. This means that TSV Allershausen also has a tennis team (which my host family plays) and a baseball, track and field, badminton team, and many other sports teams. However, for the moment, I am going to focus on soccer. 

Here in Allershausen, there are three teams on which I am eligible to play on. The first is the A-Jugend, or the under-19 youth team. Once you are past the A-Jugend, there are two men's teams, separated player talent. The lower is the Zweiten Mannschaft (second team), while the higher is the Ersten Mannschaft (if you can't guess what that means, google it). At the moment, I train with any and all of these teams when they have a practice while I wait for my license to be approved so that I can play games. 

OK, so for those of you who don't follow soccer, I am going to have to explain a unique characteristic of soccer leagues that doesn't exist in North America, known as promotion and relegation. here in Germany, as in all other soccer systems in European countries, the leagues are set up in a pyramid formation. At the very top of the pyramid is the Bundesliga, the top German professional league. Below this league is the second division, possibly a third division and then the leagues split up by region. For example, there may be a Bavarian league here. this division by region continues until you reach a level near what we would call house league level in Canada. However, unlike in Canada, these leagues are flexible. If you finish first in your league, you will be promoted to the league above you and play a new, more difficult set of opponents. Finish first in THAT league, and you are promoted again. This means that, given time and enough skill, ANY team can play in the Bundesliga. However, similar to being promoted, a last place finish will see you relegated to a lower league and easier opposition. In the very high leagues, such as the Bundesliga, this relegation can mean a massive loss in revenue from TV money as well as an exodus of talented players looking for a more successful club than the one that they were formerly playing at. In my personal opinion, I think that this system is very good and should be implemented in North America, not just because because it maintains competition, but also because it gives teams who have lost many games something to play for towards the end of the season and keeps games entertaining, since teams are always needing a win. Having got that out of the way, the first team and the second team both play in a league, with the league of the second team being several divisions below that of the first team. 

So, that's it for soccer at the moment. I'll be sending along updates in the future about the soccer season in much the same manner as I will with the school. if you would like pictures of the TSV Allershausen stadium, I would suggest that you go to their website here. Also like school, if you have any other questions about soccer here in Germany, feel free to post them in the comments below, and I will try and get some answers for you. 

Schule Beginnt!

Hi there

So, obviously the subject of school is a big topic for me, since I'm going be in school for the duration of my exchange. Therefore, you can expect a lot of entries about school during the year. In this first one I am just going to go on a general overview of the education system here in Bavaria. Although all of the education systems follow a similar structure, there are significant differences which prevent me from describing this as the German education system.

So, as some of you know, at the end of 4th grade, the overall grade average of the students over the course of that year determines which school they will go to. The students that receive lower grades will attend a Mittelschule (formerly known as Hauptschule's but changed after complaints that the phrase "half school" was somewhat offensive). These schools prepare the students for trades careers or other jobs in that neighbourhood, where the students enter into apprenticeships almost immediately after they graduate (in Grade 10). Above this is the Realschule, which takes students up to the grade 10 level before they must choose either to write a test which gives them the ability to enter a Gymnasium (more on those later) or to take the same path as a Mittelschule student and enter a trades apprenticeship.

Finally, my school, a Gymnasium. If you do well in Grade 4, you are entered into a Gymnasium. These schools give the most advanced secondary education that can be commonly found, and far more curriculum is covered from year to year than is in Canada, chiefly because those students that may not be able to learn as quickly as the others may be in a different school. This means that even though I am enrolled in Math 11 and Chemistry 10 classes, I only know fragments of what they are learning in these classes, despite graduating with honours in Canada. Also unlike Canada, there is no division in students after primary school, resulting in hallways full of both 10 year old's and 20 year old's. Oh yes, another thing; because the gymnasium is so difficult, falling behind a year because of poor grades is not looked upon with the same scorn that it is in Canada.

I could keep going, but I still have 10 months of entries worth to write, so there will be many entries about school coming your way in the future. Next time, probably I will write about the classes that I am in, some notes on cafeterias, and the relationship between students and teachers.

Don't worry, I am hoping to get a couple of entries out to the world today, while I have some free time, so hang on, more is on the way. If you have any questions about German school that you want answered, please feel free to post them in the comments and I will try to find an answer for you guys.

Meeting all the other Rotary Students

Hi everybody,

Sorry for the absence (again) but I've been very busy over the past couple weeks, mostly with events that will be in the blog for the next half dozen entries. First though, I'm going back to the first weekend that I met my fellow exchange students at the international university in Augsburg.

There is no group dynamic like a bunch of exchange students. I've been on sports teams, clubs, Student councils, and band trips, but there is really nothing like the first time that a Group of People from different countries, with different languages, interests, likes, dislikes, and motivations, stand in a room and realise that all of these other people are in the exact same situation. No one will understand what is going on better than those people who are with you at this moment. Regardless of what you have done in the past, these are the people who will become a second family to you while you are on exchange. It's a situation that can never be found amongst any other large group of people, certainly not over the course of 30 hours. There is really something inexplicable about it. As I write this, one of the students himself is on the other side of the room. Newson Cruz, a student from Brazil, is the other Exchange Student who goes to my Rotary Club in Freising, and I'm sure you'll hear his name in the future.

In Europe, it is fairly uncommon for Europeans to travel to other European counties on Rotary Exchange, so it is not surprising that we have no Rotary Exchange students in the district from Europe. The vast majority of  the students come from the Americas, with Brazil and Mexico being the most heavily represented countries. There are also exchange students from Taiwan, Thailand, Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Venezuela, Peru, the US, and of course Canada. Shoutout to Christina Hertner for being my fellow Canadian on Exchange here. There are also 2 students from Texas and one guy from Sweden here on private exchange, and its really awesome having those guys around as well. Here are some photos from the weekend.

The Americans and Canadians (minus Taylor from Oregon)

Here is a group photo of all of us with our flags

As always, if you have comments, suggestions, or recommendations, post it in the comments. Next time, an update on school...

Venice!

Hello!

So, on our way back from Croatia, we spent a day in Venice!

The winged lion, the symbol of Venice

Venice is often recognized as one of the must-visit cities in Europe, and I couldn't agree more with this. Built on a swamp, the city flourished during the renaissance, building a Mediterranean trade empire that stretched from Great Britain to China and even the far east. Using the wealth gained from this trades, powerful merchant families (especially the Medici's) built incredible churches, palaces, and bridges which now cover the city.

Many of the buildings in Venice that I saw

When you walk through the piazza San Marco (where all of the main churches are) the sense of the city is that it is drowning. Rising sea levels, combined with the fact that the city is built on a sinking marsh, means that the water is rising up between the plaza flagstones, creating massive puddles of seawater in the centre of piazza. While this doesn't happen every day (yet) I arrived on a high water day, and was greeted to churches with sights such as these. 

there is very much a sense that the city is living on borrowed time, and I encourage you all to visit it before the beautiful churches and buildings are completely submerged.

Another of the basilica's that can found almost anywhere in the city

Standing in front of the San Marco Basilica. Below are photos of the interior of the church

One of the famous Gondolas. All of the gondolas in the 

city either look exactly the same or very similar.

Michi and I standing on a bridge in front of a typical Venetian canal.

I don't think I need to promote Venice any more than it has already been promoted: If and when you can, go there. Preferably soon, because the one thing that the city represents is how the march of time threatens everything, regardless of what it looks like or how long it has lasted.

A cruise ship coming up the Grand Canal, a fairly common 

occurrence (although the locals aren't happy about it).

The interior of the church tower from which I took the cruise ship photo

All right, this is it for the first week of my exchange. Sorry I'm so far behind, but after this we should catch up very quickly I'd hope. Thanks again for reading all of these, and if you have a comment or an article suggestion, post it in the comments space. I'll leave you with a picture of what I'm guessing is one of the oldest casinos in the world.

See you later,

Meanwhile, Back in Germany (German folk festivals)

So, with all of the events of the past week, this got left out. Now that everything from the week in Croatia has calmed down, i have a good chance to finally write about this. My first night in Germany, My host brother Michael took me to a German Volkfestern, of folk festival. Now, I know that image you guys in Canada and America conjure up when you think of a folk festival, and I want you to delete that image right now. German folk festivals are not even close to that. If you are from Revelstoke, I want you to picture about 4 or 5 kokanee festivals all together, combined with that carnival that used to come through town, and fireworks. For those of you not from Revelstoke, think of a really big party with amusement park rides and massive firework shows.

The big difference is all of the music being played is for the most part traditional bavarian music, and traditionally all of the men wear lederhosen while the women wear dirndl (bavarian dresses). When we went there we visited a German beer tent. Again, don't think of it as a tent so much as a longhouse, filled with people, picnic tables, music and giant glasses of beer. It is fairly common to stand on top of the benches and dance along the music, so of course, I hadn't been there long before one of these benches tipped over, sending six fairly intoxicated people sprawling, to the ironic cheers of everyone in the tent. Outside the beer tents, vendors selling pretzels, sausage, and just about every kind of traditional bavarian food can be found. Walk a little farther and you will find amusement park rides. Ferris wheels, tilt-a-whirls, those chairs attached to chains that go up really high (no idea what they are called), and all manner of carnival games line the streets of the festival. I am told that Oktoberfest is much bigger, but I can only speak from experience. Oktoberfest will come later.

Sorry about the lack of photos, but this is from the first night I arrived, at which point I had no camera.

Finally, a quick note about comments: the reason I ask for them was originally to get feedback and so that you guys could kinda shape what this blog was going to be, since I wasn't sure what you guys wanted. Now, I would like comments to suggest what topics I will write about in the future. If there is anything you wanted to know about life in Germany, please suggest it in the comments. German music, food, sports, anything you wanted to know. Post it in the comments.

Talk to you guys later

Pula

Hello everyone

I'm sorry its taking so long to get my blog posts from this Mediterranean week finished and uploaded for you guys to read about. Here in Allershausen, school has begun, I have met the other exchange students and I have begun training for TSV Allershausen, the local soccer club, and I will have entries on all of those, but first I have to finish all of the posts about this first week. I think there are 2 more to go after this one, and I will try to get them out to you, but with all of the events that are still happening here I don't always know when I'll have a free evening to write these entries, but just know I'm trying my best. The entries will get there when we get there.

Ok, now to Pula.

A fountain model of the city of Pula

Pula has been a gathering of humans since prehistory, when early Homo Sapiens gathered in caves nearby the city. Later, the romans used it as a colonial city, during which time they built the Pula amphitheater, which I toured.

A picture of me outside the amphitheater, along with two pictures of 

the interior of the amphitheater. The amphitheater is the fourth largest left in the 

world and can also be found on the ten kuna (the croatian currency) note.

Pula is still a very roman city, with old roman gates and even a temple to the roman emperor Caesar Augustus (the first emperor) still standing in the forum of the town. In terms of architecture, the city is much like Porec, but with more roman architecture and bigger. the Venetian architecture and narrow steers are still present however, as the city eventually became a Venetian colony after the collapse of the Roman empire. The city also contains the Archeological museum of Istria, which I didn't get a chance to look at, but would recommend for anyone going there. In addition, there are numerous churches, basilicas, and other relics from Mediterranean history that make the city a must visit if you are passing through the area (haha, maybe I should start writing tourist brochures. Sorry if it sounds too cheesy guys, but it really is an impressive city). 

Two pictures of myself and my host parents outside the temple of Caesar Augustus

I'll leave you guys with a photo of myself and my host father Marco underneath one of the gates in Pula. Again, if you have comments, suggestions, recommendations, or declarations of love for the sport of sand surfing, post them in the comments below. :)

On the coast of the Mediterranean (Mittelmeer)

OK,

I've put this entry off as long as I can, since I wasn't quite sure how to approach it without coming across as one of those people that posts endless photos of their mexican vacation in the middle of winter. There's nothing wrong with that, its just something that I was going to try and avoid with this blog. However, given the location that I am in right now, the best I can do is limit it, not outright prevent it. So here we go... I don't know how successful I will be, but at least know that I have these thoughts in mind as we go.

Is there anything as beautiful, or as terrifying, as the ocean? Yesterday I went snorkelling for the first time ever with my host family, and it seemed that when I drifted there in the ocean, there were two things that happened, very close to each other. The first is that you notice the profound silence underwater. You sit there, and nothing is happening, and you stare off into the ocean, and you see, and feel, nothing. and then about 5 seconds later, you decide that it is far too quiet down there, and every horror movie you have ever seen kicks in, and you start waiting for the giant squid to come and get you. I'm sure that most of you have already gone snorkelling before, so this is not a new experience for you, but it was for me. I have to say that the Mediterranean has to be one of my favourite places on earth. It seems like no matter where you go, there is always something that totally changes something about you. From the snorkelling to the tennis training, to just relaxing in a restaurant with my host family, you feel very alive here, no matter where you are.

Me shortly before I went snorkelling 

(in the background is a red boat which you could hire from the resort)

To be fair, I am sitting in a sort of bubble. we are staying in the Valamar Lanterna Resort, and although some of you may have been to resorts like this before, take this with a grain of salt since I have never been to anything like this place before. Here, there is always something to do. Whether its Tennis training on one of the 16 (!!!) tennis courts, a game of soccer or beach volleyball at the sport complex, or simply going to the beach or one of the two swimming pools, you should never be bored here. Having said that, this tennis camp is running me into ground. I have never done a camp as intensive as this one on both body and mind, and it is taking me to new levels of fatigue that I'm not used to. I noticed the other day that I couldn't breathe in all the way without coughing, so I asked my host family about it. Apparently I had torn my lung from so much activity, and it simply had to recover from the exercise and then it would be fine. I was good to go the next day, but that is still a very scary sounding injury. Don't worry guys, it is very very minor, and fairly easy to fix.

A film of me playing tennis on the final day.

So, here's what I'm thinking for this blog: for every city that I visit, I will post a brief profile of each city along with a description f what I did there and some pictures. The first one should be out over the next couple of days about Poreč. Again, please let me know what you think of this idea.

if you would like more information on the resort, you only need to visit this website here .

More photos of rock statues on the resort grounds

As always, if you have a question, suggestion, or request, post it in the comments below.

And hey, here's another note for you guys: apparently you can follow this blog: this is a feature which I believe will notify you when I've posted a new entry, although I'm making no guarantees (I don't know how blogger works). It seems to be the easiest way to follow this blog, and if you can find the way to follow this blog, please post it in the comments so that other people (me) know how to as well. I'll be back with more city posts over the next couple of days.