Ghent? No.. Sorry guys. It's actually Gwent.

This is a bit of a rant, sorry everyone.


It's Easter break here and it's just gone midnight on a Thursday/Friday night-morning.. (you get the idea). I'm back in Monmouth after a week in German. I had a great time in Münster with the Hey family. They were the family Andy stayed with when he was over there for his three month exchange. They made me part of the family for the time I was there and it will be an unforgettable experience! The highlight by far of my week in Germany was seeing Seb for a day. It's been about  9 months since he went home and about 6 since anyone from Coll has seen him. It was definitely a bit of a warm fuzzy seeing him, especially since he's the first person I've seen since I moved here that I actually knew.


I'm sure you lot who are reading this have seen my photos, but here's the link in case you haven't... http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.402990493044723.101307.100000013266911&type=3&l=f724991698


If you're wondering why I'm still hanging around Mo-town in the middle of my holidays there is a reason, albeit not a good one by anyone's standards.. The school is having their training camp this week and I "volunteered" my time to help out. Bullshit. I was told I had to help out.
Usually the school goes to Ghent in Belgium, but this year the teacher in charge of rowing decided to go skiing for a week instead. But don't worry... this wasn't one of the main reasons I wanted to come here.. I love having to cut my holiday short to come back to where I live for ten months of the year.


On the bright side - oh. Actually. I don't think there is one... 


Oh well. Shit happens. I know I'm still a lucky little bugger being so close to Europe and I'm only a couple of hours from London.. Speaking of which, about the only thing I do have to look forward to these holidays now is meeting up with Andy and Sam in London next weekend before term starts again. The three of us haven't been in London together yet so we're going to hit it up hard I expect. 

Sprechen Sie deutsch?... uuuuuh.... No?

I'm sitting in the living room of the family Andy knows in Germany right now. They're a really nice family and have welcomed me into their home knowing next to nothing about me which just goes to show their generosity!

Fortunately they make up for me not knowing a single word of German. I can count to four, ask if someone can speak German, say yes, no, please and thank you.. that's it...  Everyone in the family is almost totally fluent in English so I'm safe on that front!

Kolja (17) and his older brother Tim (22) are taking me into Münster today to have a look around. We're riding bikes into the city as, apparently, Münster is the bike capital of Germany. I'm told there are nearly as many bikes in Münster as there are cars. That could mean there are an awfully large number of bicycles or just not many cars... I think it's probably the former though.

As a total sidetrack, Gotye has just started playing on the radio and The Phoenix Foundation was on before. Interesting hearing NZ and Australian music on the other side of the world.

I haven't experienced any German traditions yet but I'm sure Kolja and Tim will enlighten me today. I've been told about Currywurst (Curry Sausage) and that I have to try it. I'll let you know how that gets on, but apparently Andy loved the stuff when he was here, and everyone else is quite fond of it too...

Seb is visiting on Wednesday - the first time I would have seen him in nearly a year so I'm looking forward to that. Hopefully he'll still be full of his slightly inappropriate double entendres!