It's time for smiles!

It's time to begin, isn't it?
I get a little bit bigger, but then I'll admit
I'm just the same as I was
Now don't you understand
I'm never changing who I am

Hey everybody out there in this wide world full of emotions! 

Everyone's doing alright? I really hope so! Life has been super stressfull with school and a lot more. Sometimes it's hard to keep up with it, but then again life has its bright sides! :-)

Australia. Its a damn long time ago, even tho it still feels like just yesterday, that i arrived home, its mostly the winter season, that makes me realise how fast time has passed by. I have settled back in by now, like i actually have, i got over the part, where i didn't want to accept and realise i am here, not there. But at the point, where you realise, here can be as great as there, you just need to make it great, that its not gonna come itself, you start to feel at home again! :-) I miss Australia, and you can't understand how much i do, well you probably can if you are an exchange student. 
so for everyone who knows what im talking about: head up, cause like head down seriously, what its gonna get you? sadness? tears? why not go back to smiles and happiness!  :-) just gotta try, don't you!
Its nearly december and all the beautiful winter markets have started today (in germany). Its time for cookie baking, sweets, cold nights with cuddly blankets and hot chocolate. :) sooo gemütlich!!! excuse the german, but i dont think a perfect translation for this word exists... its time for christmas and pure joy!

My host family, well my second family <3 is in Europe right now, they're on a really busy schedule and it'd be a shame if we couldn't meet up, but we'll see what the future brings. I really miss them...

Also i had an awesome reunion weekend with Jule, and Kim was there aswell for one night in Cologne!!! WOW YOU HAVE ABSOLUTLEY NO IDEA HOW GREAT IT WAS TO BE WITH THEM AGAIN! Friendship, that is built over such a emotional hard time, can be so strong! :-)) 

This post was made as an update to all of you, that i am doing good over here :-)

There is be a text writen by an exchange student down there, which really just sums up exaclty how i feel about exchange!

Enjoy whatever season you have right now and you gotta keep your head up, don't forget that! 

See ya 
Anja <3


"I guess if you´d hear that the whole day and even after months, you´d be annoyed like hell.
Well.
This is the point when I gotta say:
“You wouldn´t understand - you haven´t been on exchange.”
It changed our life.
Cause it´s our second one.
It´s like we were born again in a different culture.
It´s our home.
It´s who we are.
We have friends and best friends and family there.
And we are just like them.
But now - home again.
And everything is missing.
No chance to hang out with these friends.
No chance to play guitar with your brother there.
No chance to go to a everyday-school performance.
No chance to speak the language.
No chance to be like you were there.
No chance to go where you went.
No chance to do what you did.
Cause you won´t be there again soon.
You can´t just go…home.
So if we wouldn´t talk about our other life -
which is the only chance to feel close with it -
We´d die in the inside.
Even it´s annoying.
Even you can´t hear another word of it.
That´s nothing compared to the pain an exchange student gotta bear."
(-Its not written by me!) :-)

Nachbereitungsseminar

Hey everybody :-)

holidays. october. and i am doing quite great.

well i think i slowly am getting sick of being sad, so put that friggen smile on and light up the world. i miss australia everyday and missing hurts, but missing just means you care and you love, doesn't it? But i am more than happy to be in Germany with all my friends and family. I am settling back in welll. i have settled back in. :-)

on the weekend of 21st september was a seminar of my organisation, which was with all us worldtravelers who are now back in germany and we reviewed our exchanges and exchanged memories and experiences. it was amazing.
we were in little (up to 15 people) groups and did workshops for one weekend in Göttingen. In my group we had people from south africa, great britian, france and me from auss. :-) some surprises from what you hear, mostly good stuff, and i dont think anyone regrets their exchange. :-))
it was so good to be around people that went through the same process as you did and just understand your pain of missing this and trying not to talk about your hostcountry in every senctence, which i am badly failing. ahahaha australian people i am making you famous over here with all the stuff i am saying ;)

my group in göttingen. guys you were awesome

 well i dont think i need to say anymore about the seminar, everyone who's following this blog should know a lot about my exchange :D

and well i finally have holidays, dont i? :-))))) yaaaaaaaaaay that means skype time and hanging with friends and i was on holidays with my family. got a little tan, by tan i mean that kind of tan a ginger can have. 

 

i hope everyone's doing just fine and showing the world their beautiful smile. 

see ya soon <3

Anja

september already

heeellooo everyone out there

how you're doing guys? i hope youre all doing great. if not you should change that asap, so youre living life with a huge smile on your face! :)

its september. cold. foggy. beautiful. rain. some sunny days. so its been 2 month and i think around 2 weeks since i left australia. wow thats. idek. i cant describe it that well. it actually feels quite weird i guess. i lived my life there and it was a complete different to this one here at home in germany. but tbh i am glad to be home it feels good to be around the people youve been friends with since kindergarden and grade1! im so glad i have them <3 

time really is running away. i cant believe its september already... school is been going on for more then a month now, and its so much work. im like drowing in it. someone save me please :D  school is a lot harder, well im not an exchange student anymore am i... but the feeling of being an exchange student wont ever leave! 

i really wanna go back to australia and live there. it seems like its just perfect the way of living. and just how people are i seem to fit in perfect :)  but hey im in germany! :) make most out of everything. it may sound like i really wanna go back to AUS but i wouldnt be able to leave my friends behind. no i couldnt... but living in AUS someday. i really could imagine that very well :)

life is being the best most days. ofc there are some days where you arent as happy as you probably could be but its still great. 

in Göttingen, there is a seminar for all exchange students from my organisation to review our exchanges and stuff. its in two weeks. i am looking forward to it tbh. :) lets see what the others say.

see ya soon lovely people :)

looking forward to seeing everyone whether here, there, now, or in a few days, or years! i miss you!

anja <3 <3

settling back in at home

hey everyone :-))

my summer holidays are over. "summer" haha so funny -.- cause i've been gone for a year. i had to catch up with everyone. well i still am :D its good to be home to be honest. but really i wanna be back in australia at the same time, but i dont want to leave my friends here, i need them, i know that. life just doesnt work without them, but life is a lot harder without my australian weirdos... :(
school started one week ago. year 10. its damn hard, i get a damn lot of homework and have long schol days 4 times a week, which is such a lot.
I've enjoyed my summer holidays. in sweden, at home skyping, or just going out with friends.
everythign seems like its been before i left a lot. well i am not as close to everyone anymore but to most of my friends i am still as close as sisters :) im in a new year/grade. so im starting to make new friends as well. theyre great. yea it sounds like life is going great. well it is at some point. i just wish to be in australia, i actually mean more the people, and my family there. :( but "someday i will find my way back to where your name is written in the sand" i am coming back, sometime, soon hopefully :) dont miss me too much :* cause i miss you enough....

in the middle of september i'll have a seminar from my cultural exchange organisation. interested to see everyones experiences they've made.. :)

well there actually isnt much to say is there right now. i am just really stressed with school, finding a workplacement for january, homework, etc :D school yay ;)

i write another post about how i settled back in and how long it took etc in more detail after the seminar

see ya soon everybody :-**
Anja

holiday in sweden

home again :-)

hi everybody, moin moin zusammen

well i am at home, in germany again. one year australia is over and i am feeling home in germany again. i arrived 2 weeks ago, since then i kinda needed a week to realise i am home and to start living the german way of life again. the next week i still was lazy, but started hanging out with friends, which felt really good! :-)) GUYS I MISSED YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH !!! im glad to be home. yea of coarse i would love to be in australia right now, hang with my friends and everyone and just chill my way through life and school, but life goes on :-)

But let's start from the beginning of the end:
Wednesday, i went up the coast, said good bye to most of the family... :( then i packed my bags on wednesday night, while the state of origin was on. packing bags. oh how much fun it is, isnt it ... took me most of the night and i didnt weigh them that night, i just wouldnt have been able to sleep if i would know i had overweight. so in the morning i got up, kept on packing, all the little stuff you find that has to go home aswell.. then i weight it with my mummy and daddy, oh yayyy 7 kg overweight. i wouldnt have expected that ! so i started everything new. tried this and this. somehow i got it down to 2 kg overweight, and thats what i had to pay at the airport.
after that "exciting" morning i went out with my friends for the last time. sherwood park. once more. i tried to enjoy it, i did, but hey try to smile on your last day, the last day of a totally different life, it seriously isnt that easy! the time was spend well though :-) good byes were full of tears... i miss you all so much :( i wish i could be there just at school, just hanging and chilling. CORINDIANS I MISS YOU ! <3
and yes on monday i had an amazing surprise good bye party in australia ! it was amazingly much fun, and i enjoyed it too bits :-))
at the airport a few tears came up again, as soon as i was alone tho, i started crying so badly :( the moment i realised it was over. and i am not going to see everyone in years if not even longer.

the flight was horribly long, i couldnt sleep cause i had a crying baby one row right in front of me -.- and i was crying i think pretty much non stop for the 15 hours to dubai, people stopped asking if im ok. tbh they didnt ask more than once, which i was quite happy about. 5 hours in dubai spend skyping my brother til the internet gave up, and then reading and waiting. at 7 pm i arrived in germany, hamburg. happy to see my family again, hugs and lots of smiles again :-))
coming home being tired and full and sick of travel like hell. my friends surprised me, they really did surprise me :D thaaaaaaaaaaank you. it was wonderful to be together with everyone again :-)) omg i missed it so much, but everyone was talking and i was just sitting there nearly falling asleep ahaha so the house was full til midnight :-)) Then after saying good night and see you soon to everyone the sleep i've been waiting for so long. from then on nothing much happened.
going up to sweden on wednesday for a family holiday in our house :-)

see ya soon everybody

anja <3 <3 <3

surprise party with lemuel

georgie trying to come home with me. oh i wish hun

3:)

surprise good bye party <3

host family. :( i miss yoo

i miss you gorgeous :(

at the airport. once more derps

 

flight home

photos of sweden, and friends are coming sometime soon. needa have some first :D i thinking about about keeping blogging here but i am not sure and i wouldnt be too often. just sometimes to keep it going :)

just read it

hey out there

if you have the time to listen to my thoughts, if you feel like reading it go for it :)

this might be one of the most personal post i will write, well i kinda need to talk to someone, and thing is no one is online, it is middle of the night i should say. 
i have a few days left. you know how horrible this sounds. a few days. 2 more actual school days. one sportsday, one excursion.  my head is exploding, too many feeling. wanting to go home and being excited about it at some point to see your brother again, your family, your friends, just to be back at home. but then i feel so at home here. this is home to me. it really is. i have friends that are as close as sisters to me. i love them to bits. everyone is so nice and i love them i just fit in perfectly. i just dont want to leave, my life seems perfect and i know it might hurt some people, some of my friends to read this. but it just does. of coarse i miss them, a lot when i actually think about it. it hurts so much i do miss them. but at the same time i have new friends that i know for a year and this year feels like forever. and i never ever want to let go. well i kinda fell in love as well. definitly not a thing i'd say you should do in your last months. but you can't really do much about it, can you? it just happens. and you can't think straight anymore. so my life is just wonderful right now, wonderful friends, being in love, and my hostfamily feels like i am at home in my real family. it couldn't be better, except for this one thought back in my head that tells me, that this is gonna be over at some point. and this thought hurts. and it's hard to keep this inside. that's why i am writing it out right now. you can tell your friends here in australia, but if you do talk to much about it, they get so sad, that they just cry more thinking about me leaving, and i don't want them to cry. My friends at home, i could talk to them right, that's what you'd think. but thing is, they've never done exchange, it sounds harsh, but they don't understand... so here i am talking to anyone, who ever is reading this right now. i will just tell you what's on my mind. hoping you'll listen.
there's people, at school, teachers, friends, that don't seem to get it, that you shouldn't ask an exchange student a week before they are leaving: "so when are you leaving?" or "are you enjoying your last days?" of coarse i am, and don't you see me smiling, but thanks now you reminded me and i am dieing inside. now i have to hold back tears. why do you ask me something like that? it just seems wrong to me. don't you have the common sense that it's gonna hurt me?


anyways. how could i sum up my whole exchange in just a few words:
what have i learned? what have i learned, good question, i would need to say i learned a lot about myself. i learned that there is a totally different point of view to everything, how teachers always say: "view it from a different perspective!" well i think i passed it this time, i see the world from a different perspective. i couldn't say it's a better one, but it definitly is more clear, and everything makes more sense. i found out what people think about me, what they think when they hear my name, or see my hair. i got so much self confidence at some point. i thought i had self confidence, well at least a little, when i came here. i thought i would be able to handle the situation of being away from home, i thought i was strong enough, well at some point i was, right? but i gained a lot more self confidence, i am happy with who i am. i am thankful for who i am, i am happy, maybe even proud, that i am able to cheer people up, that i can make them smile. i like who i am. i am happy. and no one can take that away from me again. it takes a lot of time to get to know yourself, to find yourself, no i better say to create yourself. you be who you want to be. don't try to change yourself, fiend the right balance and accept yourself as who you are! i learned how to say hi to people, how to start conversations, when you don't even speak the same language. i learned how to keep my head up even when times are hard. i learned how to live. i learned a lot more than you can learn in school. i learned about life.
would i tell you to go on exchange? OMG YES! exchange is an amazing experience. i am just saying. but wow. do it ! if you think you are strong enough, it takes quite some strength to go through all of this, but even if you think you aren't strong enough. why don't you just try it, maybe you are strong enough and find this amazing strong person in yourself. you just got to search, you just have to believe in yourself.
where have i been? well it feels like i've been everywhere, but wait australia is big and huge aye :D well i have been everywhere around brisbane and the gold coast, as well as the sunshine coast, i've been down to Melbourne, and it was freezing cold, i've been to Byron Bay, which was just beautiful. I've been to the southern Great Barrier Reef and i have to admit it is the most beautiful place i have ever seen in life. except well maybe, yea a nice beautiful green forest in sweden can compete with it ahah. but i seriously is just a wonderful, dreamingfully beautiful place to be. I've been to SYDNEY of coarse, beautiful but really busy city :))  I've been to Noosa and a million other beautiful beach citys :)
 have i changed? let's not make a long paragraph for this one, we all know i have.
do i see the world different? haven't i answered this before ahah, yea you see i am getting tired. well it nearly is midnight and it's school tomorrow ahah opps. but yes i do see the world different.
is distance something different than just a set of letters now? distance is a lot more than just a combination of letters or this weird thing of numbers now. it actually makes sense now. distance, what a word. you can miss someone even if they are just 15 km away. and it can hurt so much you miss them. but if you then add time to this word distance, it looks totally different... 12 month is a long time to not see your mum for example or get tickled by your best friend. and then distance is fricken far. distance can really hurt. :( but you learn to handle it :) well then there is time difference right? :D yea naw i don't think i can handle that, not even after 12 month: TIME DIFFERENCE YOU SUCK. sorry. :D but time difference that's a thing. when you sometimes haven't talked to your friends for over a month, when you haven't seen your grandma since christmas, which is wait let me add more than half a year ago. yea time difference. you are this thing that is the annoying thing. you are the reason i stay up til midnight, and why i am tired at school. because i have been talking to my friend til 1 or 2 am last night, while it was 6 or 7 pm over there..
yea distance, time and time difference...
am i happy with how my exchange turned out? overall, if i could mark it like a teacher would mark an essay: A with a thousand pluses. i am more than happy with how my exchange has been. it has been beautiful. it was absolutly perfect in my eyes. it couldn't have been better. i gained friends and experiences and memories for life :)
am i looking forward to home? yes i put this question as the last one. :D yes i am! i am freaking out just by the thought of it :)))))) i dont think i could be more happy to be home again :*

well my mood got a little better over the time, don't you think. i hope you enjoyed it, or i could help you somehow. i really need to go to bed now. good night everyone. have a good one <3

breaky at the park instead of school :)

sleep over. the weirdos i became friends with :p

 see ya soon Anja <3

time is running away, please just dont end

Hey everyone

i know i havent blogged for ages, but life just doesnt give me time to...

going out with friends a lot, enjoying the time left as much as possible. :) well and school doesnt get easier too, wish it would. in two weeks i have exam block. year 11 getting ready to graduate. and then i go back to germany and have to start year 10, that feels just wrong, being senior over here, starting parts of the final exams, and going to year 10 ew. wont even be in the same grade as my friends. that hurts. well i guess we'll see what the future brings, hopefully good things :)
went ice skating yesterday, loved it as always. :) well now i have 2 beautiful, gorgeous blisters. :D yay.
everything over here feels so real. like my real life. i mean it is. but i dont really get why it has to end now. come on i build this up myself, and i love it. i love my friends, i love my school, i love my hostfamily, like theyre my real family. why does it has to end?
i dont know if its with everyone like this in the end, but with most of the people it will be. i have kinda something like emotional break-downs all the time, so just this moment when you realise everything, and you cant stop feeling sad and empty, and they take such a long time to go away, and nothing really helps to get out of them. i think you just have to enjoy the moment, and try not to think too much about it til the end :)
and other thing i just cant imagine stop speaking english, i want tokeep speaking english, it feels like a native language, i actually am better at speaking english, than at speaking german right now, i always forget the german vocab, and get the sentence structure wrong without even noticing. oh well. my family and friends will have fun with that, aye?? ;)

my music composition seems to be quite good :) i might record it soon :)

also my host auntie got her baby, first baby in my family :) he is so adorable and just sooooo cute <3

gotta finish assignments off now

catch you later
xo Anja ♥

and bored selfie again

with da bestiee <3

host mummy with CJ

soooooooooooo cute

Benie and CJ <3

ice skating :p

ice skating :)

love you all so much <3

izzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzy <3 <3 <3