Hotel Handelshof (Superior) Dortmund

... llt sich die Promenade um den See und rings um uns h**um beginnen die Leute Morgengymnastik zu machen. Ich dachte ich träume, ab** die waren alle noch im Schlafanzug. In Hanoi fallen also die Leute früh morgens aus dem Bett, ziehen sich Schlappen an und schleppen sich an den See, um sich fit zu halten. Spät** haben einige ihre Ghettoblast** mitgebracht und mir fiel auf, dass ich die Musik und die Bewegungen schonmal gesehen hatte: Mein französisch ...

... pretty tough for everyone, especially yesterday. I have said goodbye to all of my friends. Tara has left for her host family, Santiago has left to his host family, Trevor went to visit his fiance and son before flying home today. I think that Rafael from Chile might still be around but he is travelling around seeing Karneval all weekend in Düsseldorf and Köln.

I went on Thursday ...

... it really works.

I am kinda sad that there's not much time left here, but I am happy that I have fulfilled all of my cultural aims. My last one was fulfilled Monday night when I went to the Essen Philharmony. I didn't see Mozart, Bach, Beethoven or anything German but it was FANTASTIC... I saw the Chinese Orchestra. It was there to welcome the new year of the pig.

The instruments were not what u would usually find in an orchestra, but similar. They had ...

... and unfortunately Cori has to leave Saturday at 3pm to get back to Munich to work that night. Also, I promised Scott that we would see Neuschwanstein together and I am really looking forward to experiencing it with him.

I have 2 free days at the end of the course in which I might be able to visit other cities or countries. I was thinking maybe Brussels or Amsterdam then, because they are so close... I also have the option of coming back to ...

... the whole Opera he wore PJs, the 3 magical maidens wore 20s style Lingerie dresses and the whole set (because it was a dream) was created out of the Prince's bedroom walls, floor and furniture. It was creative the amount of ways that they put it all together, but still I found the sets in La Boheme to be so much better. Granted, they had 5 minute scene changes, where they turned on the house lights and closed the curtains. I liked the music ...

... there had white hair and looked at us disapprovingly. The only 'young people' were couples of aybe 30 or 40 who were obviously there on dates and some of those ladies wore exquisite ball gowns. Guess what I was wearing...sneakers, jeans and a jumper!! Ooops!

La Boheme was really good. It helped to have the storyline of Rent in my head as we went. Some parts were a little confusing. The sets were amazing, costumes very simple for the artists and ...

... beer and had a wonderful time. I sang a couple of songs for some of the brazilians, because they were talking about how much they love Jazz. Between Tara and Santiago a romance blossomed, and most of us got to bed between 3 and 5am, knowing that we had class at 9 the next morning. However we were told that in the morning we were to make a decision based on the weather as to whether or not it was safe enough.

Unfortunately, after less ...

Hi guys,
Don"t know if u have heard or not, but Germany is in the middle of a hurricane. 150km winds and severe warnings from the government to stay indoors. It was supposed to hit Essen really hard and we were all sent home from uni early and told to stay indoors. I really wanted to go online today to talk to u all like I said I would. Sorry guys!! I"ve just borrowed Tara"s laptop now. Mum, if u read this, send me a text message when u wake up so I can ...

A big hello to all of my friends who have to live through the sweltering Australian climate. 41 degrees today I believe? I would say that the weather here has been quite good in that it is an average 10 degrees when at this time of the year it is more common to be -10. However, at negative 10, although it's cold, it's also dry. It has rained most days here and is quite uncomfortable, however my solution is to stay indoors more ...

... the marketplace is cute and there is a great museum there called Haus der Geschichte.If u ever want to know about German history from 1948 to now and ur in Germany, I would definately recommend it! I regretted teh fact that I didn't get the 6 month scholarship to study here because it was a place that I could really see myself living. I even visited Beethovens house!
Sunday night we saw and add for the Opera Cosi Fan Tute in Witten and met at 6.30 to go there. We got to the Main ...