Travelog for: Bussi

Hey there,

today I helped my host to learn for her exam on monday. It's about landscape gardening & urban planning in the different epochs (antiquity, renaissance, baroque etc.) and traffic planning. I helped her to produce a short timeline with the most important facts about the landscape gardening.




And this is the result:


At evening, a friend of Kate came into her room and gave her a small package. I wondered what it was and couldn't wait to see what's inside.
It was a new TV!! His name is Billy and he is from South Africa.
He told me and the others about the adventures that he experienced and showed us some pictures. It was very interesting!!




Yeah, that was my day. Kate has an important exam on monday so we probably won't spend so much time outdoors until then, but after this exam I'll see more of Bochum and Dortmund. I can't wait!!

Lots of Love,
Bussi

Hey Mum

I have been in Bochum tonight and I went bowling! It was so much fun!! It's disco-bowling every friday night, that means that there's loud music, it's darker than usual and there's a lightshow.
Another cool highlight is: you can win something if there's a bright orange bowling pin in the front row and you bowl a strike then. Before you bowl, you have to take a card out of 5 cards, on each one is a prize written. It doesn't happen that often but my host was one of the lucky ones who actually won something, even though it was just a cocktail 

It was hard to take good pictures because of the darkness and the fast movements everywhere, but I tried my very best.




The bowling balls were very heavy and big!! 


Yay, that was my night. I hope you have a great weekend!!

Lots of Love,
Bussi

Hey Mum!!

The weather was great today so I went for a stroll
The park where I was is called "Grummer Teiche". "Grumme" is the district where I live here in Bochum (host's second home). Back in the 12th century, it was called Grumhem, later on it was called Grommen and now it's called Grumme. The waters here in the district were named "Grume", that's why the area was called Grumhem, it means something like "Home of the Grume".
There's a park which goes through the whole district - disconnected by some streets - called "Grummer Teiche" (Grummer ponds) with the waters. It's a nice place!!




I passed some Egyptian Geese with their chicks and 2 Canada Geese The chicks were so cute!!



It was very warm today so I stopped at a drinking fountain



Later that day I spent some time at the balcony from where I had a view on a part of the park


Well, that's it for now. I'm so looking forward to the weekend!! I'm gonna spend some time in London with my host and a few friends which are hosts as well. I can't wait!!

Bye,
Bussi

Hi Mum

My holiday in London started this evening, yaaay!! We are sooo many TV's on this journey.. Well, what else could you think when you hear that there are 4 girls and 3 of them are hosts We are 7 TV's, it's so cool to go on vacation with so many great guys!!
The departure was at 08:05 pm but there was a little delay so we flew a little bit later.
We were sooo high



This is our TV group... The plane was so small that we had to sit on the tray table.. They're all so nice! From left to right:
Brownbeard, Billy, me, Marawarpina, two TV's of which I don't know the names at the moment (whoops, I'll tell you later!!) and Leif E


As we arrived in London, we headed straight to the hotel and went to bed. It was such a strenuous day!!

Good night!!
Bussi

Hello Mum,

today was a great day!! We did some sightseeing and the weather was awesome!! No rain, bright sunshine and it was warm.

We started at the "King's Cross" station. There is the platform 9 3/4, maybe you know it from the Harry Potter movies. It's the platform where the ride of the Hogwarts Express starts.



Here you can see me in front of the Tower Bridge and the Thames The bridge was built from 1886 til 1894 and it's near the Tower of London.



Alright, this is the London City Hall. It's very new and modern, it opened in 2002.



Here you can see the Tower of London. It is a historic castle near the Thames.



Hahaha, this is such a typical tourist-picture A red telephone box.



A guard with his horse..


Here you can see Big Ben, it belongs to the Houses of Parliament. Most people think that it's the name of the tower, but actually it's just the name of the bell of the clock.



And finally, this is the Buckingham Palace. It's the residence of the British monarch - The Queen.


At evening we went to Wimbledon to see the musical "Starlight Express", it's currently on UK Tour. The show here in London is a bit different to the show in Bochum. The stages in Great Britain are much smaller than in Bochum, so the "races" aren't live but shown on a screen in 3D. Some of the costumes look very different, some choreographies are new and some songs have a different beat or are new or are missing in the show. Most of the performers in London were already a part of the german production, so my host and her friends knew almost everyone who was on stage this evening.
And you won't believe what I tell you now... Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber himself was with us in the audience!! Oh my god, exciting times!!



Yeah, that was my day here in London. I think I won't take any pictures tomorrow because we just fly back tomorrow.

Hugs and kisses,
Bussi

Hello Mum,

I'm sending you many greetings from Bochum. I loved London but it's good to be back in a real home and not just in a hotel room.
Well, the weather was quite bad today and it started raining while I was on tour, that's why the photos are a bit dark.
Kate showed me the stadium of the VFL Bochum, the local football team. It's currently in the German second league, the team is not really good
However, the stadium is called "Rewirpowerstadion". Until 2006 it was called "Ruhrstadion" and most of the fans still call it that name.



Afterwards Kate showed me the planetarium here in Bochum. It's called "Zeiss Planetarium Bochum" and it's one of the most modern planetariums worldwide at the moment.



I didn't visit more places today because of the heavy rain..

Byebye,
Bussi

Hey there

It is the birthday of my hosts brother today and we will visit him tomorrow. Kate bought a comic book for him and we gift-wrapped it today We needed some wrapping paper, scissors and cellotape to wrap it up



At first, I needed to cut the paper to the right size:



Afterwards I had to stick the paper:



And voilà, this is the result



Have a nice weekend!!
Bussi

Hey Mum!!

The weather today was loooovely!! I spent the whole day outdoors and went to the theatre at evening

I met some of Kates friends at the "Halle" at noon. The Halle is the nickname of the theatre of the musical "Starlight Express" that we visited at eve. Well, we met there because all the guys came from different cities and that was the best place to meet.
The theatre is near Kate's house so we could walk to the theatre. On our way we passed some road works.



After we met Kate's friends at the Halle, we headed to the city centre to go for an ice cream. It was so delicious!! Kate and me shared a kiwifruit sundae. Yummy!!!



Well, we spent some hours downtown, ate some pizza later and went back to the theatre afterwards.
As I already said, we watched the musical "Starlight Express", composed by Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber. It's a musical about the world championship of some trains. Engines from all over the world try to win the championship, the maincharacters are Greaseball - the Diesel engine, Electra - the electric engine and Rusty - the steam engine. Besides it's about finding some self-confidence and the true love. I also watched it in London last weekend, do you remember? But the show in London is kinda different to the show here in Bochum.
It will celebrate its 25th anniversary in Germany next year!! It's the musical with the longest repertory season in Germany (it opened in Germany in 1988) and there's a world record for the most visitors to a musical in a single theatre. In London it already opened in 1984, so the musical itself will be about 29 years old next year!



That's it for today. I hope you had a great weekend!!
Bussi

Heeey Mummy

I went to the city centre of Dortmund today because Kate had to buy some presents for her mums birthday next week.
We found some presents at the "Thier-Galerie", it's a new shoppingcenter that opened last year.



There's a BVB Fanshop. I guess you know the BVB Borussia Dortmund, it's the local football team which won the german championship this year and last year



After spending some time at the shoppingcenter, Kate showed me the opera house of Dortmund.



This is the street cattycorner the theatre.


Afterwards we headed to Bochum, but I'll tell you more about it in the next Update

Hugs and kisses,
Bussi

Alright, same day - different city.

I already told you that we went to Bochum later this day. Kate showed me the "Schauspielhaus Bochum", the local theatre. It's one of the largest and most notable theatres in Germany. Many famous german actors worked there in the past. I don't know if you know any of them, but maybe you could know Peter Lohmeyer, Helge Schneider, Harald Schmidt (a talkshow host) and Herbert Grönemeyer.



Then we drove through the car wash. It was quite fun! I love it when the mops pop on the windows




I hope you have a nice day!!

Bussi

Hey Mummy

Today was already my last day with my host. I enjoyed every minute because I don't know for how long I'll be stuck in my envelope.
Well, I spent some time in Datteln today. Datteln is a very small city near Dortmund, it takes about 15 minutes by car from Dortmund to Datteln.
You might wonder what I did there.. I went to the KATiELLi-Theatre to see the play "Nächster Stop: New York" (Next Stop: New York). It was very very funny and I laughed so much
The theatre is very small, it is a former cinema with one room. There are only 140 seats so everything's very familiar and small.

This is the theatre from the outside:


And from the inside:






This is the program for this month and next month:


Afterwards I headed to Bochum to celebrate my last evening with my host. You can read about it in my next update.
Love,
Bussi

Same day, different city again.
Alright... here it was - my last evening with my host and Billy. It's time for me to continue my journey. My next destination will be Öhringen, I'm quite excited about it And Kate told me that I'm gonna spend some holidays in another country with my new host. Exciting times ahead! Whoop Whoop 

Well, I drank a big cocktail this evening, called "San Francisco". Don't worry, it was without alcohol




When I was at home again, I finally said goodbye to Billy. He's a great guy, I hope I can meet him again some day.



Afterwards I crawled into the envelope...




Ouch! This position was quite uncomfortable, so I needed to turn around.
Aah, much better!!


I can't wait to meet my new host!!
Best wishes,
Bussi

Hello mummy!

Sorry, that I didn't wrote earlier, but Zandy was really busy before the holidays and so I we couldn't take pictures. But now I'll write you before we will go to Tenerife. I can't belive, that I will go there. So cool!

First I checked the sunglasses, if there are ok. 



Than we all - that are: Meav, Hessen-Leo, Ayana and I - checked the card of Tenerife which we will take with us. We study it and also the book about Tenerife. The place we will stay is called Playa de las Americas.







Than we packed the luggage. Look here we are ready.



And at least we all jumped into Zandys backpack.



But she smiled and sayd that this is to early, this night we will sleep at home and in the morning we will fly. But we all decided that it is better to sleep in the backpack, so that she can't forget us. 



Good night! We will see us in 14 days.
Bussi

Hello mummy,

like you allready knew: We lost the SD-Card with all our TVpictures  But Zandy allowed me to take her "private" pictures to show you what I see. Of course without myself at the picture, but I will show you all the fantastic things. And at the end, you will see some pictures and videos with me, because there we had another card (this one with we had to put into the cam, because the other one was full. In out last hour in Tenerife.  )
But ok, it happens and we can't change it. But we can keep the nice things we saw in our mind. 

We flight from Frankfurt. Here you can see our airplane which reflect in an bulding.



And here we are over Frankfurt. What a nice view!



An here, look how great it is over the clouds. We sang the song "Über den Wolken" together. It was funny!



So this are the first pictures. More will come soon after prepairing them for uploading. 

Yours,
Bussi

Mommy! Mooooommmyyy!! MOMMY!!!!

Something wonderful happened! I arrived to Finland!

I'm so happy to get to know this new country, but in the same time I'm really exited. But take a look at the first picture, mom. I already met so many other toys, that I'm sure I'm going to enjoy my time here. These all toys are my new friends now!!!



And here is TV Kurnau-cat, hostmom's own toy, who will be my host, too. He promised to me, that he will try his best to make my visit enjoyable.



I'm fine, so don't be worry about me. I will tell you everything, what I do and experience here.

Love,
Bussi