Volunteer work in Thailand

Hey everybody!
I have been planning for a while to go to Thailand next year February in my semester break to do work as a volunteer in a school and to teach English there to Thai kids.
I came across the idea a few months ago when I was studying brochures on opportunities to spend time abroad. The mimimun stay is 8 weeks which I thought would work out with my semester break which is usually 10 weeks. But today i saw that unfortunately those holidays are "only" 7 weeks long. But I dont want this to stand in my way and to keep me from going to Thailand.
I think it would be a good experience, especially as I want to become a teacher but have not gathered any experiences in this area so far. And Thailand to me is a thrill. A completely different culture, language and lifestyle.
I wouldlike to ask you if anybody is familiar with this topic and can give me a bit advice. I am still looking for the best company to go with. The best one so far is www.travelworks.de, they would also offer me a 6 weeks stay even if 8 weeks is their minimum as they say in their brochure. This is really kind of them.
But still I am looking for other companies so I can compare them to each other and decide then which offers are best for my needs.
I am grateful for any help on this. DANKE

Good-Bye Benedikt

About 10 minutes ago Pope Benedikt XVI left Cologne /Bonn airport and is hopefully on a safe flight back to Rome. I have just read that the pilot wíll fly over Marktl am Inn, the village where Joseph Ratzinger was born so that he can at least have a view from above onto his original home. I think that this is a very neat idea. Big lights will shine onto the house where he was born and has lived in his younger years so that he can recognise it from above. Also all the inhabitants will gather holding a candle in their hands to greet Benedikt. It must be so touching.
Last night Benedikt held a vigil on Marienfeld and this morning the WYD ended with a glorious mass.
It has been a pleasure to have out Pope in Cologne for the last 4 days. It means so much that he came for the World Youth Day and I get the feeling that he has made religion famous again, he created a special atmosphere in and around Cologne. And all the pilgrims who have been here take this atmosphere back home to 193 different countries. What a unity!
I have friends who are not into church at all, but last night when we watched the vigil on tv I saw a few fascinated eyes.
In his preach this morning Benedikt gave a warning that we tend to forget about God and then we wonder how much we suffer in times of sadness and helplessness. The love and believe in God is the solution to help us in those situations.
Words that I myself found very touching were the very first ones he spoke this morning. He greeted all the pilgrims (which were 1 million on Marienfeld!!!) and he said that he is sorry he could not greet every single person what he would have loved to do by papamobil but the ways inbetween the main roads were not good enough. But then he said that the reason why we came together is the same, our believe, which connects us by heart.
At some points I did regret that I did not go to Marienfeld, but due to workd I had to stay here. So I had the pleasure to have the best view in front of the tv:)
Here are a few more pics of the WYD (visit www.wdr/themenhomepages/weltjugendtag_2005.jhtml for more)

thousands of young pilgrims have spent the night on Marienfeld, they took the vigil seroius, they waited and prayed for the morning to come.

This was last night during the vigil. It took place during sunset and thousands of candles helped to create a very special atmosphere. The hill has been made up when the planning of this day started 3 years ago. The original idea with the hill was for John Paul II. due to his health circumstances the hill was a solution to take him there by car. Now John Paul II has a good view from above. Some voices said that this World Youth Day is the only WYD with two popes - one watching from above, the other one being with the people on Marienfeld.

This is a nice view from the foot of the hill up to Benedikt.

The ceremony last níght started with a huge bell that was baptised by Benedikt XVI. The bell was named John Paul II and is donated to a church in Cologne.

international pilgrims sharing their religion

This view is stunning. 1 million people, hundreds of bishops, thoudsands of priests and one pope on a big field!!!! the police reckoned that it would take more that 10 hours for everybody to get back to Cologne. I have not heard the news yet but I would guess that there are still a few thousands left on Marienfeld

The WYD logo. It has been a few awesome days and I am looking forward to the next World Youth Day which will take place in Sydney. I am lucky for Australia as I have met so many pilgrims from there who have travelled all that way to be here. Now it is the Europeans turn to travel and who knows, I may see you in Sydney 2008!

Venimus Adorare Eum

This was and still is the "slogan" of about half a million pilgrims who have come to meet the Popein Cologne. And here he is!
It has been amazing to be in Cologne and to be together with an international believing youth on a special day like that.
I arrived about noon time in Cologne and I was quite surprised that the station was not crowded and that it was quite easy to walk through the city.
But people had already gathered either at the Rhine or near the route where Benedikt was supposed to pass, either by foot or in his papamobil.
I bet a lot of people have seen pics on TV and you have probably seen more than I have :)
We also went to the Rhine and saw Benedetto pass on the boat. Well, I saw a white dot inbetween a lot of black dots, but I have seen the Pope!
On the way there we met pilgrims from Ecuador for example, singing and dancing on the streets.
We decided to to walk near the Cathedral and we were lucky enough to get onto Roncalliplatz, where Benedikt was supposed to talk and bless the crowd. (We actually asked a policemen where it would be best to go and he said that Benedikt will have his "gig" on this place, so we would see him best there and also hear him talk.)
So thats what we did. We waited for about 2 hours because every single person was checked properly before he was allowed to get onto the place. It was so hot and exhausting to stand there for so long but something made it a lot easier. A group from Costa Rica cheered everybody up with "Benedetto" calls and another group from Poland brought a guitar and we all sang songs together which was really nice.
Once we were on the place we could follow the Father's pilgrim path on a big screen, how he got off the boat and how he made his way to the Cathedral. We saw him walking through the Cathedral and when the door opened, the whole mass went crazy. Believing that I had a good position where I could see, turned out to be wrong. All I saw was flags lol. But somebody took me up his shoulders and the view was amazing. Not only that I saw the Pope while he talked about the importantness of the World Youth Day, the happy people were a blessing as well.
After Benedikt blessed us, he went through the city on his papamobil but I did not see anything of this. We went for dinner and then wanted to take the train back home which seemed to be a big problem. Walking towards the station, the whole place in front of it was crowded. You could not move forwards and backwards would not have brought us home. Inside of the building, the chaos was even worse but somehow we got on our train while I heard on the radio later that the station hat to be closed for a while.
Tonight and tomorrow morning the Pope will hold a mass on Marienfeld, a rural area about 30 kilometres away from Cologne. I hope that everything will be safe and that it will be a glorious feast!
God bless you all.

World Youth Day

This is an exciting and special week for all the Catholics around the world, especially for the Catholic youth and the ones who have travelled miles and miles to be in Cologne to meet the Pope.
As I am only one hour from Cologne I am right into everything and shall give you a nice report :)
Here the World Youth Day aldready started last weekend. Our little perish had a lot of international guests, mainly from France, Australia and America. As my friend had two hosts from France I got to know them and they were great. On Friday night she had a "World Youth Day" Party and invited like 20 French and Australian people. Lol, the moment when I arrived she was alone with 10 French guys and as my French is sooooooooo good (this was irony) I was a bit worried how I could communicate to them but it was not a problem at all, they were all so friendly and open-hearted. But in the end, I did not expect any different.
So on Thurday is my big day, I will go to Cologne to be right into everything and eventually to see the Pope. They have a welcome-mass and afterwards an international youth festival in the city. I dont know what to expect but I am excited and will give you notes.

my week in Munich

Well, times goes by too fast sometimes and my week in Munich is already past. I have had a good time, I was kind of excited when I left cos I did not know what to expect, I did not know what my work at the museum would be like and I also was all on my own. But I was smart enough to book into a nice backpackers hostel, which was cheap on the one hand and on the other hand, I met a few very nice people and I am proud to say that I have made some new friends from America.
To give you a rough idea of what I have experienced I will put some pics in here :)
On the right side you can see me and my good friend the Bavarian beer-drinking lion ;) Lions are some kind of symbol for the Munich people and the players of a football club (not FC Bayern Munich but TSV 1860 Munich) proudly call themselves "The Lions".

This is the famous Frauenkirche right in the centre of Munich. You can see its two chapels from a far distance and luckily they gave me a bit of orientation while I was going for walks. It still had to happen that I got lost one day without a map. So I had to ring my friend to look at a map at home to tell me where I was, how embarassing but soo funny in the end.

This is the same church. The pic is taken from the roof of the New Rathaus on Marienplatz. In this church our Pope became archbishop. A huge picture fo him inside reminds us that his origins are in Munich.

I dont have to say what is on this picture I think :) but I had to put it on, I really like the perspective.

Oh well, these two funny girls are me and my friend Franziska, she came over for the weekend. We are wearing traditional Bavarian dresses. There are some rumours and prejudices that every German looks like that, but we dont!!! Women wear those "Dirndl" mostly if they work as a waitress in a Bavarian restaurant where they serve you the nicest things, like lung, liver or any other imaginable inner organs from animals. Yuck! But dont worry, it is also possible to order chicken or pork.

Anybody knows what that is? Well if you dont know by now, you will maybe here about it in a year when we hold the football World Cup. This is the stadium of FC Bayern Munich, the Allianz Arena, and it is just amazing how it is built. I hope that next year a lot of international people will be in Munich to celebrate the biggest football happening in the world together. We have still enough time to argue who is going to win the cup. I have no idea yet.

Hahahaha, this is me at work!!! I worked for that week in the German Museum. It is a huge and famous museum which covers any imaginable field in techniques and science. So as I am a chemistry student, I obviously worked in the chemistry department. Every day they hold a lecture for the visitors and show them some fascinating experiments. And the last day at work I was offered the task to do these experiments. I was so excited and I really liked it.

And here I proudly present the Hofbräuhaus! Anybody visiting Munich surely should not miss out on that one. It is a must once you are there. It is very touristy though, but in a good mix with Bavarian tradition. You are served glasses of beer which hold one litre, you can eat Pretzn or listen to a band playing traditional music. The later you go there the worse it gets, in case you are not drunk already...

This is a building everybody connects to Munich. It is the Rathaus on Marienplatz which holds the famous Glockenspiel in its tower. The whole plaza in front of it is crowded with tourists to hear the sounds of the bells and to see little figures move in the tower. Crazy, but you have to see it.

Well, I hope everybody enjoyed the little trip through Munich. I did when I was there and I am sure I will be back soon. But just now I need to go and rest my head on my soft pillow in my cosy warm bed :)

I will write more soon, until then, take care everybody! xxx