A foreign country of koalas, kangaroos and boomerangs welcomed Juniors Amber Allred, Sandra Ngo, Shivani Shah, Sarah Tomason, Bailee Weisz and Nathan Wong as they swapped their American lives for those of Australian students in the summer.
Each student lived with separate host families in Hawkesbury for the summer and attended different schools. They adapted to the new environment and began to feel comfortable in their host homes.
“My favorite part was being introduced to how Australians actually live,” Wong said. “It allowed me to interact and see how different or similar they are compared to people in Temple City.”
All students must wear their respective uniforms, both for public and private schools in the area. After two periods, there is a 30 minute recess period, in which all of the students and teachers drink morning tea.
“The classes are smaller and many of the extracurricular activities weren’t through the school,” Tomason said. “The environment itself was more relaxed too.”
Other differences in the school systems included the types of classes they offered. Students had the option to take a variety of electives such as food tech, agriculture and business. Also, rather than splitting up each of the sciences, students learned a bit of biology, earth science and chemistry in one general science class.
Most activities, such as sports, were not available during school hours. Instead, many students participated in after-school club teams, in sports like rugby and netball.
“Every Thursday, my school had a venue sport, where after lunch we went off campus for a sport,” Shah said. “I went laser-tagging with my class, but they also go roller skating, ice skating, bowling and do simulated sky-diving.”
In addition to attending school, the students explored the area. They attended a live showing of “The Voice Australia” and visited famous locations in Australia like the Muru Mittagar Aboriginal Culture Center in the Blue Mountains, the capital Canberra and several beaches.
“The walk from Bondi Beach to Coogee Beach was really memorable because the trek featured some amazing views,” Wong said. “As we were making our way back, it started pouring rain and all six of us sprinted across to get out of the rain.”
They were introduced to a different culture, with a new dialect. They became accustomed to referring acres of land as paddocks and sweaters as jumpers.
“I think one of my favorite cultural experiences would have been the bush dance, throwing boomerangs with Aboriginals, or visiting the local schools,” Weisz said. “Throwing boomerangs was really interesting because not only were we able to learn how to use the traditional Aboriginal hunting tool, but we learned about the Aboriginal livelihood and their impact on Australia’s history.”