Donnerstag, 10. März 2016

Nick - Day 5 (10.3.)

Today was the first rainy day. We went in the bus up to Healesville Sanctuary and it took us more than one and a half hours. 
Healesville Sanctuary is a zoo and sanctuary for Australian animals only. Unfortunately there is no Saltwater Crocodile for example. However we can find all the animals there that we really wanted to see - the koala and the kangaroo
You can also find emus, Tasmanian devils, wombats, wallabies and many more native animals there. 

Koala

Kangaroo


Snakes


At first we went to the birds, which climbed on our arms because of the food in our hands. 


Do you know what a magic moment in the zoo means? Ok, a magic moment in the zoo is when you go in the cage very close to the animals

We had to choose between: Koala, Python or Echidna.




Bruce, Jannis, Timo, Nil, Kenan, Leon, Roman and I had a magic moment with a python.

That was just awesome! 


We took it on the hand and it was very heavy. As the snake fizzled, Bruce winced away because he was very scared of it.  










After getting back, Ryan had basketball training, so I did a little bit of sprint training. 
It was an interesting and funny day.

Mittwoch, 9. März 2016

Irina - Day 3 (8.3.)

Today we were in the city but without the Australian students. It was very hot. I think up to 41 degrees. Our host dad took us to school at 7:30 am today because he had to work early. Enrico and I took the bus at 8:20 am because we had to be at the other campus at 8:45 am. Many other people from the exchange were on the bus, too.
When we were all there (Canowindra Campus), we went to the train station called Watergardens to take to the train into the city. 






On the way to Watergardens we saw a dangerous crossroad. Every morning there are lollipop people who have to take care of the people who cross the crossroad. That crossroad is one of the 50 most dangerous crossings in Victoria.









Before we went to our first destination for the day, we met on Federation Square which is just opposite the train station we got off at - Flinders Street Station.
Federation Square and Flinders Street Station are very popular meeting points. Some people make arrangements to "meet under the clocks" at the station because everyone knows where to meet then. 





The first real thing we did was going to Eureka Tower. It is a skyscraper in the city of Melbourne. It has 92 levels and when you are on level 88,  you can see Melbourne from above. That's pretty nice. 
The last 10 stories of the building are covered with gold plated metal. Can you imagine the costs?
Here is a picture from above: 



After that we got a quiz and we had to answer questions about some important places and squares in Melbourne.
The quiz has four parts (A, B, C and D). Today we were able to do part A to C but we did not have enough time and almost nobody has finished all three parts. Tomorrow we have to do part D.
This is our group! (Elena, me, Leon H, Nick and Nil)




After a very hot and long day in the city our host mother picked us up from school and we went to a swimming pool. It was very funny because Insa and Rebecca were there too with their exchange students.


It was a very long but very fun day!

Montag, 7. März 2016

Roman - Day 2 (7.3.)

My second day in Australia started very early at probably 4:30 am because I wasn't able to sleep any longer because of the jet lag. So I just started texting my friends home in Germany and listened to some music until I needed to get up at 7:00 o'clock. I went downstairs to my hostmother and just had an orange juice because we were about to leave for the welcome breakfast at school. I was really looking forward to meet all the Australian and German students and to talk to them. To be honest the breakfast was very good and even better than the one we had in Germany in our school. 

Afterwards there was an assembly in school and I was deeply impressed by the speeches they had to hold and how strong they believe in Christianity. Another thing I personally like is that they  are so up-to-date with high end technology  and doing those outstanding presentations. Afterwards we went to the "blue house area", this is what they call the area where their lockers are, to prepare for religion class. A thing I immediately recognised is, that the classrooms are completely different than those we have in Germany and even the way of teaching is not similar because they have way more opportunities for example the MacBooks which are connected to an Apple TV. So the rest of day I kept being in class with my host buddy. 
Through the entire school day I got surprised repeatedly because everyone was so nice to me and the other German students and it was a pleasure to meet all those guys. My personal highlight was the double German we had at the end of he day with Mrs. Taiwo and Mr. Eicker because it was kind of funny to help the Australian students with their exercises they had to do in German class. 
Later on when I came home from school at 3:45 I had some pancakes and I was actually very tired and exhausted from school and all this stuff but I din't go to sleep because I didn't want to make the jet lag even worse, so I wanted to try to get in the Australian sleeping rhythm this night. At round about 6 o'clock pm I went to a friends' house to spend the evening there and to have barbecue with Leon, Jaydin and his family. Furthermore I've learned plenty of new things and I have some words I want to explain to you:

  1. boot = When my host father brought me to school he told me to put my bag in the "boot" and I was kind of confused but he explained to me and it's actually pretty simple to memorise.
  2. cap = When I was about to leave school I was told to put the cap on my water bottle and for so far I've never heard of this word, but I could get it out of context and I put it on.
  3. SAC= "School Assessed Course work" this is what the Australian call their tests at school.
I'm so glad to have the chance to be here and I am really enjoying myself. I hope you like my blog and you that you were able to have a deeper look in what our daily life is like here in Australia, at the other side of the world.

Sonntag, 6. März 2016

Enrico - Day 1 (6.3.)

It is my first day in Melbourne. We arrived last night at one thirty in the morning. About an hour later we met our exchange  families.
Wthen took a ride to our home for the next three and a half weeks. The first thing we did when we arrived at 'home', was eating something because we were pretty hungry and wanted something more than the food from our flight. It was terrible! 


After all of that we went to sleep because our plan for the next day was to go to the city center of Melbourne and go on the Eureka tower to see the whole skyline of Melbourne.
After we did that, we chose to go to a seven eleven and have a 'Slurpee', and it tasted pretty good. It was sooooo good because it was so hot outside.

The exchange family is very lovely; they  only want the best for me, which is sweet. I feel really comfortable. I think it’s also cool that I’m not alone hereIrina is  here as well which is pretty nice and funny. She is also an exchange student like me, but her exchange partner is the little sister of my exchange partner Rastko.
We also have got plans for the next few days. We want to go and play basketball with some of Rastko's friendsplay laser tag and visit the city again to see what else there is and maybe buy some little presents for our family and friends at home

I’m very happy to be a part of the exchange program and also very glad to be here.