Laura - Day 15 (20.3.)

Today I woke up at 8:30 am. Because my exchange student Ashleigh had to work in a bakery this morning, I decided to go for a short run. I went jogging on a small way next to a flood-relief channel for about half an hour. Afterwards, I had a shower and a small breakfast (toast with nutella).

La Manna

Subsequently, Ashleigh’s mum took me to a special supermarket not far away from their house. It is called ‘LaManna’ and  the owners are originally from Italy. You can buy a lot of self made and local food there (fruit and veggies are Australian grown only!). In consequence of the good quality, the things they sell, are very expensive. When we went to the chocolate aisle, I discovered a lot of European or German brands like Lindt and Kinder Schokolade. Before the checkout, we had a small guessing game to see how much our purchase would be. Karen, Ashleigh’s mum, won and she assumed it would cost about $200. All in all we had to pay $250. The café at the supermarket had a lot of self-made food and drinks, too. I chose a chicken-schnitzel wrap with a banana-honey smoothie and it was very delicious.

Queen Victoria Market

At 12 o’clock I went to the ‘Queen Victoria Market’(or VIC Market) with Ashleigh and her mum. It is a big market close to the city center where you can buy nearly everything. Some of these include souvenirs, clothes, shoes, fruit, vegetables, fish, etc. and it is open everyday apart from Monday and Wednesday. We had a look around, I bought a few souvenirs and in the end I tried poffertjes (Danish pancakes) and paella. I especially liked the stallholders who shouted out advertising for their food.

Family life

In the afternoon, we had a short visit at Ashleigh’s grandma’s house. I got to know her ‘Nanna’ (that’s what they call their grandma) and Ashleigh’s aunt with her three children. They were all pretty nice but it is a family with a lot of short people so I felt like a giant. Normally I am very small compared to my friends but for once I felt tall. 

The Melbourne Star

At 6:30 pm, we went to the ‘Melbourne Star’. It is a giant wheel similar to the London Eye. When we went on the ride, it was perfect timing because we could see the beautiful sunset from above. In your cabin you have a perfect view over the city.

Dinner and Dessert

After that, we went to a street called Lygon Street with a lot of Italian restaurants.  We sat outside and I had a small pizza. Because of the ‘Grand Prix’ which is a car racing event, we could see a lot expensive cars like Ferraris and Lamborghinis. On the way back, we stopped at a big café called Brunettis to buy something for dessert.

Overall, I really enjoyed the day even though it was very busy. I learnt a lot of new things, met new people and discovered new places.

I would like to introduce three new words that I have learnt in Australia:

1. shnoz – it is an “aussie” word for nose (Nase)
2. pins and needles – it is when parts of your body “fall asleep” . It is called pins and needles because it feels like pins and needles are poking into your skin (eingeschlafene Gliedmaßen)
3. hiccup – you get it when you drink something with a lot of carbon dioxide (Schluckauf)

Lynn - Day 6 (11.3.)

Today was a special school day. The German exchange students and the Australian students from the German class spent time together. The day started at 7 am. Mallory and I had to leave the house at 7:45am because we had to catch the Bus at 8:05 am. 

When we got to school Mallory took me to Yarah and Georgia because she is not in the German class. After that we met the other German and Australian students. There Ms. Taiwo and Mr. Eicker told us that weren`t allowed to speak English the whole day. 

The first thing we did was that all the German students had to sit in a circle and with an Australian student in front of us. Then we had the task to ask each other questions in German. I was really surprised that all of the Australian students could speak German so well.  

After the first game, we had to split up into groups. As the day progressed, we should collect points and the group with the most points at the end would win. The winners would get a lunch from Ms. Taiwo. The first assignment was a game like the board game Tabu. The German students had to explain German words in German. I think that was really hard for the Australian people. There was a lot of words they didn`t know. 

The second game of the day was Tic Tac Toe. But not on a paper or something like that. We had a field on the ground and two different types of ribbons. Than two groups played against each other. The start was 10 meters away from the field and we had to run to get the ribbons on the field. That was a funny game and I think all the students enjoyed that. 

After this game we got cake from the school and began to play another game in the groups. It was a kind of a quiz with four different categories: geography, literature, soccer and general. It was funny but it was only questions about Germany and I think the Australian students wouldn`t have been able to reply to any of the questions without our help. 

After that the Australian students had to explain to us an Australian game. It’s called Downball. Downball is a game which is played with 4 people. One person hits the ball in their square first then its lands in another square. You lose for example when the ball doesn`t land in your field or you hit the ball out. After we had played this game we had lunch. At lunch I tried a typical Australian food. It called a sausage roll and I love them!

Right after the lunch the Australian students had to go to their house performances and we watched a movie about Australia. It is called Mabo. Unfortunately we could not finish watching the film.

After school Mallory and I went with Patrice and Elena to the Melbourne Star. The Melbourne star is like the London Eye. In the Melbourne Star we had a really good view over the whole city. 

All in all it was a very cool and fun day for me. 

The Middle School students from Taylors Lakes Campus had a Sports Carnival. 

That is very much different to our Sportfest. Everything is well-organised and every students loves to participate in different events like running, long jump, high jump or shot put.

All students belong to a 'house'. The houses at Overnewton are called: Curie, Newton, Edison and Pasteur. Students participating in events collect points for their house and at the end of the school year one house wins for collecting the most points in various events like the Sports, Swimming, Athletic and Cross Country Carnival as well as for example Public Speaking and Performing Arts.

The students joined their hosts in their house and the collected points for the team.

Insa event won the shot put (Kugelstossen) in year 9! Well done, Insa!