I have already spent two weeks at Carey Baptist Grammar School and time has flown. I am currently having a wonderful experience here in Melbourne, Australia with the De Boer family. My weekends in Melbourne have been eventful. Last Saturday, Tom and I played club basketball for the Hawthorn Titans. Unfortunately, we lost, but it was still a lot of fun to be able to compete and play a sport from back home. Then, we went to the Melbourne Zoo where I was able to see some Australian animals for the first time, such as a platypus, wombats, koalas and kangaroos.

This week was fun as well. We went to see Melbourne’s central business district after going to a School Commencement Service. The area was very busy and exciting and I found it to be very similar to Montreal’s downtown. Tomas and I also went to watch the first game of the National Basketball League’s semi finals. The atmosphere there was awesome and New Zealand ended up beating Melbourne United by 15 points. I was surprised how upbeat the players were, always playing hard, supporting each other and never really arguing with the refs, which is very different from the NBA.

School in Melbourne has been very interesting. Although I initially thought that LCC would be very different from Carey, it turns out that it is actually pretty similar in some ways. For instance, most of my friends at my new school like to play madden mobile and basketball just like in Canada. Plus, the classrooms are set up in almost the same way; they enjoy using computers and having class discussions just like us. However, at the same time, like I predicted, Carey also has its differences. Its hallways, basketball courts and lockers are all outside which isn’t like LCC at all. All in all, school has been great here in Australia; I have met new people and made many new friendships.

I am loving my time in Australia and I can’t wait for the weeks to come when we will be going to the great ocean rode, one of the most beautiful places on earth, and to Sydney, where we will be climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

– Terry Xiao ‘18, Exchange Student at Carey Baptist Grammar School