I have been at Carey Baptist Grammar School in Melbourne, Australia for about a week and a half and so far my experience has been outstanding.

After a long 30 hours of travelling on multiple planes, I arrived in Melbourne on February 10 at 2:30 pm. I was picked up at the airport by my exchange, Pip, and her family. We hugged, we talked, we made fun of each other’s accents and we quickly got to know each other, though we had been messaging through social media for the past few months.

Each day, we wake up at 7 am, take the train to school and have seven hours of classes. This school is so different from LCC. Everything is outdoors and we go outside from class to class. The campus is beautiful and the buildings are big. It feels good to be outside for the majority of the day, with a major difference being the hot Melbourne weather versus our cold Montreal winter.

The classes here are very different from those at LCC. We have classes such as wood and fashion, which are fun to be a part of, and I have the opportunity to learn a lot. In wood class, we are making stools. Although it is hard for me because most of the students have been learning how to construct things out of wood for many years, it is cool to have people teach me how to build everything.

We had a swimming carnival on Tuesday, which was a lot of fun. The ten houses competed in swimming competitions throughout the day at the sports complex, Bulleen. It gave me a good chance to talk to new people and learn more about life at Carey.

In P.E., I learned how to play an Australian sport called Aussie Rules. It is kind of a mix of football, soccer and rugby. I had fun learning about it and having everyone laugh at me when I didn’t play the sport the way it is supposed to be played because I didn’t really know the rules.

Though there are many differences between Melbourne and Montreal, a lot of things are similar too. It is weird to think that my friends and I could be so similar and get along this well with kids who live on the other side of the world.

One of the major differences between here and Montreal are people’s accents and the words that they use. I cannot get through a day without someone commenting on my accent or making me speak to them because of the way I pronounce certain words. After being here for a week, I am now used to their accents and I am even starting to say some words the way that the kids here say them.

I am doing things that I never thought I would have done in my life and am having the experience of a lifetime! I feel so independent – I flew here on my own and I am learning how to live without my family and friends. It is so cool to be living on the other side of the world and meeting all these new people. I am so happy that I made the decision to go on this exchange. I know already that this experience will change me for the better and I will never forget it. – Riley Fersten ’19, Exchange Student at Carey Baptist Grammar School