I have now been in Melbourne for one month and I can’t believe how fast time is flying by! Going on an exchange should be for three months instead of just six weeks, even though I think that would go by very quickly too. I cannot believe that I will be going home in only two weeks. It makes me so sad.
I have done so much these past few weeks. We have been busy pretty much every second of every day!
We went to Sydney for a weekend and even though it was raining almost the whole time, it was very cool to see the differences between Sydney and Melbourne. We climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge and it was amazing to see the harbour from the top of the bridge. I learnt about how the bridge was built. No harnesses were used!. We went to Bondi Beach where there was a surfing competition and got to see all the men and women surfing in the rain.
A few days later, back in Melbourne, we went to a beach where we swam in the ocean, jumped off a pier and climbed rocks. When we reached the top of the rocks, the view was incredible! It is weird to think that people live so close to these beautiful beaches. How lucky are that they to get to go swimming in the ocean after school any time they want!
On Monday, I went to the zoo with the exchanges from the UK who just arrived. The zoo was very cool and we saw a bunch of different Australian animals, including kangaroos and koalas. I got so close to the kangaroos; they weren’t even in cages!
The UK exchanges are from two different schools and even though they are all friends from home, they included me and were so nice to me from the start. Yesterday, we went on an excursion to the beach with the year below us. We got to look at rocks and sit and talk together on the beach.
We went to another beach last week and after swimming for half an hour, we were quickly rushed out because there was a shark! When this happened, you could tell who the tourists were and who the locals were. The tourists quickly rushed out of the water while the locals, like my host family, took their time and swam for another five minutes because they knew a shark wouldn’t come that close to shore.
My host family is so welcoming and nice. They treat me like I am part of their family. I am trying so many new activities and foods with them. They even put me on Pip’s community basketball team with her so that we could play together on weekends. It is such an incredible experience to see how families on the other side of the world live. At the same time, it’s amazing to discover the similarities between how my host family lives and how my own family lives.
I truly feel at home here. They are all even getting used to my accent. I don’t even notice the Australian accent anymore and when I speak to people from Montreal I am starting to notice theirs!
As you can see, I am having the best time and can’t believe how quickly it is going by. It feels like yesterday that my parents were driving me to the airport. As much as I miss everyone, I am not ready to go home yet. I am going to enjoy every second of my last two weeks here and I am hopeful that in my future, there will be a chance to come back and visit my new friends. As sad as it will be to leave, at least I know that two weeks after I get home, I will have the chance to host Pip and introduce her to my family and to everyone at LCC. Hopefully she will enjoy the experience as much as I am! – Riley Fersten ’19, Exchange Student at Carey Baptist Grammar School
