Student Exchange Australia: Loving Every Single Moment!

Posted on March 17, 2014 by admin

After 30 hours of travel I finally arrived in Bunbury, Australia. The city is a lot smaller than Montreal, and a lot warmer too. My exchange family was so welcoming and took care to make me feel right at home. Georgia is so sweet, I couldn’t have asked for a better exchange partner!

After resting from my long flight, we visited an Australian wildlife park where I got the chance to see all the lovely Australian animals. I even saw some Redbacks, a type of poisonous spider native to Australia. One of the highlights of my trip to the wildlife park was getting to feed a kangaroo, something I had been really looking forward to.

Bunbury Cathedral Grammar School is such a change from LCC. Their campus is very spread out so that to get from class to class, you have walk outside as all the courses are in different buildings. Everyone here has been super friendly and I’ve made many great friends. My favourite class is food technology, where we cook delicious meals and get to eat them afterwards.

Last week there was a swimming carnival at school. Instead of going to class we went to the swimming pool for swim races and relays. We were split up by house, and you got points if someone in your house finished in first, second or third place. The house with the most points at the end of the day won the carnival. It was such a fun experience!

Going on exchange was probably one of the best choices I’ve made. I’ve been here for almost a month and my exchange has been going by so fast. One time, we drove up to Perth, the capital of Western Australia. There was a sculpture competition on the beach, and I was able to see some beautiful Australian art. It was amazing to see all the detail these artists put into their work.

Last weekend we stayed in Yallingup, which has some of the most beautiful beaches in all of Western Australia. Needless to say, we spent most of our time at the sunny beaches, where we tried (unsuccessfully) to ride the waves. The next day we visited Ngilgi cave, named after Ngilgi the good spirit who lives there, according to aboriginal legend. It was a spectacular sight; the underground limestone cave was lit up in all different colours and stalactites hung down from the roof.

I’ve been here four weeks so far and have loved every single moment. I can’t wait to see what new adventures are to come! – Alexandra Gardilcic ’16

Student Exchange: Aussie Wildlife

Posted on February 26, 2014 by admin

Over the weekend, Brandon took me to his farm near Pinnaroo, a small town right on the South Australia/Victoria Border. On the first night, we ate at a nice little pub. The following day, we drove to a town called Loxton, which was about an hour away, where we met up with some of the Blacksell’s family friends on the Murray River. We spent the entire day wake boarding, waterskiing, tubing, and just relaxing by the water. Overall, it was a perfect day! After devouring a few Australian style pizzas, we headed back to the farm.

On the way home, before even being able to finish my sentence about how I was disappointed that I still haven’t seen any traditional Aussie wildlife, we saw a young kangaroo bounding across the road! I found this really impressive, but even more so when about ten seconds later I saw the rare Malleefowl, a ground-dwelling bird about the size of a chicken. It all happened so fast, but I realized that I had just experienced traditional Aussie wildlife within the span of 15 seconds!

That night, I stayed up watching with pride as Canada beat Sweden in the men’s hockey finals. The next day, we headed back for Adelaide, but took a detour in order for Mr. Blacksell to show me a dairy farm. It was interesting but challenging to be at a place where you’re knee deep in cow manure while being attacked by thousands of flies who make it their life-long mission to find a way to get up your nostrils.

I was happy to have had that experience, as I know I will never be a dairy farmer. I guess I’m just too much of a “city boy”! – Charlie Joy ’14

Student Exchange Australia: Challenging Experiences

Posted on February 25, 2014 by admin

The first two weeks in Australia have been amazing and I am already enjoying myself. After a long 20-hour flight via Vancouver, I was really excited to finally arrive in Australia. The weather has been amazing; it has been sunny every single day. Everyone was very welcoming when I got here and they all tried to make me feel included. I have made some new friends that are very nice and caring.

The family I am staying with is one of the nicest and funniest families I have ever met. Dinner is something I look forward to during the day because I know it will be filled with laughter and enjoyment. My exchange partner Clare, has a little brother Angus, who is 11 years old and is very energetic and has a passion for the Olympics, so he has been keeping me updated on how Canada is doing and I even watch some of it with him. Clare also has an older brother named Jack who is very kind and intelligent. Both parents are extremely nice and welcoming.

My exchange family lives in Ballarat, Victoria that is a small town about an hour and half from Melbourne. Every day we pack our own lunch and either bike to school or Clare’s mom drives us. It’s about a 3-minute drive and an 8-minute bike ride. Right in front of Clare’s house, across the street, is a beautiful lake. There is a nice pathway that goes all around the lake that is about six-kilometres long. I sometimes take this route to get to school.

My first weekend in Victoria, we drove down to Clare’s beach house in Anglesea. The beach was beautiful and different from any other beach I have been to. Her house was a street away from Great Ocean Road, a famous road along the coast of Southern Australia, which has a beautiful view of all the different beaches. We spent the first day at the beach relaxing, tanning, swimming and boogie boarding. On Sunday, we had a surfing lesson in the morning, which was a blast. Even though I was probably the worst in the group I still had tons of fun. It was a tough and challenging experience especially since everyone was better than me and it was sometimes embarrassing but you will never succeed if you don’t try new things and I can’t wait to go surfing next weekend!

This past weekend we went to the Ballarat Wildlife Park. I saw so many different animals I such as kangaroos, koalas, Tasmanian devils, wombats, echidnas and emus. It was so cool to see all these different animals. On Sunday, we went to Sovereign Hill, which is an open-air museum and a historical park. We travelled in a small train underground into a mine and learned how the miners back in the day worked. There is a street with many small stores, which makes you feel as if you have just stepped into the 1850s. It was very interesting and fun to learn about Australian history.

My first few weeks here have been great and I am looking forward to spending the next couple of weeks in this wonderful place. – Clara MacIntosh ’14 (LCC Exchange Student @ Ballarat Grammar in Melbourne, Australia)

Student Exchange Australia: Memories That Will Last a Lifetime

Posted on February 21, 2014 by admin

For the last few weeks, I have been attending Carey Baptist Grammar School. Carey is a co-ed private school located in the suburb of Kew. The school runs through prep (k) to grade 12 and there are about 200 students in each grade. The girls’ summer uniform is a yellow dress.

School here isn’t much different from LCC, they use laptops and have projector screens but one big difference is that our lockers and corridors are outside and the campus is huge. It took me over a week to find my way around because there are so many buildings but everyone was really nice by helping me find my classes. Something I love about Carey is that they have heaps of electives from total sports to CSI; it’s easy to find a class that suits your interests.

Melbourne is about the size of our downtown with the Yarra River running straight through it. The city center is where all of the big buildings and shops are located, with many suburbs surrounding the city.

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve gone to loads of shops and had the wonderful opportunity to try pizza in a cone made out of dough! I’ve also visited a beautiful beach called Inverloch, which is about an hour away from the suburb I’m staying in called Canterbury. I have visited the Queen Victoria Market, the Eureka sky deck and the relaxing hot springs.

Time has flown by, tomorrow is Friday when yesterday only felt like Sunday. I’m having an amazing time and making tons of new friends and I can’t imagine ever leaving this place. I’m super excited to continue exploring the different experiences Melbourne has to offer in my last few weeks because these are memories that will last a lifetime. – Aiyana Kaplan ’16

Round Square: Integrating Leadership Into Everyday Life

Posted on February 19, 2014 by admin

Over the week of January 27, five LCC grade 10 students, James Kastner, Zack Shine, Victoria Kalisky, Jennifer Beallor, Arianna Galbraith along with myself, Jessica Lackstein travelled to Haliburton, Ontario. We represented LCC at the Round Square Regional Conference of the Americas hosted by St. Clements School and Bayview Glen School. Students travelled from all corners of the globe in order to attend this conference.

Upon arrival at the hotel our first welcome was from two Colombian students. We exchanged information and instantly became friends. As more and more delegates from their respective countries began introducing themselves to us we came to the realization that although we came from complete different corners of the world, we have much in common.

While riding the three-hour drive up to Camp Wanakita, everyone was beaming with laughter, cheer and pride. I recall sitting on the bus with my friend and saying, “ I can’t believe students travelled all the way from Australia!” Just then, someone from Australia peeked through the crack between our chairs and said, “Australia? I’m sorry but you said Australia! That’s where I’m from!” From all his pride and excitement I knew the people I would meet and the friendships I would make would last forever. From that moment on all my worries and fears had diminished and I was more than ready for what the next four days had to offer.

At the camp we participated in various outdoor activities such as: snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, high ropes course and dogsledding, an obvious favourite. Although it seems as if it was all “fun and games” we incorporated many new leadership skills into each activity. Whether it was helping the driver guide the dogsled through the blistering cold or encouraging your friend to climb the high ropes course, there were leadership skills involved in every process.

The most challenging yet most educational activity was an indoor evening activity. Twenty-three different qualities such as: love for learning, curiosity and open-mindedness were all placed on the floor and we were told to sit at the one that we felt was our strongest. It took a good three minutes for everyone to decide where they felt the strongest connection and even then people still had a very distinct look of uncertainty on their face. Once everyone had decided, we were asked to stand up one by one and explain to a room of about 50 people why we felt this was our strongest quality. To be able to stand up in front of 50 complete strangers and talk about myself was one of the hardest challenges.

After completing the first exercise, we had to then sit by our weakest quality and address the room once more. One by one, we all got up and addressed the room. Not only were we speaking up about our weaknesses and our strengths but we are also becoming more self-aware. As more people spoke, the room got louder and more people voiced their opinion. Everyone seemed far more motivated and determined to succeed and most importantly more aware of their position in the world.

The conference was an experience of a lifetime. To anyone interested in attending a conference, whether it is the junior or the senior Round Square, I highly recommend attending. The bonds created and lessons learned will last forever. Most importantly, we learned what it takes to be a great leader and how to integrate leadership qualities into every thing you do in life. – Jessica Lackstein ’15