It never occurred to me to go abroad for one year and leave my family behind. But to my own surprise it suddenly happened. It all went very fast and I was actually quite amazed when I was sitting in the plane off to Australia. Actually I wanted to go on a six weeks exchange the Josef-Effner-Gymnasium offered, when a friend visited me and told me about his year in the USA. He narrated with such enthusiasm and emotion that I was very gripped by his story. He was the one who gave me the idea and convinced me at the same time to take such a large step in my life. So I decided to also go on an exchange organised by Rotary, a worldwide organisation that provides humanitarian service. In the beginning everything felt so unreal and I couldn’t imagine being away from my family and friends for one year. However, I started the whole thing and I wanted to finish it as well, although it was very difficult, especially when I had to say good-bye to my loved ones. Looking back I would say that going away was the most important decision I’ve ever made in my life. I won a year of new experience, new impressions, new friends and a new attitude to life.

2 Scope of Work

This assignment presents the everyday life and the highlights of my year in Australia. It seems important for me to point out some of these things in more detail, because so many people asked me about some special topics. Most of the questions were about the system of Rotary exchange, the city of Perth, to which I was sent, my host families and the indigenous people of Australia. This is why I discuss these things, before I report on my life and adventures in Australia.

3 Background Information

3.1 The Rotary System

Even though Rotary funds and organises the world’s biggest non-commercial youth exchange program, Rotary is not a professional provider of school exchanges. The program is based on the aim of Rotary to contribute to understanding and peace between peoples. The stay in a foreign country is not supposed to be a language course, but should be a chance to get to know a new country, its people, habits and culture. Hence to act as an ambassador to present your home country. This is why you can’t apply for a specific country, but you have to define three countries you are interested in. Only one of these countries is allowed to be English-speaking. Rotary gathers all applications worldwide and then selects one country you are sent to. In most of the cases this is one of the countries you were interested in and which you applied for in your application. My choices were Australia, Chile and Taiwan, and fortunately I finally was sent to Perth in Australia.

The procedure of the application is not very easy and means a lot of work for the applicant. The main steps are:

- An interview with the Counsellor of your Club. (A country is divided into several districts that consist of several clubs.)

- An assessment weekend with role-playing games to evaluate the personalities and social competencies of the applicants.

- A comprehensive application form, including medical certificates, a school reference, a resume and a long self description.

Furthermore, you have to sign the Rotary exchange rules: no drinking, no driving, no dating and no drugs; if you do not respect them, you will be sent back home.

The basic principle of an exchange with Rotary is to host an exchange student in return. It’s a tradition that exchange students usually stay about three or four months in one family and then move to another one in the same area. In doing this, Rotary wants you get to know different families and their habits, so that your picture of the country is not affected by only one family.

The host families must not necessarily be Rotary members, but can also be other families who sent away their child with Rotary or are willing to host someone without getting compensated.

The exchange students get pocket money each month of their exchange from the hosting Rotary Club. Usually it also pays your school fees and supports you wherever it can. In return the hosting club would like you to attend their meetings every week to inform you about new activities or find out about problems you have.

The Rotary Club assigns you to one member who is your Counsellor. It is his or her job to take care of you and to make sure that your host families are alright. If you have problems, you are supposed to talk to him or her to find a solution. Though my Club was just a little one with about 15 members, they nevertheless were very committed to helping indigent people and organised many events to collect money for charitable donations. I was glad that I went away with Rotary, because there was always someone I could talk to when I needed help. Furthermore, Rotary organised two trips for exchange students where we met up and saw more of Australia than just our city.

3.2 Perth

Perth, Western Australia, is one of the most isolated cities of the world. The next big city is Adelaide, which is about 2,800 km away (see Appendix 8.2). It is even closer to Singapore and Jakarta than it is to Australia’s capital city Canberra. In the West you find the ocean, in the East there is endless desert. It’s really a place in the middle of nowhere, but because of its size it offers everything you need and I didn’t miss anything during my year there. Perth was founded on 1^st June 1829 on the banks of the Swan River. In the 1980s, “Perth fortunes received a substantial boost (…) when gold was discovered at Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie to the east.”[1] Perth has a population of about 1,381,070 habitants, which is about 74% of the inhabitants of the State of Western Australia (WA).

Figure 1: The Skyline of Perth

The Swan River, a beautiful river for sailing, divides Perth into two parts. The Central Business District (CBD) is located in the northern part. Just a few minutes away from CBD you can find the “Perth Mint”, Australia’s oldest operating mint, where you can see “molten gold being poured watch coins being minted and view natural gold.”[2]

Another main attraction of Perth is King’s Park, which is combined with a botanic garden and located on Mount Eliza. Over an area of about 400 ha you can investigate and adore Australia’s wildflowers and natural bush land. The citizens of Perth are very proud of their park and especially of their newly-made little “Tree Top Walk”, from where you have a beautiful view over the Swan River and the CBD.

Fremantle, Perth’s port city, is located in the southern part of Perth. It offers “beautiful beaches, historic buildings, old-world charm and a fascinating heritage that dates back to 1829. “[3] A lot of bars and restaurants invite everyone to spend beautiful evenings with dinner and dance and a cool sea breeze. Unfortunately I couldn’t enjoy it the way I wanted, because – in contrast to Germany – you have to be 18 years old to get into clubs and pubs. In summertime everyone in Perth is just waiting for the “Fremantle Doctor”, a cool breeze coming from the ocean, which cools down the high temperatures. In summertime the sun shines twelve hours a day in average and this is why the Aborigines call Perth “Alunga” – “the place with a lot of sunshine.”[4]

3.3 Host families

The composition of the Australian population reflects the immigration pattern of the country. About 92% immigrated from Europe, 7% came from Asia, and about 2.4% of the inhabitants are Aborigines. Over 1.3 million Australians have at least one German ancestor.

Figure 2: Components of Population Growth[5]

English is the most-spoken language with around 79% of the population.[6] When, in the 60’s, the white immigration policy of Australia was slowly abrogated, immigration from Asian countries increased. The histories of my host families are typical examples of Australian family backgrounds.

3.3.1 The Silvans

My first host family was the Silvans: My host dad Tom, my host mum Kylie and my two host brothers Andrew and Richard, and a little poodle called Izzy. Tom was born in the northern part of Czechoslovakia, where his parents were killed by the Nazis two months before the end of the World War II. He was brought to Australia as a very young child in 1948 by his mother’s sister and brought up in Sydney, where parts of his family already lived. He started studying Pharmacy at Sydney University but after the first year of study went to Perth, where he finished the course.

After being involved in student politics, establishing various businesses and playing top-grade squash, Tom married Kylie in 1984. Kylie is an Australian in the fourth generation. Her mother was born in Perth and her father came from a Western Australian country town called Moora. Her parents met after the war and had two daughters, herself and her sister Vicki.

Figure 3: The Silvans - Andrew, Tom, me, Kylie and Richard

Tom and Kylie have two sons: In 1985 Andrew was born in Perth. He went to Wesley College for his schooling and is now studying Pharmacy at Curtin University. Richard was born in 1987 and followed his brother to Wesley College. At the moment he is studying Commerce at the University of Western Australia.

3.3.2 The Sweeneys

The Sweeneys were my second host family. My host dad Ross was born in Perth in 1948 as a fourth generation Australian. His father was Fred Sweeney, born in Perth in 1916 and died in 1993. His profession was Police Inspector. Fred’s parents were both born in the United Kingdom and emigrated to Australia. They married in 1915, but Fred’s father set off to Europe for the First World War in October, 1915.

His father (Frederick Senior), a carpenter, was killed by German forces in France in 1918. He never saw his son, fighting for 3 years on the Western Front in France, before being killed in August 1918. Frederick Senior emigrated in 1906 by himself, leaving his family in Newcastle, England.

Fred’s mother Florence Wallace (Ross’s grandmother) was the daughter of a British Army Officer who had travelled around the world in various postings (West Indies, West Africa) before settling in Western Australia around 1910. Florence and Frederick Senior met and married in Perth.

Figure 4: The Sweeneys - Ross, Jill, me and Jessica

Ross’s mother was Rene Madgen, who was born in Albany in 1919 and died in 1992. Her parents were William Madgen and Cecilia Pearson. William Madgen was born about 1870 in Newcastle, England. He emigrated alone from England to Western Au stralia in about 1910. He was a ship's fireman. Cecilia Pearson was born in Perth around 1880. Cecilia was the daughter of pioneering families, which emigrated to Western Australia in 1830 as builders (her mother's line) and 1850 as mining engineers (her father's line).

My host mum Jill was born in Great Yarmouth, England in 1951. Jill immigrated to Perth in 1979 to marry Ross. They met in the Austrian Tyrol in 1974.

Her mother was Kay Young, who was born around 1920 in Bolton, England and died in 1978. Her father was Clifford Mackay, who was born around 1918 in Newcastle, England and died in 1997.

Ross and Jill have two children: Jessica was born in 1982 and Matthew in 1985. Now Ross is the principal of COMO Secondary College, Jill lectures at a university, Jess has a job with the government doing mathematical analysis on submarines, and Matt is working through his IT degree at the university. Their two poodles, Bonnie and Snowy, enliven the family’s life in every way.

3.3.3 The Haddows

My third host family was named Haddow. The last four months of my year in Australia I shared my life with my host mum Gaby, my host dad David, my host sister Livia, my host brother Nicolas, and a little dog called Darcy.

David's grandmother was from Ireland. She came to Australia as a 20-year-old girl hoping to find work, but instead found a husband and had seven children. His family on the Haddow side lived in Kalgoorlie, a town in Western Australia. They had a gold mine there, which was sold at some stage, and all the boys in David's father's family moved to Perth or Melbourne.

Figure 5: The Haddows - Livia, Gaby, Nicolas, me and David

Gaby’s grandmother on her mother's side was born in Esperance, which is in the northern part of Western Australia. Her family, the Dawes, had sailed from England to South Australia, and then some of them moved to Esperance. Parts of the family still live on large farms in the area of Esperance. Gaby’s grandfather was from Victoria. His family had a farm, but when the depression and drought got so bad, that they could not live there any longer the family simply left. He and his wife moved around a bit – Kalgoorlie, Albany and Perth – to try to find work and to control his asthma, from which he died at a young age. Gaby’s grandfather Hugh was from Victoria, the son of a Presbyterian minister in Melbourne. Hugh's brother James was killed in World War I and Hugh moved away to Perth to practice medicine. Her father's mother was from a family that boasted the first white baby born on the North Island of New Zealand.

Now David is working with the government and Gaby is a librarian at the Curtin University of Technology. Livia studies at the University of Western Australia and Nic just finished high school.

3.4 Aborigines

On the day I arrived in Perth my host mum cautioned me about the Aborigines. They are the indigenous people of Australia and according to recent statistics count about 400,000 people. British settlers arrived in 1788 and with them started the economic marginalization and loss of political power for the Aborigines. New diseases spread out which led to the death of many Aborigines. In the beginning of the 20^th century the majority of the natives were “missionized and assimilated into rural and urban Australian society as low-paid labourers with limited rights; many Aborigine children were taken from their natural parents and given to foster parents to promote assimilation.”[7]

Now the Australian government tries to improve the living conditions of the Aborigines and has given them back a degree of autonomy and property rights. All the same, their situation enhanced just a little. There is still a lot of violence in the streets. Some specific places in Perth were known as aboriginal territory and many white people consider it dangerous to go there.

Figure 6: Aborigines playing music

I once had an unforgettable experience while I was sitting in the train to Perth city to meet a friend of mine. Three aboriginal girls, between 14 and 17 years old, were in the same wagon as I. They were dancing and singing around. The white woman sitting next to me started to stare at them. I was wondering what she was doing, because I was told to not pay attention to people in such a situation, because then they notice you and may attack you – which is exactly what happened. One of the girls called the woman next to me a “bitch” and slapped her in the face. When a man tried to separate them, the girl wasn’t very impressed and started to attack him, too. At the next station they left the train and fled before the security guards could catch them. I was extremely shocked and later on noticed that from then on I was a bit frightened and avoided contact with Aborigines on the street.

Though you cannot judge a group by the behaviour of an individual, at least in the big cities it is a fact that many Aborigines have problems with alcohol and you see them on the streets begging for money. Not all of them of course – there were a few students at my school who were Aborigines and they behaved like everybody else in our school.

The government hopes that the native Australians can integrate better into mainstream Australian life, but it will take a long time until the Aborigines are on the same level as immigrant Australians. Their culture was taken away by the British settlers. They have no religion they can hold on to, no places where they can practise their “dreamtime.” Instead, the European culture introduced them to drugs, violence and greed.

The path away from these things will be a hard one, but I hope that one day the Aborigines and their culture will be accepted and supported like the European and Asian cultures in Australia.

4 Everyday Life

4.1 The first days

Saying goodbye to my parents at the airport in Munich was easier than I would have thought. I held my tears back until I was behind the security check, but then I had not much time to lament, because now I was on my own on the way to a new country on the other side of the earth, where I knew nobody at all.

My flight went alright without any complications. When I arrived in Perth I was excited and anxious to meet my new host family, the Silvans. My host father Tom and his son Andrew picked me up at the airport. We drove straight to my new home and they gave me no time to recover from the long flight. In the early evening the male part of the family decided to take me with them to watch an “Australian Rules Football” game.

At the beginning, the rules of the game were bit confusing and difficult to understand, maybe because I was so tired and almost fell asleep. However, Tom explained the rules over and over again and when I started to understand, it was a lot of fun. Unlike soccer games I knew from Europe, there were many women in the audience, especially older ones, who were screaming and rooting for their teams. After the game I was really exhausted and just dreamt of my bed. Finally, at about 11 pm, I got to sleep after two days of travelling. Unfortunately I didn’t sleep that well, because it was colder than I expected from studying the temperature diagram of Perth (see Appendix 8.3). The home of the Silvans had no heating and I was freezing for half of the night until I put on a few more clothes and finally had a very long and deep sleep.

When I got up the next morning no one was at home. The boys were doing sports and their parents accompanied them. I made breakfast for myself, which turned out to be a bad idea: Vegemite was introduced to me the day before and described as a spread, which is a bit salty. It looked like Nutella and I put it on my toast. I bit in it and the taste was disgusting. To this day the smell of Vegemite makes me sick, but on my first day I forced myself to eat the whole toast. It was the first and last time I ever ate Vegemite.

As I found out later on, I wasn’t the only one who had the “Vegemite” experience. Most of the exchange students thought the same, except a few Brazilians who surprisingly liked the spread.

The first few days were not very exciting. My host dad and I went shopping to buy vegetarian food, because usually Australians eat a lot of meat and it was new for them to feed a vegetarian like me. In the shop they had more than enough vegetarian sausages, steaks, schnitzel and so on. I was really surprised and my host dad bought everything. Besides that, the first days I watched a lot of movies on TV to get used to the spoken Australian English and learn the language a little bit better.

4.2 School

After several days of settling down I started to go to school. The whole system is a bit different from that in Germany. A school year starts at the beginning of February and ends in the middle of December. It’s divided into four terms with a two week holiday in between the terms. At the end of term four you get a seven week summer holiday.

There are two different kinds of school, the public and the private ones. One has to pay for each of them, but the prices are quite different. Private schools are often just for one sex, but the standards are better than they are in public schools. They also have stricter rules for the school uniform. At a public school, for instance, it’s enough when one wears the school’s t-shirt and dark blue pants; whereas at a private school it is quite strictly defined which socks or shoes one has to wear and even the amount of jewellery is limited.

Figure 7: Some students in their school uniform

The offer of after-school activities like soccer, rugby or hockey is mostly the same at private and public schools.

The Australian high school starts in year 8 and goes till year 12. In year 11 and 12, the two final years, you have to choose six subjects. One of them has to be one of the English courses. An English course with a higher grade is a prerequisite for the university accreditation. Strangely enough they put me in the highest course. At the beginning it was a bit difficult, but in the end I had lots of fun. We wrote essays and read and analysed books and movies. Surprisingly, my achievement was above the average of the class. The other subjects I took were French, Biology, Physics, Mathematics and Food Production in year 11, while in year 12 I chose History instead of Biology. Other subjects they offered were for example Hockey, Information Technology, Music, Drama, Visual Arts, Design & Technology, Chemistry and Indonesian.

If you want to apply for a university, you have to have at least four of the so-called TEE subjects, like Math and Physics. I chose five TEE subjects to improve my knowledge.

There were three different kinds of Math: Foundations, Applicable and Analysis. The Analysis course was taken mostly by Asian students and many of them even took a second Math course. They were regarded as “the clever ones.” Most of the Australians took the lowest level of Math. I was put in that one as well in the beginning, but I was rather bored, because it was very easy and finally they put me in the higher Math course in year 12. The students used a calculator, which did everything for them. It is not like in Germany, where you have to remember lots of formulas and where the instruction is very traditional. The teacher gives you a number of exercises, which you are supposed to solve during the lesson or at home.

Most of the students talked during class and listened to music. That was not only in Math, but also in all the other subjects I took. In English, for instance, we were supposed to write an essay about a chapter in our book, but because it was so hot we were allowed to work outside while our teacher stayed in the classroom. The consequence was that no one really did any work.

My impression was that the students in Australia – or at least at my school – don’t learn in class, but instead have to look up the subject matter at home and study their books. The teacher just provides the exercises the students have to do during class and only if a new subject is a bit more complicated does he or she explain it in the first few minutes of a lesson.

In the beginning this was a bit unusual for me, but after a while I liked it very much. We had a few spot tests during the year, which are tests that you aren’t told of before. In the middle and at the end of the school year you write exams in your entire TEE subjects, while in the non-TEE subjects you get marks for your assignments and practical work.

All in all I felt that school was easy compared to Germany. Although the lessons started at 8.45am and finished at 3.05pm, it was more relaxed. The day started with two periods and after 20 minutes recess you have further two periods before lunch starts. Lunch lasts 40 minutes and most of the students buy a pie or a sausage roll at the canteen. Afterwards there is only one period left before you go home.

Every year in our school had its own dedicated quad in the schoolyard where they spent their free time. So the different years weren’t in close contact, because if a student of year 10 was in the 11 court, they chased him out.

A school year starts in February and ends in December, when I arrived I had to start in the middle of year 11. Nevertheless I had no problems with the subject matter and finished the year with rather good grades.

On the whole, school in Australia seemed to be simply easier than it is in Germany.

4.3 Making friends

When I arrived in Australia I knew no one at all. I had e-mail contact with my first host family, but that was it. On my second day in Australia I started to go to school. The deputy principal introduced me to some other exchange students who arrived a few days earlier. One of them was Lasse, another German, who organised his exchange all on his own. The other one was Paulo, a Brazilian exchange student, who went away with Rotary. From the very first they were my friends. They already had made friends with some Australians and I joined their clique. The Australians are quite open in getting to know new people and invite you to come to this event or to that party. I was invited by many people whom I hardly knew, but after a few weeks it became clear who was really interested in getting to know me and who was not.

Because school lasted until the afternoon and most Australian students had jobs in supermarkets or in fast food restaurants, their time was limited and we could hardly catch up after school. Nevertheless my friendship with the Australians developed over that year to a very close one and I still keep in touch with most of them. I would have liked to grow our relationship further, but unfortunately I had to leave them after only one year.

At the end of my year I felt much more self-confident than I felt before and I started new friendships with other students of my school by myself. But unfortunately there was not much time left to get to know each other better. So these short contacts died out after a while.

When looking back, I would say that it was quite easy for me to meet new people in the beginning, because I met two boys who were in the same position as I was. They helped me a lot and introduced me to the others. Still, Australians are very open and welcoming and wouldn’t exclude a new student. Thus it never is a problem to get to know some of them and be good friends.

High school was not the only place where I met Australians. During the week on Handicamp (see chapter 5.5), I got to know other habitants. One of them became my best friend whom I’m still in contact with.

Figure 8: Meeting of exchange students at the Post Office

The other group of friends were exchange students. There were about 45 of them in the State of Western Australia. We met on the two trips Rotary organised for us. Even though many Rotarians didn’t approve of it, the exchange students organised a Rotary independent meeting every Wednesday after school at the post office in the centre of Perth. Around 20 students came and we just talked and joked around. Because we were all in the same situation, we understood each other’s problems. Living in a foreign country without family and friends is sometimes not as easy as it may seem. Though we came from different countries, e.g. Brazil, Estonia, Slovakia, Switzerland, Canada and Thailand, and though we had different customs, we were somehow connected and understood each other as a group that no one could separate.

On the whole I would describe our relationship as a very special kind of friendship. We shared our year, our experiences and our problems with each other. An invisible bond held us together and we still are in close contact with each other.

Now, if any of us travels to a foreign country, we can be pretty sure that there is somebody one can catch up with.

Looking back, I will never regret this year because of the people I met. The different personalities and the different habits influenced my life over there a lot. I needed the Australians as well as I needed the exchange students. The former helped me to get to know the Australian life better and understand their culture. In the end I felt like an Australian and the easy-going life got into in my blood. The latter made my life easier in a way, because there were people who shared my experiences.

So I not only had the chance to get to know the Australian people and culture, but also to get to know people from many other countries and cultures, which was one of the aims of the whole exchange.

5 Highlights

5.1 North-West-Safari

After only two weeks in school I went on a two weeks trip through the State of Western Australia. About 30 other exchange students and I got in a bus and went on an adventure. The trip was organised by the Rotary Club of Northam, a town in the East of Perth. We slept outdoor without a tent, just with our sleeping bags and mattresses. As Australia is known for the most poisonous animals in the world, some of us were afraid of the little animals that might be crawling around; we all managed to stay alive without any complications.

During the first week we spent time in the Australian outback. We climbed gorges up and down and – due to the lack of any other water or showers – we also took short baths in the freezing cold water of the gorges. Even toilets were rare. Most of the time each sex had one side of the bus and then you had to walk until you were hidden behind the bushes.

Figure 9: Australian outback

All of us were used to some kind of luxury, but no one complained and we had a lot of fun. Once we even lost two French girls: During a toilet stop they weren’t back in time and nobody noticed it, so we drove on, until about 15 minutes later someone realized that they were lost. We found them again and from then on everyone was back in time, because no one wanted to be left alone in the middle of nowhere.

In Karratha, a place way up north, the whole trip changed a bit. For the first time since our tour started we had a shower. We could wash up all the dust we collected during the week and clean our clothes. We slept in a gym and after seven days of looking at the stars at night it felt like we were locked up. It sounds weird, but we were so used to the nature that it was very hard for us to have a good sleep inside.

The second week was a contrast program to the red and dusty desert. We went south again along the coast. Although all of us were fascinated by the gorges, the ocean was even more amazing. Most of us were running to the beach, bathing in the sun, so anxious to get some tan that they forgot the sun cream. The tan they got unfortunately was more red than brown, which can be quite dangerous. Australia is known to have the highest skin cancer rate of the world, because of its high insolation.

Others played Volleyball or went snorkelling to admire the beautiful coloured fish and corals that exist at Coral Bay. Our trip was almost over now and all of us thought that they had had the time of their life during the tour. We got so close and formed so many friendships that we didn’t want to separate again. Although sometimes during the two weeks I was searching for just a moment where I could be alone without 29 other students hanging around, I felt alone after I was back home. It was quiet when all my friends were no longer around me. Also, I was not longer used to sleeping inside and it took about three nights until I could sleep the whole night through without any problems.

5.2 Holidays in Busselton

This extraordinary trip was followed by another two weeks of school before the term three holidays started. Once again I went on holiday, but this time with my host family. We spent a few days in their holiday house in Busselton. Busselton is a small town in the south of Western Australia on the Indian Ocean. They showed me the lighthouse in Dunsborough and the wineries that are all over that area. We visited a cave, which was really exciting to climb around in, trying to find the exit. Another event was a visit to a chocolate factory in Margaret River. I felt a bit sick afterwards, but I wouldn’t have wanted to miss it.

Figure 10: Giant "Karri" Eucalyptus tree

The most exciting event of our trip was the climb on the Giant "Karri" Eucalyptus trees, which grow up to a height of 80 metres. The steps are just metal bars, which are stuck in the trees and surrounded by a security net. There were no security checks or anything else, but it was awesome to climb up there and have a look over the countryside.

It was great to see the South of Western Australia, which is not as dusty as the North, but after that lovely holiday it was time for me to do some studying. Exams came up and I had to pass five of them.

5.3 Change of host family and holidays in Esperance

Meanwhile it was also time for me to change my host family. I moved from the Silvans to the Sweeneys. The life there totally differed to the one I had had before. My host mum was now working and was not always at home to pick me up from school. My host sister Jess was mainly at university or spent her time with her boyfriend. At least I had peace and quiet to study for my exams in my own room. Consequently, I was much more independent now. I helped with the cooking and the housework and once again enjoyed my life. Although at school everyone said to me that it would be horrible to have the principal as a host dad, it wasn’t at all like that. We had heaps of fun, having pool parties with cock fighting (a game you play in the pool) and having barbecue at night. Surprisingly, it felt like home quite soon after I arrived in my new family. A few weeks later I went on holidays with the Sweeneys further down south to Esperance. Esperance is southeast of Perth and on the Southern Ocean. They have the most beautiful beaches there, white and without any people. I enjoyed that holiday very much while walking around and going for a swim. My host dad taught me how to body-board and I jumped into the biggest waves to have a good ride. For the first time in my life I saw Kangaroos in the wild and they were so trusting that we could almost touch them.

Figure 11: A fish on the hook

Another sport I never did before was fishing. Ross convinced me that I have to go fishing at least once while I’m in Australia, so I pulled myself together and went fishing with him. When after a little while I caught a fish, I couldn’t bring myself to get it off the hook, kiss it and then throw it back in the sea, as is tradition. Luckily Ross had such a good heart and took over my job. Our car’s air conditioner didn’t work on our way back, so we had about 37°C and were sweating the whole ten hours drive home. It was exhausting, because all the dispersed dust made it hard to breathe, and we were so happy when we finally arrived home.

5.4 Christmas and New Year’s Eve

Then Christmas arrived. It felt so unreal in the beginning without the snow and the cold. In Australia Santa Claus usually comes on the 25^th. Hence on the 24^th we had free time and I went to the beach with my host dad and a friend of his to have a swim. Afterwards I was invited to a friend’s place. Petra has been living in Australia for several years and worked at the canteen at our school. After I found out that she is German as well we became friends. Petra wanted to meet a few friends on Christmas Eve to celebrate the German Christmas traditions. Although it was hot and there was no snow, I enjoyed that evening very much with German Christmas songs and “Plätzchen.”

The next day my host aunt Celeste came over and we went to Church with the whole family. Jill had prepared mussels and crayfish for lunch and after church we looked forward to a great lunch. When we arrived back home, Jill discovered that their dog Snowy was a bit smarter in finding the plate with the crayfish than Ross was in hiding it from the dogs. The fridge was open and the crayfish was gone. Luckily the dogs didn’t like mussels and vegetables, so we still had enough of other yummy food for the picnic at the Swan River.

Figure 12: X-Mas picnic at the Swan River

With full tummies we went home and had a cup of tea before we exchanged our presents.

As in Germany, the presents lay under the Christmas tree, which unfortunately was only a plastic one. After exchanging our gifts we had a swim in the pool and a little dinner snack. In the evening we watched the speech of the Queen and that was about the whole day. I can definitely say that it was an experience to have a hot Christmas without my real family, but on the other hand I felt never as homesick as during that time. When I talked to my family and my friends on the phone I just wanted to be with them in Germany. Especially during that time, I thought about all the ones I love and hadn’t seen for almost half a year. That period was the hardest during my exchange.

New Year’s Eve showed parallels to the ones I had in Germany. First I was at a friend’s place where we had a little party. In Australia it is not allowed to buy fireworks yourself, so an hour before midnight we went to King’s Park to watch Perth’s official New Year fireworks, which were great and amazing.

5.5 Handicamp

During the last week of my holidays I was asked to participate in a program organised by Rotary, called Handicamp. A non-disabled person, the carer, and a disabled person, the buddy, were put together and spent one week together in the camp. The carer had to care about his buddy and look after him. On the whole there were 27 pairs who spent the week together. My buddy was Kylie.

Figure 13: My buddy Kylie

She was 18 years old but because of her intellectual disability and developmental delay she behaved like an 8-year-old girl. Kylie was a little cute girl who wanted to be as independent as possible. During the week I managed to learn a lot from her and all the others. We had daily programs, so it never got boring. We went abseiling, did archery, went bowling, were towed by a boat in so-called “Seabiscuits” and visited the zoo and Adventure World. Furthermore, we had a Casino night, a Karaoke night, a Disco night, and once a Clown visited us. If we had free time, we made candles, t-shirts or just had a swim in the pool. The people I met there, the buddies as well as the carers, left a permanent impression. The experience of dealing with disabled people was really impressing and encouraged my will to help other people.

5.6 Leeuwin sailing trip

In the beginning of February school started again and now I was in year 12. I couldn’t enjoy school life for long, however, because I was sent on a sailing trip by my Rotary Club. The ship was called Leeuwin and there were about 39 other Australian students who went on that trip with me. The Leeuwin is a three-masted barquentine, which is 55 metres long and 9 metres wide. The ship took us from Esperance to Albany in one week. Usually theses trips are for students who won some kind of scholarship, but some adolescents on the ship were maladjusted youths who were supposed to improve their behaviour during the journey. There were strict rules for this journey and everyone had to stick to them, because we were together on such a small area and if we wouldn’t have worked together, we wouldn’t have arrived in Albany in the end.

Figure 14: Sailing trip

We were divided into four groups of ten people, called watches. During the first two days we learned how to set a sail, to do the knots and how to tack. The daily routine was hard. Every group had a six hours shift. You had to get up at night, maybe 2 o’clock in the morning, to steer the ship or to watch out for wood, which could be in the ship’s way. If there was too much wind, you also had to strike the sails. At 6.30am everyone had to get up anyway and help. In the morning we had to clean the whole ship and each afternoon they taught us new things about sailing.

In the evening everyone was so exhausted that we went to bed as soon as possible. On day three the students took over the sailing. We calculated the route ourselves and had our own Captain. The hardest part was when we had to tack out of a bay with headwind. We tacked about 16 times before we finally reached the open sea and could sail ahead. Everyone felt his or her muscles hurting, but we didn’t give up until we succeeded.

There’s one thing I didn’t mention yet, and that’s the seasickness. Unfortunately I was hit hardest. I think I puked about 17 times and I couldn’t hold one meal inside for the first three days. I just wanted to sleep, because that was the only time I felt alright. During the day I was on deck all the time and even had my lunch out there. The worst thing that happened was that I was about to set a sail up upon a mast when I got sick. I vomited in my pocket, so that it wouldn’t be all over the ship, the sails and the people. The others didn’t even notice it until I climbed down and cleaned my shirt. They thought of me as a very brave girl and were happy that I was so selfless and didn’t puke on them.

The best experience I had was when some dolphins were swimming right beneath us while we were sitting at the bowsprit. Another unforgettable memory of the Leeuwin trip was my climb up the main mast, which is 33 metres above sea level. Near the top it got really shaky and I slipped a couple of times, because it was a bit wet, but nothing could have held me back. I love heights and it prickled all over my body when I looked down at the small people and the wide-open ocean. If I ever have the chance to do something like this again, I’ll definitely grab it.

5.7 Change of host family and Holidays

Once again it was time for me to change my host family. I had spent a weekend with the Haddows before so I knew them a bit. Right from the beginning they treated me like a daughter. The family was warm and welcoming and the dog liked the bed in my room at once. My host mum always cooked a special dinner for me while the others had meat or fish. I didn’t expect this, but I definitely gave her credit for it. The holidays with the Haddows were great. We spent the Easter holidays down south in Canal Rocks. It was a week of doing walks, reading books and listening to music. I enjoyed it a lot and the family got closer again.

5.8 Capricorn Ramble

The last adventure I had in Australia was the second tour organised by Rotary. This time it took about four weeks and we travelled around the East Coast. We were 30 exchange students all together with six leaders. After the flight to Adelaide a bus brought us to an empty prison, which was our bed for the first night. Some girls got a bit scared in the dark, but we all slept well after this tiring journey.

Our next stop was Coober Pedy, an opal-mining town in the middle of South Australia. Most of the people there live underground, because the temperatures vary from 0°C to 40°C and underground there is a constant temperature of about 23°C. The richest man that lives there has about 30 rooms under the earth with a swimming pool, squash court and a tennis court. Coober Pedy is an impressing town, but nevertheless I would never like to live in the middle of nowhere.

Figure 15: Uluru

Further north we finally arrived at Uluru (Ayers Rock). Uluru by sunrise, Uluru by sunset, Uluru from the top, from the front and from behind. We couldn’t get enough of it. Although Uluru is really amazing and the different colours and views are terrific, we were still glad to arrive at the Gold Coast and enjoyed the cool sea breeze. Snorkelling at the Great Barrier Reef was one of the best things I’ve ever done. The different fish and corals glimmered in so many colours that we were all astonished. Unfortunately a jelly fish touched a Japanese girl in our group and burned her face.

Our next stop was a visit in the rainforest and a river cruise where we tried to look for some crocodiles. We were able to see three little ones and they looked cute rather than dangerous.

Sydney was the last highlight of our tour and some of us would say the best. We only had two days to discover the city, but at least we saw the most important things like the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge, and we watched a beautiful sunset from Sydney’s Skytower. The flight back was very sad, because it not only meant the end of our four weeks trip, but also meant almost the end of our exchange.

6 Goodbye

Most of us were leaving in June and July. I was one of the latest to go back home, because I wanted to enjoy as much time as possible with the people there. My last days were horrible. I was rushing around, trying to find last souvenirs for the family and friends in Germany. Although I took my time to have tea with my host mum, it was a very hectic time. I was not only excited to go home, but also sad to leave Australia. All the people there grew in my heart and they were my life for one year. I had built myself a new life, which was not easy, and now I had to leave it all again.

All my host families went with me to the airport. Some Rotarians, my friends from school and a few remaining exchange students also joined us. This was the time when I realised that it was really time for me to go. I said goodbye to everyone in a kind of delirium and walked past the security check. And then it was over.

7 Conclusion

To sum up, my year in Australia was great.

The countryside fascinated me. You can have a cross ride through the dessert, go skiing in the mountains or have a swim in the ocean. The opportunities are endless.

Furthermore, the Australians are very open and welcoming, they take life much easier than we do here and enjoy their life. I adopted this easy-going life style very easy and I miss it in Germany.

The only point of criticism is the Australian school system; I think the German one is more effective and instructive.

I would advise everyone to go abroad for one year if you are not afraid of new experiences. My year influenced my future plans and if possible, I will apply as exchange student for one or two terms or even will try to study abroad. I want to maintain my contacts to all the exchange students as well; I will travel around a lot more and see new countries.

[1] Touring Atlas (2002), p. 358

[2] Touring Atlas (2002), p. 358

[3] Touring Atlas (2002)

[4] cp. Wikipedia-Perth

^{^[5]} Year Book Australia (2005)

[6] cp. Wikipedia-Australien

^{^[7]} Fact Monster – Aborigines (2005)

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