I can’t believe this first week is already over!

First day of school

This was the most hectic day of all. I woke up very early, to be sure to be on time, but I had way too much time. I walked over to my walking buddy’s house and she showed me the way to walk to school and we had a nice chat.
When I arrived, I was expected to go to the office to meet my school buddy, who would show me around, but first, my picture was taken. There were two nice girls waiting for me and they helped me figure out which classes I should take. After I decided and filled in the form, we needed to wait until my timetable was done, so I went with my buddy to her English class.
After English, I went to SLR, since we knew I would be following that class. I really liked it.
During recess, we found out Aboriginal studies was full and I had to pick something else, so I chose math advanced instead, the teacher said I could try that and if it would be too hard, I could still go to math standard. So in the time that was left of recess, we had to go find all the head teachers of the courses I wanted to follow and get their signatures to put me in a class. After that, I still didn’t have my timetable, so I went with my buddy to her work studies class. It is about finding a job and managing your finances. We had to look up words on the school laptops, but I didn’t have an account yet. They made an account for me, but it wouldn’t work at all, it takes a while to create it apparently and my buddy told me that no-ones account works straight away. During the afternoon break I hang out with my buddy and her friends and after lunch, I finally had my timetable! Since my last period was math and the teacher was absent, we went to the library to study (even though we didn’t have a lot of homework yet) and went to the shop right next to school to get some food.
Then the day was over and I met with my walking buddy to go back home. I was so glad to be home, I was exhausted, but excited for my new courses!

My different courses

Roll Call

When school starts, we come together in a Roll Call Class. You sit in a classroom with people from your year and you hear the announcements of the day, those are texts mostly the principal writes and the roll call teacher reads out loud. That usually takes about two minutes and for the rest of the 15 minutes, you just sit around and wait for the bell that announces the start of period one. You can talk, but it is pretty boring.

A free

My first day, I immediately had a free. In stage 6, so year 11 and 12, you can come later or go home earlier, but for now I went to the library to check if my laptop acces was fixed and then I read in my book, because I hadn’t had any of my classes and so I hadn’t had any homework yet. A funny thing is, in stage 6 they do not fill your timetable all the way and they leave free periods on purpose to work on big assessment tasks and also to prepare for prelims and other exams.

English

I chose English advanced rather than English standard what my buddy follows, because in advanced they are reading Shakespeare and learning about ancient reciting methods and I thought that was very interesting. We watched the last bit of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar and started reading the story. I didn’t follow at all, but I had to watch the first bit of the two and a half hour play at home. After a while, that Shakespearean English starts making more and more sense.

SLR

In this class, we do sports. There is also a subject for the theoretical side of the human body and first aid and all that, they call it PDHPE.
For the next couple of weeks, we are doing all kinds of fitness tests. I found out I’m fast, but not at all flexible.

Agriculture (aka Ag)

Now, this is a very interesting subject. The school has a farm, with sheep and chickens and crops. In my first lesson, I got to tie off the tail of the one lamb we’ve got, vaccinated her and tag her. She was very patient, she only moved when I pierced her ear. It is a very cool class! We also had to move the chickens, because they are getting a nicer building. I love chickens and I definitely loved chasing them and holding them as I walked across the fields to their new shed.

Hospitality (aka Hospo)

Unfortunately, the hospo teacher wasn’t there, but we had a fill-in teacher, so that meant we had to do theory and we didn’t have any prac. I did meet a lot of very nice people and I am very excited for our class next week.

Math

My math teacher was absent all week, except for Friday. So in that one class, she explained something and I really underestimated how difficult translating math terminology is. Like perpendicular, I had to ask what that meant… The teacher asked me to go through everything they’ve seen so far this year in math, to see what I already know and what I haven’t seen yet. It is a very large and heavy book! I’m scared…

Industrial Technology Timber (aka Woodwork)

I love woodwork. You just come in and work on your project and the teacher is there if you need any help. I need a lot of help since I’ve never done anything like this before! I really like it, I will make a box to store my letters in, because I could’ve also made a bedside table, but I fear that won’t fit in my luggage…

So school is very interesting, with a lot of topics I have never done before and I love it! I’ve already met so many wonderful people and I can’t wait to see what next week will bring!

Weekend

Saturday was a busy day. I got to sleep in and then I went to the bakery to pick up some cake. After that, we went to the Griffith War Memorial Museum, were my hostdad works as a volunteer. It is really extensive and really interesting. They have all kinds of pictures, texts, posters, clothes, videos, murals… It is very impressive!

After the museum I paid a visit to the local library, which looks very new and fancy and I also went for a coppa with my hostmom. I ordered a hot chocolate and a caramel slice and it was really good. Next, we went to the Art Gallery. There was a beautiful exhibition from a local artist and I really loved her work. She is very talented, only 20 years old and I really like her vision. We also got to look through her research before she makes her artwork and it is really impressive how much someone can write before painting.

Look at some amazing things she made:

With lunch, I had some ‘Belgian Nutella’, it really tastes like home…

I joined my hostmom when she went to choir and I loved it. There is just something about singing together, a feeling that is hard to describe. Those people come together and just simply sing. It doesn’t really matter how well you sing or how often you practice, as long as you enjoy it, you’re welcome. Next time, we will sing in a nursing home.

After choir, I changed and went to the hill run. There is a lovely local running club were people of all ages go and run on the hill. I saw someone from my English class there too. All the people are so nice and they all run together because they enjoy it. From little kids to old grandparents, everyone can join. It is a beautiful track too, I was sad I didn’t see any kangaroos just yet, maybe next week!

Sunday, we went to church and later for morning tea in the park, where I got to meet a lot of amazing people from this organisation that wants a better world for girls. They asked me to speak about my exchange experience so far and what it is like to grow up as a girl in Belgium. I am really excited, but am not quite sure yet what to talk about. I met amazing people and became really good friends with a ten-year-old, who I played a lot of tab with. It was a lovely morning.