Holidays are about to come

Friday, 4th April 2014

written by Jennifer Bienemann

The 4th April was the last day of school before the holidays. It had been a

normal school day until lunch break. The normal school included the roll up

and briefing with our teachers at 8:20am, afterwards we had to sign in for

class at senior services hub because we were late for our first period

which had been Englisch, since it had been the last day before holidays we

only played a few games, for example a kind of Stadt-Land-Fluss.

After that we had math where the class had to write a test and I was just

reading my book. I was glad when we had recess, we sat down at the ground,

ate and chatted.

Humanities followed the relaxing break (recess) and the class had to do group work

about the steam engine. Normally we would have had lunch break then but instead

of lunch break we were taking the busses to a tennis court and had a

competition against another school. I couldn't play so I relaxed a bit with

another German exchange student, Anastasia.

After the game we got back to school and everyone had to clean out all the

stuff from their lockers and since holidays are about to come, everyone was in a

good mood.

When we got home we had afternoon tea and chilled. When my exchange student

Sarah and her sister had to go back to school for their dancing lessons, I

stayed home with their dad and watched television and went for a run on the

treadmill.

After that we had dinner and watched some movies.

All in all it was a normal school day and a lazy afternoon for me (which I

really needed after this nice but busy week...)

I guess everyone is glad and thankful for the holidays now, therefore I

wish the Australians nice holidays and all my school mates and the teachers

in Germany a nice week at school and of course a nice Easter break.

Yours, Jenny

Some impressions from school

Activity Day

Thursday, 3rd April, 2014

written by Lukas Multhaup

Today was our fourth day at school, but we didn't go to class with our exchange students. Instead, all the German students did something together.

First, the geography teacher told us about the dangers of swimming in the sea. When a wave breaks and you are under it, much water will fall on you. Some waves are powerful enough to hit you badly. If you are under a breaking wave, you have to dive, so it cannot hit you. The waves bring a lot of water to the beach. Between the waves, there are areas where the water flows back to the sea. These areas are called "rips". 

If you get into a rip, you will be dragged away from beach. You have to swim to the side to escape from it. He showed us many pictures of rips, because he wanted us to be able to recognize them and know, where they are. But normally, they will be marked by flags on the beach anyway.

After that we went to the rock-climbing area. We were divided into two groups. While one group did rock-climbing, the other group could play basketball or do something else. Everybody could climb three times and had to safe somebody else when he was climbing.

After we did rock-climbing, we went to the pool to go swimming. Some people were taking photos in the water, some people played "water-rugby" and some people were just lying in the sun.

Then we went to a classroom and watched the film "rabbit-proof fence". The movie is about three aboriginal children, who are taken away from their family by the while people in 1913 and try to get home. 

At 5:00 pm, the grandson of an aborigine told us something about their culture. He showed us some tools and weapons, which were used by the aborigines and taught us some words in one of the aboriginal languages. He also told us how to use a boomerang and we could try it on the rugby field.

The Outback Experience

Wednesday, 2nd April, 2014

written by Ruben Mommer

Today its Wednesday. The second school day. Today most of the students came with pink clothes to school in commemoration of the people suffering from breast cancer. The first lesson was History and the students had to write a test. We were sitting there and had to be quiet. The second lesson was German. We talked about our cities but in the middle of it we were interrupted by a fire drill. All students had to go to the hockey pitch in front of the school. They had to sit on the ground according to their grades. We were waiting for a few minutes there. After that we had lunch and we ate something.

Afterwards we had assembly in the assembly hall. There was a guy from the organisation "Pink Polar" and he broke the record for the fastest crossing of the Antarctica. He showed us some videos and told us about some facts you had to know when you want to live your dream. At 3:20 pm school finished and we got home by bus. Me and my homemate went to the beach and we jogged a bit.

At 6.45 pm all Germans and their exchange students met at a place called "Outback Spectecular".This was a show where we got something to eat and watched a horseshow. For dinner we got some salad wrapped in bread, BBQ with mashed potatoes and vegetables and at the end a big Pavlova, a sweet Australien dessert. The horseshow was about a young horse which was trained by a young guy. The horse was called Phar Lap, won races and was loved by the people . It died by a mystery. After that we got home and went to bed.

The Arrival

Sunday, 30th March 2014
written by Anna Huge & Carolin Gruben

6pm - meeting at Düsseldorf international airport. We said good-bye to our family and went to the check-in. We finally got on the plane from Düsseldorf to Dubai. We flew about 6 hours and despite some turbulences we arrived save and sound at the airport at 6 am. We stayed there for four hours and used the time to sleep and relax. We boarded our second flight to Brisbane at 10am. After getting on the plane we waited for another hour.

We arrived at Brisbane International Airport at 6.30am and the bus took us directly to Somerset College where we met our exchange students. After we were given a tour around the campus we had sandwiches for lunch. Then we had our first class and some of us even had sports in the afternoon. After school we went home with our host families - we're sure most of us went directly to bed because we were so exhausted from the trip.

April Fool's Day

Tuesday, 1st April 2014 (April Fool's Day)

written by Cattariena Bernada Frei

Today is Tuesday, our first complete school day at Somerset. At 8:20 we all met in a room at the Year 12 Common Room with our class mates and their exchange students. We had the opportunity to stay there while our exchange students were having class, if we were jetlagged, but I went with my exchange student Rosie. She is in ninth grade. At first we had P.E. (physical education), in Germany its sport and we were doing yoga. Afterwards we had science and the students got the task sheet for their scientific inquiry assignment. Then at 10:40 am there was a 20 minute break. My third lesson was Design Technology. The students had to make a plan for designing a wooden whistle. Some used laptops from the school and some their own. Then we had Lunch. Every student has a card to buy food and we also got one for this week. So I bought water and some curry. We also had the opportunity to buy cold food, like sandwiches and also pasta. Afterwards was an assembly, where all students from grade 7-12 had to meet and were informed about exams, camps and about us German exchange students. My last 2 lessons were English and maths. In English my exchange class read a book called “The Outsiders” and in Math the NAPLAN practice paper was done, which Australian students always have to take when they are in 3^rd ,5^th ,7^th or 9^th grade. 

At 15:20 school ends normally, but some students still have activities afterwards. Today, my exchange student didn’t so we were picked up and drove home. At about 6 pm we came back to school to go and see a theatre performed by grade 12 students. It was really interesting. Now it’s about 9 pm and I think most of us will go to sleep soon.

Cattariena Frei

The official Australia 2014 Theme: Kygo Remix

Ms Wegner seems to have taken an earlier flight to Australia...already there lying at the beach ;-)