It's getting Wet 'n' Wild

Sunday, 6th April
written by Marcel Schnieber

Today me, Lukas, Linus, Shadi, Bill, Duncan and Jessica went to the “Wet ’n’ Wild” waterpark at 10 am. The Wet ’n’ Wild waterpark has a big choice of water rollercoasters. First we tested an eight-meter free fall rollercoaster, which is very intense because of its speed. Today many people visited the waterpark; we had to wait a long time for every attraction. After 2 hours I met my favorite: “The Black Hole”, it’s completely dark and full of curves and little loopings. Furthermore it has a nice speed and it’s also pretty long.

At 2 pm it suddenly began to rain as we finished all the attractions of Wet ’n’ Wild, which was pretty lucky. So we went to Bill’s house and played a lot of games like football, basketball and tennis and we also ordered some pizza. At last we played a long game of poker. Well, I was the first one who lost and Linus was the winner. 

So at 6 pm Linus, Shadi, Jessica and Duncan went home and a wonderful day in Australia was over.

First day in the holidays

Saturday, 5th April 2014
written by Tim Gymnich

My first day in the holidays started with a traditional Australien breakie. We had bacon and eggs on toast. After having breakfast, my host family and I prepared for the beach. We put the beach gear and the surfboards in the car. On our way to Greenmount Beach they showed me Burleigh Heads. We took the scenic route so I saw lots of nice beaches and places on the Gold Coast. At the beach I tried surfing but I didn't do very well as it is very difficult to catch the wave and then stand up. After I tried surfing, my billet and I went swimming. When we were done we stepped back into the car and went to New South Wales to see the Captain Cook Memorial overlooking Duranbah Beach. The memorial was just on the border between Queensland and New South Wales. Here they have a system that pumps sand to every beach on the Gold Coast through pipelines. After this short stop we drove back to Mermaid Beach and we got ourselves some pies at the bakery. I had a chunky steak pie which was delightful and also the first pie of my life. In the afternoon we played xbox. For dinner we had chicken and rice. After having lunch we watched a movie on TV and afterwards I went to bed. I am really enjoying my time in Australia and am excited for the rest of our time here.

Tim Giving his Welcome Speech

After having officially been welcomed by the students of Somerset College, Tim gives his impressive welcome speech at assembly 

NB [Dwertmann] I have to apologize for the bad sound quality. If possible, you may use speakers or headphones or simply read the following transcript of the speech,  

"Good Morning, 

my name is Tim and I am from Comenius-Gymnasium in Germany. We arrived in Brisbane yesterday morning at 7 am. After 22 hours of flying we were very exhausted but very excited to meet our billets (= Austauschpartner) at Somerset College. After a tour of the school we had our first lesson of the day and even though we were very tired we managed to learn a lot about Australian schooling. I am very excited for my time in Australia, especially for our time at the Gold Coast. And thank you very much to the teachers and parents who had made this trip possible."

- Tim Gymnich, Comenius-Gymnasium Düsseldorf (At assembly  at Somerset College, Mudgeeraba, Australia)

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.