While at university, I am fortunate enough to receive a 4 week semester break throughout June and July. This year, I decided to travel back to Flensburg to visit my school friends and host families whom I met while I was a Rotary Youth Exchange student in 2014. Ever since arriving back in Australia, returning… Read More Leaving Home to Return Home
Two thousand and fifteen was a year of adjustment. Upon returning from my 12 month exchange, I was disorientated and unsure as to how the year would pan out. As I reflect on the past year, I’m pleasantly surprised by all that has occurred. It was a roller coaster which I had never been on before. Returning… Read More Two Thousand and Fifteen
I will never be able to sum up my entire year in a video in just over three minutes, but this is my attempt at doing so. I was pleasantly surprised at how well this video came together, and that I had actually filmed enough footage to last the duration of the background track; particularly,… Read More Documenting a Year
There are many various adjectives which I could use to describe the past year, but I’m at a loss. There is simply no way that I could begin to accurately describe the year that has been, and all that has taken place and then changed in a thousand different ways. I am speechless. All I… Read More Two Thousand and Fourteen
Yesterday I went sailing in Germany for the first time. I’ve wanted to do this for a long time, pretty much as soon as I found out that I would be living in Flensburg. A week ago I moved to my third host family, and I now have two younger host brothers who both sail… Read More Last days of Summer
During July I had the privilege of celebrating my 17th birthday on the island of Sylt with my second host family. Celebrating first began at the stroke of midnight with cake and singing. One other good reason to celebrate was that just a few hours earlier, my host sister had unexpectedly returned from her exchange… Read More Celebrating on Sylt
Once the new week arrived, it had already left again very quickly. Everything was all very routine, with the normal activities taking place, including school during the day, and Deutschkurs in the evenings. I attended the weekly Monday Rotary meeting, which was another casual occasion and consisted of a hot meal and a chance to… Read More Unter der Woche #6
The 10th of March marks Canberra Day in Australia, the annual day to celebrate the birth of Canberra as Australia’s Capital and commemorates the day it was named by Lady Denman, wife of the Governor General at the time. I celebrated in Flensburg by wearing my Canberra Day T-shirt which was released for Canberra’s 100th… Read More Unter der Woche #5
I wasn’t required to attend my weekly Rotary meeting on Monday, which consisted of a normal school day until 1 o’clock. I walked to the central bus station with Sara after school, where we waited for her bus together. I then met with the other Flensburg Rotary exchange students in the Galerie (Flensburg’s main indoor… Read More Unter der Woche #4
On Monday the 24th February, I attended the usual weekly lunchtime Rotary meeting. This week brought a more casual event, with no formalities. I and the Rotarians sat together and shared conversation over a hot meal. In the evening, a more formal dinner was held, and I attended along with the other exchange students. We… Read More Unter der Woche #3
