School in Australia is quite different compared to schools in Switzerland. First of all the students call their teachers Sir and Miss. I like to call them Sir and Miss, it’s kinda cool. \ud83d\ude09 As you probably all know already we have to wear a school uniform, as everywhere in Australia, and the teachers try to seem very strict about not wearing any jewellery, having your hair tied up etc., but most of the students don’t really care, they wear nail polish and jewellery and some also leave their hair untied (including me). I don’t understand why the teachers still try to go on about it if no-one listens to them anyway.. But otherwise there aren’t many rules, they’re just very strict with the school uniform. As everybody also can choose their own subjects I am with different people in every class, which actually is quite good but makes it more difficult to find friends.. I haven’t got that much to do with the other exchange students anymore, instead I usually sit with a group of Australians during Morning Tea and Lunch. They all seem very nice, but I suppose it will take a while until I’ve lived in here fully and start doing stuff with them. The English classes here aren’t at all like the German lessons in Switzerland either. Recently we had to write a Short Story and at the moment we’re reading a play. I don’t think we’ve done anything else since I came here.. In almost all my classes there are other exchange students. In Music there are 3, in Physics 1, in English 1, in French 5 and in Dance also a few. Only in Maths I’m by myself, but I don’t mind at all. \u00a0The French lessons aren’t that easy as I expected.. Of course a lot easier than at home in Switzerland, but our French teacher here is really good at French (she’s originally from Wales). But the English of the three Australians who we have French with together sounds quite funny, it sounds like Frenglish in my ears.. Their system with exams here in Australia is very different to the one in Switzerland. They mostly work with assignments. Assignments are projects which you have to hand in by a given date, then they get corrected and then you have to hand in the final copy of the assignment before they get marked. The Short Story in English we had to write for example was an assignment. They also have a few exams (I haven’t had any yet), but faar less than in Switzerland! Instead we have two exam weeks in the last two weeks of every half-year for which we only have to come to school to write the exams. I’m looking forward to that (not having to go to school) but also am a bit worried.. Luckily my marks here don’t count for Switzerland! Then.. in the Music lessons we don’t do a lot either. We came at a time where the other students had started with their assignment writing a composition already, so we didn’t have to do that, lucky us! We have done a little bit of theory, but I don’t understand anything, so there’s no idea trying to explain. But the next assignment will be choosing an Australian song (it can be pop, rock, hard rock,.. whatever) and then performing it. I really don’t like the idea of me having to borrow a violin just for that occasion and performing a song in front of everyone.. \u00a0Fortunately we can performe it in groups, so I’ll be doing it with two other girls from Germany who play the piano and the guitar. In Dance we haven’t danced at all this term.. \ud83d\ude41 Am quite disappointed because I miss dancing so much! We’ve only watched some weird contemporary dances on TV which we had to analyse. But she said now that the exam is over we’ll be focusing on dancing more. Physics is still the hardest subject of them all because there are a lot of words I don’t understand. Last week we went to Willowbank to some car racing training area.. It was quite interesting actually, partly. But as everybody has driven a car here more than once before and maybe even have their own car almost everybody knows a lot more than me about cars. \u00a0So for me it all seemed very complicated, but I don’t think that’s a big problem at the moment, at the latest in the exams in November, but that’s faar away.. At the moment we’re working on our assignment. We have to create a broschure about Road Safety and Improved Roads. I’ve already written down quite a lot of good ideas, but the draft due is already next week and I have no idea how and where I should start.. Maths is a lot easier than in Switzerland aswell. I think the easier part is that they move forward much slower and they practise a lot on one topic, good for me! At the moment our topic is Rates of Change. Don’t ask me what that’s supposed to mean. What was quite confusing in Maths in the beginning was that they write the 1 and the 7 differently.. But I’ve got used to it by now. They also write the : differently, with a line between the two dots, but also that I’ve got used to. The teacher usually begins a new topic with us and shows how it’s done in the front on the board and after that we can solve heaps of exercises individually. Everybody reckons that all my work is so neat and tidy, not like theirs.. I’ve noticed that their apparent laziness and “take-it-easy-ness” also gets represented in the way they work and think. But there’s one exception: their writing. Every handwriting from every girl I’ve seen so far is soo neat and tidy! They write quite slowly, but very, very nicely. No wonder they think my handwriting is “so cool” and “never before seen”.. Another interesting thing is that students, if they want to, can quit school in year 10 and start working. Otherwise they graduate after year 12 and then some start working and the others go to university, which is a lot more expensive here I’ve heard.. Bad for me, then I can’t take any advantage of my “International Baccalaureate” and go and study in Australia.. Never mind, I’ll move here anyway, one day. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n
After school, which finishes either at 2.40 p.m or at 3.15 p.m most of the students go home and do homework or just relax. Some go to the shops, out for dinner or to the movies in the evening aswell. I usually go directly home after school and then don’t go out anymore that day. Up to now I haven’t done that much with friends on weekends, but I hope that will soon change. But it’s also quite hard to find time to do something with them because very many work on the weekend. If we do something it’s mostly going out for dinner, going shopping, going to the cinemas or visiting one of the 4 theme parks. By the way, I’ve applied for a few part-time jobs now aswell, but haven’t got any responses yet. Keep your fingers crossed, I really need a job so I can afford all my shopping habbits!<\/p>\n
Mmh.. what more could I tell you about Australia? Oh yeah, Australians usually greet each other either with a hand shake, a hug or 1 (not 3) kiss on the cheek. I would also say that the music taste of the younger people (in my age) is similar to the music taste they have in Switzerland. I haven’t noticed any differences in fashion yet either, except that everybody seems to be very fashionable here and always wear nice clothes (I’m not saying that the Swiss people aren’t fashionable, but in my opinion the Australians are more interested in fashion, maybe because they wear uniform most of the time?). They also get dressed up very nicely on occasions, even if it’s only a birthday dinner. Lucky we have to wear school uniform! \ud83d\ude1b A lot of my friends have also not been overseas, but if then mostly only to America or New Zealand. A few have been to Europe (including Switzerland!), but I wouldn’t say that less Australians travel to Europa than Swiss people travel to Australia. But I’ve heard from a few who have asked where I’m from: “Ooh, I love Lindt chocolate!”, “Wow, do you live in a little wooden chalet in the snowy mountains?” or “Where do you live?” – “About an hour away from Lucerne.” – “Ah, I’ve been to Lucerne, the city is soo beautiful!”.<\/p>\n
So you see, they also are a bit jealous of the people who live in Switzerland and not only love Australia because they have the kangoroos, koalas and the most beautiful beaches in the world.. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n
But now it’s time for lunch! I’ll go and have a look what I can find in the fridge..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
School in Australia is quite different compared to schools in Switzerland. First of all the students call their teachers Sir and Miss. I like to call them Sir and Miss, it’s kinda cool. \ud83d\ude09 As you probably all know already we have to wear a school uniform, as everywhere in Australia, and the teachers try […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/katrin.finz.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/katrin.finz.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/katrin.finz.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/katrin.finz.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/katrin.finz.ch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=437"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/katrin.finz.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":445,"href":"https:\/\/katrin.finz.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437\/revisions\/445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/katrin.finz.ch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/katrin.finz.ch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/katrin.finz.ch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}