High School in Australien

Amelie - Queensland, Sunshine Coast, Sunshine Beach State High School

G’day and hello to everyone!
 
My name is Amelie, I’m 15 years old and I currently live in Australia at the Sunshine Coast. I am here for 6 months from July to December. I go to the Sunshine Beach State High School in Noosa which is in the north of the Sunshine Coast. My school has about 1.400 children from grade 7 to 12. I am in grade 10, which is the last grade of junior. My school has around 45 international students and most of them are German, which is not always great but it’s fine. We just had to convince us to talk English together and now it is working although it was a bit weird at the start.
 
I have seven subjects and I could choose 4 of them. I must do maths and I do maths extension, which is a bit harder than general maths, English and Career Education and I chose Hospitality, Drama, Film and Tv and HPE. In hospitality we cook once a week always something different and we can take it home or eat it in the break.  It’s one of my favourite subjects and much fun!
 
In film and TV we are now making our own documentary and I’m really excited for this. My school starts at 8.50 in the morning and it finishes at 2.50 p.m.
 
After school we usually go to the beach, surfing or eat something. On Tuesdays I usually play tennis with my friend because we have tennis courts next to the school. On Wednesdays I have choir after school. My school also has a music excellence program which is perfect for students who love music like me. I have singing lessons one a week and music lessons in an ensemble because I play the flute and I really love it.
 
My school also offers a surfing excellence program, but it is only for the advanced students. Me and my friends also try to surf, and it is a lot of fun! We usually go surfing on the weekends and if the weather is good we spend the whole weekend at the beach.

We also have a national park in Noosa with awesome beaches and views over Noosa with clear water and many nice spots. If you are lucky you can see koalas, snakes, turtles and dolphins in the national park.
 
My school offers many different things and trips for international students. In the first term they organised a trip to the Australia zoo, to the sea life and Fraser island for a weekend for us. In the second term we have a trip to Sydney for 3 days and I think they give us a great opportunity to see more from Australia. Of course, you must pay extra but the money is definitely worth it.
 
In the spring holidays I went on a trip trough the outback and it was one of the best trips of my life! We were camping for 2 weeks from Adelaide up to Darwin and we saw so many great and unforgettable things. We visited Kings canyon, Uluru, different waterfalls, thermal pools, we saw crocodiles, snakes, visited a big Salt Lake, learned about the aboriginal culture and their paintings and went to Adelaide, Alice Springs and Darwin and slept under the stars on a cattle farm. After the two weeks we might be exhausted but also completely happy that we had the opportunity to do this unforgettable trip!

I live in a host family here and my family is just great! It felt like home from the first second and I never thought about changing my host family. My family is very big here, compared to Germany, where I don’t have any siblings. I have a host dad and a host mum and 5 host siblings. My host dad has 3 girls and my host mum 2 boys. The girls are 12, 15 and 18 and the boys 13 and 17. I really like my host siblings and it never gets boring. We also laugh very much together and my host parents try to help me with as much as they can, and they are very caring. That is probably also a reason why I’ve never been homesick in my whole time here. Of course, there are days where you don’t feel good or uncomfortable, but I never wanted to go home. As well, not everything is perfect and there are also bad situations and days, but you learn how to deal with them and you should just try to make the best out of everything! For example, in my first maths lesson I stood up when the teacher ended the lesson and I was about to walk out of the room, just as I was used to it from Germany. But when I was almost at the door I turned around and saw everybody standing behind their chairs. So I realized to better go all the way back to my chair and wait till the teacher said that e can go. This situation was very embarrassing for me at the start, but now I can laugh about it.
 
I skype with my parents every Sunday and I think this is a good way to stay in contact with your family but don’t have too much contact, because you should enjoy your time here!

Amelie, Germany