German Exchange

Towards the end of term 3, just as the school was getting ready to wrap up exams and settle in for a relaxing holiday, fifteen students from the year 10 and 11 German classes, Ms Reynolds and Mr Morrison packed their bags and headed out to Sydney Airport International Departures to embark on a two-week exchange and cultural immersion trip to Berlin and Munich. Several months prior, most students had connected with a German penpal from the Georg-Büchner Gymnasium in Berlin, getting to know each other, talking about German and Australian schools, planning out activities.

After a 23-hour flight, we landed at the Berlin airport, already excitedly pointing at German street signs and billboards that we could understand. The waiting shuttle bus took us through the city, pulling up outside the school with a crowd of host-students and parents waiting outside to greet us. We later learnt that they had been waiting for nearly 40 minutes, and had already held up a “Wilkommen in Berlin!” banner to several other buses. We split up, finding our host families, who took us off to their respective homes for a much needed rest. Everybody was so friendly and welcoming, we felt very grateful to be so lucky and quickly became comfortable within the families.

Over the next several days, we attended some lessons at the school, went on walking tours around the city, constantly checked to make sure Mr Morrison was on the bus, and visited many fascinating museums, learning a lot about Berlin’s history and the beautiful city itself. Lots particularly enjoyed the Stasi museum, which taught about a part of East Berlin’s history that some of us knew next to nothing about. After those days of sightseeing, we split back up into our host families and enjoyed nearly a week with them. The families, as well as being lovely and hospitable, took the time to take us around the city, outside of it to Potsdam and Schloss Sansouci, the Wannsee, and Dresden, as well as other interesting places such as the Jewish museum, ice hockey games and the Olympic stadium. Some of us visited the Berlin Oktoberfest, singing and dancing to traditional German songs. We drank Apfelschorle and ate Wurst, and I believe we had a truly German experience with a perfect mix of sightseeing and getting to see real people’s lives.

We also, of course, had the great opportunity to exercise our brains, speaking as much German as possible, and learning new words, expressions and tongue twisters.

With teary eyes (partially from a lack of sleep but mainly because we were sorry to go), we packed up and headed out to the train station with our host-families to say our final goodbyes and make our way to Munich. A few of us got a head start and hugged and cried as we waved our new friends goodbye, only to find out that the train that had pulled up was not in fact heading to Munich, and we still had another 30 minutes to waste. We finally boarded the train and watched Berlin roll away from us as our exchange partners ran alongside the train to see us off. It took almost four hours to arrive in Munich and we were immediately treated to a tour guide of Marienplatz before settling in to the youth hostel.

The next day was by far the all-time favourite; a trip to the Zugspitze. We started the day frantically checking weather reports and adding layers upon layers of clothing to protect our fragile, Australian temperaments. The scenery on the train was absolutely breathtaking but nothing could match the end result; seeing snow (something our little Australian hearts hadn’t even considered!) We spent hours rolling around the snow and engaging in valiant battles with snow balls as our weapons and snow men as our soldiers (and collateral damage.) Unfortunately the actual peak was shrouded in a blanket of fog, so we all headed back to the cafe for a hot chocolate and strudel.

We took another day trip to Salzburg, Austria and explored medieval fortresses before heading home in the rain to prepare for our last day in Germany. We headed out with partially packed bags to the Allianz Arena, a highlight for the soccer fans in our group, to tour the stands, lockers and press rooms. Upon a group discussion, we decided to bypass the BMW Museum in favour for the Alte Pinothek; an art museum including Van Gogh, Klimt and works from the 13th century!

We woke up bright and early on our final Friday to journey yet again to International Departures and reunite with our families in Sydney, with new friends and improved language skills.

Ivy Johnston and Bridget Gard, Year 11