Student Exchange to Brisbane, Australia

I have just returned from a trip to Brisbane in Queensland, Australia. It was a very memorable trip which lasted 8 days and was a real eye-opener for me in several ways. First of all, this was my first time taking a plane and it was a very exciting experience to me. At first, I thought, because of the influences from many of my friends, that I would surely be sick and want to retch. However, it was very normal and I did not feel sick in any way. Furthermore, there were miniature TV screens on the back of each seat. Therefore, we could watch movies on the screen on the back of the seat in front of us. So the flight was relaxing and enjoyable.

Secondly, the school which we were visiting, Citipointe Christian College, worked entirely differently compared to Hwa Chong Institution. Lessons started at 8.45 and ended at 3.20. The timetable went like this: One and a half hours of lessons, morning tea, one and a half hours of lessons, lunch, then lessons all the way until 3.20.

One thing which I noticed was that the school was very relaxed and did not emphasize on studies and degrees and good jobs even half that of Singapore schools. Instead, it emphasized on Christianity and free will i.e whatever the student wanted. I really envied the fact that they had no CCAs!! That was really sticking the knife in and twisting it. Why, the school ended at 3.20 and was nearly emptied by 3.45 while Hwa Chong ended school at 1.30 and was not even emptied by 5 because of all the CCAs!

I really enjoyed the homestay. The hosts were warm and very kind and made me and my homestay buddy, Brandon, feel very at home. They also had 2 young kids, Rachel and
Benjamin, who were in Primary 4 and 2 respectively. They were 2 really mischievous, sweet kids and we had tons on fun joining in their ridiculous games. The food there was really appropriate, appealing and suiting to our tastes and very quickly, I was really looking forward to meal-time.

Another thing which really changed was the sun. It was really bright around 6 in the morning, which naturally became the time we woke up, and set around 7, really early. I was shocked when I realized that the kids slept at 8.30 and the parents at 10!! 10 o'clock in Singapore was extremely early. An early night for me was sleeping at half-past 10 and my parents sleep around 1. Therefore, there was a real change in our sleeping schedules.

I also really enjoyed the excursions we had, to the Australian Outback, Zoo and Movie World which was a really great themepark with the theme of cartoons like Looney Tunes. I had so much fun there and I hope I can go back there again.