Hear from Ada and Amelia about their time spent in Australia. Both girls attended Methodist Ladies’ College in Melbourne.
During the summer, we went to Australia for our global schools’ exchange for 3 and a half weeks. In total, the journey took around 25 hours to get into Melbourne!
School life
The first week of school was great! We went to school by tram every day and going to a day school where everyone lived in the city was very different from Downe.
Ada – We were offered a whole range of classes and some of my favourite classes included Law and Food Technology. During our Food Tech lessons, we worked in a restaurant where we made our own dishes and served them while the waitresses came and got our orders.
Throughout our time in Melbourne, our buddies were preparing for their school musical which was Legally Blonde.
Amelia – My buddy, Kaylene, performed in the music corte and I helped backstage with hair and makeup.
We also were offered a tour around their sole boarding house which was super interesting as they are predominately a day school. The house layout was very similar to many of the houses here and they had large outside seating areas for the hot weather. The Housemistress there had previously worked in AGS at Downe House so it was nice to hear the differences between the two.
School finished at around 3pm allowing the boarders to visit a road called ‘Glenferie’ full of restaurants, cinemas and shops until check in.
First weekend
Ada – On Saturday my buddy, Annabelle, and I went to an Australian Football Match which they call footy. We went to the MCG stadium which holds a capacity of 100,000 people which was an amazing experience. On Sunday we went to Luna Park and explored St Kilda beach in Melbourne.
Amelia – The start of my weekend was spent in Melbourne CBD where Kaylene’s family and I went down AC/DC lane and saw some amazing street art. We also visited Queen Victoria Market which contained lots of souvenirs and some amazing warm jam donuts! Later, we also investigated St Kilda’s beach and Luna Park. On Sunday we went on a 10km walk along Mornington Peninsula where we were surrounded by stunning views and World War II memorials. This was followed by fish and chips where I tried shark for the first time!
Second weekend
Ada – I went to watch the musical, Legally Blonde, on Friday night. Then on Saturday, I went to my second Australian Football match with Annabelle and one of my friends from school. On Sunday, we went to a golf course to see wild kangaroos, did babysitting duty, watched the new Barbie film and went out to dinner with friends.
Amelia – On Saturday I also attended a footy match, Essendon vs Sydney and unfortunately Essendon, the Melbourne team, lost! We also went to the Melbourne sky deck, the tallest building in Melbourne, the views were outstanding. On Sunday we went to Sovereign Hill, this was where the gold rush took place. We saw old fashioned sweets being made and tried to find specks of gold with pans. My buddy and I also watched Barbie and tried the ‘Barbie Burger’ which was completely pink including the bun!
Third weekend
Ada – During our last weekend, I travelled the Great Ocean Road which was an amazing experience! While we were there we did ziplining in a forest, it was fantastic!
Amelia – For our last few days, I took a weekend trip to Phillip Island to see natural penguins come out from the sea to their resting place on the beach. The penguins were very cute and waddled next to us and we saw stunning views of the coastline.
We would like to say a huge thank you to Ms Akhtar, Mrs Adams and Miss West for making this possible.
I learnt to push myself out of my comfort zone and to make new friends, I also learnt to embrace every opportunity. It helped me build my confidence and learn all about the differences between the two schools and cultures.
– Amelia
Find out more about the Global Schools’ Exchange Programme here.
