On 29^th April, 2014, twelve Indian Girls from JB Petit High School for Girls came to DGS as exchange students. I was one of the buddies receiving the 12 girls and it was an extremely fun and meaningful experience.

At first, when I was informed that I was chosen as a buddy, I was really excited because I had had no such experience; but I was also nervous because I had no idea what I was supposed to do! Before their visit, I was really afraid that I would have nothing to talk about with my buddy and it would be really awkward, but the emails we sent to each other before the actual visit helped us know a lot more about each other.

On the first day she came to DGS, it was not as awkward  as I imagined it  would be; instead  we got along pretty  well! Then,  there were icebreaking games like dodgeball -- We had lots of fun and we learned about Indian games as well! I didn’t have to take her out for lunch as the teachers had organised a lunch for all of the 12 Indian girls at a Chinese restaurant. The first day was wonderful, way more fun and not at all awkward like I had imagined.

On the third day, we went to the Langham  Place and the Ladies’  Market in Mong Kok after school to shop. The Indian girls bought a lot of stuff and us DGS girls had fun just looking at stuff while laughing and joking with them. We had a blast shopping. I think that all of us were happy, especially  the Indian girls.  They  kept searching for Hong Kong related products.

On the last day, all the Indian girls performed an Indian dance during morning assembly.  I was  really impressed  by their performance  and I believe most  of the audience  were too as  they applauded loudly after the performance. Then  it  was  time for  the goodbyes,  as they were leaving for Disneyland. It was hard to believe that five days had passed so quickly, but it was already enough time to bond closely with my Indian buddy. I felt sad that they were leaving so soon and I knew I was going to miss them badly.

Time passed really quickly for me. I really enjoyed taking my buddy to lessons, especially to the first Chinese lesson. She was really fascinated by the Chinese characters and I taught her how to write ‘how are you’ in Chinese (nihao). In exchange she taught me some Hindi words which were really hard!

If I could join the exchange program again next time, I would definitely sign up as a buddy! 

By Cleo Chan 2W