Overseas Exchange Programme with Methodist Ladies’ College in Melbourne, Australia (26 July – 5 August 2024)
During the summer holidays, 11 of us were given the valuable opportunity to visit Methodist Ladies’ College (MLC) in Melbourne and spend 11 days with our hosts from MLC as the second part of our exchange. It has been a delightful and fruitful experience for all of us to learn about the culture of Melbourne and Australia, have lessons with MLC students, as well as explore the city and enjoy a lot of new experiences. We have all created beautiful memories through this exchange programme, and we also grew and broadened our horizons by making numerous new friends and having another taste of life in the Southern Hemisphere.
On the day of our flight, since we arrived extra early, we finalised and practised the performance song that we would be singing at MLC’s assembly. After a few laughter-filled trials, we finally got the hang of it.
After a long 8-hour flight, we finally landed in Melbourne! Despite most of us having only a few hours of sleep because of the excitement, we were all fully energised as we stepped out into the cool winter air of Australia.
Our buddies excitedly welcomed us at their school and we took a tour of their school. MLC is quite different from DGS, covering a very vast area of land with a cafeteria, boarding house and buildings for different subjects spread out on the school grounds. Greenery and various decorations were dotted in between, creating a sense of harmony among the buildings of different ages and styles.
Later, we had a tea gathering with the headmistress of MLC, where we got to enjoy sandwiches from their cafeteria and meet our hosts’ families for the first time. They warmly welcomed us with open arms and we quickly got comfortable with each other, setting off for the weekend.
Melbourne is rather different from Hong Kong, with culturally diverse residents mostly living in short houses, a busy business area with high-rise buildings and historic places known as “the city”, enormous open rolling green parks in neighbourhoods serving as the habitats for wild native Australian animals, a lot of beaches, clear skies and beautiful natural scenery. People usually travel by car, as it is more convenient than the public transport in Melbourne, unlike the efficient services provided in Hong Kong. However, our buddies gave us the opportunity to get on trams and trains, and we were fascinated by how comparatively vacant they were. We also got to experience the Myke card system and visit the historic train stations, like the Flinders Street Station.
We all visited beautiful and interesting places during the weekend, such as Melbourne Zoo, Sea Life, Lightscape, Brighton Beach and more, plunging into the fun of the city.
After an eventful weekend, we went to school with our buddies, experiencing life as a Melbourne student. At their morning assembly, we performed a well-known Cantonese song, 紅日. Despite the fact that the backing audio failed to work, the students still enjoyed our performance and clapped along to the beat, making us feel welcome.
Afterwards, we went with our buddies to their respective homerooms, where their classmates excitedly welcomed us and introduced themselves, some even eagerly asking about our lives in Hong Kong.
We attended all sorts of lessons, from subjects we have in our school like Mathematics, Science and English Literature, to some new subjects like drama, health and foreign languages. Despite sharing some similarities, learning at MLC is actually quite different from DGS. School starts at 8:20, or sometimes even at 8:50. The classrooms have a totally different look as well: while DGS has neat rows of desks and chairs for each student, MLC’s classrooms have a more comfortable and relaxed atmosphere with students sitting in groups at big tables on swivel chairs or couches, or even a bar stool for the extra tall tables. This makes it really convenient for group discussions and even strengthens the class bond as students can sit wherever they like. There is also a 5-minute buffer between lessons, as some lessons require students to go to another room in a separate building.
Despite the lessons each being an hour long, we were so immersed that we didn’t realise how time flew by as we learned about algebra, the Bayeux Tapestry, commedia dell'arte with a thick Italian accent, or even what to do during an emergency situation in the sea. Soon enough, it was lunchtime.
Unlike DGS, MLC has a cafeteria, where most students opt to go no matter if they’re bringing lunch or buying from Star Cafe, which provides a variety of food from mac-and-cheese bolognese, yoghurt, chewy cookies, sushi, pastries and more, to even milo cups, popsicle sticks and slushies!
Chatter filled the air as more and more students piled into the cafeteria, creating a sense of belonging and home as we all had lunch together and shared interesting things with friends from different classes. The other students were very eager to know us, and some even stopped by to have a short chat. I even met with my buddy from the online exchange in the previous year, and we laughed a lot watching her friends arm wrestle each other to prove that they are the strongest in their group.
Apart from attending lessons, MLC also arranged a wide variety of special activities for us exchange students to participate in, such as a cooking session to make the traditional renowned Anzac cookies, a tour of their historical boarding house, an art session about ink printing with plants, a lunch chat with their international relations prefect, and the much anticipated Wild Action presentation, which allows us to interact with native animals, from a mountain pygmy possum and wombat, to even a wallaby and koala! It was surely a one-of-a-kind experience, and the wide smiles etched on our faces revealed all.
After school, some of our buddies brought us to stroll along Glenferrie Road, which is a street lined with innumerable snack shops. Our favourite had to be a shop selling frozen yoghurt in various scrumptious unique flavours and a lot of toppings. One of the evenings, we even went back to MLC to enjoy their student musical, Annie. It was played very professionally, and the catchy songs kept lingering in our minds.
During our last weekend in Melbourne, our hosts brought us to even more places, such as the NGV, Luna Park, Dandenong Mountain, Melbourne Skydeck and more.
11 days flew past much quicker than we had expected, and soon it was time to say goodbye. After having our last class with our buddies and their homerooms, we all exchanged sad farewells and hugs with all the friends we have made during our stay. Some of them wrote sweet messages on our cardboard folders, and my buddy’s classmates even made me a paper star jar filled with well wishes from every one of them.
Cultural Exchange Programme with Convent of Holy Infant Jesus Secondary School in Singapore (13-20 July 2024)
This past summer, six of us Secondary 1 girls were chosen to participate in a valuable exchange program with the Convent of Holy Infant Jesus (CHIJ) Secondary School students in Singapore. This was the first exchange programme for every one of us so it was indeed a remarkably eye-opening experience. Over the week, we got a glimpse of what it is like to live in Singapore while staying with our respective host families and immersing ourselves in an unfamiliar culture, experiencing the dynamic city. Also, going to school with our buddies allowed us to get to know more about local Singaporean schools, which had a somewhat similar system to our school. Furthermore, we had the opportunity to meet other students from CHIJ, which was a great opportunity for us to develop long-lasting multinational friendships, enhance our communication skills with people from different countries, and help us to be nurtured as individuals.
Before the exchange, we were extremely excited and began preparing for the upcoming trip. We communicated with our friends in advance, discussed potential places to visit in Singapore, and gained a general understanding of their weekly schedules. Upon our arrival at the Singapore airport, our host families warmly welcomed us at the arrival hall, marking the beginning of our exchange experience in Singapore.
Over the weekend, we visited various attractions and tried different restaurants for food and entertainment. Each of us stopped by famous tourist spots, including the Merlion, Universal Studios, Gardens by the Bay, Orchard Road, and more. It was extraordinary to see in person what we had only heard about or seen on television. The days passed by quickly as we had an amazing time there.
One thing we realized during the trip is that the Singapore culture is quite different from the culture in Hong Kong. Singapore is a city with many different ethnic groups, consisting mainly of Chinese, Malaysian, and Indian groups. As a result, you can often hear different languages being spoken around Singapore when you walk on the streets. In addition, food in Singapore is relatively more strongly flavoured than that in Hong Kong. Singaporeans enjoy seasoned food like satay and bak kut teh which have a distinct flavor. I enjoyed tasting famous local dishes such as the Hainanese chicken rice, a dish often found in Hong Kong.
At CHIJ, assembly starts at 7:30 a.m. each day, so we had to wake up relatively earlier in the morning to get to school by 7:15 a.m. to prepare for lessons. There is a well-equipped canteen facility that our school doesn't have, providing a diverse range of culinary options, such as Japanese, Chinese, Thai, and Western delicacies. This wide variety of affordable and delicious food made it quite challenging to choose what to eat each day.
Besides the canteen, the lessons at CHIJ were also a bit different than ours. For example, they had mother tongue language lessons, where students had to learn either Chinese, Malay, or Tamil; and drama lessons, where they had to script and act out a play at the end of the year according to the topic they had chosen. Overall, I think that the lessons at CHIJ are equally enjoyable as the lessons in DGS and are a very memorable part of our exchange program.
Personally, the most unforgettable part of CHIJ for me is the people I met there. I was really nervous at first because I had no experience with foreign students from other countries and didn’t know what to expect. But to my surprise, on the first day I joined my buddy’s class, her classmates were already so welcoming and enthusiastic towards me — a newcomer and stranger. They eagerly introduced themselves and treated me with so much kindness and affability that I blended into them instantly, soon helping me get to know more about them and eventually develop friendships with a few of them.
After an eventful week full of fascinating outings, lessons at CHIJ, meeting a lot of transnational students, and developing valuable friendships in the process, our journey in Singapore came to an end.
During this trip, we experienced Singapore culture thoroughly and fully indulged ourselves when attempting something new, making the most out of whatever came our way. Thanks must be given to Mrs Lau and Mrs Lee, the headmistresses of both schools; Mrs RL Wong, the teacher in charge; and Mr K Cheung, the teacher who accompanied us during this trip, for giving us this precious, once-in-a-lifetime experience. Without their guidance and support, this trip would not have been possible. Lastly, we would also like to express our sincere gratitude to our respective buddies and host families for treating us with great warmth and hospitality throughout the entire trip, and accompanying us to explore and dive into the culture of Singapore. We look forward to our buddies’ visits to Hong Kong next year.