Australien zu Gast am MGF
Gast-Schüler in Meagan Hyde berichtet
Immer wieder haben wir Schülerinnen und Schüler zu Gast am MGF – aus aller Welt. Sie besuchen meist ihre Further Gastschüler über mehrere Wochen. In einer losen Serie berichten sie hier über ihre Erlebnisse in Deutschland. Heute: Meagen Hyde aus Australien:
When I first got off the plane at Munich, it felt very surreal that I was in Germany but that feeling was shared throughout the other Australian exchange students. The first impressions of Germany I had were that it was a beautiful place, the buildings are so colourful, tall and have a timeless vibe to them, the nature landscapes are very green with trees having an autumn colour palette to them, and that being faced with the German language was very overwhelming.
When I met with my host family and we walked to their car to leave, my natural instinct was to head to the front passenger seat which in Australia is the front left seat, but then was told that was the driver’s side and to head to the other side of the car. Another thing I noticed about driving is that you're driving on the wrong side, as Australians drive on the left side of the road.
The first stop before heading to my new home for two months was Landshut, where once again, colourful, tall buildings were everywhere. While browsing through the different stores, I noticed that people would bring their dogs inside with them, which in Australia is not a common thing to do (unless it’s a guide dog, I think) as we would normally leave our dogs outside the shop. It was also hard not to grab items of clothing and purchase them as I have very limited room in my suitcase for more clothes. After looking around shops for a while, we had dinner at a burger place which was my first time trying a burger but I didn’t have much of it as I didn’t have a big appetite at the time. But after that, we went home.
In my hometown, Lameroo, there are only a few two-storey houses and many one-storey houses. In Germany, it is definitely the opposite, but I have always wanted to live in a two-storey house. The first impressions of the house were that the doors seem like they don’t close properly, the light switches are shaped in squares, bed pillows are also squared and since the floors were wooden, it can be very slippery when walking around in socks (but luckily, I have only slipped once).
Soon, the first day of school was approaching and having knowledge that there's no school uniform (whereas at my school, there is a school uniform), it was fun to try and decide what to wear, keeping the temperature in mind. Surprisingly, I haven't found it too cold even though the temperature is in single figures, but then again, I’m mostly indoors and wear thermal clothing. Another thing I noticed was that the walk to the bus stop was very long and very unlike the distance to mine (as my bus-stop is at the front of my house and I get picked up from a school bus, not a public bus). My friend jokes that I will be very fit when I come home from walking to and from the bus stop, and walking up and down stairs. Once again, the language barrier was very overwhelming when attending lessons apart from English and English Communication.
The first impressions of the school was that in comparison to my school, it is way bigger with more then one-storey, the school as a cafeteria whilst my school has a very small canteen (a mini cafeteria), there are way more students than my school as it only has almost 200 and is a kindergarten through to Year 12 school, hallways can get crowded, classrooms still have blackboards while my school has whiteboards, this school has vending machines in the corridor and a coffee machine while my school does not have that pleasure.
The first couple weeks have been okay, although I still struggle with the language barrier in certain lessons. I am always looking for a chance to make new friends and to improve my German ability, so I am always around the school somewhere and ready for a chat.
Text/Fotos: Meagan Hyde
