Scotch College

Promoting Global Understanding

Jason Bond, Year 12, was one of 10 lucky Victorian recipients of an exchange scholarship from the Society for Australian- German Student Exchange to spend ten weeks from late November 2000 until early February 2001 in the Federal Republic of Germany.

He stayed in Hamburg, Germany's second largest city, and as well as attending school and sharing in German family life, he fitted in travel to Berlin, the former East and the beautiful South.

The sponsor of his scholarship was Robert Bosch Australia. These prestigious scholarships are all sponsored by German companies with affiliates in Australia and are greatly sought after by students of German in Years 11 and 12.

Here are some excerpts from Jason's Report for the Exchange Society:

'I arrived in Hamburg and met my host brother, Frederick, and his father for the first time when I walked through the terminal gate. As we left the airport it dawned on me that now I was alone in a foreign country and speaking a foreign language. Despite this thought, I immediately felt safe and comfortable in the presence of my host family. Coming from a family with three sisters, it was great to be able to live in a family with five boys, across a wide age spectrum.

My first weekend in Germany was spent like most of my weekends in the first half of my stay. I was given guided tours of all the major tourist attractions and historical sites in and around Hamburg by an always-willing family member. In between these tours and day trips, I was treated to excellent traditional German cooking which only added to the culture experience of the exchange.

After the first weekend, I started at school with Frederick. I was a little nervous at first that my German may not be good enough, but I settled into the routine quickly and participated not only in the classes, but also in the extra-curricular activities of my host brother.

I played volleyball twice a week at the school, and even played in an inter-school tournament. I also played badminton, a sport which I had never tried before. In addition to this, I was able to involve myself in activities which did not involve my host brother, including playing with the school jazz band for two concerts. I found that this gave me greater independence and confidence to communicate in complex situations, when I had nobody to fall back on for help.

In the classes I was treated well and was frequently called upon to contribute, especially in English. As school was dismissed at 1.00 p.m., this left a lot of time for participating in the family's activities. This was the time when I learnt the most about German lifestyle and culture.

As Christmas approached, I was fascinated by the huge amount of tradition that was involved in a typical North German Christmas. Regular trips were made to the many Christmas markets, which were incredibly beautiful. Christmas decorations were made by hand and added to the candles on the fresh Christmas tree.

Each of the younger boys took great excitement in the opening of the advent calendar, and the ritualistic daily removal of the chocolate.

A few days before Christmas it began to snow, and I realised that I was going to be extremely lucky and experience an increasingly rare white Christmas. On Christmas Eve, the main day of Christmas in Germany, I realised how fond my family had become of me when I was treated just as well as all of the other boys in the family, and received gifts of equal proportion.

I travelled by train for a week to Hannover, Dresden, Nuremberg and Munich, with day trips to Salzburg in Austria, where we saw the wonderful scenery from Sound of Music, and Füssen, where we saw the awesome Neuschwanstein Castle. During this travel I not only saw some of the most famous sites of Germany and Europe, but also negotiated the German train system and found out that German trains are incredibly punctual.'