Article from Sydney
Morning Herald, November 27 2004
What a chap needs on a
pig-slaughtering
trombone mission far from home
By Richard Glover, parent of a SAGSE scholarship recipient
We're in Kmart, the four of us. We refuse to let our anxiety show, even though Batboy is about to leave. He'll be gone for 2 months: overseas, on student exchange. Aside from a week at school camp, it's his first time away.
His younger brother thinks it's funny as he watches us pick through the store, buying final supplies. "Our little boy is all grown up," he mocks, using a faux-American accent. "Oh, I'm so proud."
We all ignore him. This is no joking matter.
"What you really need," Jocasta tells Batboy, "is a ChapStick. You can put it on your lips so they don't crack with the cold."
Batboy says he doesn't need a ChapStick, but Jocasta seems very focused on the idea. "I really think you need a ChapStick," she says, her voice edged with what can only be described as hysteria. Batboy is adamant, and the two of them pause, locked in a stand-off, somewhere between Toiletries and Cosmetics.
"They are really good," says Jocasta, picking one up from the display. "They really protect you." She hits the word "protect" a little hard, and holds the ChapStick upright in her hand, as if it was some miniature wand from The Lord of the Rings. She looks as if she may suffer some sort of seizure unless she somehow manages to get the ChapStick into Batboy's backpack.
"I really don't need the ChapStick," says Batboy, amiably enough.
"Now come along," says the Space Cadet, dancing in between them, and using the same faux-American accent, "let's not have a fight just before our little boy goes."
The Space Cadet thinks he's enormously funny. I think he may be right.
"Well, OK," says Jocasta finally, "you can always buy one overseas, once you're there." I can see her line of thought: the boy is about to handle 10 weeks in an isolated village, bang in the middle of rural Germany. It will be winter, his host family doesn't speak English and a bus goes past only once a day. Given all this, lip-care may be the least of his worries.
Not that the family doesn't sound wonderful. Batboy's host brother has been emailing him every day, describing the farm, the motorbikes and the animals. Only a few days back he emailed very excitedly: "Good news, visiting brother! Father says we will hold off the slaughtering of the cow until the day you arrive."
Batboy took the news surprisingly well. I guess there's no cure for jetlag like a few hours of playful cow-butchering. Already he has been told about how they have their own pigs, from which they make their own sausages. Either he'll come back twice the size, wearing lederhosen, or he'll be a rake-thin vegetarian.
Either way, I'm guessing he'll come back Lutheran. When we first received details of his host family, we sneakily put them into Google, together with the name of the nearest village. What came up was a village diary, showing that their house was used every Tuesday for meetings of a local choir. According to our best effort at translation, the family are the principal members of the local Evangelical Lutheran Trombone Choir.
A picture does form of Christmas Day: Batboy and his host brother working their way through a couple of family pigs, starting at the head and moving down, their lederhosen tightening as their stomachs expand, as the rest of the family pump away on a trombone version of Silent Night.
I'm momentarily concerned, but they send us a photo and everyone looks reassuringly normal. A friend tells me to ignore the word "evangelical" - it just means they are normal Lutherans. He is, however, unable to explain either the religious or musical point of a choir consisting solely of massed trombones.
Back home, it's a few hours before departure and Batboy is packing his last things: a CD of Australian rock, an old hardback copy of the poems of C.J. Dennis, two tubes of Vegemite and his own bodyweight in Tim Tams.
I go to work, and imagine him taking off. I keep looking at my watch, and charting his progress. Above Brisbane now. Cairns. Singapore.
We have dinner, the remaining three of us. There are not many pots and plates to wash up, and I remark on this to the Space Cadet, who's standing beside me as I scrub away, flicking my legs with the tea-towel.
"You know why?" he says, with all the sensitivity of a younger brother. "It's because that lard-arse isn't here."
I glance towards Jocasta, sitting on the couch with a faraway look. I guess she's also charting Batboy's progress in her mind - a dotted line arcing through her mind, stretching from his bedroom to this new world of slaughtered cows, joyful trombones and home-made sausage.
If only she'd insisted on him packing that ChapStick.
Used with kind
permission of the author.
This
material is subject to copyright and any unauthorised use, copying or mirroring is prohibited.
Following their
exchange trips to Australia and New Zealand, some of our German
students recall their fondest memories of the wide brown land.
This text is
adapted from the Erfahrungen page of the Gesellschaft
für
Deutsch-Australischen/Neuseeländischen Schüleraustausch e.V. (GDANSA) website.
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“A thing that I really loved was going on an excursion with
the drama class of my year. We went to Sydney to have a workshop with
the writer of a play called "The seven stages of grieving" and later on
we got a tour of the Wharf Theatre and in the evening we went into the
Opera House (yep, I didn´t only get to see it from the outside)
to see that play ("The Seven Stages of Grieving"). I can honestly say
that it was the best play I have seen so far in my life because it
dealt with the situation of the Aboriginals in Australia, back then and
today and I had been pretty interested in that before.” “I noticed
that, having the choice between so many subjects, I spent more time
thinking about myself and my interests and finally, I learned most in
Photography and Visual Arts, because I have always loved doing it in my
free time.” “One
unconvenient thing about the uniform was that we had to wear it even on
our way to school and back home. When it was cold in the morning, we
froze, because we had just the jumper. There were jackets available,
but they cost a lot of money, so only a few students had bought them.
Another disadvantage is, that the uniform shows the school you attend.
Everybody can see how much money the parents have. But this may be a
wanted effect.” “I just
found out that school plays a way bigger role in Australia than it does
in Germany which I thought was really good because consequently school
is much more of a community than it is in Germany.” “I looked
forward to my first day at school, it was not such a normal feeling
that you have before going to a new school. The school I was going to
the first week was the school Jinty goes to, a girls high school. I was
really excited, not only because it's a girls school. There were so
many things to be excited about, the foreign language, the uniforms,
how the students will react to me and much more.”
New
Cultural Experiences “Milo, the
Australian answer to our common cocoa powder is one of the best things
that I've tried in Down Under. It is similar to cocoa but it doesn't
dissolve completely in milk and when you eat it from top with a spoon
you can hear it crunch between your teeth.” “The
second day we went skiing, all in all nothing typical for New Zealand.
At night we had the obligatory cup of tea and played monopoly. But the
best thing of this trip was that I felt more and more like a member of
their family, and I was very pleased with the situation that everything
is so perfect.” “Because
of the little knowledge about Germany and Europe I was glad to join
different classes to answer questions. They were very interested and it
was nice to give them something back for all the friendliness they gave
to me. All the teachers integrated me very well during class.” “Three
months full of new experiences, happiness, and friendship. "Difference"
is the best word to describe my feelings about this country... I think
all the members of our group can say that we have left a part of
ourselves there and that we have taken something new back to Germany
with us.” “We, who
had all expected a quite boring and well-mannered discussion were
fascinated at once. I mean, it was ridiculous: Grown-up men and women
behaved like a group of kids from the Pre-school. They talked loudly
the whole time, they stood up and gesticulated wildly when someone from
the opposite party said something they didn't agree with. They
interrupted each other and didn't let people finish speaking and one
time the chairman, who called upon Mr. Howard to speak had to admonish
a man from the other side three times to be quiet.” “The boat
stopped and we had our first chance to snorkel in the real Reef. I
couldn't believe it. Everything was so colourful and the there were so
many fishes. I thought Fitzroy Island was great but this one was one
hundred times better.” “But I
also realised how beautiful Lübeck and Germany is, with its old
and traditional houses, and that I also learned to be proud of my
country and culture.” My Role as an Ambassador “My host
dad was very interested in German history and we spent hours with
conversations about the World War II and the former East Germany. For
me it was very interesting which opinion my host dad had and the way he
was thinking of the things that had happened. We even started
argumentations because each of us was convinced of his / her opinion.
And we wanted to explain or convince the other one. It has been a
really fantastic experience. Though my host sister could not understand
how we could talk about such things.” “Many of
them were interested in life in Germany and asked me many questions
which I was more than happy to answer. Most of the girls knew at least
some things about Germany because most had once taken German for at
least three years.” “The
relationship to my host father was different. I didn't spent much time
with him, but when he was at home I had wonderful conversations with
him, till late at night. We talked about our different cultures, the
social systems in our countries and what life is like in Germany. We
compared the German and Australian school system and talked about
politics, the Second World War, the German Wall and the reunification.
He hasn't been to Europe yet. Nevertheless, he was interested in
everything that I told him about our continent. That was great fun and
I tried to do my best, because I wanted to give him an idea of my life
and my home.” |
Personal
Development “My
preparedness to approach foreign people which had always been a
difficult point for me has improved a lot and of course my English is
much better than before. I can speak it fluently now, almost like
German and that gives me the opportunity to speak with half of the
world's population without any language problems - what a wonderful
imagination! But the best is that I have even won a whole country. When
I now hear the word "Australia" I connect it with thousands of glorious
memories and this is an enrichment that nobody can ever take away.” “I even
started to think in English and so my spoken English improved and could
take part of "normal" conversations and discussions. That is an
important thing to be part of a group. And I was part of their group
after a very short time. It was amazing for me to experience that you
can make friends in such a short time even though speaking different
languages and growing up in different societies... I don't know when or
in which context I will come back but I know that I can come back to
Australia because I have a lot of friendships now over there. And I
know that I can handle a life in this country which isn't that unknown
any more.” “Now after
one month back at home I can say how important Australia was for me. My
language has improved definitely and I learned so much about this
wonderful country and its people. I got experience which I will never
forget. I made friendships with many different people and I am sure
that I will keep in contact forever. I am more selfassured and
self-reliant, I learned to get along in a new surrounding and with new
people. It was the longest time which I was apart from my family and I
succeeded.” “I have
seen all students from Melbourne before at our reception day. It was in
a bank building on the 46th floor. A lot of managers of big companies
like BMW and Lufthansa were there. They greeted us and every one of us
had to held a speech in front of these people. That was a bit scary
because I hoped my English is good enough. But it was. My host-parents
said on the way home: "We were so proud of you, because you used such
great words and you looked so confident." What they didn't know. I
wasn't confident at all. But everything went the right way and I could
talk to all the other students in Melbourne. By this time we all were
already good friends.” About the Exchange “Being a
member of GASS, I am now looking forward to the following camps. I also
hope that with my help I can give another pupil this great chance to
get to know these experiences.” “During
the whole stay GASS Victoria had prepared some program for us, which we
all enjoyed. In the first week we had a reception on the ANZ Tower, it
was great. There were a lot of business people who it was nice talking
to about the exchange, but also about working in a foreign country,
which is something I can imagine for myself.” “This
exchange is a beautiful thing and it is also a good thing to invest in.
Thanks again.” “This
exchange gave me the possibility to discover another country and
another way of life. I found new friends, and met lots of friendly
people. In Australia, I learned to be far away from my family, friends
and home. Now, I have a second family at the other end of the world,
and I know that I'm welcome to stay there in the future.” “The GASS
students had learned more about a country than we could possibly learn
in years of study at home and we had experienced a new way of live. We
had lived for ten weeks in another family than our own. Together we had
made a trip around the world. We had seen our own culture from another
point of view. We had met new friends.” “All in
all these 10 weeks in New Zealand were the ones of my life when I had
so many experiences and learned as much as never before. It was the
first time I felt like being really free and I was able to get to know
another style of living by taking part in their daily life. Of course
it was not easy for me the whole time. But I learned to handle strange
situations like finding the right answer when someone asks anything
about Germany because I was responsible for what I'm saying.” “After ten
weeks I can say that I developed in many ways. I could never have had
all these experiences in Germany. Coming to a foreign country where
everything is new was not that easy and of course, you are very nervous
at the beginning. I have participated in various exchanges with my
school but only for one or two weeks and not that far away. So you
cannot compare those to an exchange to the other end of the world for
that period of time. You have to adapt to another household for ten
weeks, handle problems on your own and communicate with people you have
never met before... But the most important thing you can only learn by
going to foreign countries is to get more independent. I did so many
things on my own, for example booking our free travel. I did many
things for the first time in my life without the help of my parents. Of
course, your host family is always very helpful and supports you in
many ways but you often have to and want to decide by yourself.” “I want to thank you a million times for giving me the chance
to experience a far-away country's culture, landscape and very friendly
people as well as showing the New Zealanders a bit of Germany.”
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