On the 20th of September 2018, I set off to Guangzhou with 16 of my school friends and 5 of my favourite teachers. The trip was an amazing opportunity because I was able to experience being away from home for over 2 weeks including a homestay for 5 days. I was also able to experience school in Shenzhen for 5 days. Throughout those days, I had to learn how to be friends with anyone, if they speak your language or not. We also used lots of different capabilities such as ethics, effective communication, being self-aware and organised. We had to be ethical as we were in another country without our family at age 12 and we were representing our school and our country. We had to make sure we were organised as we had to do our own washing, we had a hotel room that we shared with one other friend and we needed to effectively communicate with English and Mandarin speakers.
Another part of the trip was the exchange. A year prior I had a student come from Shenzhen and stay with me in Perth. It was a strange experience having somebody who didn’t speak any English come and stay in my house but it was an incredibility fun experience. We got to show her around Perth and via Google translate discover our differences and similarities. Even though there was a language barrier we were still friends and had an amazing time. It was easy for her to fit into my weekly plan as she came to school with me and was basically ‘my shadow’ for 3 days.
Overall, this opportunity was fantastic. I grew so much as a person, learned how to be independent, and was able to see some amazing historical sites such as The Great Wall of China and the Terracotta Warriors.