From Australia_Report on St.Andrew’s CC_Mar.13th_2016

From Australia, Report on St. Andrew’s Catholic College_Mar.13th –Shiho Ogata

Now Term 1 of St. Andrew’s Catholic College is getting close to the end. Students are making preparation for their end term testing, which means that the day for the exchange students from Otsuma Nakano to go back to Japan will be near.  The following is the updated report by Shiho Ogata.

Hello,there! I am Shiho Ogata from St.Andrews Catholic College in Australia.

I really cannot believe I have only two weeks to be here left.  In Cairns, it is quite usual to start to rain suddenly.  And we usually have mist in the morning.  I also realized that clouds are very close to us and they look three-dimensional.  I have never seen the sky like that before I came to Cairns, so I am really impressed with such a marvelous sky every time when I see it.  I found it very interesting to see the sky in Cairns.

I am having enjoyable my school life and holidays. The examination will start soon, so students are now preparing for them and do their own assignments. Some of them do their assignments even in the lunch time.  My host sister have many hard assignments, one of them is the report with eight-hundred words.  She said, “It is usual!”  As we do not have assignments like this in my classes in Japan, I was surprised at that.  

In Religion Classes, which is my favorite subject, we learned Aboriginal spiritual ideas about dreaming, ritual and land ownership this week. You know, Aborigine is the people who have lived in Australia before white people from Europe came here. In the town, I have sometimes seen them. Last Thursday, a man whose grandmother is Aborigine came to class and spoke about their living. We had an interesting and rare experience.

To my surprise, it takes 100 minutes to take Religion's exam. I was also surprised at what students who take Japanese classes have to take three examinations, which are reading, writing and speaking tests. They are super very busy…

On Saturday, two weeks ago, I went to the beautiful beach and swam there. The place is called Palm Cove, because there are many Palms, which is a kind of wild trees. The water was very salty enough not to be able to open our eyes in the water. My eyes and skin hurt from it even if I did not do that. I had a lot of fun, though! Then I went to the market where there are many fresh vegetables and fruits. It was very huge and bustles with customers. I have never been to the place like that, so it was good experience.

Last Sunday, I went to Hartley's Crocodile Adventure. We could see many crocodiles and other animals, such as snakes, koalas, Emus, wallabies, kangaroos and so on. There is a place where we can touch and feed wallabies and kangaroos. They were very friendly with human. We could spend special time that we cannot have in Japan!

I am having full days in Cairns with my host family, friends, teachers and a lot of people. I am so sad because the days in Cairns will finish soon.  I know I don’t have much time left to spend with them.  So I would like to respect the two more weeks with millions of thanks to them.

Best,

Shiho,

こんにちは！オーストラリアでの生活も残り2週間となってしまいました。急に雨が降ってきたり朝には霧が出ていたりすることがよくあります。雲はとても近く、また立体的で、見るたびに感動してしまいます。

学校では、もうすぐで試験が始まります。試験に加え多くの課題も出されるので、ランチタイムにも課題に取り組んだりと生徒たちは忙しそうです。私のホストシスターも多くの課題を持っていて、中には800字のレポートもありました。

私の好きな宗教の授業では、今週はアボリジニについて学びました。彼らはオーストラリアの先住民で、時に私も街で見かけることがあります。木曜日には祖母がアボリジニである男性がいらっしゃって、彼らの生活などについて教えてくれました。貴重な経験でした。

そして、驚いたことに宗教の試験は100分もあるそうです。また、日本語を勉強している生徒はリーディングの他にリスニング、スピーキングのテストもあり、とても大変そうです。

先々週の土曜日には、Palm Coveというビーチへ行って泳ぎました。Palm は木の種類で、それがこの場所に多くあるのでこのように呼ばれています。海の水は日本に比べてとても塩分濃度が高くて、水中では目を開けることが出来ないほどでしたが、とても楽しめました！そのあとは新鮮な野菜や果物が売ってある市場へ行きました。このような場所には行ったことがなかったので良い経験でした！

そして、先週の日曜日は Hertley's Crocodile Adventure へ行きました。クロコダイルはもちろん、ヘビやコアラ、カンガルーなど他の動物も見ることが出来ました。日本にはない、ワラビーやカンガルーに触れたり直接えさをあげたり出来るエリアもあり、とても楽しかったです！オーストラリアは人だけでなく動物たちもフレンドリーだと感じました。

ホストファミリーや友達など、たくさんの方によって充実した日々を過ごすことが出来ています。その方たちへの感謝を忘れず、残りの2週間を大切に過ごそうと思います。