Walking along the passageway to Customs, dragging my heavy luggage all the way through, I told myself, “Joyce, from now on, you have to face everything by yourself.”

Almost half a year ago, leaving my parents’ protective shelter, I flew to the other side of the globe with my dream. Experienced strangeness changing into familiarity (although still not that familiar!), struggled to adapt…life in Australia brings me a lot of experiences I had never had before. Relaxed lifestyle, friendly Aussie people, beautiful sunshine and beach – all of these have enriched my life here. Furthermore, I started learning how to make plans for daily life, how to solve difficulties all on my own.

All of these are valuable treasures to me, they give me power to keep pursuing my dream and to fly higher. I have realised there is an experience called ‘growing-up’!

Studying in Mordialloc College has been a memorable and precious time in my life. It’s friendly and rich Aussie atmosphere helped me to embrace a different culture and mix into the mainstream society easily. The friends I made in Mordi are my treasure forever. Advice from the teachers will guide me through on my way to success.

Joyce and Katy at the VCE Formal in 2008

The Dux of Mordialloc College in 2008 was International Student Joyce Wang. Joyce achieved outstanding results in Year 12, enabling her to obtain an extremely high ENTER, now called the ATAR. This gained her admission into the course of her choice – Actuarial Studies at the University of Melbourne.

“And from all the lands on earth we come…”

Imagine… “You are overseas, experiencing a totally new culture, making new friends, enjoying different food, playing exciting sports and exploring new places…” This is the life of an international student…How exciting is that!
When I first came to Melbourne, thinking about high school gave me the creeps, but I always thought, “It’s going to be fine”. So, let me take you on a journey through my life and experiences as an International Student at Mordialloc College.
On my very first day at school, which was the Year 7 Orientation Day, I felt very scared and nervous because I didn’t know anyone. My heart was beating faster than ever, when I arrived that morning.

Fortunately, I was looked after by Ms Shayan who was very nice and understanding. When Ms Shayan told me she will take care of everything, I felt relieved and more relaxed. Soon, as the day progressed I met Heidi and a couple of new students, with whom I became good friends. Obviously, I wasn’t freaked out as before. Now that I have made heaps of friends, I feel like I have known them since a very long time ago!

So far this year, everything has been great for me. I’ve had wonderful opportunities to participate in lots of extra-curricular activities, such as attending the ANZAC memorial service, visiting the Medieval Exhibition at the museum in the city, contributing to our debating outside school hours, the Sports Carnivals (Swimming, Cross-country, Athletics, Round Robins), and taking visitors proudly for tours around the Year 7 e-Learning Centre, including an overseas visitor from my own native country, Singapore.

Besides all my exciting experiences as an International Student at the school, I fully enjoy life as a learner in the Year 7 program. There are several teachers here to support me through my learning journey and I have fantastic opportunities to progress with my learning the way I want. I enjoy the time I spend at school with my friends as well as the time outside school. My friends and I often get to meet at my place or a friend’s place to carry on with teamwork and discussions related to our learning.

Eventually, life is pretty exciting and enjoyable for me…school is really fun compared to my experience in Singapore – I feel more confident and happy – above all, this is what matters to me and my parents!

RINTHINI SHANMUGAM

Rinthini is in Year 10 in 2011, and is due to go on to VCE at Mordialloc College.

Excursion to Healesville Sanctuary

I have enjoyed a lot of things in Australia. If I have to write about one of the most memorable memories, I would write about when we went to the zoo. We rode on a bus from school to the zoo. When we arrived, it was 10am already. We bought the tickets and we followed the course.

We first saw koalas. Koalas are nocturnal animals. So we can’t find them easily or quickly – a little bit disappointing. In one tree, two or three koalas were stuck on branches. Secondly, we saw a lot of statues of animals which were the same as real ones. And also they made models of an ox and lizard. Ah, before we went to see the kangaroos, we watched the bird show. We saw an eagle in the bird show. When the trainer throws the dead mouse, the eagle flies in the air and grabs the dead mouse. It was lunchtime, so we went to the playground to eat our lunch.
After lunch, we went to the Park to watch kangaroos. At that time, the trainer gives the kangaroos’ food to people so we can feed them. I want to see a baby kangaroo in its mother’s pouch as I read about in a book. I was sad because it was all male kangaroos. After that, we went to the reptile pavilion There were snakes, turtles, lizards, even toads. There was snakes’ cast-off skin. I think to touch them would be better than only seeing them. After I went home, I was so tired, and it was a very cool experience of my life.

YUN-SUB SIM

Yun-Sub returned to Korea at the end of Year 8 for family reasons, having successfully completed Years 7 and 8 at Mordialloc College with very good academic results.