The Germany-New Zealand exchange has been running for many years
In the last few weeks four of our students received the confirmation that they have been accepted to attend this year's student exchange to Bavaria in Germany. Our students have received the contact details of their host families and are all very exciting to embark on their German adventure later on this year.
The Germany-New Zealand exchange has been running for many years and gives Kiwi and German students the amazing opportunity to get out of their comfort zone, experience a new school system and develop their foreign language skills further.
Kaia Evans, who attended the exchange earlier this year, wrote the following about her exchange.
On the evening of the 30th of November 2024, I, alongside 11 other students from all over New Zealand, embarked on the Singapore Airlines flight to Munich to spend the following two months in Germany. After two very long flights, both over 10 hours long, we finally arrived in Munich early in the morning on the 1st of December. Soon I found myself in Oberschleissheim, a suburb 20 minutes away from Munich city and the place I would be living in for the next two months. During those two months I had a magical experience, visiting places all over Munich and the wider Bavaria area.
For the first few weeks I attended school in Germany, Carl-Orff Gymnasium, where I got to meet and interact with German students and got to teach them a bit about New Zealand. We went to many Christmas markets, my favourite being the Middle Ages Christmas market, and ate lots of crepes and Flammkuchen, a flatbread pizza. During my time there Germany had their Christmas holidays, giving me and my host family three weeks to explore the country. We went on overnight trips to Salzburg in Austria and Neuschwanstein Castle in Schwangau, as well visiting many museums, cathedrals and castles. We also visited the mountains near the small town of Schliersee to go tobogganing, which was my first time ever seeing snow. One highlight from the Christmas holidays was seeing Wiblingen Abbey in Ulm, an extremely beautiful Rococo library. After the Christmas holidays ended I didn’t get too much time to get annoyed about school as one week later I was on a bus heading towards Berlin, along with seven of the other New Zealanders and roughly 70 Australians who were also on exchange in Germany. The Berlin trip was a fun time to relax a bit and speak English again, as well as spending time with the New Zealanders, as I didn’t know them very well beforehand, making friends with the Aussies and getting to explore Germany’s capital city.
Overall, my two months in Germany was incredible, and I not only got to see so much of Germany, but I also lived an authentic German life and had experiences I could not have gotten as just a tourist. I would highly recommend anyone wondering whether they should go on an exchange to give it a go, as it not only helped me improve my German, but also gave me so many memories and unforgettable experiences that I will treasure for the rest of my life.
by Kaia Evans
