My Journey

By: Nizmah Ulfa

 

            It was a great time for me to stay in one of developed country in the world for about two weeks. Yeah, I was very lucky to have a trip and study visit to Huntingtower School, Melbourne, Australia. I learnt many things and gained a lot of new experiences through this fabulous trip. Huntingtower School is a school community with an enormous heart. They can create a warm condition and strong bonding despite the students come from many different places all over the world.

            Huntingtower is a co-educational day and also boarding school. There are about twenty four students who are staying in boarding house this term. They start the classes at 8.25 A.M and finish the class at 3.30 P.M. The students may choose the lessons that they would like to have in a semester. The lessons must be between three until six lessons. The period for one lesson in a day is 70 minutes and they have 5 period in a day. They have their classes from Monday till Friday and their activities were exciting. The school facilities are so complete. The students have their common room based on their grade. In the common room, there are the lockers for every students in that grade.

            The special one from this school is they are having Indonesian classes which is a must for students year one till seven and in year eight, they are free to choose whether they would like to continue their Indonesian learning process or not. Besides, the students in Huntingtower School are friendly and kind with everyone. They will great everyone that they meet at school.  Their academic and non-academic achievements are also excellence. Some of their students were becoming the representative of Victoria in swimming competition in Australia and they won that competition. The teachers are also competence and awesome. They loved to help the students.

            The boarding house system were so much different with SMAN South Sumatera Sampoerna Academy boarding house system. They had the bell ringing at certain times. At 7.25 A.M. the bell means room inspection in the morning. The next five minutes is the time to have breakfast. They also have duty system for every boarding students to clean the plates and cups up after breakfast. In the afternoon, the bell will ring at 5.30 P.M which means the time for students to have their dinner. They also have their study night time from 7.00 till 9.00 A.M, but they are free to choose whether they want to study inside or outside of the room. They have night room inspection at 9.00 P.M after their study night time. In a room, there will be one or two students only.

            The teachers and students were so friendly and nice. They had a very good relationship. They also have houses system, but there were only four houses. They will have gathering with their house on Thursday, after lunch time. Their activities with their house were so variety. Sometimes, they have run competition, long jump competition, etc. The members in each house are the students from year one till year twelve, but they were so solid.

            In Huntingtower school, there was the swimming pool. The student from that school were becoming the first winner of swimming competition, represented Victoria. When I was there, I learnt to swim with the coach and it was really fun and excited.

            Apart from the school and boarding house system, I learnt from the culture and the people there. I visited Melbourne City, National Gallery of Victoria, Shrine of Remembrance, Flinders Station, Dandenong Ranges, Healesville Zoo and Sovereign Hill. The awesome thing from Australia was the traffic condition. It was so nice. The traffic jam came so rarely. They had the maximum speed for the car and motorbike which passed on each road and street. Besides, the water were so clean. We allowed to drink from the tank. So, we can drink while we are taking a bath.

            The place that I like was Dandenong Ranges, because it was so calm, cool and nice. We can see Melbourne’s view from the sky high of Dandenong Ranges. We also can go to tourist road, a place where we can buy the gift. Not only Dandenong Ranges, I also loved to visit Healesville Zoo and Sovereign hill. In healesville zoo, I can see the animals which are originally came from Australia, e.g. Koalas, Kangaroos, Tasmanian Devils, Platypus, etc. On the other hand, I learnt the mining process and the history of previous European.

            Many things I’ve learnt from this trip.  I hope I can be better and have more globally minded in the future.