2000 School Magazine

friends from obrood

The Sister school program at BGGS has been underway for 22 years and the year 2000 has been a particularly significant one for the Sister School Program. As part of the 125th Centenary Celebrations the school hosted an International Conference, Longuoge Studies; A Passport to the World to which representatives from our Sister Schools were invited. The occasion provided an excellent opportunity for the renewal of the Sister School Agreements. The renewed agreements with Shanghai N0 3 Girls Middle School,

Shanghai, China;Mie Hi^h School, Matsusaka, Japan;Hiroyomo Gokuen Tsushimo Girls' High School, Tsushima, Japan and Maria-W@chtlerSchule, Essen, Germany are on display. Each year students from our Sister Schools are invited to visit the school and participate in school life. Students spend varying amounts of time here. This year BGGS has had many visiting students' Erika Chatani is here for a year and returns to Himyomo Gokuen, Japan in March 2001. Ayumi Okawa and Me gumi Umeda, also from Hirayama Gakuen stayed with us for two months from July - September. During July - August we also welcomed nine girls from ShanghaiN0 3 Girls Middle School, China and fourteen students from Mie High School, Japan. A group of nine German eXchange students visited for six weeks in July - August. Many families hosted these visiting students during the year. Our host family coordinator is Jenny Staib who did a wonderful job arranging the homestays on which the program is so dependent and so thankful. Host sisters were responsible for welcoming their visitors into both their homes and school life and many benefited significantly from this experience and responsibility. The visitors have expressed their gratitude to these families for the warmth of their welcome and for enabling them to ,., ,\r ^. , ,r;:: ;}' ,*, ,I;- have such wonderful memories. a^' " " * , ,"^ . ; .* ^;- .!~\ ' fj * ,

Weridy Pork, nson CoordinatorofSisterSchools

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51uden!s from Mono-Wocht!erSchule

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Chinese exchonge students in ESL class

Making friends with the natives

MIE GIRLS SAY"ARIGATO"

Japanese students have only five weeks for the summer vacation, so, for us, it was a really serious thing to decide to spend the vacation in Australia. In 2000 six students from Mie High came to Brisbane Girls Grammar School. Our stay has nearly finished, but we will never regret our decision. Every day from the first day at BGGS to the last, we found so many things. Interesting, funny, happy, surprising ... What we learnt in Australia was not only English or Australian culture. We learnt a lot of important things which we can't explain in any language. Most of these have been in our daily lives at BGGS and with our host families. Australian nature and people gave us kindness and so many smiles. Compared to Japan, we could spend more free time here. On weekends, each family took us to many places, and there we met new friends, strange foods and delicious dishes. Sometimes we were stuck in our conversations, but other people around helped us every time. Thanks to them, we were able to express our opinions in English. Though the memories are too many to count, we'll keep every tiny piece forever. We love Australia, BGGS, our host families, and your cute smiles! We really appreciate everything. Thank you so much!

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Yukon ond Morie Meek

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a^^o Chordni with Mie High students

Yukon, Yukaruko, Vato, Yukino and Moi