2002 School Magazine

China

Youth Ambassadors to China

were from Houston In the USA, Brabent Wallan Belgium, Nuremberg Germany, Gwangyang Korea, Tscheba Japan, Bresca Italy and Vienne France along with a delegation from Shenzhen, China and of course Brisbane, Australia The purpose of this week was to create a lasting relationship between the Youth of all the cities involved. Just after the Opening Ceremony where the idea of friendship, peace and love were emphasised, we were taken to Lianshaushan Park were we flew kites This represented young people's hopes, ambitions and good wishes A symbolic gesture that occurred at one stage during the week was that we had to swap presents with a person from one of the other countries. This represented an offering of friendship and peace and was also an invitation for each of us to visit their country or them to visit us Shenzhen Art Gallery and Museum, a petrified forest, the Palaeontogy Museum and Fairy Lake Botanical Gardens. The week also consisted of Closing and Opening Ceremonies as well as numerous banquets On the Monday, after lunch was a time for us to let our hair down. We had a beach carnival where we played Tug- of-War, Leaky Buckets and Soccer. Tug- of-War and Leaky Buckets were played country against country whereas the Activities included a visit to the

Soccer game was one person from each delegation against a Chinese Soccer Team. Germany won Tug-of-War but we, Australia. won Leaky Buckets Along with this, a lot of socialising occurred. That night was the gala party. Each country had to put on a 'traditional' performance. The Chinese, Japanese and Koreans showed us some traditional dancing and singing from their countries. Italy, France and Germany sung us some songs in their own language. Belgium had put together this really special PowerPoint display and skit but their baggage was lost on the plane so they weren't able to do this. As typical Aussies, we managed to throw an Australian Medley together with the last minutes that consisted of 'We are One', 'I still call Australia Home', 'Kookaburra sits in the Old Gum Tree', 'Waltzing Matilda' and Vegemite Song, which we managed to pull off. We also had a bit of a Vegemite taste testing session. The party went on into the night where the friendships and relationships grew and developed like the trees that were planted to represent everlasting friendship in the Voyage Towards Friendship 2002 Forest While we werein China one of the experiences and by far the best and most cultural Iy educational was two

discussions about how we were going to be able to cope through these two days, as we were not necessarily to be in contact with anyone e se from the Australian delegation and neither of us could speak a word of Chinese Another factor that contributed to our apprehensive ness was that looking out of our hotelwindow, we couldn't see any 'nice' houses or apartments Most people's apprehension disappeared as soon as they walked into their host family's house, as the Insides of the houses were so nice and clean. MY host sister could speak English quite well and if communication difficulties occurred, an electronic dictionary was always close at hand MY host family taught me how to make dumplings and in return I showed them a typical Aussie Breakfast, Vegemite on Toast with a Glass of Milk. Another one of my worries that disappeared with my host family was not seeing any of the other Australians for the two days I did. however. see one a lot because our host families were good friends and also because of the sightseeing etc they took us on. We managed to bump into many of my 'friends', as my host family put it. Both nights I was with my host stay family we had a party with other people in the same apartment complex that were hosting students as well These consisted of two Belgians, an Italian and a German. The two days that I spent with my host family were very rewarding, cultural Iy. educationalIy and an experience of a lifetime that I will never forget. These few days went by extreme y fast and before we knew it, they were taking us back to the hotel. I have made contact several times with my host stay family and they made the whole experience so positive for me that I would love to go back to Shenzhen again

Voyage Towards Friendship

On the morning of 2 August at 5:45am, Danielle Nizzero and I were already out of bed, packed and at the airport ready to go to China while the rest of school were still asleep, dreaming about the Sports Carnival to come that day. Why did we go to China, You might ask? Danielle and I were selected by the Brisbane City Council along with eighteen students from other Brisbane high schools to represent Brisbane as Youth Ambassadors at our sister city, Shenzhen. China

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Voyage Towards Friendship 2002 was a week of new and exciting experiences Danielle and I not only got to experience Chinese culture and daily life with our home stay families but we also were able to learn and experience the culture from many other countries around the world as there were delegations from all of Shenzhen's eight sister cities. The 176 high school students that attended Voyage Towards Friendship 2002

nights we had with our host stay family. Before we left for China, Danielle and I had several

Donielle Nizzer0 (1) and Iucy Hull - Youth Am bossodors to Chino

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