Evi vertrok in januari 2011 voor een High School jaar naar Australië. 8 maanden later schrijft ze onderstaande brief aan onze Australische partnerorganisatie waarin ze haar ervaring beschrijft en haar Australische leven vergelijkt met haar Nederlands leven. Een ontzettend mooie brief waarin goed het motto van High School naar voren komt 'het is niet goed, het is niet slecht, het is anders'

De laatste 2 maanden van haar High School tijd zal Evi volop genieten 'Down Under' en nog meer herinneringen maken. Foto's van Evi's avonturen zijn te vinden in het fotoalbum.

Hi,

I'm Evi Groen and I'm 18 years old. I'm from the Netherland and I have been in Australia for 8 months. I will stay 11 months in total. My exchange was amazing. Of course I been through some tough times, but looking back I only remember the wonderful memories I made. I lived in 2 families, first I lived with a family close to Melbourne so we went to the city a lot of times. After I changed families I came with a family who lives in the bottom of Victoria in the middle of nowhere. A lot changed for me, comparing to my old life in Amsterdam.

• In my old life I lived in a city, in my new life I live in the middle of nowhere.
• In my old life I didn't had pets and I was scared of animals, in my new life I live with 25 animal buddy's and I love them all.
• In my old life I went to the city on Saturday in my new life I work and play on the farm on Saturday.
• In my old life I only had to worry about feeding myself in my new life I have to think about 7 other little buddy's (chickens)
• In my old life I ate meat, In my new life I'm vegetarian. (my family is vegan)
• In my old life I were my casual clothes every day in my new life I were a 'beautiful'school uniform every day
• In my old life I ride my bike to school in 10 minutes, In my new life I have to sit 40 minutes in the school bus to go to school,
• In my old life I play European handball in my new life I play soccer.

You probably can imagine after reading this that nothing in my new life is the same comparing to my old life. You can describe my exchange as a change from black to white. But I decided to accept all this changes and go with the flow. And what I learned out of this is amazing, I got a second family and I got 25 new animal friends. These are the things that count for me. And I can better stop talking about an old life and a new life....This is my life and there is no old life, it is a change of life.

Evi Groen