The Opera House, Harbor Bridge, and Royal Botanical Garden were often mentioned by exchange students as Sydney's main attractions, but this was not the case with Devita. She sure found that Sydney has plenty marvelous tourism destinations, but the surprises came from her host parents' culture and habits. Her aim to learn English in Leumeah High School seemed trivial after she stumbled upon Spanish burial ceremony, ate loads of Spanish food, found out that members of the family rarely took a bath, and had a crush on her host parents' son.
Devita came to Sydney in 2009 as an exchange student in Leumeah High School.She walked there every single day even though the weather was too cold for her taste. She enrolled for six months to learn about English, Australian cultures, and in addition, she also studied other parts of Leumeah curriculum such as human society and its environment, mathematics, personal development, science, creative art, and technology (yes, taken from the website, not the results of last week interview). For her, the most challenging task was to understand complicated lessons in maths and science using English as the language of instruction.
Challenging tasks in school were quickly forgotten when she came to her host grandma burial ceremony where she should've worn red instead of black. Apparently, unlike other cultures that prefer black or white, Spaniards usually wear red for funerals. Family members were upset and made a fuss about it. Although she did not mean to insult anybody, Devita ended up being scolded because of her apparent wardrobe malfunction and lack of cultural sensitivity.
Her other interesting experiences are related to eating and bathroom habits of her host family. Once, she said, "I usually take a bath twice a day. So, I might occupy the bathroom in the mornings and noons." One of the family members replied, "ah, it's okay. We rarely take a bath." Devita was shocked by this statement. However, she realized that probably it was due to the cold weather in Macarthur region. Besides bathroom habits, she found that the family tended to eat larger quantity of foods than common Indonesian families. But, since the mother really knew how to cook delicious Spanish dishes, Devita did not have any objection in the eating department.
The tourist destinations, the culture, the habits were interesting. Yet she claimed that the most unforgettable moment was when she fell in love with her host parent's son, Brandon Jean (not much of a Spanish name, right?). (If I knew, I would've put his description, where they met, and how she felt in this space). They kept in touch for some time, but I guess, long distance relationship was not the right type of relationship for teenagers who mostly like to be together all the time.
Some people have their memories about Australia tainted for life (including me I guess) because of what happened to them there, but not Devita. Even though she faced many obstacles during her stay in Sydney, she still referred it as an incredible experience and she plans to enroll in one of Australia's leading universities for her master degree this year.
