Two students from Kelmscott Senior High will play host to two international visitors before taking to the skies themselves and experiencing a white Christmas.
Caitlin Bootsma and Taylor Boelema are currently hosting Jakob Menkens and Luisa Bachhofer from Germany for 12 weeks before swapping spots and travelling to Germany to experience life in another country.
The year 11 students were each awarded an Australian-German Student Exchange WA scholarship.
The girls will take their host students to a range of places in Western Australia during the school holidays including the Pinnacles, Wave Rock, Albany, Esperance and Kalgoorlie.
Jakob said he has always lived in Europe and the most time he has spent on a plane was about 45 minutes between his home town and Italy.
“Australia is on the other side of the world and we only learn about Australia during our English lessons,” he said.
“We learn about the poisonous animals and the sites here so it is cool to see it in real life and see how different it is from Germany.
“My teacher told me that Australians always put their shoes on a higher level than the ground because there are spiders but I haven’t seen a spider here or a snake, so obviously it’s not so dangerous to live in the city maybe only the outback.”
Taylor said she was looking forward to travelling outside the country for the first time.
“We find out in October where we will be going and who our host families are,” she said.
“I really want to meet new people, experience new cultures, try new foods and also see snow for the first time.”
The Australian-German Student Exchange WA scholarship is awarded to 30 students from New South Wales, Western Australia and Victoria every year.
