Sophie Kilders
My name is Sophie Kilders, I’m 15 years old and I’m from Germany. I stayed in New Zealand for a whole year and spent the first half in Tauranga and then came down to Mosgiel.
Leaving everything behind and starting a new life without anything familiar is always hard. It’s not as hard when you know that you’re eventually going to go back to your old life but then on the other hand you know it will be hard to leave the life behind you are about to start. Since year seven I knew that I wanted to go to New Zealand one day. Everything I knew about it was fascinating.
When I finally came to New Zealand it was more than I ever expected it to be. The way of life and school is so much more relaxed than in Germany and the landscape is really fascinating. In school, I did Art & Design, SPR, Geography, Textiles Technology, English and Maths. Those classes are so much more interesting then what I have to do at home (like Chemistry, Physics, History, Latin, English J , German, Maths…) and having only six subjects is way less to learn then having about twelve subjects. Even though I didn’t know anybody the first day of school was pretty cool. Everything was new and everybody was really nice to me. I would have never expected me to play Rugby one day as it’s not very big in Germany but now it is one of my biggest hobbies. Just like Rugby I did so many other things I would have never done (do we even have Bungy Jumps in German?) and I wouldn’t change one thing I did in New Zealand if I could.
During my time down here I made many friends that are now really important to me and it feels like I have known them my whole life. Same goes to my host family. I wouldn’t have wanted to have gone anywhere else because they are just perfect to me. From not knowing them at all they went to being part of my family in such a short time and they have always been there for me. Everything we did was so much fun and even though nobody ever understood me helping on the farm was one of the best parts. I love all of the people I got to know here and I’ll miss you all heaps. My host family, my friends, my Rugby team and the International department.
Thank you for all being there for me, for having so much fun together and for making my time in Mosgiel so special. If I’m coming back is definitely not the right question. A better question would be when I’m coming back!!! (It won’t take too long hopefully).
