International Exchange Programs at MBA: The King's School

My exchange to Sydney, Australia this summer was the trip of a lifetime. For most of the month of June, Harrison Lien, Owen Powell, and I got the opportunity to travel to the King’s School in Sydney. The experiences we had and friendships we made will never be forgotten.

We left Nashville at 6:30 pm on a Friday night and flew 4 hours to Los Angeles where we then waited 3 hours for our next flight. The haul from Los Angeles to Sydney was all of 15 hours and when we arrived at 8 am we were taken straight to Bondi Beach. Bondi Beach located just south of downtown is a famous beach in Australia lined with upscale residential buildings.

Bondi Swim Club at Bondi Beach

From Bondi we then went to the King's School where we received our uniforms and athletic gear. The military-style uniform was extremely heavy and hot and I am very glad the weather cooperated and remained at an average of 60 degrees or so throughout the trip. The first week of school we spent getting acquainted with the massive campus and all of the people. All of the teachers especially Mr. Symmons (the exchange coordinator) and Mr. Buxton (our tech. teacher and my soccer coach) were very accommodating. The following Saturday I played in my first soccer game at Centennial Park which is basically Sydney's version of New York's Central Park. That night my weekend host Hamish Southwell and I climbed the Sydney Harbor Bridge which was one of my favorite parts of the entire trip. The top of the bridge provided a breathtaking view of the city as you can see in the picture below.

Climbing the Sydney Harbor Bridge

The next week marked the beginning of our sightseeing tour of the city. On some school days all three of us would take a bus from The King's School to the Paramatta train station where we would catch a train all the way to Central Station where we could catch a train or bus to any point of interest. Some highlights of downtown include the Opera House, the aquarium, Toronga Zoo, Centre Point tower, and Manley beach.

Fish are friends not food

After the first two weeks, Harrison and I headed 7 hours out into the countryside with his host family (the Mann's) to their 300 acre sheep farm to spend the week long break from school. At this beautiful farm we got to herd sheep and hunt kangaroos at night. By the way, Australians think as much about kangaroos as we do about squirrels so they have no objection to getting rid of them.

Beautiful Australian countryside

Got me a nice one

After spending the first two days of break at the Mann's farm, Harrison, Jack, and I drove a couple more hours to the 3,000 acre cotton farm owned by one of Jack's classmates Bobby Parrish. Here we spent 3 extremely fun days filled with dirt biking, hog hunting, horse races, fireworks, and bonfires.

the Tara Parrish

After the long weekend we returned to our day families and to school. After two more weeks of class and sightseeing Harrison, Owen, I, and all of our hosts and their families spent a awesome last night at Luna Park, a typical American amusement park, downtown right on the harbor. Afterwards we were treated to dinner and reminisced on the amazing times we had shared for the past month. I would like the personally thank Mr. and Mrs. Southwell and Mr. and Mrs. Bell for hosting me as well as Hamish and Matt. Also thank you to the Warner Family for making the best trip of my life possible and for giving me the opportunity to explore and learn in Australia. Harrison, Owen, and I will talk about the friendships and experiences we had there forever.

Australian Vocabulary:
- "bogan" = a redneck
- "footy" = rugby, soccer, Australian rules football (never really knew which they were talking about)
- "yea right" = you're welcome
- "gridiron" = American football
- "gym" = weight room

Some more photos: