Kia ora koutou, ko Jordan Gower toku ingoa, no aotearoa ahau. Hello everyone, my name is Jordan and I am from New Zealand. For the last few months I’ve been on an exchange here at Shawnigan from, like I said, New Zealand, (not Australia, New Zealand); we’re a little further south and we have better accents. The first thing that stood out to me here was the amount of peanut butter you all eat. My first meal time I watched someone eat a peanut butter and banana tortilla and later put peanut butter in their chocolate mousse. I didn’t think this was normal, but I soon discovered that apparently it is, and it’s also acceptable to eat peanut butter with your apples, carrots, celery or just by itself. I did not think it would ever happen, but now it’s caught on. The next thing I found particularly interesting was your uniform. The colour options you have with your t-shirts and jerseys, or “polos” and “sweaters,” are endless! Also the length of your skirts . . . some of you may have noticed me today and on Saturdays in my white blouse, bright red tie, navy blue blazer and knee length kilt. Yes, this is my uniform and yes, I do wear it every day to school in New Zealand. It took me a while, but I slowly moved past the curious looks I got from people when I walked by. I’ve discovered that no matter how much you think you hate your uniform, you become quite proud of it and where you come from when you’re in a place so different.

Over Thanksgiving and the mid-term break, I got to experience Vancouver, which was absolutely beautiful. I come from a very small town in New Zealand called Ohura, which has a population of 160 people, a primary school with 12 students, my house which is surrounded by 800 hectares of sheep and cows and the nearest convenience store, that is over an hour’s drive away. So you can imagine waking up on the 44th floor of the Shangri-La Hotel and looking out my window to see the skyline of Vancouver was a very different feeling to waking up and looking at a sheep covered hill. I had an absolutely amazing time and I want to thank my generous and very tolerant host sister, Danielle T. and her family for all they did for me while I was here. I had a fantastic time and I have so many memories and stories to tell when I get home.

Being here at Shawnigan was such an impressionable experience -- I have made a lot of friends who I won’t forget, and if any of you ever come to New Zealand, just give us a shout. It’s not a very big country, so I’m sure I’ll find you easily. I would like to give a big thank you to all my teachers who put up with me in their classes and all the welcoming people I’ve met who have made fun of the way I say ‘cold’ or ‘milk’, the fact that I call flip flops "jandals," toques "beanies," coolers "chilly bins," pop "fizzy drink" and candy "lollies." I’d also like to apologise to those of you that I bumped into because I was walking on the left side of the hallway and not the right. Another thank you to all the girls in Strathcona, especially the grade 11’s, and also Mrs. Connolly and the other duty staff! I loved every minute I spent in that House and I am going to miss you all so, so much. One last thank you to the School and most importantly, to Mr Robertson, for allowing this exchange to happen in the first place. This School, the students and the staff here, are all so remarkable and I mean it when I say I don’t want to leave! There are so many things about this school that I love but I don’t have enough time to list them all. I am never going to forget the time that I spent at Shawnigan Lake and I honestly hope I can come back here one day to this incredible place. I would like to finish with a short Maori blessing:

Kia hora te marino, kia whakapapa pounamu te moana,
Kia tere karohirohi i mua i tou huarahi.
(May calm be spread around you, may the sea glisten like greenstone, and the shimmer of summer dance across your path.)