We all know that we can go travelling to see other countries and cultures, but to actually step into the picture, not just look at it, is an opportunity that more teenagers do not want to miss! Read Catherine's story about her exchange in The Netherlands.

Though called an exchange, it is actually a journey. Yes, of course you learn a new language, a new culture, how to live with another family, make new friends, and maybe learn how to eat raw herring (I am still too scared!), but all that is actually just on the surface.What an exchange really gives you is the opportunity to grow as a person.

In an exchange you are literally picked up from your comfort zones, from your family, from your friends, from your country, and then plonked quite suddenly into this new life.

You’re thrown completely in the deep, deep, deep end, and you’ve got to work out how to swim. Though of course before I left I knew this was the case, so I practised my strokes to make sure I would be able to swim brilliantly.

But what I didn’t know was what type of water it would be, whether it would be calm or choppy, or how quickly it could change from calm to choppy, whether there were hidden rips that could pull me off course, and also whether that first course that I was trying so hard to swim was actually the right one. I also came here and realised that the strokes that I had practised in Australia weren't possible to use here, because the normal in Australia is very different to the normal in the Netherlands.

After the first months of trying so hard to swim well, trying so hard with the language, trying so hard to make new friends and understand the school work, trying not to miss everyone back home, and then trying to act normal like I was just a normal teenager and I didn’t have all these other emotions, I realised exactly what I was doing wrong. I was trying Way Too Hard.

So I took a big, deep breath, and just let all my emotions float away. And then I floated myself. I just let the current take me where it wanted to, and as soon as I did that my life become GEWELDIG*!!!

Now I have six months left and I love living them!

- Catherine, year program to The Netherlands

Find out more!

Come along to our next information evening or open day and meet returned students like Catherine to find out all you need to know about their WEP experiences. For more details and directions, please click here.

* "GEWELDIG" is Dutch for "fantastic" and "exciting"

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