Around The College

Summer 2020 – Homestay students 

During the summer of 2020, our international homestay students could not go back to their home countries due to the travel restrictions and stayed here in Melbourne with their Homestay families. During this time, we all interacted with each other and looked after each other’s wellbeing. One of the activities that we ran together was creating a continuous chain story. It started with a prompt, and each student had to add their part as the story was virtually “passed around”. Here is the result:  

I open my eyes to an unfamiliar surrounding. Surrounded by high walls, there is nothing but a large wooden door that stands in front of me. I take a deep breath and twist open the door handle, despite its size it opens up with ease and as I lift my eyes, I am surprised to find on other side... 

A golden beach and massive blue are in sight. It reminds me that the summer is in season. I would have dived into the sea for fun but astonished at the unfamiliar place. When overlooking on the right, there is a small boat anchored on a distant wharf...

As I was walking down the sea shore I could feel the glow and warmth of the blistering sun whipping on my skin. It was a moment of alleviation when the ocean breeze hit my face and everything I could hear the satisfying sound of the waves, It just felt like all my problems just disappeared for that one moment...

Just as I was enjoying the moment, suddenly I heard a song. I listened carefully, the voice is from the sea! I looked out to the sea, and the sunshine makes me close my eyes. When I looked over again, I found a figure... 

It turned out to be a pink dolphin separated from her family! She seemed to see me, too, and swam slowly towards me. She was caught in a fishing net. She looked miserable and was asking me for help. I immediately helped her untie the fishing net. Unexpectedly, she spoke! "I can grant your three wishes...

I shocked about 3 seconds and i hit myself to made sure it was not a dream. The pink dolphin was still there which looked at me and smiled. I thought about everything i could wish for. The first thing was...

A better 2021. 2020 was a difficult year for all of us: for our families and our countries. There were plenty of unusual things we had to encounter that we never thought such things would appear in our lives. Therefore, 2021, please be easier and things can only get better. No more natural disasters, no more pandemics, and no more bad luck. All I wish for is that! For the second wish, I hope...

That I would get a free Netflix account, which lasts forever. Also, I hope that I also have unlimited access to all Netflix movies regardless of the countries. The third wish is definitely a difficult one to choose. Suddenly, one idea just pops right in my head.  For my final wish, the most significant one, I wholeheartedly want YouTube to remove that 2 annoying unskippable ads that play back to back. I believe that the entire humanity on this planet also wish for the same thing. After fulfilling my three wishes, after fulfilling my three wishes, the dolphin...

Disappeared to be with her family and I go back to my home gladly. However, after the amazing experience, i find out that more and more wishes are coming and hoped to be fulfilled, so every night i prey that the large wooden door occurs again when i wake up. One day, it happens... 

at that day, when I opened my eyes, I realised the strange thing happened to me again. This time I found that I was step on the land that was made with black metal which could emit strange blue lights. Further to this, when I looked upon to the sky I could see there was a huge planet which seems to be covered with a huge plant. Suddenly, a big voice occurred and my attention was soon been attracted by that voice, I found that there was a large building suddenly appeared in front of me, this building was like a black inverse pyramid which has many strange stripes on it. What's more, this building was not set on the land but floated on the sky and I saw a familiar thing set at the top of the black inverse pyramid, I saw the wooden door again. After I saw the large wooden door, I decided to walk toward to the black inverse pyramid and found a way to entry the wooden door...

and the story continues with heaps of adventures to follow and share with you all later.  

What wonderful experiences I have had in the past two days. It started with an empty slate but by the end of today I had soooo much to share with everyone. I wish everyday was like these two days …  

Mrs Thapliyal, Director of International Students