By Derek Schlennstedt
‘Buenos Dias,’ the welcoming Spanish phrase greeted students, parents and teachers who gathered at the special assembly held at Mount Evelyn’s Birmingham Primary School on Wednesday 16 March.
The good day greeting was aimed at four Mexican students who had travelled all the way from their region as part of an exchange program run with Birmingham Primary School.
In what was a very warm welcome, students danced, gave aerobic displays and even sang a song in Spanish, specially learnt for the occasion.
Brimingham principal Trish Enzinger welcomed the exchange students.
“We are so happy to have you here, and we know you are going to have a fabulous time and we are going to have a fabulous time getting to know you,” Ms Enzinger said.
“This is our eighth exchange with ISSE and our second exchange with Mexico, and it is like the world comes to us here in Mount Evelyn, and we learn all about different cultures and ways of life.”
Among the attendees were parliamentarians Toni Smith and Christine Fyffe who warmly greeted the exchange students and presented them with various Australian gifts so they could ‘take a piece of Australia home with them.’
“I know that they’ll take back many memories from here in Mount Evelyn, and so I also have a small Australian flag and a book of Australian symbols for each of them to take back to Mexico.”
The Mexican Exchange students will spend three weeks at Birmingham school living with host families and travelling to iconic locations like Healesville Sanctuary and the MCG.
The students arrived on 15 March from Colegio Princeton School in Mexico City and teacher Itziah Celis said upon arrival the students were amazed by the incredible colour and greenery that surrounds the school.
“Completely different.
“We come from Mexico City, and it’s one of the biggest cities in the world, it’s so busy and crowded, so this is beautiful.”
“There is one park in the city, but the rest is full of buildings, highways, malls and factories, so we don’t get a lot of green there,” Itziah said.
The exchange program is part of the International School to School program, and will see six Birmingham students travel to Mexico in September.
All the Mexican exchange students are looking forward to seeing koalas and kangaroos, and are very interested in trying the local delicacy vegemite, with one student having already tried it and noting it tasted ‘delicious.’
