Adriana Navarro, Danielle Ulriche and Alex Tenno at the Werribee Open Range Zoo. 69202 Picture: XAVIER SMERDON
By XAVIER SMERDON
A GROUP of Californian exchange students have learned first-hand what life is like in the western suburbs of Melbourne, after spending the last three weeks in Wyndham.
Seven students from Wyndham’s sister city, Costa Mesa in California, have lived with different families from across the municipality during their stay.
And while they may have travelled more than 12,000 kilometres to get here, it is the small things that have been the most interesting to the teenagers.
“It’s really strange to see people driving on the wrong side of the road,” Danielle Ulrich said.
“People are also really relaxed here, they’re not very rushed.”
Costa Mesa has 30,000 less people than Wyndham, but is 15 times smaller. It has an economy based on retail, commerce and light manufacturing.
One of the students, Natalie Castaneda, said she also found the Australian accent interesting.
“Your accents and the slang you use are really strange,” Natalie said.
“I accidentally used ‘Oi’ in the wrong way. We were at a restaurant, and the waitress asked, ‘who had the lasagne?’and I yelled out ‘Oi.’”
During their three weeks in Wyndham, the students have been to an AFL match, visited Ballarat and the Great Ocean Road and got close and personal with some of the animals at the Werribee Open Range Zoo.
When Star spoke to them, they were planning on having dinner with the Wyndham City Council.
