Preface to the Journey

Hello there,

For those that do not know me, my name is David Giles, I am 16 and I live in Stirling in South Australia. I am actively involved in Scouting at Mount Lofty Scout Group in the Twin Peaks Venturer Unit, and through the wonderful organisation of Scouts I have been given the opportunity to participate in a student exchange program known as SISEP and represent Australia and Scouts overseas, beginning this Sunday.

SISEP is an exchange program for Venturers (teenager Scouts). The basic idea of the exchange is to live with another Scouting family in another country and experience the culture of the country, along with discovering how universal the Scouting community is in the world. There are three countries to choose from for the exchange: Denmark, Japan and the UK. I have decided to go to Denmark for my exchange for two main reasons; one, to experience a culture truly different from our own in Australia in terms of language and two, to also have a week in London after the exchange that is only available for exchangees who go to Denmark and the UK.

As part of the exchange program I have had the privilege to host a Danish exchange student, Jakob Kristoffersen, in July of this year. While he was staying with our family, we took him on a holiday to show him the size and beauty of Australia. As part of the trip we drove from Adelaide to Dubbo in one day, saw the animals at the Western Plains Zoo, swam in a thermal pool in Moree, visited most of the Worlds in the solar system known as the Gold Coast, drove down the Pacific Highway to Sydney and had a look around Canberra. Jakob certainly saw a large part of the country! Fortunately for my exchange, Jakob and his family will be my hosts which makes settling into a family in a foreign country less daunting for me. During my exchange, I will be attending school with Jakob, participating with his Scout Group and experiencing life in Denmark. Luckily for me, I will be in Denmark for Christmas and New Year!

As I said above, this Sunday sees the beginning of my exchange when I along with the other South Australia exchangees meet at Adelaide Airport at 10am. From there we fly to Sydney to meet up with exchangees from Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. We then fly to Copenhagen via Singapore and London, where the real experience begins!