FRENCH exchange student Kilian Vele is making the most of his southern hemisphere sojourn.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Since arriving on the Border in July, Kilian, 17, has been on a 10-day off-grid school camp to Mittagundi in the High Country before going on an alternative Schoolies venture to a remote part of Fiji.
Next year he will travel to New Zealand before a three-week tour of Australia.
“I chose to come to Australia because it is literally the other side of the world from France,” he said.
“It is quite amazing that I was able to travel to Fiji and New Zealand as well as Australia.”
Hosted by Rotary Club of Albury West, The Scots School Albury student said the Paying It Forward Fiji trip was a highlight.
Ten Border students went to the Fijian village of Nalauwaki to paint community buildings as part of the Rotary Club of Albury-Hume project.
“It was more than I ever expected,” he said.
“The people shared everything they had even though there was poverty everywhere.
“They welcomed us into their homes and the children followed us wherever we went.”
Hosted by Ben and Mel Quick at Yackandandah until January, Kilian said he came from the Brittany seaside town Saint-Brevin-les-Pins, which had a population of 12,000 that swelled to 40,000 over summer.
He said he went to school in a nearby city of 80,000.
“School uniforms were new to me here,” he said.
“But outside school, the casual dress sense and bare feet are different to France!”
Kilian said he had enjoyed his off-grid experience at Mittagundi Outdoor Education Centre during November.
“We had 10 days without electricity, which is a bit strange in our time,” he said.
“We had two showers in 10 days but did rafting and all of the activities they offered.”
Kilian, who will start Year 12 studies when he returns to France mid-2018, said he hoped to study political science in Paris.
“After Fiji I’m interested in how poverty and happiness can still go together.”
Rotary Club Albury West hosted its first exchange student in 1971 and has had 39 students from 18 nations since then.
It has sent 40 Border students to Asia, Europe and the Americas.
RELATED CONTENT: