Rugby, Sun, and Ginger Ale – Aussie Day 2024

With the sun shining and summer-like temperatures of about 28 degrees Celsius, all of us ninth graders, as well as our English Teachers, met in the Barnstorfer Forest to celebrate an English Sportfest and honour the culture of New Zealand and Australia.

We met at 10 am and started off with a rugby tournament. Each class went against one another in teams of ten, and before every game the classes performed the Haka they’ve practiced. A Haka is a traditional dance from New Zealand and while class 9b performed the traditional Haka as it is, other classes got more creative and performed their own versions of the dance. After about three and a half hours, the overall winners were announced. The 9f won the rugby match and as a prize – they got a bag of sweets.

With the exhausting but, as some of the players said, “pretty fun” part of the day done, it was time for a treat. We’ve spent the last part of the day drinking a ginger ale from Australia called “Bundaberg”. Apart from that, we’ve also got the opportunity to try Vegemite, which, in Australia, is typically eaten as a spread on bread.

At 2 pm the event was over and we were free to go home. After asking the others, we can all agree that we not only had a lot of fun, but also learned quite a bit about Australia and its sports and culture.