Used To Tea And Rugby

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30542, 10 September 1964, Page 2

Used To Tea And Rugby

Fourteen American Field Service scholars, who are attending North Island schools this year, are visiting the South Island for 10 days. They arrived in Christchurch yesterday for a two-day visit. There are 11 girls and three boys in the party. They are studying at schools in Auckland. Whakatane, Palmerston North, and Te Puke and Wellington. “This is the first time we have all been together since we arrived in New Zealand.” said Miss Penny MacDonald, of Knoxville, Tennessee, who is living in Auckland and attending Mount Roskill Grammar School. “We have found a lot of difficulties in settling in the New Zealand way of life but we are all enjoying it and are learning a lot. The difficulties seem to lie both with New Zealand and with us,” she said. “The slow way of life here grows on you,” said Miss MacDonald. She feels she will

never get used to the pace of living in America again. “I am a confirmed tea drinker now and I love watching soccer. I like Rugby better than grid-iron too.” One of the big differences Miss MacDonald found was in the social life. “In the States if you go out you have to be asked. Here you can just go to a dance or party and you meet someone there. At home you wouldn’t think of going out on your own. “You dress very formally here, too. At home we dress much more casually to go out. When we arrived in New Zealand we found we didn’t have enough fpood clothes.” The school Miss MacDonald attends in Knoxville is about half the size of the school she goes to in Auckland. She will graduate from West High School. Knoxville, next June, and will probably sit her University Entrance here if she does not get accredited. “There is one big difference in the education system in

New Zealand. You work, towards a goal at the end of your schooling and have to meet the same standard all over the country,, with School Certificate and University Entrance. “We get a credit in each subject each year and then get a diploma when we graduate,” she said. “But the standard varies all over the States depending on the school and the standard of the teachers.” The group has visited Picton and Blenheim and will leave for Dunedin and Invercargill on Saturday. Members and friends of the American Field Service are billeting the girls and boys while they are in Christchurch. Included in their, sightseeing programme is a visit to the United States base at Harewood, and to the abattoir at Islington, and a picnic at Diamond Harbour. At present American Field Service scholars at South Island schools are visiting the North Island.