Australian.

My name is Matilda. I was born on the 16th of February 1999 in Sydney, Australia. I spent about nine years of my life living in Sydney. I lived the typical Australian life – the majority of my time was spent at the beach or in a swimming pool somewhere, with my friends and family. I had always thought about going overseas, and even moving away from Australia, but this didn’t become a reality until 2008. My mum had been offered a job in Singapore, which is a tiny island under Malaysia. I remember being scared at first, because I was leaving my whole life behind. But after about a week, I was showing everyone at my school where Singapore is on the map – unfortunately I was actually pointing at Indonesia, but considering Singapore looked like little dot on the map, I think it didn’t really matter. Of course I eventually learned where it was! On the 7^th of July 2008, I moved to Singapore.

In many ways, Singapore is very similar to Australia. But it is also very different. The Asian culture is so strong in Singapore. The Chinese culture is the strongest; china town is located in the center of the city, but many of the residents are actually Chinese, so the culture is everywhere. There is also “Little India”, which is like an Indian china town. Many other Asian cultures, as well as European cultures, can be found dotted around the country. The school I attended was the international school of Singapore. I had never been to an international school before, nor an IB school, so it was a very big change for me.  I really enjoyed living in Singapore; the weather was good all year round, and the food was excellent… but in august 2011, after spending over three years in Singapore, I found out I was moving to London.

This came as a huge shock to me. I always knew that one day I would have to move again, but I always thought it would be back to Australia. Of course I was happy for my mum; it was her dream job n one of her favourite cities, but the thought of having to pack up all my stuff and start all over again really frightened me.

I moved to London in December 2011, just in time for Christmas. London was also very different to Australia, and Singapore. I was happy to be living in a western culture again, where everyone spoke English. It was very strange to be living in such an iconic city with so many tourists. I really do love London. It may be a European city, but it is full of cultures from all over the world.

I currently attend the international school of London, which is also an IB school. ISL is a lot smaller than my previous school in Singapore; AISS had over 3000 students and ISl has about 300. The students and teachers are so lovely; I have had the opportunity to learn a lot about so many different cultures that I wouldn’t have even known if I had stayed in Australia. Even though I’ve only been living in London for about 10 months, I feel like I’m at home.

MR.