The main highlights of the year were the quiz days, the Villa/STC International lunch and the international week. Though some of the students dreaded the international meetings they would normally have fun by the end of it with most of the meetings packed with fun games and prizes including lots of chocolate and lollipops.

Our job as international leaders this year was not to create a secret society of international students but to help them out with things that they struggled with like finding classes they needed to go to, helping them make new friends with the Kiwi kids and basically acting as older brothers and helping them out with any problems they had. One of the best things about being an international leader was that we really got to know the internationals students this year and become their friends.

Overall we had a lot of fun being international leaders and we hope that next year will be just as awesome. Good luck to next year's leaders, we hope that you do a great job in helping the students with their troubles and help create unity and cultural awesomeness within the school and community. "Man who stand on hill with mouth open will wait long time for roast duck to drop in." - Confucius

Q: How did you find St Thomas' this year?

A: It was fun and I liked it, my English skills are getting better and I have quite a few friends now who are both kiwi and international students.

Q: What's the difference between studying in Korea and New Zealand?

A: I can understand here more easily and I can study with fun.

 Yi Liu

Q: How did you find St Thomas' this year?

A: I learnt about St Thomas school from my cousin because my cousin was working in New Zealand, and because St Thomas is a catholic school and is the top school in Christchurch hehe, I was a little bit nervous because I was a new student and I didn't have any friends but I believed I would make a lot of friends at this school. So now I've got a lot of friends who are both kiwis and international students and now I am very confident with my life in New Zealand.

Q: How did you find Nigel and I as international leaders?

A: On the first day I met both Nigel and David and I felt they were really good and kind to me and helped me out a lot on my first few days of school when I had trouble understanding people and making my way around school.

The earthquake didn't stop us as we still managed to pull through our more engaging and interactive events such as the name signing on the Monday and the traditional food fair on the Thursday. These events had a great turnout with many students and even teachers participating in them with very positive responses. The name signing event had a wide variety of languages from the student community, consisting of languages such as, Arabic, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Samoan, and even Tongan. The boys took great pride in their own individual nationalities and everyone seemed to appreciate their ability to read and write in more than one language. One teacher took advantage of this ability and got the students to write interesting messages to a certain member of the staff, which was quite hilarious aye Mr. Strachan.

The food fair event may have been a St Thomas' record, as we sold all the food in about ten minutes, with a total of around one hundred and seventy dollars raised! The food was thoroughly enjoyed by mainly students as the teachers were too slow to make it in time for the good stuff, which included David's delicious noodles, some Vietnamese Spring rolls from my restaurant, and a platter of succulent sushi brought in by a friend of the ESOL department.

The Finale of the week was the international assembly, which started off in style with a grand entrance of flag bearers to the song "Kung Fu Fighting." It was epic! Our assembly addressed the differences between the many cultures of the school, covering Chinese high school, Korean society and living, and the heartfelt story of a big Tongan in his home country of New Zealand.

I would like to conclude this report by thanking all the people that helped set this week of international adventure up. The ESOL department ensured the successful planning of the week and the teachers involved showed great positive attitudes that made the whole event a week to remember. Thank you to the teachers that helped out: Mrs. Lake, Mr. McCarthy, Mrs. Wong, and Mrs. Atia. Also a great thank you to the ESOL students that made a big effort to express their cultures and finally a big thank you to the student community of St Thomas' because without your acknowledgement of other cultures we wouldn't have a unique country in which we can all live in and share our experiences together. Thank You.

Nigel Nguyen and David Correos