I am in my fourth week of study abroad, and “mid-semester break” is approaching. I use the quotation marks because it is hard to not call the week long break Spring Break, but since I am in the opposite hemisphere, it is fall here, hence the mid-semester break title. I have decided that I am completely in love with Australia and that I never want to leave. I know that is quite a typical sentiment among study abroad students, but I feel a particularly strong desire to stay here (or move here after college to work) because I love it so much. I love the lifestyle, the beaches, the food, the weather, the cities, the mountains, the people, the art, the music, the little suburbs of Sydney, the easy transport, the street artwork, the character of the city, the history… I could go on for a while. I am so happy I picked Australia as my destination. Before I came here, students from Rollins who had studied abroad before would tell me that this would be the best time of my life, but I had no idea what they meant until I got here. College is often refereed to as the best time of peoples lives, and study abroad is the best time of that college experience. I agree. Here’s some of my experiences that have shaped my time here so far:
I have had the most amazing experiences on this corner of the world. The first week I was here TEAN (my study abroad organization) held the orientation in Cairns, and I had a blast. I met everyone studying abroad in Sydney, went skydiving, scuba-diving (so glad I got my cert last semester thru Rollins), and held a koala. The first week I arrived in Sydney I met some awesome people who were planning a trip to Bali before we started school. I thought, “I just arrived in Sydney, how ridiculous it is to just go to Bali right away?” But I did (with 16 other people). It was amazing, and I am so glad I got to experience Indonesia. We went to a monkey jungle, rice fields, beach clubs, and we experienced the culture of Ubud.
I started school and really enjoyed my classes and the university from the bat. The uni (university- Aussies shorten everything lol) is like Hogwarts. It is magnificent, and SO LARGE. Rollins is so tiny, but I was never prepared for how big the uni is. I still haven’t seen or been everywhere and I’ve been here 1.5 months.
I am going to New Zealand this coming week for mid-semester break and I am soooo excited. I wish I would have been able to study for 2 semesters because I would have done NZ next.
Overall I have been loving Australia so much. I feel as if studying abroad has already made me grow as a person and to “find myself” as cliche as that sounds. I have been exposed to another culture, and many subcultures, that I like, found places to go, things to do, eat, and buy, and experience that I never would have in the US.
Until Next post,
Anne-Marie Kildron