G’day mate!
It has already been a month since I first landed in Australia. Honestly, I do not want to return to the USA and I can see myself living here once I graduate. I’ll save more of these thoughts for my return blog so, for now, I’ll give y’all more juicy bits.
Orientation was a blast! Even before I first landed in Australia, I started meeting people who are also studying abroad through TEAN. After about 36 grueling hours, I finally landed in Cairns, where I started exploring the city and taking in the fact that I was finally in Australia. The rest of the week consisted of scuba diving, skydiving, canyoning, and meeting some Aussie animals. If there is one big takeaway from this week, is that I am definitely getting scuba certified when I return to Rollins.
Ever since I got here to Newcastle, it has been a whirlwind. In a span of about a month, I’ve gone to the beach three times, taken a day trip to Sydney, gone to a rugby game, and met so many people. Also, I’M GOING TO BALI FOR SPRING BREAK (sorry for yelling but I’ve wanted to go to Bali for the longest time and it’s finally happening). If I had to pick my favorite thing about Newcastle, it is the whole vibe of it. It is a decent sized city where there is a lot to do but without the intimidation one might encounter when they go to another city such as Sydney or Melbourne.
I have also started classes since I am STUDYING abroad. Luckily, all 4 of my classes count for either my political science or my anthropology major. I am taking Aussie government and politics, Australian Aborigines and Human Rights. Indigenous People of the Contemporary World, and Aboriginal Education Policies and Issues. So far, they’ve been pretty chill. I don’t have any major assignments coming up so I’ve just been trying to do all the readings and understanding the content. I have also joined two clubs and have signed up for a program called ILEAD.
This past month has been one of the best I’ve had in a while and it’s only going to get better from here. This weekend, I will spend it in Sydney and go to a Sydney Harbour boat party. Next weekend, my sister, who is coming to visit, and I will spend the weekend in Adelaide. I will also be going to Melbourne and Bali.
That’s it for now. I could go on and on about what’s been going on with my life so far but that would be too long of a post. If you do happen to have questions, you can always ask 🙂
Cheers,
Fabi