I feel like this Australia update is more like a life update.
Here we go…
In my first trip to OZ back in 2012, my family and I visited Sydney for a week, and this mini-vacation formulated my perceptions of the city. Even after having lived and explored here (literally in downtown Syd) for 4 months now, I still find that the entire city fits almost every image I brought with me upon returning. Why? It’s a city. The urbanization of this environment has made it easy for me to discover the place – and even fall in love with it – but hard to feel integrated with. It’s really not a Sydney-specific phenomenon. Rather, it’s more a simple characteristic of metropolitan cities. I don’t think I had realized originally that some of the reasons I connected with Perth and Oviedo on previous international programs were a result of how those environments were conducive to immersing me in the culture.
Another problem I’ve faced is that the specific living conditions within Sydney are extremely non-conducive to connecting with Australia. I anticipated that it would be more difficult to meet new people at the University of Sydney than Rollins by its sheer size, however I didn’t expect that after 2 months in Sydney I’d still, in total honesty, never had a conversation with an Australian longer than 5 min!!
Another part of this problem is the housing situation in Sydney. Although I had believed that the Urbanest student apartments would be a great way for me to live communally with Australians and other american and international roommates, this was completely wrong.
A combination of ridiculously high housing prices are in Sydney, and a culture of young adults living with their parents means that basically any college student living near campus is an international student. Specifically, my apartment housing is almost entirely comprised from the United States and China. Because of these factors, the other Rollins students and I managed to live in an American bubble for months.
I’m sure at this point, it sounds like this update is turning into a rant. It’s not! These realities were frustrating at first, but they drove me to adapt to my situation in order to feel more immersed, and to review my experience here through a new interpretation.
First, while the cost of living in a big city is detachment, the payoff is infrastructure. I live blocks away from the largest train station in the state, and I’ve really capitalized on my privilege of public transportation. I’ve explored outwards in all directions of Sydney; never more than a couple hours away from places like Newcastle, the Blue Mountains, and the Royal National Park. These day-cations have kept me from feeling like I’m missing out on some of the adventures to Melbourne, New Zealand and Thailand that a lot of my friends are doing.
Second, I have faced an unbelievable amount of homesickness here. It’s knocked me off my feet multiple times, but being surrounded by my fellow Rollins and TEAN program friends helps me be more connected with America.
Lastly, even though I can sometimes feel like I’m in Sydney, but not Australia; I have found a way to ground myself to this country by spending time at the most Aussie place
I can think of: the ocean. I’m only about a 30 min bus trip to Coogee Beach, which is the smallest of the 3 main Sydney beaches (Bondi and Manly being the more famous ones). Every week I visit some other American students from my study abroad program who go to the University of New South Wales. They, too, live together in an apartment, but but having a balcony with a million dollar view of the beach makes it easy for me to feel bonded with this nation and natural world.
I’ve learned that I am much more of a people person than I ever thought. It’s driven my homesickness and loneliness, but it’s also given rise to some of my best memories of the past several months here.
I’ve had so many ups and downs in these past three months since the start of August that it feels like I’ve lived a completely new life here. Sometimes, when I’ve been my lows here it felt like they’ve even outweighed all of the incredible fun things I’ve gotten to do. Yeah, I’m not afraid to admit that I have faced some unexpected challenges while studying abroad here that have frequently made me wish I was home. It’s forced me to do a lot of personal reflection about why I’m here and what am I gaining from this experience that will carry with me in the long run. And, to my surprise, I’ve resolved that this trip has invaluably helped me realize a lot more about who I am and can be as a person and how expansive my career options really can be.
I guess you could say that I traveled literally across the world – not to discover a new place, but to discover a new part of myself.