Blog Post 4: November 7th
With only four weeks left in this phenomenal country I feel a mixture of sadness and appreciation. The past four months have been some of the most incredible and I wouldn’t change any aspect of this semester. Today I finished classes and was sad walking out as my favorite professor here said “say goodbye to the Americans!” and gave Nica and I (also from Rollins) her favorite Australian candy. It was so interesting to study Public Relations in an international setting because it changed my perspective on the profession of PR as a whole. For example, we had the opportunity to go to a conference where some of the top Australian PR companies held a round table. They shared their future plans for the PR industry and media use and I found a lot of the ideas to be different to the ones I had studied in America, but was excited for the perspective change. I also am happy to have had the chance to have taken two Aboriginal classes taught by Aboriginal professors because it was not only so eye-opening to learn about the adverse history and current affairs of Aboriginal people; but being taught by Aboriginal Australians also made the courses authentic and fulfilling.
As well as classes ending, our college (Australian dorm) had a farewell formal last night. It was such a great way to celebrate the semester and properly say goodbye to the people we’ve met here. I was even asked to do the speech on behalf of the internationals living in our college. There are about 200 students living in our dorm and around 30% being international and the rest Australian. Having this small community environment gave us the chance to develop such great relationships with both other International students and Australians as well, and I was happy to express this in the farewell speech. I also was grateful to have been asked to do the speech because it made me realize that these people have not only made an impact on my life, but that as an abroad student I was able to make a small impact on theirs as well.
I am writing this post on Bar Beach, our absolute favorite spot to come to (and only about 20 minutes away from campus). Australian summer is coming in full swing and I can’t imagine leaving this place as the beach cafe serves calamari and the sun is the perfect amount. In two weeks we are going to Indonesia and I can’t wait. Until then, I am going to make the most of my last few weeks here as it is officially summer and I have just had the best semester of my life.