Results of Studying Abroad

It’s over. My 5 month trip to Australia is finished. I’m back at home in Pennsylvania reflecting on all the good memories. It’s weird to think that I’ve been gone for so long. The first day back at home seemed foreign, but the next day, was like any other day in the states. I jumped back into my regular routine of going to work and hanging out with my friends, although the jet lag killed me. It took 5 days to get back on my normal sleeping and eating schedule.

My highlights of the trip consist of:

• Making new friends
• Swimming at The Great Barrier Reef
• Sailing the Whitsunday’s
• Backpacking in Sydney
• Partying in the Gold Coast
• Backpacking New Zealand.

I had the best 5 months I could’ve asked for. I experienced some culture shock, but quickly overcame that. AND, I was forced to learn how to cook! I’m walking away from this experience with so many new skills and life lessons.

What I’m going to miss most about studying abroad is not having a routine schedule. In Australia, every week was different compared to my life at home. All it took was an invite, and I was out the door and doing something different, whether it was traveling, hiking, boating, playing rugby or going out to dinner. I sure will miss the Aussie life.

If you ever have a chance to study abroad, do it!

If I had to give advice to anyone studying abroad, I would have to say make sure you have skype and stay in contact with friends and family back at home. They are your support team, and without them, you’ll miss home even more. They’ll encourage you to live it up and help you succeed.

I believe this will be my last post for The Australian in ME. If you have any questions, please ask away and I’ll get back to you. If you’ve enjoyed reading about my adventures, please let me know. I’m looking forward to doing this all over again in a different country. Fingers crossed, I think I’m going to Europe next!

Traveling Around Australia (Sydney)

I know it’s late, but I’ve been busy since my trip! Sydney is my new favorite place in the world. It’s absolutely amazing! The culture, night life and size of the city is what I love about it.

Taken from The Rocks

My first night there was a little rough as I waited at the airport for 2 hours waiting on my shuttle to Nomads’ Westend Hostel. I thought they forgot about me and I felt lost. After I found them, I had a nice ride to the hostel, where I checked in and fell asleep instantly.  The next day, I met a new friend from Germany. We got breakfast and then walked down Pitt St. towards Circular Quay. The city was amazing! Since it was Good Friday, Sydney was empty and I had the streets to myself!

Taken from the Sydney Bridge

My jaw dropped as soon as I saw the huge Opera House! I couldn’t believe how big it was. Pictures really don’t do it justice. My favorite sight of the city was looking from the opera house towards the Sydney Harbor Bridge. The colors were so vibrant and I felt like I was in Europe with the different color houses and red/orange roofing.

During the week, I went to Maloney’s Hotel for fish & chips and for a few happy hours. Maloney’s was one of my favorite places to go at night. The music was good and there was always a rugby game on the TV. I also tried a lot of different food in china town and all around the King Street Wharf.

My favorite place to go in Sydney was the King Street Wharf. During the day they had street performers everywhere and at night it was the highlight of nightlife. I also went the IMAX there to see a movie on the world’s largest screen! It was epic.  I spent a lot of time in McDonalds & Happy Jacks to use their WiFi. I tried to Skype my friends and parents as much as I could. I had no contact with them from the previous week while I was in the Whitsunday’s!

I also strolled around the Royal Botanic Gardens, which were sweet. For me, it was Sydney’s central park (NYC). Throughout the week I met a bunch of people, but I’d say my roommate Louis was the coolest. We hung out everyday and partied at night. He’s from the UK traveling around Australia and New Zealand for a few months. I’m kind of jealous that he has all that time.

I went on the bridge climb, which is worth the $215. The views were stunning as I climbed over 134 meters! The climb was my favorite activity of the week. We has a group of 10 people and followed our tour guide the entire time. once we reached the summit, we took pictures in our ridiculous wind suits. We learned about the bridge history and why it was a symbol of hope during Australia’s depression. I also went on a hike to the Blue Mountains and saw the Three Sisters at Scenic World. I was expecting a lot more hiking and was disappointed with our group. They were caring babies and basically dressed up like they were going out to dinner. I thought it was a HIKE… On my last full day, Louis and I went to the Taronga Zoo. It was pretty cool, but I’m not a zoo person. We spent about 2 hours walking around then decided to leave to beat the thunderstorm that was rolling in from the east near Bondi beach.

Taken from Scenic World

Overall, Sydney was the best experience of my life. I can’t wait to go back and visit. I would move there if I had the opportunity. I’m not sure if I would live there forever, but I would consider a few years. Who knows, maybe I’ll go to graduate school at the University of Sydney! I really hope that you have the chance to travel like I have. It has been such a great learning experience that I’ve enjoyed.

Traveling Around Australia (Whitsunday’s)

For the last 2 weeks, I’ve been experiencing Australia at its’ best with a bunch of my friends from the University of the Sunshine Coast! In a quick summary, I visited the Whitsunday’s and Sydney.  But what you don’t know is how much fun those 2 stops have been!  I’ll break this down into 2 blogs: 1) Whitsunday’s &  2) Sydney.

Whitsunday Islands:

1. My first stop was Airlie Beach, where we stayed at a hostel and partied like crazy! Airlie Beach was a nice small town, but full of life (especially at night) and beautiful women.  My first night was off to a good start.  That was also the first time I’ve ever stayed at a hostel.   It was quite dirty and not my favorite place.  Overall, I would give Airlie Beach a 7 out of 10.
2. The second day we boarded a boat that took us to Long Island, where we spent the entire week. Long Island was built more for families, but we made it a party spot and met a lot of people, including a few old couples who loved us.  Our hostel was located in the back of the resort, but it was perfect for us.  We basically had no food the entire week.  The only thing that filled us was our lovely alcoholic beverages we managed to buy before coming to the island.  I think from this point you should be able to guess how the rest of the week went.  PARTY!! 
3. While in the Whitsunday’s, we had a bunch of fun adventures that we booked with STA before we left.  They were extremely helpful.  The following occurred from April 1st – April 5th:
   1. Rock climbed the small mountain on Pelican Island
   2. Enjoyed a 4.4 kilometer hike to Sandy bay where we drank Goon, played baseball, & ran naked, which led to cutting my foot on rocks! My friend also got stung by a jelly fish!
   3. Sailed the Camira to Whitehaven Beach
   4. Snorkeled at Knuckle Reef
   5. Drunken hot tub adventures 
4. My week came to an end 2 days earlier than our group.  I chose to leave for Sydney and spend a week traveling alone, or so I thought. 

Why Did I Choose to Study in Australia?

I had 2 opportunities to choose from:  1) Short study tour  2) Full Semester Abroad

I chose to study abroad for a full semester instead of a study tour.  I wanted to take advantage of this amazing opportunity of combining my desire to explore new places while studying business and communication. Freshman year I realized by attending Queens University of Charlotte, I have the opportunity to follow my dream of leaving the United States to study abroad and to accomplish some of my goals.  I want to be well educated, culturally diverse, and successful.  I have looked into studying abroad in other locations, like Ireland and Hong Kong,  but felt the University of the Sunshine Coast had the most to offer.  After reading about the University, I liked how it resembled Queens in many ways:

1. There is personal attention from the professors
2.  Resources helping students do well in courses
3. Support in entrepreneurial ideas, like Queens’ McColl School of Business
4. Their Global Opportunities Program, which is USC’s study abroad program.

I chose Queens partially because of these reasons above and I wanted to study at another university that truly cared about me and wanted me to excel in life.

I chose Australia because it had always been a dream of mine to visit the land down under.  My available options helped in my decision process because I’ve already visited Europe and I’m not as interested in Asian culture as I am in the diverse Australian culture.  In the future I plan on traveling to Germany and Poland to hopefully meet family relatives who live there and explore my heritage.

Rain, GO AWAY!

It’s been raining here for days.  I’m not talking about a little here and there. I mean straight downpour! The thunderstorms have been pretty cool to watch and I feel like I’m in a tropical storm with all this wind. I’ve basically been stuck in my room watching Alcatraz and reading Start Something That Matters by Blake Mycoskie (owner of TOMS shoes). I rented Alcatraz on my plane ride from Charlotte to LAX and instantly fell in love with it.  It’s entertaining and only $1.99/ episode on iTunes. I have been reading a lot too.  Since December, I’ve picked up 3 books (that’s a lot for me lol) and have been reading about entrepreneurship. As I’m double majoring, my degree in business is only for general business administration so I’m trying to teach myself about entrepreneurship. I’m reading about success stories and starting to gather my thoughts about creating my own business.

I’ve been recognizing lately that I really do like my alone time, but I get a little depressed.  I know I do it to myself, but I find it relaxing to be alone. Of course I’m first in line to do anything with friends, but I’m not really going out to find people.  I think all this rain has just done this to me for the last week, but I need the rain to stop. All of my shoes are wet, I don’t have an umbrella, and to top things off, I’m drenched when I go to class. <— Annoying!

The positives:

1. I booked my flights & accommodations to the Whitsunday Islands & Sydney
2. I’m currently planning a 1 week trip to New Zealand with friends
3. Classes are pretty fun so far
4. I’m stocked up on food!

 

Update on Life

Well today is beautiful once again, but I don’t want to go out.  I need a break from laying in the sun and staying out late.  My sleep pattern is slowly getting better, but it is still off.  I can only sleep until 8am and then I just force myself to get up.  The birds are so loud here it’s almost impossible to fall back asleep.

The last 3 days I’ve gone to the beach twice, visited Kondalilla National Park, and went clubbing twice.  Fun life, but a hell of a lot of walking. I really like how there is more walking in Australia compared to the states. I’m sure the scenery and weather helps make it easier to walk here.  My friends and I walked on Mooloolaba beach for almost 3 miles until we caught a bus in the middle of some small town.  I was exhausted and my ankle was swollen from twisting it on the first day here.  I don’t think I mentioned that, but for a quick FYI, I’ve been limping around in pain..

Kondalilla National Park was so cool.  We hiked down the mountain to the bottom of the waterfall and then hiked to the top.  When we arrived at what seemed to be everyones favorite location, we jumped in the water and swam for an hour.  It was freezing, but it felt good.  I’ve never swam in water that felt so pure.  I do have to admit that I was a litter nervous for some Australian animal to sting or bite me, but I saw absolutely no signs of life in the water.

One of my favorite things about this trip is how unpredictable your daily schedule is.  I’ve planned on staying in, or going to the pool, but end up going to the beach or on a trip.  It seems like nothing really has to be done that very second.  This is a huge difference than the US. Everyone really is laid back here.

One last comment.  I can’t believe how expensive everything is here.  I’m starving because I haven’t purchased enough food and I’m still adjusting to actually cooking my meals, not just microwavable meals.  Do you know of any good recipes that are healthy and quick to make? Let me know.

USC Campus Orientation

This campus is sick! I’m very impressed with how well kept everything is.  All of the buildings are modern and very colorful.  USC doesn’t seem real to me, but it’s a place to study haha. There are palm trees everywhere and kangaroos in every courtyard! It might take awhile to get used to, but I can see myself doing well here.

Orientation: I have to say “O-week” is not great. It’s stretched to 7 days and all the information isn’t that important to me.  I also can’t believe they aren’t giving us name tags.  There are too many people to keep track of and to remember their names! One thing I do like, is how friendly the staff are.  They seem happy all the time and extremely outgoing and approachable.

I’m not happy to say this, but I won an eating competition yesterday at the pool party USC held for us.  It was disgusting.  I had to eat 2 candy bars, a cereal bar with Vegemite (NASTY) and a cookie with whip cream.  I did all of this to win a $20 gift card that I actually never received. I walked away laughing and in search for a drink. Vegemite is awful.

After the pool party, we through a pool party for ourselves back at UniCentral (our apartments) that was awesome.  It looked just like that new movie that’s coming out with the kid who wants to be know/cool.  Everyone was out of control and having a blast.  We later cleaned up and jumped the fence to Varsity apartments to join their party with a DJ.  It was EPIC. Everyone had their own dance styles, which was very entertaining. These kids go H.A.M. here.

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Leaving the States

I left Macungie, PA pretty excited.  Now I’m 56min away from landing in Brisbane and I’m freaking out (in a good way).  Everything so far has gone so well.  My flight to Charlotte, NC  felt like the longest 2hrs ever, but this 14 hr flight from LAX isn’t that bad.  I’ve met a lot of cool people so far and have enjoyed all my conversations with them. In Charlotte, I boarded a plane and got stuck near a baby.. Yeah, I was thinking fml, but it ended up being ok.  I just realized I’ll never have kids haha. No seriously, it was fine.  The guy next to me was cool. He told me about living in Venezuela and why he was traveling.

Flying to LA was actually pretty much a highlight of my trip.  It was my first time to the West Coast and even though it was at the airport, I had a chance to go outside to switch terminals.  LA seemed too crowded, but I’d give it another chance since I was at the Airport.  Let me take the time to say LAX is retarded.  What airport make you leave to get into another terminal!?! Not very efficient is it..

Anyway, after a bite to eat at a poor serviced Chile’s, I boarded my first Quantas Airlines plane.  I have one word to describe the airline: Awesome.  I’m on flight QF16 and enjoying my seat back at 64C. (Thanks Queens.. First Class next time?)  Luckily, I sat next to a friendly Australian.  Paul was cool as hell.  We ordered Bundaberg Rum and got to talking about Australia and what I’ll be experiencing during my 5 months away.  We laughed about a bunch of stuff for a while until we both clocked out.  At that point, I’d been up for about 20hrs and still had a flight across the Pacific Ocean ahead of me.

10 hours later I’m writing this. Quantas really made a good impression on me.  Free food & drinks, and yes I mean alcoholic ones too!  Their staff was awesome (even though one guy spilled water on me) and really laid back.  To pass the time, I watched Real Steel, American Horror Story, listened to some music and played  Where’s My Water  for over 5 hours.  It’s a great game, check it out. I’m really not sure how much I’ve slept, but it’s enough to get me through another day.

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I just traveled to the other side of the world.  We’re getting ready for landing so I have to go, but before I go, let me give you some advice. Travel! Study Abroad!  Follow your dreams!  Go visit somewhere that you’ve always wanted to see. It’s been 2 days, but I can already tell this has been worth the time and the money. Until next time, where do you want to travel to?