G’day!

I have recently returned to Cass after studying abroad in Melbourne, Australia for a term. Coming home really hits you hard and it’s quite surreal how much things have changed and also stayed the same… weird sentence I know.

Rewind to my first month in Aus and what I have taken away from it:

  • Expect the unexpected. YES everyone says it, but it is honestly so so true. I thought I had done all my research and prep… rookie error, NO amounts of prep will help you to determine the things that will go wrong. That being said please do some prep before you go so you are at least slightly familiar with your environments.
  • You won’t get along with everyone. Again, everyone says it but when you find yourself alone it can be difficult to 1) make friends and 2) make the right friends. I tended to do this through staying in a mixed gender hostel for my first few weeks and doing los of exchange activities and meeting groups after classes for drinks/meals.
  • Uni will be weird, at first. Remember first starting school? or College? or Cass? The feeling of the new academic environment is exactly the same. It’s normal to feel odd and not know what is going on for your first week or so. Just take it at your own pace to get your bearings and familiarise yourself with your courses.

Fast forward a month or two in to the experience and I had huge experiences, learned so much about Aussie culture and history I otherwise wouldn’t have learnt, brought me closer to wildlife and the environment and made friends for life and fallen in love with one of the places furthest from home. I also took the opportunity to travel the East Coast of Australia and also took a trip to the Fiji Islands in my semester break. If you can budget well and have the funds, that is also something I would highly recommend to do whilst your are there because 1 – any flight is easy once you have travelled 24 hours and 2 – Australian domestic flights are super cheap!

In real time, I have found that my experience in Australia has enlightened me on so many things and offered me huge opportunities, specially regarding placement year applications. Another plus is my Christmas was so stress free and I had a lovely break before coming back to uni this week.

I could not recommend study abroad enough and a huge thanks to the team at Cass for making it possible, keeping in touch and even visiting me whilst I was there! Studying abroad has encouraged me to do more things like this in the future and even opened my eyes to international job prospects!

Here are some of my favourite pictures from the experience:

Until next time!