Midway through their sophomore year, many Colorado College students face the inevitable question: Should I study abroad? The following questions ensue: Fall? Spring? Where? As a Winter Start student, I had already caught the travel bug after a gap semester in New Zealand and knew without a doubt I’d go abroad again.
To be honest, I didn’t put a ton of thought into my decision to go to Australia. I liked the idea of going to the beach daily, the Australian accent and upon a bit of research found out the University of Sydney’s campus looked straight out of Hogwarts.
However, as soon as my application was completed, I began to worry about my new life down under. Would there be deadly snakes and spiders everywhere? Should I have chosen Europe for a more “traditional” study abroad experience?
After my semester in Sydney, I’m here to tell you my decision was 100% the right one.
After a daunting 15-hour flight, arriving in Sydney felt oddly familiar, yet completely different. Although everyone speaks English, I soon learned that Australian slang is a completely different language. Every word is abbreviated, even if it’s already short. In the first few weeks, I had to learn a completely new set of vocabulary.
Words like bottle-o, arvo and brekky were soon incorporated into my everyday life. In the first few months, despite some seasonal depression (going from long summer days to short winter ones was rough), I felt like I really had put some roots down in Sydney. I joined a gym, had a favorite coffee shop, a spot to study on campus and a bar my friends and I became regulars at.
A unique difference I found between my life in Sydney and the experiences of my friends who studied abroad in Europe was the amount of time I spent in Sydney itself. Rather than traveling to a new country every weekend, I spent my weekends at a new beach, hiking just outside the city, watching a NRL match (think Australian football) or trying a new brunch spot in the Central Business District. After almost six months, I truly felt a connection to the city and cannot wait to return.
I grew extremely fond of the emphasis on work-life balance. No matter what time of day or week, Sydney’s beaches were full of people soaking in the sun, grabbing a flat white at a nearby cafe or taking a stunning coastal walk between beaches.
While this led me to question whether or not Aussies had legitimate jobs, I learned how I could improve my own work-life balance. Many locals I met would often say “I’m working to live, not living to work.” Australians don’t allow their jobs to become all-consuming: there are always opportunities to take time to do something for themselves. After some time back in the states, I still find myself trying to embody that mindset.
While I’d love to ramble on about all the positive things about being abroad, there are many challenging elements. A challenge specific to CC students in most abroad programs is the adjustment to a semester system from the block plan.
In the first few weeks of classes, I not only felt overwhelmed by juggling four whole subjects at once, but missed other key elements of our campus as well. I had to learn how to be alone and could no longer rely on knowing I’d see my friends at Rastalls or the library after class. I could no longer pick a Block crush out of a class of 25, I sat in lecture halls with over 200 students. While I didn’t encounter as many scary spiders or snakes as I would’ve thought, I quickly learned what magpies and bin chickens were and developed an irrational fear of birds.
However, this is all part of the process. I learned so much about myself during my time in Sydney and grew in more ways than I could have ever imagined. Traveling and studying abroad gave me unique insights into how to be a better person, providing learning opportunities for every aspect of my life. While I’m certain others who study abroad feel the same way about the cities they were, living and learning in Sydney was truly one of the best experiences I’ve had.
Every day, I crave to be walking on a sunny coastal path between the Bondi and Coogee beaches with an iced coffee in hand or studying on the lush lawn of the quad at the University of Sydney’s campus. Until one of my many online job searches with the location set to Sydney, NSW, Australia pans out, I’ll be patiently waiting for my next opportunity to return to the place I once called home.