Hello all! I am Amanda Compean, a Junior Chemical Engineering major studying abroad in Newcastle, Australia this semester! As of today, I have officially been here for 3 weeks and have loved every second of it. Well, almost every second...
The program that I'm in is the Newcastle Direct Enrollment Program, which is a little different from other Study Abroad programs. In my program, we get enrolled as students, but are basically in charge of everything else. Everything else including, but not limited to; flights, finding housing, and planning side trips. None of the above have been too difficult, considering I've never had to worry about any of it, but I have been planning and looking for things for a long time before now.
So my first piece of advice is to start planning early. I started looking for my flight tickets in November. Once all my funding came in and I figured out how to pay for everything, I started looking for places to live. I started by just googling "rooms for rent in Newcastle, Australia." Eventually, I used the Gumtree website and looked under flat share and just took down names, numbers, and addresses. When I got here, I just started calling and making appointments and it was so much easier than getting here and having no idea where to start. Also, before arriving in Australia, I booked a weeks stay at the hostel and figured that I'd be able to book more nights depending on how long it took to find a permanent residence. Luckily, it only took a week to find a place and move in! We stayed at the Newcastle Beach YHA, which is a 2 minute walk from the beach, clean, safe, and a really social place to stay.
When considering a place to live, my only advice is that you'll want to live near the beach. My walk to the beach is literally 10 minutes. There is everything here! Restaurants, shops, grocery stores, pubs, the wharf...plus all the trains and busses come down here so it's never a problem to get anywhere!
Another piece of advice is to budget before you get here and then again after you find a place to live. You'll realize it's easier to save money than you might have thought, so you can spend more on side trips. And when it comes to side trips, definitely plan ahead. We'll have a week off later this semester and we've already talked to travel agents as well as locals trying to find the best places to go!
This past Monday was my first day of school, and even though I only had one class, it was super overwhelming. I felt very unprepared and behind, but I had the second class for it today, and it wasn't nearly as bad. It's just important remember that this isn't forever, it's just one bad day, it's certainly not worth going home over, and it's 1 million times better that at the end of the day your in a different country! This is a new experience for me, there are bound to be bad days, it wouldn't be life without them. I'm excited for everything to come and I'm excited to share my experience with fellow travelers, and potential study abroad students.
That's all for now!
Amanda
The program that I'm in is the Newcastle Direct Enrollment Program, which is a little different from other Study Abroad programs. In my program, we get enrolled as students, but are basically in charge of everything else. Everything else including, but not limited to; flights, finding housing, and planning side trips. None of the above have been too difficult, considering I've never had to worry about any of it, but I have been planning and looking for things for a long time before now.
So my first piece of advice is to start planning early. I started looking for my flight tickets in November. Once all my funding came in and I figured out how to pay for everything, I started looking for places to live. I started by just googling "rooms for rent in Newcastle, Australia." Eventually, I used the Gumtree website and looked under flat share and just took down names, numbers, and addresses. When I got here, I just started calling and making appointments and it was so much easier than getting here and having no idea where to start. Also, before arriving in Australia, I booked a weeks stay at the hostel and figured that I'd be able to book more nights depending on how long it took to find a permanent residence. Luckily, it only took a week to find a place and move in! We stayed at the Newcastle Beach YHA, which is a 2 minute walk from the beach, clean, safe, and a really social place to stay.
When considering a place to live, my only advice is that you'll want to live near the beach. My walk to the beach is literally 10 minutes. There is everything here! Restaurants, shops, grocery stores, pubs, the wharf...plus all the trains and busses come down here so it's never a problem to get anywhere!
Another piece of advice is to budget before you get here and then again after you find a place to live. You'll realize it's easier to save money than you might have thought, so you can spend more on side trips. And when it comes to side trips, definitely plan ahead. We'll have a week off later this semester and we've already talked to travel agents as well as locals trying to find the best places to go!
This past Monday was my first day of school, and even though I only had one class, it was super overwhelming. I felt very unprepared and behind, but I had the second class for it today, and it wasn't nearly as bad. It's just important remember that this isn't forever, it's just one bad day, it's certainly not worth going home over, and it's 1 million times better that at the end of the day your in a different country! This is a new experience for me, there are bound to be bad days, it wouldn't be life without them. I'm excited for everything to come and I'm excited to share my experience with fellow travelers, and potential study abroad students.
That's all for now!
Amanda
