So, I’ve been Down Under for about 10 days now. It’s crazy how in 10 days you can completely adapt to a new lifestyle. I’m still the same 21-year-old girl that I was a month ago. Yet, I’m living such a different life. It’s kind of like when you get used to being in college and then you go home for 3 months for summer break. You have to get used to being home, having a different schedule, not seeing your college friends, going to work instead of class, etc. Except in my case instead of going home, I’m on a different continent where everyone has an accent and drives on the wrong side of the street.
Using the public transportation here is surprisingly not as hard as you would think (Thank you, Google Maps). I’m still getting used to not having a car. I miss the convenience of going somewhere when I want instead of waiting for a bus to show up (If you know anything about Aussie Public Transportation, you know they are late the majority of the time). That being said, using the busses and trains actually isn’t too bad until you have to go to the grocery store. Aussies are very ecofriendly (Save the turtles!). You’re expected to bring your own grocery bags to cut down the use of plastic. If you’re me, you forget 9/10 times. If you’re also me, you think it’s a great idea to get a watermelon and case of water at the same time. Then, you somehow have to struggle to carry both back on the bus to campus. I’m really working my upper body strength with all this grocery shopping. The good news is that I have learned that the Uni has a free shuttle to the grocery store every couple of days which is convenient for people like me.
We had orientation this week. I met so many people from all over the world. I’ve met people from other states back home, China, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Canada, and probably more that I can’t think of off the top of my head. Classes finally start this coming up week. I feel like I’ve been on winter break for too long, everyone back home is already over a quarter of the way through the semester.
Unfortunately, the past few days have been pretty rainy and windy thanks to Cyclone Oma up in Queensland. I haven’t been able to go out and explore as much so sorry if this post is pretty uneventful. I was supposed to go on a boat tour to see dolphins today, but because of the weather it got postponed. The only picture worth sharing this week is of my engineering building (aka my new home) and my UoN student id card. Campus is pretty, it’s different from Arkansas I would say. It’s like I’m in the middle of the woods. I feel like the University of Arkansas cleared out a lot of trees to build the buildings around campus and planted new ones in place. Here, you walk around with trees so tall, they double the height of any building on campus. I’ll check in again next week once classes have begun. Hope everyone is doing well!
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Junior Donna Quedens is spending the spring 2019 term in Australia through our U of A Exchange program at the University of Newcastle.
Read more from Donna at https://lifedownunder.blog/
Don't miss your opportunity to study or intern abroad! Start your search at http://studyabroad.uark.edu/search/
