Sydney Life

With my first batch of midterms over the week before Halloween, I decided to celebrate the brief breathing time by beginning Halloween celebrations early. Yep, the movies are pretty accurate – Halloween is HUGE in America. There are countless stores entirely devoted to selling Halloween costumes and accessories (I’m not really sure what they do for the remaining 11 months of the year), and as early as the start of October, businesses had started scrambling to make most of the festive (ie. money-spending) mood of American society ... myself included.

This is it, the final entry.

I've been way too busy (and lazy) to write this blog more often. However there also hasn't been much to write about. My life was mostly involved in partying, writing chemistry reports and lazing about with a fellow Aussie. I could have written about those times but the entries would have been largely identical. Monday to Friday attend school. Monday to Thursday night relax and watch TV. Friday night go out and have a great time. Saturday morning get a pizza and calypo with Annabel. Go out Saturday night and pretty much repeat Saturday morning on Sunday.

However this entry is going to be about Education (mostly)..

I can’t believe I’m writing this, but my exchange in Maastricht has now come to an end. It sounds cliché, but the last four and a half months have given me some of the best times of my life and to be honest I don’t want it to end! Going on exchange was definitely one of the best decisions I have made and I recommend anyone considering it to go for it, it’s worth the effort a hundred times over.

If someone were to ask me what I thought were the highlights of being on exchange in Europe, one aspect that I would definitely mention is the opportunity for travel. I have got to see some amazing places, places I once only dreamed of visiting and that now I will remember for years to come.

As hard as it is to believe, I have now hit the half way mark of my time as an exchange student at Maastricht University. So much has happened since I first arrived, yet my first days in Maastricht seem but a second ago. This means of course that I am now half way through my studies here. Studying psychology at Maastricht has been a different but fascinating experience, so for all of those interested psychology students out there let me give you the rundown..

And, after the best nine months of my life, I’m back in Aus!!!! To be honest, it feels a little weird – I can understand everything that’s going on, everyone has my accent and people drive on the right (or wrong now for me!) side of the road. But, it’s home.

It’s a little strange to think that none of my friends and family from home have met the people I’ve spent the majority of a year with, or, to be honest, know close to nothing about Denmark. There’s a group of us from Arhus though who are Sydney-siders who each know what we’ve all been up to, and can help each other in the transition home. We’re not ready to give up Europe just yet – we’re heading out to Scu Bar tonight to meet backpackers!! Haha.

Leaving Denmark and saying goodbye to Europe definitely wasn’t the easiest thing to do. Simple things, like: ‘But wait, you can’t get Tuborg beer at home!’ or ‘There’s no H&M in Australia’ even, ‘You mean, I’ll be in one place for more than just a number of days?!!!’ kept popping into my head. But it wasn’t just the leaving of the place, most heart-breakingly it was leaving the people.

So what on earth is PBL? For those of you who are considering studying at Maastricht University, dealing with this unfamiliar acronym will soon become a daily reality. PBL, or Problem Based Learning, is the educational programme adopted by Maastricht University. Such is its uniqueness that all exchange students must undertake PBL training in order to become familiar with the system before class starts. So for those interested, let me explain briefly how it works.

Hello to my strong legion of devoted hardcore fans,

Things have settled down here now in Lund. I have all my necessities worked out which I kind of already mentioned. Delphi (my student housing) is proving to be a great choice for me. I'm not only close to the Kemicentrum (Chemistry Centre) where I study, but I'm never too far away from a party. There a parties in Delphi all the time, you can never go lonely.

Maastricht University Introduction Week. Quite possibly the biggest week of my life (so far..)
Never before have I met so many international students, forgotten so many names, partied so hard and slept so little. It's been a rollercoaster ride and I've loved every minute of it. As I think back on the week that has been, of exploring cobblestoned streets, making snow angels, dancing to bizzare Dutch music, shopping for dinner with friends and scoring goals in floor hockey, I can't think of a better introduction to the beautiful city of Maastricht, the Netherlands.

Hello to anyone who reads this,

I am on exchange at Lund University in Sweden. It is described as a compact University town, but as far as I can see it's anything but. These people should come and see Sydney. I fail to see how a compact uni requires the use of a bicycle to get wherever you need to quickly. Every building is surrounded by grass and carparks. It is rare to find two buildings right next to each other.

Because I’ve been treated so well by Danes showing me their food and culture, it was my turn to introduce some Danes to real Aussie food! I actually had to think really long and hard about what traditional Aussie food was when they asked me – I looked it up online, and some of the suggestions were chilli con carne and Thai curry…maybe the fact that the word Thai is in that dish makes it not Aussie?!??!!!

Having a birthday here is awesome! Not only was the actual day, almost 2 days (Yay for time difference), but we celebrated it in 3 different countries! Of course, there was the actual day of the birthday – so multicultural – I think we worked out that about 15 countries were represented by the people there!!! – but we also decided to have a party weekend! So, we’re in Europe, it’s my 21st birthday, looking for a party destination, so where do we go??? Amsterdam of course!!!!!

We were told the Danes were crazy about Christmas, and it’s true! They are!

There were a series of events connected to Christmas jammed into the few weeks before we left Denmark. The first was a parade, where the entire city of Aarhus watched kids from various marching bands trundle through the streets of the city, with Santa throwing chocolates leading the march. There were Oompa-loompa style Danish Santa bands all around the city. The big event of the night was watching the Christmas lights which had been strewn across the pedestrian street light up.

Well, the time has come for me to leave Ottawa. In three days, I will have finished my last two exams, hastily packed my bags and be flying on to Washington DC to do some more travel.
I have had the most amazing time in Ottawa, and I can't believe just how quickly this semester has flown by!
If you've ever considered going on exchange, I'm sure you already have a pretty good idea of all the reasons why a semester abroad is pretty much one of the best things you can do while you're at uni. So, I've decided to dedicate this entry to why studying in Canada whilst on exchange is so awesome! Clearly, I can't speak for the other countries, which I imagine are all pretty cool too, but I am biased. So if you've ever thought about going to Canada, here's my list of why you should hop on that plane asap!

So I was just in Norway and had one of the best days so far!!! My friend and I headed all the way up to the Arctic Circle to a town called Tromso. We got there to a very sorry tourist information lady who told us there wasn’t enough snow to go dog-sledding, ice fishing, snow shoeing, reindeer sledding or snowmobile racing...which was pretty much a list of everything we’d gone there to do!!!

But, us in our ‘determined-to-go-dog-sledding’ ways, sent an email to a company we had been in contact with to see if they were actually running tours, and...they were!!!!!

I went to Sweden not long ago, and visited another Sydney Uni-er who is on exchange in Uppsala. It was great to be able to compare exchange experiences.

It’s funny both of us have become closest to English exchange students. I think, although this sounds quite obvious, that it’s because of the ease of language. Despite the Danes and Swedes having great levels of English here, among the exchange students, it can sometimes be difficult to hold a conversation. A lot of the time normal conversation is fine, but as soon as jokes come into play a lot of meanings are lost or confused. There's some great acting going on here!

It may be Amsterdam that is renowned for a liberal spirit, but I think many travel books have overlooked Denmark. The biggest tourist attraction in Copenhagen, is not (as one would’ve thought) Hans Christian Andersen’s Little Mermaid, but is Christiania.

Christiania is a hippie colony that exists as a separate state from the EU, right in the heart of Denmark’s capital. It was set up in the 1970s by squatters who moved into ex-army buildings, and has remained ever since. The Christianians, although subject to Danish law, exist by the own laws, which are pretty much summed up in 3 rules: no violence, no guns, and no hard drugs. It’s all community run, where decisions of who to accept into the community, what behaviour is accepted and decisions about the everyday running of the place are decided by votes from the entire community who lives there.

My tutor for my Internet course is one of THE guys of Internet, so he’s always running off to do conferences overseas. This means, for a month and half I only had 3 hours of a class a week on a Wednesday morning. So...time to explore Europe!

Yes, it’s hard to imagine just how fast mid semester break came here, but it was soon upon us! Although it was only a week, everyone had really exciting plans, which varied from visiting the French Riviera, to going to Norway and Sweden, the UK, and all over Eastern Europe.

Last weekend we visited the Danish equivalent of Surfer’s Paradise. In a town called Aalborg, there is one street, famous throughout Denmark, that has 50 clubs on it! It’s amazing!

The clubs vary from head-banging rock-n-roll pubs, to hip-hop clubs, from chilled out bars to ranch themed pubs/restaurants – basically, there is a place designed for everyone! I recommend doing a crawl along the street, just to see what you can find! But again, don't expect things to start happening in the bars until about 1 or 2...but don't worry, you're still guaranteed a long night! 6am is early for the Danes!

One of my majors for my degree is archaeology. Perhaps not the most obvious of choices for a Media and a Communications degree but anyway! While I was in Denmark, I thought I would take advantage of being right near objects and bodies thousands of years old, so I took a course in Viking Age Religion.

We had an excursion the other day to bog lands, and me, being the Aussie, of course had never experienced a bog! To me, it was essentially a really large mud pit! Right from the word ‘go’ of the excursion you could pick who was on exchange and who was a local, just from the way they responded to the bog. Of course, with a 20 kilo limit, I wasn’t likely to pack huge water-proof boots or wet weather pants! Yes, wet weather pants are common here, and like a raincoat, are a a water-proof layer you put on over your jeans. I think the fact you can’t find these anywhere in Aus, yet they’re a staple piece of clothing here, is a reflection on our two climates. And yes, it does rain all the time here!

I pretty much knew nothing about Denmark when I decided to come here. After sending off my exchange application, I began to discover that a lot of things are Danish: the band Aqua, Tupperware, Georg Jensen jewellery, Bang & Olufsen technologies. And, as every Dane likes to remind me, the Sydney Opera House!! But, what is the invention the Danes are most proud of?? LEGO!

Those are three big things in America, and I had the chance to experience all of them!

Halloween was crazy, partly because of the costumes but mostly because of the amount of people that went out to the streets that night. There were two or three big Frat parties that night and one of them got shut down by the University Police, so as you can imagine the rest of the parties were packed...

The trip to Copenhagen was fantastic. We travelled with a group of maybe 40 international students to Copenhagen where we were shown around by one of the guides organised by Aarhus University. There’s this association set up by the uni purely for international students. They have “International Bar Night” every Tuesday night; which has been a great place to meet up with everyone now we’ve all split up into our various faculties.

So because I’m new to the blog I thought I’d back track a little to an entry I wrote at the beginning of September, to give you some idea of where I am in the world...Just warning you - there'll probably be a bunch of entries from me in the next couple of days to try and get me up to date!

Despite leaving Australia on 16th July, I've only just begun uni herein Aarhus - a town in the north of Denmark. So far the courses seem great...though quite different to Sydney. Of course, you've got the language barriers as people in my class come from all over... Japan, China, Denmark, Germany, Spain, Peru, Italy and Turkey just to mention a few...but that does make it really fun. I almost feel like a walking English dictionary sometimes!! Haha. I remember a Polish girl asked me where I was from because I was "so fluent in English"...I hope so!!

For me, one of the things I was most excited about coming on exchange to Canada for was the prospect of snow.
Ottawa gets a lot of snow. After all of last Winter's snow, for example, there was about 2metres worth of the white stuff piled up around the place (so my Canadian friends tell me, anyway - I do hope it's not their version of our Aussie "drop-bear" tales). Not only that, but temperatures drop to around -30celsius when windchill is taken into consideration!
Never again will I complain about Sydney Winters!!

Last night was my very first (and quite sadly, possibly last) proper, North American Halloween!

I am back! I know it has been a while but because of that I’ve got plenty of things to tell you.

First of all, I went to a really cool Flamenco concert in Boston. The name of the guitar player was Jonathan “Juanito” Pascual and one of the dancers was Nino de Los Reyes. Juanito is an American flamenco guitarist who learned from the best maestros in Spain and Nino de Los Reyes is a young bailaor, part of the de Los Reyes dynasty of flamenco dancers...

This week in class, I learnt about the Canadianization of Canada's Foreign Policy.
This blog has absolutely nothing to do with Canada's foreign affairs, except that the lecture made me realise that I am slowly and surely becoming Canadianized. (For instance, I am now spelling Canadianized with a 'z' instead of an Aussie 's'.)
Though I only just realised it, I can see now that this process has been creeping up on me since my arrival here. But (*deep breath*) I know that the first step to recovery is admitting what I've become.

DUM-DUM-DUUUUUM.

I am a Bruin. A true bruin. I wear the blue and gold, I chant the 8-clap with pride….and I’m the sworn enemy of all Trojans. School spirit here is just remarkable. University isn’t just a place to go to class – it’s a community, a family, almost a way of life.

Things are starting to get busy here in Ottawa.
I am about to start my midterm examinations, even though I'm only into week 4 of semester (seriously, the Canadians make us Sydney Uni kids look like great big bludgers.)
Ottawa is also hotting up as the place to be with both the US and the Canadian federal elections happening soon. My residence overlooks Parliament Hill, so I like to think I'm kind of in the thick of things ;)
With all this, and the recent spate of dramas in Gossip Girl (can't help it - exchange has increased my addiction to unbelievably bad extremes), I decided to make an attempt at retreat from all of the hustle and bustle. So I went and stayed in a small log cabin in the middle of nowhere for the weekend.

tada!!

I’ve just come to the end of my second day of classes (and my second week in LA), but so much has already happened. I’m currently sitting in my dorm room at 2am surveying all the clothes sprayed across the floor and looking out the window at the handful of other illuminated rooms. I feel that indescribable sort of rush of being in a completely new place, of having countless people to meet -- of having a clean slate and starting afresh. Such a huge change from a fortnight ago, when I was eating Newtown Thai with a group of friends and frantically trying to sort out enrolment. So what’s happened since then?

After just over a month on exchange at UC Berkeley, everything sort of settles down into a routine. Sort of. There's certainly the daily neccesities, like dinner at CZ (the house where I live), which is a little like the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan, except with food. Or walking to uni every weekday, about a block away. Or the stupid annoying details like paying bank bills, mobile phone issues, running out of contact lens solution, etc. etc. Dealing with these things lets you know you are still alive. But, before my description of exchange life gets too dreary, I guess I should mention some of the things that let you know you are definitely not in Sydney anymore..

I arrived in Ottawa tired and dirty after some flight confusion whereby it basically ended up taking me three days and four time zones of travel to get from Denali National Park, Alaska to here! Unfortunately (or perhaps not, depending on whether you're a glass half-full or half-empty person), I had to delay the urge to sleep so I could get my grrrroooove on whilst meeting all the other exchange students, inhabitants of my residence, and, of course, going to classes!

These 2 weeks have been hectic; between classes and assignments I am going crazy. But anyway, I’m here to study (at least I think so). I haven’t been up to many things these past few weeks besides studying. I went to Boston last weekend to visit my girlfriend who goes to MIT. Boston is one of the most European cities in the US, and probably one of the oldest. The city is famous because of having more than 100 colleges and universities, including world leading universities like MIT and Harvard.

MIT Dome...

I was in Boston last year too so I didn’t get to take many pictures. However, a new experience for me was the driving.

This university is enormous. It has also one of the most beautiful campuses in America…but I’ll let you judge based on the pictures.

It has been a nightmare to find my way around uni, but the upside is that I have made friends while asking for directions. I have also met people from different parts of the world during the international exchange orientation (some people from France, Austria, Switzerland, England, Mexico, the Netherlands and a good number of Australians).

Greetings..

I guess no amount of exchange pre-departure seminars prepare you for that first day of exchange when you wake up, breath American air, hear American accents, and head down to a local bar; all the while being told to keep your head down so the cop peering into the back of the ute doesn't see you hiding amongst the old sleeping bags.

Well, well , well, I have arrived at last in the land of the maple leaf, the mountie, the Rockie Mountains, and, apparently, famous things beginning with the letter ‘M’! Yes, that’s right folks, for those of you who haven’t yet picked it up, I’m in Canada!

You are an ordinary Sydney Girl. Your days are spent learning about the American Civil War, having chance encounters with friends in Sydney Uni's quadrangle and drinking flat whites at an array of nearby coffee spots. Two afternoons a week you tutor kids in English and every Wednesday you meet your two besties to drink tea, eat a questionable number of Tim Tams and discuss issues of serious global import...like which of the boys from Gossip Girl is the hottest.

I took this snap outside the White House when I visited Washington D.C. earlier this month. I have always had a secret desire to be like C.J. Cregg from the West Wing, so I am thinking of taking him on, becoming his press secretary and creating a Rags to Riches legend with which even Barack Obama could not contend.

So, I finally got the magic letter.
The letter I’d been waiting and waiting for.
The letter *drum roll* was to say that I was officially going on exchange to the University of Ottawa, Canada, next semester!

After seven semesters, 90 weeks and 720 (scheduled) classes, I have only ten more hours as a student at the University of Sydney. I am waiting for the usual end of semester relief to kick in. It hasn’t. I am not coming back and nostalgia has taken the reigns.

Firstly I should say that as I write this, the time I have to finish (read: start) an assignment that my lecturer has kindly given me two extensions for, is slowly ticking away. That extension was the first lucky thing that happened recently.

So, it seems my Ask Asako post is still attracting applicants and I’ve been asked to write about what I do all day. (PS - feel free to keep requesting new blog topics!!!)

I thought it might be a good idea to do one of those while I was still on exchange!

So this is what was running through my mind a few nights ago, when I suddenly realized that I didn’t have the key to my room. My first thought was, “Don’t panic,” and then my second thought was, “Panic!” Ordinarily, I wouldn’t panic – but the weird thing was that I had come out of my room, locked the door, had some cake in the lounge for 15 minutes and came back. Without my keys. Where could it have gone? So then I suspected the guy down the hall who I think has had it in for me ever since I got here. Maybe he doesn’t like Australians. Maybe he doesn’t like me. Probably the latter. Can’t see why you’d have something specific against Australians. Not like we ever hurt anyone…well maybe he’s angry our dollars doing so well.

So I went canoeing over fall break – it's been something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. And I had an amazing experience – it was 5 days/4 nights, and we canoed over 30 miles, portaged (where you carry the canoes on foot) for 2 km, and did a 5 km hike up and down a mountain. I’ve been hiking before, and my experience has been mainly masochistic – carrying a 20 kg pack on your back for 15 km in a day is not “fun” in any other sense of the word, and neither is eating 2 min noodles and cans of tuna because you don’t want to carry around your deluxe bean, salsa and burrito kit. But when you’re in a canoe you can take as much stuff as you want – and we took the bean, salsa and burrito kit .

I know I've been MIA recently but before I do a big fill-you-in-on-everything post I thought I would share with everyone my local squirrels.

They may seem cute but they are downright scary when they get too close.

So I had an exam and I stopped writing in my blog and I stopped having fun which isn’t so good. One of my most cherished memories of Sydney is when my friend came up to me during STUVAC looking stressed, and said, “If I can’t handle exams, how am I going to raise a family?” (You know who you are!)

Well I've come good on my expectation of not keeping a weekly blog - some work came out of nowhere and I switched on to "say no to fun" mode. Anyway, nothing too exciting happened to me since nothing exciting happens to people in libraries (that could be a proverb). Well unless you read an amazing book, change your life and go on to change the world. But that's probably not going to happen to you - because as Happy Bunny says, "It worries me how dumb you are."

It's been a week and half since I arrived at Cornell and during that time I've pretended to be a freshman. It was fun for the week because I did all the freshman things - stand up comedy, rock concerts, casino night (I have much more sympathy for people addicted to gambling now), movies and an endless number of icebreakers which failed to break any ice.

Hello! This is the first instalment of my exciting series of blog entries from Cornell University. I hope the latter part of my previous sentence turns out to be true.

Firstly, things I find exciting may not be the things you find exciting (would you find a waffle maker exciting?), and 'series' suggests I'll be writing regularly - I hope I can do it every week, but to me, thinking "I'll write a blog entry every week" sounds like "I'll study my lecture notes during semester and not STUVAC".

I had a stop over in Hong Kong on my way to Europe.

The time came around for me to leave, so I hailed a cab to take me to the station.

Well I thought I'd write my first blog entry before I left - just to let everyone know that planning for an exchange is quite a challenge. I don't know what the actual exchange will be like, but I can tell you all what happens in the months leading up to exchange. I'm leaving next Friday - and I'm going through periods of excitement in anticipation of what might happen on exchange, and periods of desperation as I go through all the possible things that could go wrong (and there are many things you'll hear about if you go on exchange - refused immigration entry, mangled enrolments, horror accomodation, ruined clothes "because I never did the washing at home" are just some of the prospects facing exchange students).

Hey! I'm going on exchange TOMORROW and I'm going to be video blogging from Canada!

Check out my youtube account for regular blogs!

I was told last year by an exchange veteran that the amount of time and work going into planning a trip like of this scale is equivalent to taking on an extra 6 credit point subject.

After viewing my diary for week 11 of last semester, you may agree.

It was no fun being the laughing stock at the Christmas table… especially as I’d only been back in the country for 24 hours. From the blue grey skies of Scotland, I’d arrived home in the midst of Sydney summer, with a look I liked to call ’lilac’…. Needless to say I was not in the best condition for the occasion that urges one to pull out that special ‘frock’ - perhaps even, a pretty little sun dress. Oh, no! The exposure of the sun on my china white limbs almost sent me reeling inside like an animal burrowing underground after the comfort of hibernation… Given the situation, I think it would’ve been far more admissible for mine and everyone else’s sake to opt for the role of Santa Claus…Then again, who would’ve born the brunt of the jokes?

Its late afternoon and I am delighted to find the front laws buzzing with the kind of activity that befits any normal O-Week. Handing out flyers for the international exchange fair (to be held this week on Thursday the 29th March) I was in competition with the army of faithfuls that represent the EU (the Evangelical Union - not to be confused with the formidable European bloc), and the eager and helpful bright green SPOCS. We vied for the attention of excited first years, as they stumbled around, arms laden with freebies, in a bit of a daze having just joined half a dozen societies.

Its 4am and a few carefree silhouettes can be seen winding their way along the Seine, fat nutella crepes in hand, with the Notre Dame majestically rising above them. Ahhh the romantic Parisian life… it certainly beats grabbing a kebab on the way home from a night on the town!

What do speed dating, the first African-American ambassador to the UN, and slam poetry have in common?

Me!

The tale of bravery, heroics and spandex that is about to unfold is the next instalment in the epic story of team Deli-Sandwich. For those of you unfamiliar with Team Deli- Sandwich, the myth-like account of its creation may be found here on this very website. Essentially, it tells of a group of intrepid young exchange students callously denied the glory they so rightfully deserved by that cruel and flighty mistress called fate. However, it was with heads held high and rejuvenated spirits that Team Deli- Sandwich rallied their forces to make an assault on perhaps the most perilous competition ever devised by the masterminds of the UBC REC committee…Gladiators.

‘Remember, remember the fifth of November’ young children sang sweetly amongst themselves as a dummy was cast into a giant bonfire. Standing in it’s glow I can’t say I wasn’t a little disturbed. On that fateful day in 1605, a fellow called Guy Fawkes was caught in the cellar of the London Houses of Parliament. Found with 36 barrels of gunpowder he had every intention, but no chance, of setting them off. So what did Britain do?

As of today, I've officially been a “resident” in Canada for 3 months. While it might not seem like that long, it’s been long enough for me to completely fall in love with the place. Vancouver is beautiful, Canadians are impossible not to get along with and despite what you may have heard to the contrary, Ice Hockey is definitely the best sport ever. In the midst of my love affair with my adopted home I have but one small grievance: Mother Nature is quite literally raining on my parade.

I’m bobbing in the middle of the Charles, its liquid silver waters stretching flat out around me. The sun is shining but the chill in the air keeps it from beating down. Without even thinking I begin singing to myself, a manifestation of the perfect moment and my absolute happiness in it. As I croon away I suddenly stumble on a lyric long enough to realise just exactly what it is I am singing. I almost fall out of the boat in embarrassment… it's Mariah Carey - Always be my Baby.

Did you know that Halloween originated in Ireland and Scotland? And that you can carve turnips instead of pumpkins?

While staring blankly at the free food shelf in the cupboard of a small hostel in Ireland, I had a sudden flashback... Three years ago, to the day, I was standing in front of a different cupboard, a world apart, hoping that something new had miraculously appeared in the 15 minutes since I'd last checked. For anyone who has written or is in the midst of writing HSC exams, you know what I'm talking about. That's what months of study does to you and I was the queen of procrastination. At the time, life beyond exams seemed an insurmountable task. Three years later, with the help of some abandoned pasta shells, a collection of colourful memories, life on the Irish road and the prospect of another few months in Scotland, I've realised that the HSC was only a small piece of the puzzle that has made up some of the best years of my life. For those of you gazing hopefully into cupboards now, keep focused, but be excited - so much more awaits...

One day a year, the shores of Vancouver’s Jericho Beach are swarmed by hoards of college students ready for war. Ridiculous outfits are donned, gauntlets are thrown down and The Day of the Long Boat begins.

So, now that we’ve all read about Bailee, Davina and Gemma’s adventures, and are all dying to go on exchange....... how exactly do we go about it?

I started looking into going on exchange a few months ago, for Semester 2 next year (woo! Yes, it does take that long to organise!!) - and I just handed in my application!

The first thing he said to me when I got off the plane was “I never want to leave this place”. Meet Ryan, another of those students happy enough to leave beautiful Sydney Uni behind in search of new horizons on exchange. And for you, dear reader, I took it upon myself to visit him and his fellow Usyd-kid Claire, in order to give you a greater picture of what studying in the United States could be like. Any personal benefit is purely coincidental.

‘Hello, and welcome to Stirling University. My name is Gemma and I’ll be your guide today.’

Ok, so there’s the opening line, down pat. From there I’ll be flying by the seat of my pants leading prospective students around a campus I have known and grown to love in just over two weeks. Any attempt to mask the fact that, as a new student, I took the same tour not so long ago will, I’m afraid, be exposed after my broad Australian accent rears its head in place of the wonderfully curly Scottish intonation they might expect from someone claiming to know a lot about the University!

About two weeks ago something awful happened. I actually had to go to class.

Somehow over the course of the last month I’d managed to block out the fact that going on exchange to a foreign uni would entail actually having to attend class. My blissful bubble of denial was burst, however, when I found myself seated in the back of a packed-out lecture hall at an hour of the morning that I hadn’t seen since my last Sydney Uni exam in June. The horror of the situation only increased as the lesson went on and dirty words like “essay”, “midterm” and “oral presentation” were used with increasing frequency. As the Prof (note my use of Canadian uni slang) started to describe what was expected from our study groups, rather than giving him my full attention, all I could think about was how having to go to study group on Monday morning would affect my plans to go to mechanical bull night at the Buffalo Club on Sunday.

In Texas, the Lone Star state, there is an average of four guns per person. As such, my first stop in the USA has landed me smack bang in the middle of one of its biggest controversies. As yet, I have not been shot, so I’m going to attempt to dispel some stereotypes (and confirm some others) about the home of one of the most powerful men on earth.

As the sun rose upon day three of my time in Canada, I was still lacking any inspiration for the theme of the next installment of my exchange blog. Don’t get me wrong. A lot has happened in a pretty short time since I left Australia. I’ve been to Tahiti, spent a few days in LA and lived off bananas for nearly a week because I soon discovered I’m incredibly lazy when it comes to getting myself real food. People actually seem to have serious difficulty understanding my accent and I’ve been asked what part of Britain I’m from one too many times. But despite all this, nothing had really struck me as decent blog material. Nothing that really encapsulated the strange and interesting new experiences that exchange is supposed to entail. Little did I know that late this afternoon inspiration would strike in the form of the wrinkled backside of a man in his mid-sixties.

I’ve always been astonished by those people who, after 23 hours of flying, seem to emerge cool, calm and collected from the arrivals gate. Needless to say, this has never been the case with me. When I stepped off the plane at Heathrow I was the dishevelled backpacker you see shuffling towards the tube station through groups of waving relatives and friends.

As we enter the main plaza the enormity of the situation hits me. We are ten “gringos” (foreigners) taking part in one of the most important celebrations of the year. Thousands of Bolivians stare and cheer as our overwhelmed selves respond to the cries of “Viva Bolivia!” Their shouts compete with the sound of firecrackers as they ricochet off buildings, and the marching band that marks Independence Day.

Seven more sleeps until I board a plane bound for London! I feel like a little kid again in the days leading up to Christmas.

As uni went back last week my mind was far from thoughts of Sydney lectures and tutorials. Instead, it is racing with the prospect of a semester overseas.

University, as we are all so often told, is a time for both “experimentation and adventure”. The classic American teen movie, in all its undoubted wisdom, would have us all believe these terms are merely euphemisms for drug taking and promiscuity, however sometime around last October I decided to follow a different path and get my kicks by applying for the exchange program.

In the beginning there was the Blog….

I must admit here in my first ever blog entry that I have, until now, been completely uninterested with the very notion of a ‘blog’. This goes beyond any reservations about the sheer unattractiveness of the word ‘blog’ (who came up with that anyway?) to the arrogance of assuming that if you write down some ponderings and post them in cyberspace, that someone will actually want to read them.