Michael – Universita Commerciale Luigi Bocconi, Italy
Semester 2, 2017
Bachelor of Science / Bachelor of Laws (Honours)
My exchange started with a chance encounter which would later be incredibly beneficial. I had only been in Milan for three days and the apartment I was supposed to move into cancelled my booking. So here I was knowing one person in my building, who had a room for rent but not until the following month and nowhere to sleep in four days. So after I managed to sort out accommodation, which was incredibly stressful I then began to focus on my studies and travel.
Milan was a fantastic place to go on exchange. The university had a very well organised social club, which for the first two weeks organised a night out every night before class started. It was a fantastic way to meet people and make new friends.
I also made some great friends in the language course, because it was full of other exchange students from around the world.
Making friends was terrifying but worth the effort. The friends I made became a big part of my exchange experience. We would study together, go out to dinner, go out for drinks and travel together. One of my favourite stories was where a friend I made in the first week, asked if I would like to go with her to a concert in Prague in November. I had never heard of this band before, but I am so glad I said yes. It was a fantastic concert. I had so much fun, and now this is one of my favourite bands. It just goes to show that you never know what is going to happen on exchange.
Travel as much as possible. An exchange in Europe in not complete without travel. I had so much fun booking flights on a Thursday, flying out on Friday and coming back Sunday night. One of my favourite trips was London. I met a girl in a bar in my first week in Europe, who as it turns out is a huge Harry Potter fan. When she was looking for people to go to the Warner Bros studio in London I eagerly said yes. Brittany became one of my best friends and we had so much fun in the studio. It was one day I will never forget.
My exchange was more fun than I expected. For anyone planning to go on exchange my advice is this; meet as many people as you can and be very organised, because time flies. Make sure you have the funds to support your exchange because it is expensive and don’t miss home too much because before you know it you’ll be back and wishing the exchange wasn’t over.
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