Luke – University of Florida, United States of America
Semester 2, 2019
Bachelor of Property Economics
I didn’t do as much planning for my exchange as I should have. I would recommend you try to do as much travel as you can while on exchange in the USA or wherever your study abroad is. Do your best to know the area beforehand and think about the places that you might like to travel to while you are over there. I would refrain from booking anything, but knowing where you want to go is the key.
You will find that when you get over there you and your new friends will often look for a place to travel for the weekend and book the trip a few days out (or the day of!). I didn’t really have any knowledge about the places I wanted to go to but I ended up just winging it, but I would suggest making a list of key places you want to go or specific things you want to do.
I think the most interesting thing that I noticed was because we are foreign, we seem more interesting and people see us as ‘valuable’. People we meet want to become our friends so when they are in Australia they have a place to stay and someone to visit. This isn’t a bad thing, just human nature. This will often see people wanting to go above and beyond to become our friend.
I noticed that when I would go to parties a good friend of mine from London would often tell people he just met about the things he dreams of doing while abroad and what would make his ‘American experience’. This serves as a good conversation starter but more often than not the people you tell your travel bucket list too will have access to the things you want to do. They will offer to take you snorkelling or for a ride on their motorbike. This is then also a great way to make new friends and if you do become friends, well then why wouldn’t you let them stay at your place when they are in Australia!!!
My top tip is to know what you want to do and where you want to go because people you meet will help you do it! It is a great thing to bond and make friends over!
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