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Romanticizing and Reality: Expectations and Realities of Studying Abroad in Australia

 Expectations of life in Australia

Doodle 1 by Sydney Baker

You will effortlessly fit into Australian life and culture, assimilating almost immediately into life as a student in Sydney. Finding a place to live will take a week max (perfect, since you arrive exactly a week before classes start). In the meantime, you will just train in from Auntie’s, doing so with ease despite your limited experience with train travel. Upon beginning classes, you will become instant friends with new housemates and fellow students. Speaking of new roomies, the house you live in will be steps from the famed Sydney beaches, where you will spend much of your time. Australian year-round sun and warm temperatures can be thanked for the multitude of beach days that will take place. It will only rain or be cold on a few choice days when you really need to stay home and work on neglected schoolwork.

In your new home you will magically know how to cook more than just scrambled eggs and quesadillas. Your new roomies will gladly watch American football every week and share your love of Mexican food. You will not feel homesick for either when calling back home.

When you aren’t adventuring with fast-made friends or sunbathing on the beach, you’ll find time to regularly run and take ballet classes. This will help to easily avoid the ‘foreign fifteen’ despite all of the cute Australian boys buying you beers at the pub. These boys will also give surfing lessons and take you to family beach houses. There will be little to no culture shock and navigating the new city will be simple. Everything will be amazing—how could it not? You’re going to be living in a beautiful city in one of the most romanticized countries in the world—why wouldn’t everything play out like a dream?

Realities of life in Australia

Doodle 2 by Sydney Baker

Things take time, and in Australia things will often take twice as long as expected. Thus you will not assimilate immediately, it will take three weeks (not one) to find a place to live, and shocker—it’s not on the beach as you’re still a student, on a student budget. This is not a bad thing; this new home is close to Uni (shocker again, Uni isn’t on the beach). Australians truly are some of the friendliest people on Earth, but it will take a bit before roomies and classmates become friends. They will eventually aid in your assimilation and will have questions of their own for you. Just like you had naïve expectations of Australia, the locals have romanticized views of America as well. If you’re there in 2016, anticipate many questions about Donald Trump.

There will be cloudy, rainy, even stormy days; sunshine is the norm, but not the only weather pattern. You will deny this, leave the house unprepared, and get stuck walking home in a storm. You will still run and take ballet, but much more time will be spent drinking the best coffee, perusing Newtown’s bookstores, and eating Tim Tams (which will be the culprit of any weight you gain). You will need to attend class regularly; this isn’t a bad thing as you will bond with classmates over procrastination and then procrastinate more with beach days.

Those cooking skills won’t magically materialize, but you’ll bond with housemates as they cook for you and you contribute by cleaning up. Guys in pubs don’t always have better intentions than frat boys back home. But if you give the nerdy med student from New Zealand a chance he’ll spend days in the park with you and make coffee almost every morning.

The native language is English, but it is spoken with funny accents and odd slang words. They drive almost as much as Americans, but on the other side of the road. They have the best coffee in the world but don’t understand the concept of making it iced. There are many similarities in culture, but it is not home. It will be amazing, just in a way you weren’t expecting.

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