Do you come from a land Down Under?
July 24, 2011
On the 1st July I flew to Singapore with my family. We stayed here for 4 days before moving on to Sydney, then the Blue Mountains, before I stayed in Brisbane and they went to hop around the islands along the East coast of Australia. This was the holiday we had planned around my exchange in Australia. The idea was to make the most of my swapping hemispheres, and to make my leaving for nearly 6 months a bit easier. I’m not sure if its worked or not.
The holiday has been amazing. Every place we went to was brilliant – even the Blue Mountains, which themselves are stunning, our accommodation and the weather however was not so good.
When I started talking about doing an exchange at uni, and ruling out those that didn’t have there own ties with international unis, I dont think I ever really considered I would really do one. It was more of just a way to narrow down my uni choices to the 5 UCAS allows. Im starting think I’m slower to process things than I think I am – I still dont really think it has sunk in that I am doing this, and right now Im sat on my bed in a house I moved into less than 48 hours ago with my first day at a new uni tomorrow. Its a bit daunting if Im honest. If I’m truly honest its terrifying. I’m a confident person, and I tend to get on with people easily, but this assessment of myself has been based on meeting people in England – where I’m comfortable and understand the social do’s and donts. Over here, as far from home as I can geographically be, I dont know what is a do or a dont, or if Im doing them. So my confidence right now isnt high.
What has also surprised me is just how hard it has been to have my family leave me. Before I came out, everybody at various exchange meetings told me about how people cry every day for the first week they arrive. But I never really thought it would happen with me – it didn’t when I started uni in the UK, and I’ve never gotten too upset over not seeing my family. Out here however its different. I went to stay with my friend Jo in Brisbane, saying goodbye to my family while they visited the islands and I started to look for a house with Jo’s help. It was here that it started to hit me just how alone I am in this new country. I was staying with a friend, who knew the are perfectly, my family was still in the country, and I was having to bite my hands near 10 times a day just to stop myself from spontaneously crying. Until I went to bed however, when I felt comfortable to give in to what I didn’t understand was making me cry. After less than a week of this I gave in, paying $50 and travelling 9 hours on a coach and 2 hours on a ferry to go and see my parents and brother on Fraser Island. The instant I was in the terminal waiting for the coach I felt better, like a giant weight which had been pressing down on me from all angles had been lifted. I wasn’t even completely aware it was there until I was on route to them.
The weather on Fraser Island was bad, we couldn’t swim in the sea, we were told not to go into parts of the island because of dingoes, and it cost a minimum of $400 to even get to the other side of the island. But even so I was happy. I just hadnt realised how much energy it takes being pleasant when all you want to do is sit and cry or yell or just do nothing. I have never missed my family so much as I did in those 3 days, so despite being trapped on an island in the rain with nothing to do, for me it was perfect.
My family are now back in the UK, and tomorrow I start uni – officially beginning my exchange at UQ. Im going to throw myself into everything I can in order to meet people and hopefully make friends. I know that once I am into a routine and feel that I at least know people well enough that they are talking to me because we’re friends, rather than they are just being polite to the stranger I will probably wish I was staying Down Under for longer than I am. Right now however, being in England is a long way off and getting there is a matter of survival rather than enjoyment. I hope this will change soon.
