G’day!
I’m Sabina and this blog will be all about my life for the next year as a student in Australia. I’m spending the third year of my degree studying Biological Sciences at the University of Queensland in Eastern Australia..
I’m 21 years old, originally from London and have wanted to do this exchange ever since I found out about it while surfing the international section of the Edinburgh website while bored at work during my gap year! The prospect of living abroad for a whole year as a student was too good an opportunity to miss. Two years later, after lots of admin, I can’t really believe I’ll be there in under a week! I’m extremely excited but can’t help feeling slightly scared.
The semester dates are the opposite for Australian Unis because they’re in the Southern Hemisphere so it means I’m joining in their 2nd semester which starts in two weeks time (July 21st). It’s a bit surreal thinking about it because it feels like I’ve only just finished exams, but the three month vacation of Christmas will make up for it.
I’ve already picked all my courses and am pretty impressed by my 4-Day-weekend timetable! Hopefully this will allow lots of long weekends at the beach or visiting other Aussie cities though it does mean my Wednesdays and Thursday are majorly crammed with lectures. I even have an 8am lecture which is far from impressive. Hopefully I’ll get into their outdoors lifestyle and embrace the early mornings!
I’m enrolled on a Marine Biology course which should be amazing since it has a field trip to the Great Barrier Reef! It’s really cool to have the opportunity to study completely different courses to those offered at Edinburgh and UQ has loads of Biology options. I’m especially interested in Immunology and Infectious Diseases and am taking some great courses in them, as well as some in Neuroscience and Pharmacology.
I’m going to spending the first semester living in college accommodation which is on UQ’s campus in a town called St. Lucia – 10 minutes outside of Brisbane. College life should be a lot of fun, especially since the one I’m staying in is known as the “party” college. It will be a great chance to meet lots of Aussies and get involved in student life down under. Most of the other Edinburgh students on the UQ exchange are staying in my college too which should be a laugh. I’m planning on renting a house for the second semester which will be good since I’m sure college can get a bit overwhelming at times. The independence of living in a house will be great and I’ve heard they often have swimming pools which would be amazing!
Once I’ve spent a few weeks getting used to my courses I’m going to look into getting a part-time job. I have some overly ambitious dreams about travelling round Aus and New Zealand and am going to have to seek out some funds to support myself if I want to live the dream. I’m not planning on coming back to the UK for Christmas either so it would be good to arrange an Internship or work experience over the Christmas vacation. I think this is going to be pretty hard though since I don’t have permanent residency.
My next entry will be written from Down Under during Fresher’s Week! Can’t wait!
