G'day from sunny Australia!
Where to begin...I have been in Aus for nearly 7 weeks now and am already in the middle of semester! It's crazy since people back in Edinburgh haven't even started yet! I am having an amazing time though so I shouldn't complain!
Uni life here is pretty different from my life back in the Burgh... firstly, I'm living in college. It's alot of fun, there are always people that are doing something so you never get bored but it does make it hard to get any work done! There are about 350 students in my college (Union College), 50 of which are Internationals from all over the world. There are quite alot Brits, some Americans, Canadians and then people from France, Italy, Coasta Rica and even Zambia! The Australians are great fun too, some people stay in college for the whole 3 years of Uni because it's so convenient (a 2 minute walk to lectures!) so there aren't just first years which is good. Its really cool to have all the Internationals because they're always up for travelling at weekends and the Aussies are all such legends.
I’m studying Biological Sciences and I’m really enjoying the lectures here. Some of the content is difficult – my Neuroscience course for example is pretty hard, but I think that’s just because it’s Neuroscience! I’m doing some really interesting Genetics courses and one of the Physiology of Disease. The assesments are very different from in Edinburgh. They force you to work more consistently over the whole semester here by having group assignments, group presentations, weekly journal-review sessions and mid-term exams! I actually have a Genetics exam on Friday, and another one next week so I really have to start working and stop pretending I'm on holiday!
I’m really enjoying the night-life too. Again, it’s pretty different from Edinburgh. Since college is on campus, and there aren’t really any pubs on campus, it means you have to get a bus to go out which is pretty annoying. College is really good about organizing events though so it means everyone goes out together and it’s always a laugh. At the beginning of the semester, we had ‘Red Week’ which is kind of like Fresher’s Week. All the Aussies returned from their mid-year break and the fun began. We went out to different events every night and everything was organised by college. Buses would come and pick us up and take us to bars/clubs in the city or we'd all go to other colleges for parties. It was cool to see the different night-life in Brisbane. There are a mix of really relaxed pubs (where you can wear board shorts and flip flops), bars that are still pretty chilled but have dance floors and then clubs that are more strict with dress codes. College always takes us to the ones with student deals and they’re usually free to get in with cheap drink deals. It’s such a laugh because everyone from college goes and we always dominant an area where you can sit and chat or go and dance with lots of people.
I've managed to do quite a few travelling trips already. In the first week I went to The Sunshine Coast to a beach town called Noosa with 6 other Internationals. Noosa is a really lovely town with amazing beaches and a National Park on the coastline - where we managed to see a wild koala! We took a surfing lesson that was sooooo much fun and went sea kayaking which was great but going over the shark nets was a little scary! I really want to go back, it’s such a lovely place.
Noosa’s complete opposite is Surfers Paradise in the Gold Coast which I visited for my friend’s birthday. The waves are crazy and apparently surfers don’t even like them that much because they’re too harsh, they’re fun to body-board on though. The party scene is great fun, lots of places to go out and it’s full of backpackers. It’s great being a study-abroad student because you get to go away at the weekends and feel like a backpacker living in hostels but then you get to come home and feel really comfortable back at college.
The weather here is really beautiful. It’s “winter”, but it’s pretty much sunny everyday and temperatures are around 23 degrees. All the Aussies think it’s cold but I’m loving it!
I have to go and revise for my mid-term now, but I still have so much to write! It will have to wait until next week ….
