Upon arriving to the Gold Coast, in between Sydney and Brisbane, I was super excited to see my housing. I ended up getting a dorm steps from the beach! There was some fair culture shock when I realized how loud Americans actually are, just like the stereotype and I learned to blend in more like a local. I love the location because it’s right by the beach, and I get to take a train to class. The food is great, I they only serve aioli with fries, or “Chips”, and I don’t think I’ll ever go back to ketchup. Taking classes is easy enough, I packed my schedule into only 2 days of class, so I get to spent 5 in the city and at the beach. I thought about getting a job here to kill the extra time, but I decided to just enjoy the location fully without worrying about that. A little while in, I took a spring break trip to New Zealand and saw an amazing landscape I’ve never experienced before. My program mates and I rented a car and spent 10 days driving the whole South Island, complete with stops to Mount Cook and Queenstown. I also took a trip to Sydney to see what the big city here is like, and the nightlife was unmatched. I never really got the chance to break into rave culture in America, but when the music festival Ultra came to my host city, I knew I had to try it. The day in the sun with amazing performances and effects couldn’t have been better. About the locals, I realized college culture here is much different. Many of my classmates lived at home and commuted due to housing prices, and since the drinking age here is 18, I always found it funny how my mates would just go home from the club to their parents’ house at the end of the night. I didn’t face a huge language barrier, however there are a few funky slang terms to get used to, like their favorite word of all, which we don’t use in America. One of my favorite souvenirs is probably a rock I collected from a Glacier in New Zealand, and a hat I was given on St. Patty’s Day. I’m not ready to leave but I am ready to get back to work at my job. I’ll definitely be getting the most out of my last weeks here.
