Sunlight, beaches, and an opera house were not what I imagined seeing out my window during my semester abroad even three months ago! While I did not board the plane to embark on the Francophone journey I had envisioned since middle school, I already feel at home here in Sydney! 

This entire first week in Australia was very busy but in the best ways possible. On the first day, I spent most of the day with Stella and Maddie: hanging around the airport, and lobby, and finding a good little cafe close to our accommodation. After checking in and meeting all of my roommates, everyone in the program went to UTS to learn the train system and have our orientation. From there we went to dinner on the harbor where we all enjoyed a multi-course Italian dinner. While it was the three of us at the end of the table, we were also able to get to know some of the students from other schools through conversation and offering leftovers to other tables. After coming back, I hung out with the guys in my apartment before the jetlag caught up to us and we called it an early night. 

Once classes kicked off, the week became slightly more structured but still allowed for a lot of fun. I didn’t have classes on Monday and enjoyed the great time zone benefit of all-morning football. My apartment mates and I watched the Eagles/Packers and Vikings/Buccaneers games before I went and got lunch supplies from the mall next door. For dinner, Lauren, Stella, Maddie, and I went down to the beach with sandwiches and enjoyed the warm breeze. On Tuesday I had both of my classes for this chunk and enjoyed meeting my professors and other students from other universities. Afterward, the three of us who had dinner the night before went back to the beach to enjoy the sun for a little while before coming back for dinner in the apartment. I didn’t have class until 3:30 pm on Wednesday so after my second trip to the gym of the week, I met up with Alexa for lunch before we went to our Australian Life and Culture class. Once we came back I enjoyed the chicken and roasted sides that Stella had made for dinner (even trying and liking the roasted broccoli to my surprise). We then embraced our food comas at their apartment watching TV while a thunderstorm rolled through. Thursday was very similar to Wednesday with one class, some downtime to complete my homework, and dinner with friends. Friday was a longer day as I had both classes but following both of them, I came back for dinner before heading out with about a quarter of the Bucknellians on the trip to a local bar for the cultural experience. 

Walking down to Botany Beach from the bus stop

I really enjoyed the content covered in both of my classes through the first week. In my Australia Life and Culture class, I was fascinated to learn how similar yet different the British pilgrimage to Australia was compared to their settling in America. We explored the history of the First Fleet through a documentary and a film which made me realize how ignorant the British were when settling the colony. While they believed that they were benefiting the Indigenous population by creating opportunities for them to go to school and join the workforce, they were completely ignoring the traditions and desires of the population who had not asked to have this infrastructure created on their land. I am looking forward to learning more about this history in the next three weeks. Additionally, I enjoyed my Global Management professor’s lectures. He has a background in marketing and places a heavy emphasis on the industry when talking about exporting goods and the importance of established brands in that space. I really look forward to this class more as well and can’t wait for him to teach my International Marketing class starting in February. 

The highlight of my week however was our weekend programming. Saturday, we took a walking tour around Sydney, specifically around The Rocks. Many of the details that our tour guide included as we walked by the historical buildings mirrored what we had learned in my Australian Life and Culture class. It was amazing to see the remnants of the early settlement and loved learning all of the stories about Sydney’s Old Town. Following our tour, we had lunch with a view of the Sydney bridge and later that night, a group of Bucknellians all went back to Bondi for dinner out and gelato. 

Picture of the Sydney Harbor Bridge

I couldn’t resist not including a picture of the Opera House

Sunday was arguably even more exciting as we visited Walkabout Wildlife Sanctuary. During our full day at the sanctuary, we had the opportunity to pet all of the Australian animals: kangaroos, wallaroos, wallabies, pythons, and a koala! I also noticed a lot of the themes that arose in my animal behavior class from last semester reappear during our time at the sanctuary and learned a great deal about the care that the facility takes for their animals. In addition, we had the chance to learn how to throw a boomerang and I shamelessly feel that I had one of the best boomerang throws of our group. 

All in all, this was a very eventful and exciting first week in Sydney! I am looking forward to this upcoming week and hope to get to spend some more time with the guys in my apartment since I feel that I have been out and about elsewhere most of the time since we arrived. In addition, I have a few smaller goals to accomplish this week like finding a guitar that I hope to complete. With that said, I’m very excited about the great weather forecast that I’ve seen, and hope to get to the beach a few more times this week!