I wanted to make the most of my Australian experience, and therefore, I decided to arrive down under a month and a half before beginning my formal exchange. From Sydney to the Withsundays, everything was marvelous, and I made many wonderful friends. My séjour on the east coast, however, coincided with a less-welcomed encounter: the infamous Cyclone Marcia! On my last day camping amongst the dingoes on Fraser Island, rain poured from morning to night. Back at the hostel, Marcia was all that my fellow backpackers talked about, people were starting to get spooked, and surely enough, it hit the coast pretty hard. It delayed all buses for about a week, cancelling many flights and travel plans. This is how I pretty much missed the entire first week of orientation at Flinders.

That made me nervous. I kept thinking of the disadvantage it would give me when it came to making friends! I showed up on Friday morning, the final day of orientation, but still met a bunch of international students. That night, we all went to O’Fiesta, and it was so much fun, live bands, Djs, outdoors, lots of dancing, it was real good time.

Two days ago, many of us went to the Futures music festival, and everyone had a blast. We danced until our legs hurt, got a bit sunburnt and made some amazing memories !! Surely, still many more to come!