Hello from Indonesia!!
My name is Lauren, and I’m a student in my second year of a Masters in Dietetics. I am currently 2 weeks into my stay at Yogyakarta Indonesia, but would like to tell you about my feelings before I departed.

When our program coordinator sent us an email about an amazing opportunity for 4 students to go and study at the nutrition department at the University of Gadjah Mada I was instantly excited, What a fantastic opportunity! Myself and 3 other students were luckily selected to receive a grant allowing us to spend 1 month here learning about the nutritional issues present in Indonesia specifically: malnutrition, Iodine deficiency disorders and anaemia.

Before leaving for Indonesia i was extremely excited as i had never set foot anywhere in Asia before, I was excited to experience a new culture but also a little nervous of what to expect as we were warned to expect not to have a working shower or any normal toilets!  We had a very limited understanding of what we would be doing while abroad, however i was quire excited to know we would visit local healthcare centres and see some case studies.

I was also very excited to be able to try the foods, do some sight seeing and learn about the daily eating habits of the Javanese people. I expected the trip to go extremely fast and wanted to make sure I would be able to see as much as possible before the trip is over!

I knew this experience would be fantastic as I had previously studied abroad in my bachelor and absolutely loved it. However, this trip will be a completely different environment which i am very excited to explore!

Lauren Saurbrey, a Master of Nutrition and Dietetics, is participating in the Nutrition and Dietetics Research Project in Indonesia in 2016

• Check other financial assistance to study overseas here