Home away from Home

It’s been a little shy of two months of me being in Adelaide and is has not fallen short of my expectations at all. I knew Calgary and Adelaide are similar but as the weeks go by the more I see the similarities in terms of size, atmosphere, cleanliness they are identical. I still yet to get tired of the beach and I honestly don’t think I ever will! I went to the beach 5 days in a row after the first week of classes and its become my new happy place when stressed.

Although I knew I was coming to Australia I couldn’t help but feel really homesick this week, I feel like the fact Adelaide and Calgary are so similar I sometimes forget I’m not at home. I’ve made some friends here and tried to go to as many places as possible to get to know the city. I’ve created a bucket list to help keep me busy and experience everything Adelaide has to offer. So far I’ve been lucky enough to get free tickets to Fringe this year from a classmate as well as go on a hot chocolate/dessert crawl with flinders living, see Kangaroos and Koalas, see the Pandas at the zoo and have a picnic at Carrick Hill.

Living on Campus has made things heaps easier for me and it’s nice to get to know other students here at Flinders as well. Classes seem great so far and not too hard for assignments yet.. I got a HD on my first assignment which scared me because I thought I had failed a class as a D is a pretty bad grade back home but I was reassured an HD was actually really good here in Australia! I’m enjoying the content in class and glad I chose the topics I did, I would recommend them to anyone as I’ve found them so interesting I look forward to go to class and do all the readings right away.

Getting adjusted to the time and weather here was brutal and it scares me to have to do it on my way back home, I finally adjusted to time but can’t help but always feel hot here. I never thought I’d miss the snow and the mountains I took for granted every day but the scenery here and warmth is breathtaking. I am so grateful we aren’t having over 30 degree weather as often now as I thought I was going to melt when I couldn’t get near the air conditioning! Not only was weather and time and adjustment but also the Aussie slang! Now after being here over a month the Aussie accent is starting to sound normal to me and I am finding I’m using some of the slang which is confusing my friends and family back home. Although I have found a love for Milo, Tim Tams, Farmers Union and Golden Gaytimes I am still undecided how I feel about Vegemite and FrutChocs despite how much my roommates encourage it.

I’m looking forward to seeing what else Adelaide has to offer as well as getting to travel a bit during the two week break. I’m excited to see Kangaroo Island with the ISS trip and I’m not sure what to expect as all I can imagine is as island full of kangaroos!

Camila Amestica is on a semester exchange at Flinders University from University of Calgary, Canada: Semester 1 2017