{"id":1513,"date":"2015-03-26T15:30:45","date_gmt":"2015-03-26T06:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-exchange-experiences\/?p=1513"},"modified":"2015-03-26T15:30:45","modified_gmt":"2015-03-26T06:00:45","slug":"a-canadian-abroad-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-exchange-experiences\/2015\/03\/26\/a-canadian-abroad-2\/","title":{"rendered":"A Canadian Abroad !"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hey everyone!<\/p>\n

I\u2019m Jacqueline, a student from the University of Calgary (UofC) in Alberta Canada, who is on a year-long exchange here at Flinders. Back home I am a Communications major, minoring in Sociology. Here at Flinders I am lucky enough to be taking a wide range of option classes (or \u2018topics\u2019 as they call them) that aren\u2019t available to me back home.<\/p>\n

In order to make the most of my exchange experience and because I had almost three months off after UofC’s Fall Exams (thank you Oz semester dates!) I was able to travel South East Asia for four weeks, and then arrive in Australia two weeks before move-in day, here at Deirdre Jordan Village. As soon as I arrived I knew I would love Adelaide. It was interesting, when I would tell people back home that I was studying here, almost nobody knew where Adelaide was, and those that did would ask me \u201cwhy do you want to study there? Its boring\u201d. Personally, I do not think I could have picked a better city to live in for the next 10 months. Adelaide reminds me of Calgary, there is a big city centre with lots of shopping and hustle and bustle, and then there are the quieter neighbourhoods (where Flinders is). Major plus side: the beach!! People forget that for a Canadian that is used to having winter and snow for almost 8 months of the year, having a beach close by is a huge selling point. Also, being away from a major city means I can look out my window and see a koala in the tree! My friends at home are incredibly jealous. Like Calgary, other major cities are close by. Instead of going over the mountains to Vancouver, I will hop on a $50 flight to Melbourne or Sydney! It will preserve the wow-factor for me not to be living in a tourist attraction. Not to mention, Adelaide Fringe was one heck of a party! Definitely gave me nostalgia of Stampede, having everyone outside drinking and eating \u2013 minus the cowboys of course.<\/p>\n

I did experience a bit of homesickness on move in day. From my window I could see people\u2019s parents helping them move in, getting groceries, and saying their goodbyes. It made me realize how far away from home I actually was, and dealing with a 17.5 hour time difference meant I couldn\u2019t even Skype my family. However, I pulled myself together and went to the Welcome Dinner, where I met many amazing people that have been nothing but friendly and supportive! The events in O-week were a great way to meet everyone; that\u2019s where I met 4 of my closest friends that I have here in Adelaide!<\/p>\n

My advice for anyone who is feeling overwhelmed or lonely is simply to be around people in the Village, the Hall or just around campus. There are a lot more internationals, and people from other parts of Australia than I realized! Just post on the Facebook page and see if anyone is available to do anything<\/em>; groceries, go to the beach, a movie, or even just to go for a walk \u2013 I have never seen any post go uncommented on.<\/p>\n

After one month living here in Adelaide I couldn\u2019t be happier. The classes at Flinders are different and interesting, the people living around me are nothing but fun, and the weather is amazing (this is Fall?!). I have learned a lot about myself recently, that I can<\/em> handle living away from home for a year, in a country that is so far away I am always a day ahead of my family and friends!<\/p>\n

I am very excited to see what this exchange has in store for me, for the next 8 months of school, and the lasting impressions I will carry with me for a lifetime.<\/p>\n

Jacqueline<\/p>\n

\"JC1\"<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\"JC2\"<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0\"JC3\"<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0\"JC4\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hey everyone! I\u2019m Jacqueline, a student from the University of Calgary (UofC) in Alberta Canada, who is on a year-long exchange here at Flinders. Back home […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-global-experience-blogs","category-inbound-student-experiences"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-exchange-experiences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-exchange-experiences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-exchange-experiences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-exchange-experiences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-exchange-experiences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-exchange-experiences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1513\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-exchange-experiences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-exchange-experiences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-exchange-experiences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}