Incredible Semester at UOW

Living on campus at UOW and being a part of the CIEE program has made my time in Australia amazing. It made all the difference having program directors to help me make the transition into life in a new country. The excursions led by CIEE ended up being some of my favorite memories and I am so grateful for them. Not many exchange students I talked with had the opportunities that I had through CIEE, like spending a day with an Aboriginal teacher and abseiling in the Blue Mountains. My experience abroad has pushed me into new experiences daily and taught me lessons I will remember all of my life: how to cook, how to budget, how to take the train, how to surf, how to write strong essays, how to be responsibly spontaneous, and how to be myself. The best advice I have for future participants is to take the opportunity to travel during breaks and plan ahead. One of my favorite memories of my time here so far was going to Bali over mid-semester break with a friend. I met a good friend during the first couple days of orientation week, and we decided on the Bali trip and booked plane tickets right away. It was great to have something to look forward to for break, and it was an amazing trip. With that, make sure you book any plane tickets through a reliable travel agency or through the airlines themselves. Cheap plane tickets are awesome, but as I am now planning for travel at the end of the semester, I am learning there is nothing worse than booking flights through an unreliable travel agency and dealing with constantly-changing flight itineraries (and 14-hour layovers). Behold, another useful lesson I will hold onto! I cannot emphasize enough how much studying abroad has changed me for the better and helped me grow into a more confident and pro-active person. If you have any doubts at all about studying abroad, just know that you will have all the support you could want through CIEE and the friends you will make here, and that the experiences you'll have will become some of your most cherished memories.