My Time in Newcastle

Its been a little over 4 months since I returned from Newcastle and there hasn't been a day where I haven't thought about my experience. Through this experience I made so many lifelong friends and had my eyes opened to how vast the world truly is. I lived about 2 blocks away from the beach and a 15 minute walk from the town center and train station (on which you can pay $5 and get to Sydney in 2 hours). I lived in an 11 person share house with not only Australians, but people from all over Europe. And with the 4 other houses that had the same amount of people next door, it was like our own little international community. I learned so many things about so many different countries and cultures. I also learned that I love to travel as we camped up and down the east coast of Australia as well as drove an RV around the south island of New Zealand. I also got to fulfill my lifelong goal of surfing every day and becoming a good surfer. I just wanted to write this review to say that if you are thinking about going to Newcastle, GO! People will tell you that its scary to travel away from home for such a long time and that might be true, but after leaving Newcastle I was wishing that I'd chosen to stay a year. ISA is a great program that helped me every step of the way and gave me opportunities to meet so many fun people. At the beginning of the program they'll have you meet up in Cairns and you'll get an amazing opportunity to socialize and make friends with people who are also going to your university. I know its a big decision to commit to a program like this one, but I promise you it will teach you so many new things about yourself and completely change your perspective on the world.