Are you pickin' up what i'm Putin down? - strawberries' university journey

[Calebark]

Welcome back after all this time! I don't know much about exchange semesters, so I'm making a formal request for details pls. Did you study in one country and visit the others in your free time? Or bits and pieces of study in multiple countries? Either way super exciting

[Erutepa]

10th February 2019

it's been almost 6 months since I've posted...but wow...it's been quite a 5.5 months I must say

semester 2, 2018:
so I spent mid august to mid jan in europe doing my exchange semester. was amazing. visited 20 countries. once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. if anyone is ever considering exchange, i would strongly recommend it. i did have my downs but i definitely do not regret it at all. met so many people from around the world, saw so many sights, tasted great food and did so many things i wouldn't usually do! to think even 12 months ago that i would cruise the baltic sea, walk around the red square in moscow, climb the eiffel tower, visit the colosseum, see oia santorini at sunset, ride a gondola in venice, cruise along the danube river...the list goes on! it was also my first white christmas and i also loved experiencing the european christmas markets! i could ramble on about my trip! (i'm actually considering doing another exchange in next year, but we'll see when time comes )

Exchange sounds sooo cool. I have definitely though about going, and it seems to be a very valuable and worthwhile experience.

I guess that's it for a 5-month update
If you read through all of this you're amazing and ily <3 

I already know I'm amazing 

[strawberries]

Welcome back after all this time! I don't know much about exchange semesters, so I'm making a formal request for details pls. Did you study in one country and visit the others in your free time? Or bits and pieces of study in multiple countries? Either way super exciting

thanks! yeah basically you just stay in one country, but since Europe consists of several small countries all located very close to each other, I travelled in my free time (during my mid-semester break, I visited 5 countries in 9 days which was pretty cool - quite a short stay in each country but i wanted to see as much as I could)
there are short programs which exist if you are interested in only doing a couple of weeks over the break or something (not too familiar with these) and then you may travel afterwards (or before)

[sweetiepi]

Loving seeing your update, strawbs!
I'm so glad you secured accommodation, I hear that is a pain to get sometimes, haha!

What are you looking forward to most this semester?

[strawberries]

Loving seeing your update, strawbs!
I'm so glad you secured accommodation, I hear that is a pain to get sometimes, haha!

What are you looking forward to most this semester?

thanks insanipi
tbh, I honestly don't know what I'm most looking forward too haven't got many plans but my courses probably will be good, but I guess i'm waiting for something exciting to happen? haha

[Jigsaw]

Yayy! I'm so happy to see this being updated. Your journal is one of the first I ended up reading, so it's awesome to see your progress

[smamsmo22]

Hey! I haven't always been a super regular AN user so I hadn't read much of your journal until now; that being said, I'm excited to hear more
Exchange sounds really cool!! Which country was your exchange based? How did you find studying over there and deal socially in terms of the school you were attending? (If that's how the arrangement worked?)

Also, I had a random question, but I thought you'd be able to offer some good info as you've been living interstate for a few years now. Overall, do you like living out of home? Do you like the lifestyle in Canberra and do you see yourself staying after uni or returning (or going somewhere else?) What have you found is the biggest challenge with living away from home?

Thanks in advance for your responses

[strawberries]

Yayy! I'm so happy to see this being updated. Your journal is one of the first I ended up reading, so it's awesome to see your progress

thank you <3

Hey! I haven't always been a super regular AN user so I hadn't read much of your journal until now; that being said, I'm excited to hear more
Exchange sounds really cool!! Which country was your exchange based?

The Netherlands

How did you find studying over there and deal socially in terms of the school you were attending? (If that's how the arrangement worked?)

I went to a liberal arts college there so it was kinda more "intense" than a 'normal uni'. Lots of readings to do and lots of small assignments (instead of the usual one big essay and one big exam). But no lectures either!
Socially I felt like I belonged quite well. The school I went to was almost 90% international students from all over the world (lots from Europe but also quite a few from Asia, USA and Africa).   

Also, I had a random question, but I thought you'd be able to offer some good info as you've been living interstate for a few years now. Overall, do you like living out of home? Do you like the lifestyle in Canberra and do you see yourself staying after uni or returning (or going somewhere else?) What have you found is the biggest challenge with living away from home?

Thanks in advance for your responses

Do I like living out of home? I guess sometimes, haha. I can eat as many snacks as I want without judgement
Canberra lifestyle - is quieter than Melbourne ofc haha. But it's nice and calm, very easy to get around and public transport is much better than Melbourne

I'd love to stay in Canberra (lots of public service jobs and such there), but idk if I want to spend time looking for housing so I might just move back home to Melbourne with my parents afterwards. No idea, we'll see

The biggest challenge living away from home...I'm not sure haha. I guess the chores? (I'm such a bad kid haha). You have to manage everything for yourself like grocery shopping, which can get annoying but luckily I lived quite close to the supermarkets so it wasn't too bad.

[strawberries]

25th Feb 2019

So uni officially started today! For the first time, I have classes on all 5 days (but only for weeks 1-6), and then 3 days from weeks 7-12.
Honestly, since my exchange, I haven't been feeling 'it'. I don't know.

Random points
- This semester I'm taking 4 courses: foreign policy, media politics, public policy and US politics
- I honestly don't know what I want to do with my life. I kinda wanna change degrees. I have been interested in studying history, I'd like to further continue studies in French, so I'm not sure. Most likely though, I'm gonna stick it out with what I have because I've already come so far.
- I feel like I'm really disorganized. I've moved into my new place, it's small. Very community-like though. But it takes twice as long to get to the shops which kinda sucks. I feel like I have a million things to do - some of which are the simplest tasks yet I find extremely demanding that I don't even feel like starting. All I want to do is literally lie in bed at the moment.
- Today, I just had a 1hr lecture. It went fine cos it was an introductory lecture. What sucks is that I have a timetable clash so I will have to skip one lecture each week. Oh well.
- Last week was o-week. I signed up to a bunch of clubs. Maybe I'll actually go this year?

my to-do list this week (some non-uni related)

- print necessary readings
- finish readings for this week, commence readings the next week
- perhaps think about my first 2 assignments
- tidy my room and re-organize my desk. it isn't so bad right now, I just need to rearrange a lot of stuff.
- go to Officeworks/Typo/stationery shop and buy stuff so I can be inspired to study lol
- start exercising
- touch up my CV and apply for more jobs
- search up recipes and pre-plan meals

someone pls pray for me so I hope I can survive. sorry this was kinda a depressing entry lol

strawbs xx

[strawberries]

update 5 months later

we're now in semester 2. I did alright in semester 1, but my mark for my IR course in foreign policy is the highest I've ever gotten on a uni course so that's good I also randomly applied for an internship at a big 4 consulting firm (forgot to apply for the other ones lol) and made it to the final stage of interviews but didn't get it :/ sad but it was a good experience, surprised I even got that far. i've been doing heaps of sport though last sem.

i also did an intensive winter course, but we have an essay that is due in a few weeks

this sem I really hate my timetable. As an 'arts' student, low contact hours but still 4 days of class a week. I know I can skip lectures but I still live on campus so it's not like it's inconvenient for me to go to school. I actually admire people who skip lectures tbh - like they don't go to class AND do well, while managing something like work/extracurriculars? I wish I could do that!
this semester I'm doing 3 courses (one on IR theory, one on political methodology and one on game theory) as well as an internship in parliament in the office of a Senator which is exciting but also scary. This internship will also be for-credit and we need to complete a 4k word research report at the end.

i've got exciting stuff on this sem but still scary.

strawbs