Commerce
When the time finally came for me to realise that I wanted to do a semester abroad as part of my Bachelor of Commerce degree at UQ, I thought it might have been too late as the only time left to do it was the final semester of my degree. This previously wasn’t allowed but due to a change in rulings I was able to, and it has been probably one of the best decisions I have made in my life so far, which has led to some of the best experiences that I will have in my life to come, seriously, there is nothing like it.
I chose Nottingham because of its reputation as a top quality educational institution and position in the UK, right next to East Midlands Airport where I had many a sneaky trip to surrounding continents. Its student life also appealed to me and it did not fail to live up to its reputation. I undertook six modules at Nottingham which equated to four courses at home. I had no problem enrolling in all six when I arrived for the International Student Welcome Program, held the week before Fresher’s week. Fresher’s week is definitely something to experience. I chose hall accommodation, on the University Park campus, where it all happens. The sheer amount of freshers in the first week is quite overwhelming so finding people who I clicked with was effortless. I tended to befriend English people than go to international student social events as I felt this would give me more of an authentic experience. Not to say that I haven’t met or made friends with people from all over the world who I will definitely look up in the future.
Before I started the semester in Nottingham, I spent 4 weeks travelling around Europe on a tour, on which I had some of the best experiences and made friends for life. During the Christmas break I was lucky enough to spend two weeks skiing in Austria and then back to the UK for New Years in Edinburgh, the Hogmanay street party as it is known. This enabled me to improve my skiing skills tenfold whilst I was there and the highlight of my six months living the mountain life with amazing people. As it came to a close and the reality of exams set in, I started to reflect on how much I had managed to do during the time I had been there and how fast it had really gone. There is no room to take things for granted, someone once said to me, “go on exchange, it is the best experience you can have while you’re young, trust me.”