It is the sort of thing you do not believe exists until you see it with your own eyes. It’s the biggest event of its kind, but you probably wouldn’t want to take your Grandma. At least I sincerely hope not.

“Sexpo” - and that’s exactly what it is. A sex exhibition. From a huge phallic penisaur mascot to a genitalia themed fair ride… it pretty much has everything you could imagine and also everything you would never imagine. Yeh… that’s about it. I went with a few friends I had made at the first QUEST RE (royal exchange - local pub) night (wednesdays).

This is my sole photo upload. Indeed, it needed some additions in order to reduce the shock factor.

Pricasso, and yes, he's doing precisely what you think he's doing.

There was also the international students market the same day - it was alright, lots of people trying to persuade you to give them money for this and that. Some pretty good prizes were being given away and a few freebies.

So I’m trying to remember back to O-week (that site is useful for timetabling what is on and when)…

Erm…

It can’t have been that interesting cos I really don’t remember anything. Oh, except Quest! (I’ll explain in a minute). So O-week is like the orientation week where they tell new students what uni is about and introduce how things work etc. blah. blaaaah. As I’m a 2nd year it was all pretty obvious stuff. Libraries have useful books in them, the internet has the answers, drinking is only healthy in moderation, don’t run after snakes, you know that sort of stuff. We got introduced to ‘timtams’ - I tell you, they’re Penguins in disguise! As in, in the UK we have the same delicious chocolate bricklet, but we call it a Penguin! and it comes with an interesting/rubbish factoid on the posterior.

Looks like a Timtam, tastes like a timtam, comes with a Pengiun on the packet... It's her majesties tastiest chocolate bricklet!

Anyway, a lot of the stuff is meant for new new students, not ‘new’ students who have popped over on exchange/study abroad. However, it was a really good opportunity to meet other exchangers. Even so, I was slightly disappointed I didn’t meet an Australian called ‘Bruce’ yet.

Quest!!

Anyway! During one of the intro’s a girl called Dana did an advert for a group (society) called ‘Quest’ I can’t remember what it stands for? Something to do with exchange students and ‘we’ll help you make friends!’ (or was it Quidditch Uniforms for Every STudent) Either way, I was convinced to sign up straight away (only $5) and it turned out to be a really good decision! We’ve been on loads of trips so far and I’ll blog on them in a bit. Anyway, you can check the facebook page if you’re interested… Quest

Okay! I’m pretty much done with all the boring stuff to do with getting here/organization…

Last thing I suppose is the most important number… ‘412′, it’s the bus that takes you home!

One of the greatest excitements I have ever felt occurred the morning after I arrived. I woke around 8am wondering where in the world I was. It did not take long before I realised I was most certainly not in England. England was enduring some of the most incredibly cold weather of all time and I had left the country just after a huge snowfall.

It wasn’t snowing wherever I had woken. In fact, it was really hot and… I had never heard any of the strange noises coming from outside. A torrent of squawkings, chatterings, and whistles emanated from through the window and upon groggily sweeping the curtain aside, I see… a parrot, then a whole flock of cockatoos! And really, this was just the beginning of the entourage of wildlife I would encounter over the next few hours, I saw ibises, lorikeets, butterflies, bush turkeys and when dusk came, flying foxes (otherwise known as fruit bats).

The next day I moved into my permanent accommodation down on Munro Street, a small distance from the St. Lucia campus, perhaps 5 minutes or so. We have a really big field in front of the house and an assortment of trees scattered about. I organized my accommodation before I came out through a company called ‘Semester in Australia’ who really helped setting me up. Within a few hours I had an Australian mobile number (remember to get your phone unlocked before you come out– that really helped) and had Internet (it comes on a stick here and you top it up like a mobile phone – strange Ozzies!). I’m living with 5 other exchangers at UQ and there are several other houses on the road that also have students on exchange.

Next I go on a tour around the university campus. It really is the most picturesque setting to study! The uni is 100 years old this year and the original sandstone buildings still stand. The main buildings encircle the great court, a grassy area with trees dotted about and even the occasional bush turkey or duck. What is really cool is that you can sit in the very centre and still get Wi-Fi! I plan to spend my breaks between lectures sitting up against a tree and hiding from the sun. Better than dodging the rain drops in Manchester! (I will eat my words about this in a week’s time when it decides to flash flood throughout Australia!).

The campus is around the same size as my home university, with about the same amount of students (~40,000), so I feel pretty comfortable. The student union seems pretty good, it has it’s own travel agent, food court, book store and bar/club, as well as a bike shop, ‘lolly’ shop (sweet shop to us Brits) and stationary store. The uni has libraries for each department, the main one is the Duhig (pronounced ‘Doo-ee’) library and this is where I picked up my UQ ID card. I then went and picked up a free UQ diary/planner and in the back found loads of coupons to get free things from the union. I quickly took advantage of this and got my meal upgraded at the noodle place.

Not a very interesting post. But essential for anyone who is coming here! It’s a long but necessary saga about things that will help with … everything (I hope)!

Applications, Offers, Acceptances, OSHC’s, VISAs, flights

It is some time ago that I first applied to come on exchange (or study abroad as we call it at home) to UQ. However I remember there were lots of things you had to fill in and sign and lots of photocopying. The OSHC (overseas health care - you send off for a card when you get here and then you just take it to the Doctors with you if you need to go - if you have you usually won’t have to pay anything) was pretty important, unless you paid for it you couldn’t accept the uni’s offer. Then there was getting the VISA (bad luck if you have to have a medical, most people don’t, but if you are a travel junky and have been to exotic countries you might), for most people this took under a week to come through. Flights depend - you have to arrive about a week before term starts (refer to important dates), there is a sort of ‘freshers’ week called ‘O-week’ (Orientation week), where you just get settled and do all the normal first week stuff. If you can come out early and go traveling… cooool! If not, o well, you can travel during/after. Also might depend on whether you have pre-arranged accommodation or not. Either way, the earlier you book, the cheaper it is!

O yeh another thing (if you are a single semester exchanger who is moving into a house with mates but then leaving half way through the year and have to get someone to fill your room whilst you are away)! As soon as you know for definite you are coming (got your offer and acceptance, VISA approved, insurance (OSHC/your uni will probably have a really comprehensive insurance covering you too)) advertise your room! I had several friends who didn’t get on to this early and only got their rooms took off their hands in the last few weeks before they left for Australia. They were getting pretty stressed!

A very important site

The most important page for all study abroad people (remember, they will call you an exchanger over here) is this one … you can get to all the pages you might need to through here, but there are more direct routes (see below).

my-UQ, mysi-net, course enrollment

When you get an offer from UQ you will get your email address and sign-in details for ‘my-UQ‘ which is a bit like the ‘portal’ we have in Manchester, its pretty much the center for all the online resources like the library, UQ email, blackboard, blah, blah. Then there is this other thing -which you can get to from inside my-UQ - called ‘mysi-net‘ which is the same as our ’student system’ in Manchester. You use it to enroll as a student, enter all your details and enroll on your courses (it helps if you enroll for at least one course before you get here because then you can go and pick up your student card straight away, otherwise you have to wait 24hours after enrolling on one after you get here). If it denies you access to a course it will probably be because you don’t have the necessary prerequisites. However if you think you really do have the necessary prerequisites (you can find these on the course profiles - see below) then you can argue your case in a special session in the first week of course. I went along and they happily signed my sheet, no effort or argument needed, just a copy of my transcript.

Course enrollment is a bit different over here, courses often have flexible tutorials/labs and you get an option when you want to do them, but this is first come first serve and you do it through the mysi-net, but don’t worry about this till you get here, most ’sign-ons’ won’t start until the 2nd week of term. The good thing about them is that you can to some extent organize your own timetable and maximize free time!

But, how are you meant to know what courses to enroll on? Depending on your department you will be advised what you should take, some courses are really flexible (like mine - ‘take anything zoologically relevant’) others are less flexible. You have HAVE have to make sure that your uni at home will credit you for whatever you take here and have written proof of this! Anyway, to check out courses (and UQ is really good for the online course profiles for courses, you can see what you will be doing in all lectures, what the assessments will be, everything you can think of) go to courses and programs and search under courses for… this is the tricky bit, you can either try and guess at course titles and hope things come up, or try and work out what the course abbreviations are (there is probably a list of these somewhere but… I never found it!)

So for instance, I do zoology and I figured out the abbreviations below brought back things that were relevant to me, (you can then add a number after the abbreviation which corresponds to the levels of the course, which corresponds to the year in which you would probably study it…) let me show you!

Search ‘BIOL1′ in courses - brings back all 1st level biology courses.

If you are a zoologist/biologist, try out all these abbreviations…

ANIM (animal science), MARS (marine science), ENTM (entomology), STAT (statistics … eurg), ZOOL (zoology), CONS (conservation), FRST (forestry)…

If you are interested in a course but aren’t sure about something then just email the professor who is the unit-coordinator, this will be listed on the course profile somewhere.

Other uni essentials (Go card, Internet, Phone)

A student travel Go card which works pretty much exactly the same as Londons Oyster card. Top it up and go. You can only get the student version once you have your student card to prove to the seller you are in fact a student! You can buy go cards and top them up from nearly all news agents.

Internet is pretty easy but WEIRD! At home we are used to getting a bandwidth and as much download quota as you want. Here, you get a limit on your download and this correlates with the amount of time you can use the internet (you are constantly downloading data when you use the internet). So unless you want a huge bill you won’t be watching so much ‘megavideo’ or ‘youtube’ as these drain your quota! Anyway! You get the internet on a stick here and top up with data at newsagents or the phone store you buy the internet stick through. Most people go with vodaphone. If you are here for a year you might be able to get a contract, but 6 monthers can’t, hence why you have to get a pay as you go stick. Think of it like a pay-as-you-go mobile phone.

Mobiles! Best thing to do is get your phone unlocked from its network before you leave (can either do this through the network - phone up and ask - they will usually take their time to do this) or take it to a random unlocking shop (it’s legal, don’t worry). Then when you get here go get a sim card with an Australian network like vodaphone or optus. They do all sorts of monthly top up deals so check them out. I only use my mobile to text other australian numbers, not international ones, I do all the international stuff through skype (get skype!!!)

Get your uni emails forwarded to whatever account you use most, this way you won’t get a kick in the… when you miss a deadline. I’m so used to using my home university email that I forget the UQ one, so having them forwarded to my home uni one means I can’t miss out on things from UQ.

… Accommodation

This was the most stressful thing for me (and most other people I spoke to). I prearranged mine before I left the UK, it might have been worth it, it saved me stressing out not having anywhere to call home for a few weeks when I got here. The down side to it, is it inevitably costs more. If you are willing to wait till you get here there are loads of rooms advertised (people leave adverts at bus stations, throughout uni, on gumtree). First place to look would be estate agents. There are also student halls on-campus, but this is really for 1st years (apart from International House which is meant for international/exchangers/study abroad students. In fact, hardly anyone stays on-campus, most people are off-campus in the surrounding areas around the uni.

Right. I think that is everything I can remember. I’ll edit if I think of anything else!

It’s 2am the morning of the 17^th of February and I have just arrived into Brisbane. Back home in England it has just turned 4pm (the previous day) and to say the least, I’m a little confused! I’ve never really had ‘jet lag’ but I got the feeling that my body was enjoying its full effects. Either way, over a year of planning and preparation and I had finally made it! (Note: Brisbane is +15hours from the UK).

Just a few short days ago I had been saying good riddance to the family dog (there is a running joke that my parents love Tilly more than me or my brother, therefore I pretend to thoroughly dislike her in their presence whilst fussing over her when they aren’t looking), saying bye to my mum and dad -who are by now getting used to me and my brother disappearing, and just over a day ago dragging an elephant onto a train and waving to my girlfriend and sobbing manly tears. You know, big man tears, made of glass.

Tilly, the very pretty but extremely spoiled (and stupid) dog.

So I arrive, stumble through the airport with my elephant (sized bag) and proceed through security. Once I convince them I’m not actually carrying any elephants, cane toads or other exotic species that may be trying to break entry into the country, they let me through and I for the first time, enter Australia. Before long I’m picked up by the pre-arranged UQ transport driven by a friendly fellow named ‘Lucius’ who proceeds to tell all the arrivals about the various places we pass on the journey. I’m dropped off at my temporary accommodation, a college called ‘St. Leo’s’, and, as requested by my parents, phone home to report I have not been kidnapped or eaten by dingoes.

Australians aren't too fond of invasive species, especially the cane toads.

Then I try to sleep, but my brain is going crazy, I’ve got the Harry Potter theme tune on repeat in my head  and am yet to discover there is a fan in the cupboard of which I am in dire need. I could also overhear a delightful young Australian talking about a rather colourful fling he had had the previous eve. I would tell you how his story ended but thankfully, I was out for the count.

So!

My name is Mike. I am 20 years old, extremely passionate about animals, wildlife and the environment (and tapirs) and have wanted to come to Australia ever since I was a small boy. Unsurprisingly, I am a student of Zoology, and I, along with others from universities all over the world, have journeyed to take part in a single semester exchange to the University of Queensland, UQ for short, to fulfil childhood dreams, academic thirsts but most poignantly for myself, itchy feet. The chance of seeing a platypus was also pretty high up on the “Why go to Australia?” list. (I saw one today… did you know, they don’t have nipples!)

A tapir (go to google, search "baby tapirs")

A rather friendly Kangaroo. His name is Felix.

Along with some others I am going to be blogging about how I am finding life over here. I’ll probably talk mostly about animals I have chased/attempted to hug, and then occasionally there’ll be lots of stuff that will most likely be helpful to you if you are trying to decide on whether to come on exchange, especially If you are wanting to come to UQ. Obviously, if you have already applied to come to UQ, watching how I get on will give you an idea of what to expect. I’ll try and post a minimum of once a week… depends if I have anything interesting to say! Either way,  short excerpts of my goings on, mixture of useful information and… wild tangents.

The next few posts will get things up to the now. So bits on arriving/settling in/discovering bush turkeys aren’t really turkeys/realizing it rains in Australia/getting very wet and… the possum that lives on my balcony. It’s actually a month today since I got here. Wow. I should probably do my laundry!

Let’s go!

P.s. Mum, before you email to scold me, I’ve done it at least 3 times!