Australia Wrap-Up

It's funny that four months later I find myself sitting in my room in Hanover, MA surrounded by clothes and in the midst of a panic attack as once again I try to cram as much stuff as possible into a mammoth-sized suitcase. This time I'm going to Europe, not Australia, but I thought it would be appropriate to write about my final thoughts about my second home before taking off on another adventure.

My biggest problem with Bond University was the large American population. The school had a population where 50% of the students were American. And not only that, but really dumb Americans. Maybe that's harsh, but I found that most of the Americans I met only chose Bond because the drinking age was 18. That's probably the lamest thing I've ever heard, thus describing their personalities. Had I known that Bond was going to have such a large American population, I probably would've chosen to go somewhere else in Australia. I met maybe a handful of Australians and I couldn't say that I made any truly close Aussie friends, which was a goal of mine during the semester.

Also, the Australians who go to Bond are sick of the ever changing crowds of drunk Americans who show up at their university, so I got the vibe that they didn't really want to make the effort to become friends with people who were leaving in a few months. It's sad, but I don't blame them.

Also, I really didn't like the Gold Coast. It would've been cool for a vacation, but living there for four months was a drag. It's like the Vegas or Miami Beach of Australia. Real Australians don't go there often, and if they do, it's for a week. I felt like most of the people I met in Surfers Paradise were very fake or were only there for a short amount of time. I sometimes wonder how different my experience would've been if I had gone to Sydney or Brisbane.

The positive aspects about living in Australia are innumerable. However, for example, I returned to Boston yesterday for the first time since I've been back, and when I was walking around, I felt a new sense of confidence that I had never felt before. I can't really explain it, but I just felt like Boston was so small, now that I'm armed with the knowledge about a whole continent called Australia floating around on the other side of the world. Another way to say it is that any problems I have here in Massachusetts are not that serious. There are so many people in this world, and so many brilliant things, that people and problems in my life that cause me grief here in Boston seem so insignificant now.

Also of course, I met amazing people, did amazing things, and I now have a feeling of worldliness that I didn't think I could possess. Now I'm going to Europe, into a country that does not speak English, and I think it will do the same things for me but in a different way. I encourage anyone who is thinking about studying abroad to do so because it has been such a positive experience for me, and I can't imagine not having done it.

That's it for this journal, wish me luck in Italia.