Click on image for larger photo.

Kelly Cheung - Study Abroad Experience

I studied in Newcastle, Australia for the Spring 2005 semester. I had two weeks to find a place to live and to familiarize myself with the campus. I flew over with someone I knew, but after the first few days staying in a hostel, I met so many more people, mostly Americans from the midwest, but a few other South Carolinians as well. We quickly bonded over little stuff we missed from the states, such as Reese's Pieces, peanut butter M&M's and Taco Bell. It's kind of sad, but for the first few months, everyone of my friends were from somewhere in the US.

I learned that Australians love the American accent (especially the southern accent) but they also love to make fun of us. They have a similar culture as we do, but slightly more laid-back, and yes, their accents make them much more attractive. I did meet a lot of Australians through conversations pertaining to US/Aus differences. It was fun calling out the major differences between the two cultures - especially the words and slang we use and the consumer differences (how we all drive SUV's even though very few people go off-roading).

As far as academics were concerned, the University of Newcastle's class structure is slightly different than ours. Each class meets four hours a week—once for lecture and once for tutorial. I only had three days of classes a week, but I also took five classes (equivalent to 15 credit hrs. here at USC). Most of the other students took three classes. I was told that the lecture portion of the class was optional, but you had to go to tutorial.

As far as testing goes, most of my classes had one mid-term and a final. Very few teachers gave out homework... maybe a few readings. They expected you to be prepared for class though. I would say their classes were more self-motivational, as in you can put however much effort you can into them because they don't have weekly evaluations (or what we call quizzes).

Their grading system is also slightly different than ours. They do not have an A,B,C,D,F scale. Rather, they have HD (high distinction), D (distinction), C (credit), ! P (pass), and F (fail). They very rarely give out HD's, and D's are even difficult to attain. Most students are happy with and try for a Credit. Although USC follows the pass/fail standards for studying abroad, I did manage to get 2 D's (that's distinctions, not D's as in almost failing).

Classes were interesting, but meeting people and establishing friends from all over the world was even more interesting.

For their fall break (which is like our spring break, we got about two weeks off), I went to New Zealand for a week, did some sight-seeing, went sky-diving... and then flew back to Australia, up to Cairns for a week to snorkel at the Great Barrier Reef and get stung by little jellyfish. That was fun (the sky-diving and snorkelling part, not the getting stung part).

Since I only had 3 days of classes a week, I had time to make short trips on my extended weekends. One of the very first trips I took was to the Blue Mountains with a group of about 13 people. It was um... I guess interesting is the most descriptive word I can come up with right now. We had to hike an hour to our campsite. But during the days, we would want to go into town and to see the Three Sisters (famous mountain formation) and to shop, which would mean we had to hike an hour out of the campsite, as well as hike an hour back to sleep at night. Oh, did I mention it was very hilly and that 9 of the 13 people were girls? Like I said, it was an interesting weekend. No shower. One port-potty/outhouse like structure. 

Newcastle is also a three-hour long train ride from Sydney, so of course we took many weekend trips to Sydney. It reminds me of New York City, huge buildings everywhere, cabs and buses everywhere... just a lot of traffic and pollution. Good shopping though.

I guess in summary, I would say that I had an absolutely AMAZING time. I would not trade this experience for anything in the world. You realize so much more about the world when you have to travel alone to a new place halfway around the world. You realize how much you depend on the new friendships that you make because you don't know anyone at first, and these are the people that will make your trip memorable.

You also realize how arrogant everyone else in the world thinks you are... just because you are from America. But they realize that not ALL Americans fit the "typical American" stereotype... even though it's somewhat fun in the process of them getting to know you and vice versa.

I've made so many friends through this experience... some of them are even coming to visit this year! I know that when I go back (and yes, I do want to go back) I'll always have a place to stay and people to hang out with.

To all the potential study abroad students... it's definitely worth it! You will make so many friends and have so many experiences that you just can't get staying here. Trust me, the accents are definitely worth it. And I did try to surf (emphasis on TRY). I hurt myself every time I went, so eventually, I just admitted to the fact that I was not born to surf. At all.