Previous students that have traveled to Australia through UC EAP said they wish they had met more natives as well as people outside of their program.
Before studying abroad, I looked into all of my housing options and decided that finding housing on my own would be best for me financially.
I think if I had not found my own housing, and just signed up for housing through the school, my experience in Melbourne wouldn’t have been as great! While living in a share-house I have been exposed to so many different cultures, not just Australian.
Almost everyone in my home are exchange (study abroad) students – either for the year or for the semester, so we are all new to Melbourne together. With 20+ people in our house, there have 3 kitchens that we share, but still sometimes dinner-time gets a bit hectic. Despite the chaos, I love sharing dishes and talking about food from every part of the country with all of my housemates!
Danish, Dutch, Swedish, French, Malaysian, British, Australian, and of course American.
Tonight, a couple of people in my home decided to make a Danish dessert for us all to try called Risalamande.
Usually made during the holiday time, Risalamande is a yummy rice pudding dessert with vanilla and chopped almonds. Along with Risalamande, there’s a tradition to leave an entire almond in the rice and who ever finds it gets a prize, usually money.
Naturally, a lot of Risalamande was consumed to find the almond, which of course was towards the bottom of the huge bowl made for 20+ people.
Living in a share-house can get a bit crazy at times but it’s a really great way to meet people from all over the world (not just your own program) – which was definitely one of the things I wanted to accomplish while studying abroad!
By living in this share-house, it’s almost like I got to study abroad in all of the places that my housemates are from!
If you study abroad, where ever you decide to live – my one recommendation is to meet as many people as possible; it makes your time abroad so much better that it already is!
Cheers,
Brenda
