Keara's Exchange to Aberystwyth University | Wales
I think the most important message from any study abroad testimonial is to DO IT! This was one of the most incredible, fun, empowering experiences I have ever had. I had a few friends who had been on exchange with Murdoch before and they all highly recommended it, so I thought let’s apply and just see what happens. The process was actually a lot easier than I was expecting so don’t let the idea of a super long application process put you off! In the end, I didn’t get my first university preference which I was a bit disappointed about. Jeannette could see that disappointment in me and said that no one has ever regretted their university choice and geeeeeeze was she right!!!! I was accepted into Aberystwyth university in Aberystwyth, Wales. Its pronounced ‘abba-wrist-with’ just in case you were wondering!
So I had my acceptance letter and then all the real planning begun! Booking flights, buying clothes that would survive a much colder winter than Perth, figuring out how to get from London to Wales, all that pre-holiday organizing! This was all pretty smooth going at the beginning but as time was ticking away and my departure date was looming closer, I started to panic!! So imagine this… a normal gal who lives at home, mum does all the food shopping, cooking, laundry and ironing, the longest I’d been away from home overseas was a month and now I was a few weeks away from flying by myself to a country on the other side of the world to live independently!! Pretty scary hey! And I was terrified! I even thought about withdrawing my position and not going but I am sooo glad that I didn’t do that!!
Getting used to the cold took a bit of time! One of the funniest memories from the beginning of my trip was arriving at a train station after I had been lugging a 30kg suitcase and a giant handbag around, just wanting to sit down. But mother nature obviously didn’t agree because there was ice on every chair insight! At the time I felt like crying but looking back, its one of the funniest things that happened to me.
After taking a few trains which took about 3 hours, I arrived in Aberystwyth!!! This is a small seaside university town so its super packed with students during the semester! You can pretty much walk everywhere however taxis were great when you had to walk up the big hill from town to the uni campus! :p All the international students were put in an apartment block together which was great because I was close to other people who were going through the exact same thing as me. I was one of 2 Aussies which was awesome because we were much more of a novelty than the many people from America or Canada. The first few days were a bit daunting which is what you’d expect. Once I got my package with bedding, hangers and cooking equipment it started feeling a bit more like home. I brought with me one of my blankets from home and some photos to put up on my pin board. Just those few things made me feel much more comfortable in my room.
Slowly the other international students living in my apartment trickled in which was great because it meant there was more people to become friends with! And making friends was the easiest thing ever!!! Super easy to make friends with people who are going through the same thing as you, especially when you’re living with them! Being uni students, we quickly figured out where the cool places to go out were. We would hit up Harleys bar first to get our dancing shoes warmed up and then move over to Yokos club to keep the night going until usually around 3 or 4am. Luckily the dorms had really good curtains so I could sleep in after a big night out :p Student nights were on Tuesday and Wednesdays so we would usually go out for one of those nights and then end up out again on the weekend. Sometimes we would only get motivated to go out at around 11.30pm and quickly get dressed and run down the hill into town and have a brill night! Because it was such a small town you would run into people from your classes or even people that you had just seen around campus or town. I even saw a lecturer out at one of the bars in town!
So obviously there’s lectures and tutorials… all that super fun stuff! Everyone in the classes were super welcoming and it definitely helped being an Aussie cause everyone loves Aussies!! Lectures, tutorials and exams were all pretty similar to how its done at Murdoch which was great because it was easy to slip into the routine!
As we were so close to England and Europe, of course we took advantage of that!! We went on a weekend trip to London which was so much fun! We went to all the touristy spots, ate in too many pubs and usually ended up having a few too many pints of beer or cider. Over Easter break we took a trip to Ireland over St Paddy’s day which was insanely amazing! We also went to Scotland, Germany and Austria. I went on the trip with 4 girls who I was really close with. We all had an interest in travelling and having an awesome time so travelling together was super easy!! Smaller trips around wales were also on the agenda.
- Keara studied abroad at Aberystwth University in Wales, United Kingdom
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