Ashleigh's Exchange to Nottingham Trent University | England
A long, long time ago, back in the year 2008
to be exact, I made the decision to study abroad. A representative of Rotary Youth Exchange wondered
in to a country high school, to talk to a bunch of hyped up teenagers about the
possibility of traveling and studying abroad as a high school ambassador for
Rotary Australia. My head was filled with fantasies of travelling to far off
places and exploring the world I had never go the chance to see just yet. But
alas! When my birthday rolled around and I didn’t get the $10,000 (!) required
for said trip, I reluctantly put my dream on hold…Flash forward 10 years and
here I am reflecting back on what would turn out to be the wildest, funniest,
most exciting and most rewarding experience of my life.
After years of putting it off, my final year
at Murdoch had rolled around and I was faced with a decision to make. Despite
dreaming of this for so many years the final decision was wrought with doubts
and second thoughts. What if I hated my new uni? What if I make no friends?
What if I miss home so much I barely make it a week before flying back?! All
negative thoughts aside I knew this is what I wanted to do, and after so many
years I finally bucked up and submitted my application. I was to be studying at Nottingham Trent
University in the UK for my last semester of my undergraduate career, and damn
what a semester it was!
I excitedly (and tearfully) left the dreary
Perth winter for the sunny skies of London town! ...*cough*. After a few days
seeing the sights, I packed my haul and set off for Nottingham. I ended up
finding accommodation in a huge 70 room hotel-turned share house, filled with
international students from all over the world, right smack bang in the heart
of Nottingham. The nerves really kicked in as I was about to find out who I
would be spending the next 6 months with. As it turned out I was the only
Aussie (I know right?!) in a house full to the brim of students from, the USA,
New Zealand, Turkey, Brazil, Sweden, India, Germany, Slovakia and Botswana just
to name a few. Almost instantly the fear of not friends was wiped from my mind
as I met some of the most wonderful people I could ever hope to meet. As
strangers became friends our nights and days were filled with group breakfasts,
dinners, house parties, birthdays, movie nights, water fights, dance-offs, sleepovers,
club nights, weekend trips and endless amounts of laughter.
Although the weeks settling in and getting to
know my new home were some of the funniest and craziest I had, I quickly
realized that in just a few days I would begin the next hurdle, the start of
semester. As a Conservation and wildlife student I would be studying at
Brackenhurst campus, one of NTUs three campuses, a gorgeous estate nestled in
the Nottinghamshire countryside outside the village of Southwell. I was absolutely
in LOVE with my new campus. It was surrounded
by green rolling hills, dotted with gorgeous farmsteads and woodland. Being the
smallest of the three campuses meant significantly smaller class sizes than
Murdoch, which was great for getting to know your class mates and making
friends. I undertook three units while at NTU, all of which I greatly enjoyed.
I found after studying abroad I gained a valuable understanding of differing
conservation practices in a British and European context as opposed to
Australia. This allowed me to further explore the idea of undertaking further
studies abroad in the future, which I now plan to do.
While abroad I was lucky enough to fit in some
traveling as well. I spent some time travelling around Ireland, which is one
European country I had never visited before. I loved it so much an initial one
week trip, turned to two as I spent time in Dublin, Galway and I got to visit
the beautiful and iconic cliffs of Moher which was one of my absolute
highlights. While in Ireland I travelled alone for the first two weeks and I
met some amazing new friends. I also spent a week in Amsterdam and meandered
around the Netherlands with some roommates from back in Nottingham. Other
highlights included a rather last minute but hilariously fun weekend trip to
Liverpool, group road trips to Cardiff to watch Wales v New Zealand in the
rugby as well as a trip to Scotland to see one of my favorite musicians in
concert. I sent Christmas with family in their beautiful country house in the
tiny Lancashire village of Yealand Redmayne about 20 minutes away from the iconic
Lake District.
I can’t even begin to explain how amazing my time abroad was. I never thought I would meet the people I did and never thought for a second I would make a group of friends who would become like family to me. I loved every second of my time abroad and wouldn’t change it for the world. I learnt so much about myself and gained a lot of confidence and a sense of independence as well. My advice for anyone grappling with the same doubts and fears I had is to just let go, take a deep breath and take the plunge. Sometimes it pays to follow your heart, and trust me you will be all the better for it! Whether your experience turns out the way you thought it would go or not is irrelevant, what matters is taking the lessons you learned from this experience and allowing it to shape you and you will be surprised how much it changes you as a person.
And
as cliché as that last sentence sounds its 100% true! And so in the immortal
words of Mark Twain,
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that
you didn't do than by the ones you did so. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away
from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream.
Discover."
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Murdoch University Study Abroad & Exchange - Outbound
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