{"id":827,"date":"2025-05-02T16:04:24","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T20:04:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/studyabroad\/?p=827"},"modified":"2025-05-02T16:41:16","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T20:41:16","slug":"aussie-aussie-aussie-oi-oi-oi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/studyabroad\/2025\/05\/02\/aussie-aussie-aussie-oi-oi-oi\/","title":{"rendered":"Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oi Oi Oi!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Written by: Ellie Brill\u00a0 |\u00a0 Spring 2024\"Ellie<\/a>
\nBU Exchange: Macquarie University (Sydney)<\/p>\n

As a Biology Major, I hadn\u2019t thought that studying abroad was a viable option for me – I didn’t think that I would be able to find a program, or that credits were transferable. Turns out, that\u2019s not true at all! With the help of the CGE, finding a program was super easy. I ended up signing up to go to Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia.<\/p>\n

I chose Australia for a few reasons. First, the only other language I speak is Spanish – and I certainly don\u2019t speak it well enough to take an upper-level Biology course in. The\u00a0second reason is that I figured Australia is far enough from the U.S. to feel different, but similar enough for me to adjust in only five months. Having now lived here for five months, I\u2019m glad I chose it. Australia is such a beautiful country! Sydney is unlike any other city, there is so much greenery everywhere, the air is fresh, and the public transportation is wonderful (and cheap). The beaches are worth all the hype they get, but I prefer the Blue Mountains and the many museums. Being here, I\u2019ve gotten incredibly comfortable using public transportation like the bus, metro, train, and even the ferry sometimes.<\/p>\n

Macquarie University is also\u00a0\"Tourists<\/a>wonderful. It was built on\u00a0land traditionally owned by the Wallumattagal Clan of the Dharug Nation. I chose to take a class here on Indigenous Australia to learn more about the traditional custodians of the land, and I\u2019m so thankful I did so. I actually think the education in different GHS classes I\u2019ve taken at Butler has prepared me for learning and discussing topics like this in different cultures. The university campus is beautiful and in a great part of the city. Macquarie sits right on the edge of what I consider \u2018downtown\u2019 – although Australians don\u2019t use that term. I was also able to join one of the upper voices a cappella groups on campus – the Macabellas. I made many friends and got to practice one of my hobbies through that group.<\/p>\n

What has made the most\u00a0\"Ellie<\/a>difference to me, and I\u2019m sure all study abroad and exchange students would agree, is the people I\u2019ve met. The best friend I have here I met in my residential college (MRC). Her name is Mar, she\u2019s 26, from Mexico City, and getting her Master\u2019s in Environmental Science at Macquarie. Mar has really been a role model for me and has shown me how to come out of my shell. I thought that I had grown a lot as a person in my 3 years at Butler, but these past few months with Mar have really made me flourish. From Mar I have met three other friends from Mexico – Guillermo (Memo), Adela (Adelita), and Juan Pedro (Jepe). I have also met two Argentinians through Mar -Trinidad (Trini) and Gaston (Gasti). They refer to themselves as \u2018Los Latinos\u2019, and they have welcomed me into their group with open arms. I mentioned upon meeting Mar that I am getting my Minor in Spanish, and since then, they have made it their mission to make sure I leave Australia speaking better Spanish than when I arrived. The irony is not lost on me that I traveled to the other side of the world and made a friend group consisting almost entirely of people from the same continent that I came from. Apart from the language and cultural education I\u2019ve gained from Los Latinos, I\u2019ve found a group of friends unlike anything I\u2019ve ever known. The truth about studying abroad is that for as fun and exciting as it is, it\u2019s also really hard and scary at times! Personally, I had never been this far away from my family and certainly not for this long. Especially being in Australia, the time difference makes it incredibly difficult to communicate with people back home. But, the friends I made here made all the difficult times bearable. Memo taught me a lot about the balance between being responsible and taking care of yourself. Trini and Adelita taught me how to dance (which I desperately needed a lesson in). Gasti and Jepe were always there to bring me up in the times I was down. The friendships that I\u2019ve made over the past five months will be ones that I carry with me forever. We\u2019ve already got plans to meet up over Butler\u2019s fall break!<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

I would recommend that everyone study abroad if they\u2019re given the opportunity to do so. The things you will experience and the people you will meet will genuinely change your life. I\u2019m so excited to come back to Butler with this new perspective on life, and I hope to return to Sydney in the future <3<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by: Ellie Brill\u00a0 |\u00a0 Spring 2024 BU Exchange: Macquarie University (Sydney) As a Biology Major, I hadn\u2019t thought that studying abroad was a viable option for me – I didn’t think that I would be able to find a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9196996,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9196996"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=827"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":839,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827\/revisions\/839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}