In the Spring 2020 semester, I studied abroad at the University of New South Wales in Kensington, Australia. I flew out to Australia on the first of January and arrived early morning on the third. The first thing I did when I got to my new apartment was set off to find sheets for my new bed. After buying an Opal card (bus pass), I boarded the 400 bus to the closest Target/K-Mart. At the time I had no cell service but memorized the bus stop names and numbers.

However, I ended up horribly lost on my first day. It turns out that in Sydney they do not announce bus stops. They do not display the next stop or announce them out loud as they do in the United States. The only way to know when to get off is to look outside and already know where you need to get off, so of course I did not know. What started as a small journey became a large adventure as I kept boarding the incorrect bus and I had no idea where to get off.

That was my introduction to Sydney, Australia but it soon got better. For the first month there I took one summer course and was able to explore Sydney during my first month. I went to Darlington harbor and was able to see the harbor bridge and the Sydney opera house. After I finished my summer class, I had a week off where I “celebrated” Australia Day by attending an Indigenous People’s festival called Yabun and was able to take a train all the way out to the Blue Mountains. It was my first time being in a rainforest and I enjoyed seeing the famous rock formation, the three sisters.

Once the actual trimester began in February, I made some amazing friends Lizz and Eric through the running society. A big part of my study abroad experience was going on fun hikes and adventures with these two. We met at the first RunSoc meeting and the very next day took a train back out to the Blue Mountains where we spent all day in the rain hiking. Nothing creates a strong friendship like going on an impromptu hike a two and half hour train ride away!

Over the course of the next month Lizz, Eric, and I went on different hikes and adventures! We ran all over Kensington and Lizz and I participated in a 5k race at Centennial Park.

Throughout my entire time abroad, COVID-19 had been a large part of it. UNSW had its first case in January and many international students were not able to return to school. The school was actually quite empty compared to what it usually is from what my classmates said. In February the panic buying began and I was not able to purchase toilet paper for the rest of my time in Australia. In March I began debating on whether I should go home as Australia had begun closing borders and flights were becoming rarer. On March 20, four days after UNSW went online I decided to fly home on the 25th of March. Lizz was also flying back to the United States, so we decided to do one last hiking/camping trip before the two of us all left. Eric drove us south of Sydney and we were able to go hiking and camping in the Kangaroo Valley. We went on two massive hikes where I saw the most beautiful waterfall ever.

Leaving Australia early was disappointing as I was not able to do everything I wanted to do in the 2.5 months I was abroad. This has only made me want to return to Australia even more, so hopefully, I can go back once the pandemic is over. Thank you so much to the Harveys for helping me to have this experience!