G´day ma­tes,

my name is De­bo­rah, and I’ve been li­ving in Aus­tra­lia sin­ce the end of March. Af­ter a fan­ta­stic ori­en­ta­ti­on week fil­led with ex­ci­ting ac­ti­vi­ties and mee­ting many in­ter­na­tio­nal and na­tio­nal stu­dents, my se­mes­ter ab­road at Grif­fith Uni­ver­si­ty on the Gold Co­ast fi­nal­ly star­ted. I’m ex­ci­ted to be stu­dy­ing in a vast uni­ver­si­ty with stu­dents from all over the world. The sys­tem here is quite dif­fe­rent from what I’m used to in Ger­ma­ny. In­s­tead of ha­ving all my exams at the end of the se­mes­ter, I con­ti­nuous­ly pro­ve my know­ledge th­rough re­ports, pre­sen­ta­ti­ons, and work­book activities. 

Du­ring my Eas­ter Break, I went on a road trip from Cairns (which Aus­tra­li­ans pro­no­un­ce as “Cans”) back to the Gold Co­ast. Along the way, I had some in­cre­di­ble ex­pe­ri­en­ces, such as snor­ke­ling with turt­les in the Gre­at Bar­ri­er Reef and spen­ding a night slee­ping un­der the stars on the deck of a sai­ling boat. 

I feel so gra­teful to have been gi­ven this op­por­tu­ni­ty, and I’d like to thank TecAlliance and ever­yo­ne else who sup­port­ed me. I high­ly re­com­mend ever­yo­ne to take the chan­ce to spend a se­mes­ter ab­road. For me, co­ming to Aus­tra­lia was de­fi­ni­te­ly the right de­cis­i­on. I’ve al­re­a­dy lear­ned so much, made some won­derful new fri­ends, and had ex­pe­ri­en­ces that I’ll never for­get. Who would have thought that I’d feed a kan­ga­roo by hand on my birthday?