Studying Abroad: Life after Australia

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to New York.”

As I looked out my window and heard those words I felt a rush of emotions. I had been studying abroad in Brisbane, Australia for the past 4 ½ months and finally being home felt good. I was excited to see my family and friends, be in my own home, and not have to take public transportation everywhere. At the same time I became really sad. As soon as I stepped off the plane I felt the cold air hit me and I thought, “I left sunny Australia where its 80 degrees to come back to cold New York? Yeah, this is a great exchange.”

Brisbane was my home and I was sad to leave it. It’s weird how quickly you can adapt to a new place. By the time I left Australia, I had made some friends and knew Brisbane better than New York City, a place I had lived within an hour of my entire life. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad to be home, but getting used to one place and making it feel like home only to have to leave a few months later is hard.

Luckily, Australia and America are pretty similar, which helped with the culture shock. Coming back home was still a bit of a shock though. I thought that lots of things would have changed since I had been gone so long, but over the next few days, as I was seeing my friends and doing stuff around town, I realized nothing really had changed. In fact the only thing that had really changed, aside from the weather, was me.

It’s been a bit hard getting used to but now that I’m back in my home routine and have seen more and more of my friends it’s getting easier. I still miss Australia a lot but now I’m excited to travel to other places and I’ll always have the pictures to look back on.

Lauren Doran '10