Denmark – Sarah
Student: Sarah
Course: Bachelor of Business
Program: Trimester exchange
How did you spend your weekends?
Most weekends were spent away and travelling with friends that I made on exchange, as this was the time that most people wanted to travel due to having no classes on the weekends. Over the course of the exchange we managed to travel to some amazing countries and I think that was the beauty of doing an exchange in Europe, having the luxury of escaping to another country for the weekend, something that is not easy to do while living in Australia. Some of our travels included Prague, Vienna, Mallorca, Budapest and some Scandinavian countries like Sweden, Norway and exploring Denmark.
When our group of friends wasn’t travelling on the weekends, we would always love spending time in Aarhus and going to Friday bars which is basically a social gathering of people from the uni, followed by spending time with friends on Saturday and going for brunch or going to the beach as the weather got better.
For me on the weekends I would also try to spend as much time with my dormies as I could, as I loved getting to know them and participating in the dorm culture.
How did you make friends?
I made a lot of friends through participating in the O week activities before we started classes. Everyone was in the same boat and wanted to make friends so therefore I found it relatively easy to make friends because the university had provided us with many opportunities to interact with each other.
I found that when you met someone they would know someone else that they have recently met then introduce you to them so you ended up meeting all these new people and everyone was very friendly because everyone wanted to make friends.
The friends that I made, we travelled together a lot so we became very close.
I also made friends with people that were in my classes which is lovely to have and made the classes more enjoyable. It also meant when exams were coming up, we had ourselves a study group. The study group was very motivating as you didn’t procrastinate as everyone was supporting each other.
What's your one piece of advice for a student who is preparing to study abroad? How should they prepare?
In terms of preparation I think talking to your friends and family about when good times to call and catch up are, to help keep that connection but also when you first move overseas it can be daunting so it is nice to speak to people from home.
Prepare to be nervous as this is an experience and you might not know what to expect, although advice that I would give is say yes to everything. All the activities that your host university provides that enables you to meet people and take every opportunity to travel. Exchange for me was one of the best experiences I have had, and now I am currently travelling and about to go and stay with my exchange friends in their home country. You make international friends which is so valuable and important.
When first moving overseas the first couple of weeks might feel extremely hard but you are just adjusting to the new life and culture around you. Especially if you haven’t lived out of home this could be a very big change for you.
What is the one big thing you will always remember from your experience? Or one big lesson that you learnt?
I think the biggest lesson that I learnt while being on exchange is that there is more to life then the bubble, we live in. When you travel it opens your eyes to how everyone else lives and that’s why I love travel so much, you get to experience different perspectives. One big thing that I will always remember is the people that you surround yourself on exchange is so important as they are basically your family while you are away from home, the people you travel with also impact which places you like visiting the most because I found the people made the places good.