Before I left for Sydney, I got heaps of advice on what to expect: from friends, family, and acquaintances who had been there before. I was told that it would be too hot all the time, that the people would be drunk most of the time, and that I would be able to find peanut butter none of the time. So far, only one of those things has been true, and I’ll bet you know which one it is (hint: it’s been raining all week and I just ate half a jar of peanut butter).
As a study abroad student, most of the people I’ve been introduced to have been other study abroad students. While it has been amazing to meet other people who are in the same boat as me and going through the same problems as I am, it makes it difficult to have the full Australian experience. It also means that my impressions of Australian people and culture are based off of a small sample size. However, from what I can tell, Australians resemble Americans in a lot of ways.
Australia is huge, which means that the cultures from the west coast to the east coast and to the middle vary widely. I’ve already seen that–I’ve met a couple of Australians from the west coast and they were affronted when I grouped them with Sydneysiders.
Last Saturday was the LGBTQ+ Mardi Gras, and that gave me the best picture of what Sydney looks like, because that was the first place I’ve been to where most of the people there were Australians and lived in Sydney. What I saw was a city that was uproariously fun, extremely proud of its culture, and very loud. In short, it’s one of the best cities I’ve ever been to.
Last week was orientation, or O-Week as Usyd refers to it. I was blown away by how big of a deal orientation was–they made a whole festival out of it, complete with blow-up jumpy houses and a sausage sizzle. The focus of orientation was, as it is everywhere, getting new students used to the campus. There were several tours you could take, faculty representatives were there, and maps were being handed out left and right. I mainly went to orientation to see if there were any groups that I would be interested in joining: my club families at Northeastern have given me some of the best friends of my life and it’s a great way to meet people.
I was not expecting just how many organizations there were on Sydney’s campus. There were all the normal clubs; political groups and sports teams and language societies, but there were also groups I could have never thought up; the wine club and the meme society and the horse betting group. Overall, there were almost 300 student organizations there, and each one had brought its A-game. Almost all of them offered free food or a free prize if you signed up for their email letter, one travel group even gave me the chance to win $50 off a trip with them if I could throw a rope over a peg (I did!).
Orientation at Sydney was much larger than I thought it was going to be, so I’m glad I went. I almost didn’t, because orientation is basically the same at every school, and so I’ve been through three now, but it’s always a good time to meet people and to get a feel for the vibe of the school. Based off of this, University of Sydney is looking pretty good in my eyes.
