My name is Shannon Freyer. I am a middler at Northeastern University, majoring in Behavioral Neuroscience and minoring in Chinese (you may be scratching your head right now, I often get that reaction, I understand how it seems to be a strange combo). I am especially interested in veterinary medicine and animal husbandry. I plan to pursue a career in animal care after graduation. As for the Chinese minor, I love Chinese characters and I believe that it is extremely important to know more than one language and that it can open many doors for you.
I am currently studying abroad in Australia. The area I am located in is the Gold Coast which is in the state of Queensland. I am at Bond University, a school about 4 times smaller than Northeastern with a very different environment. I have always wanted to go to Australia, and here I am now, living my dream.
I have been here for a bit over two weeks now and have passed the honeymoon period. We’re in our second week of classes so I am actually beginning to have work to do…who knew. Right at this very moment I have just gotten out of the shower after a relatively tiring day. Today I: had a 2 hour Chinese class, skyped with my dad, worked on a psych presentation for about 2 hours, watched half of the movie stepbrothers, went to a scuba club meeting, and went to ResWars. ResWars is a dorm competition at Bond that is on every Wednesday throughout the semester- different sports are played each week and each dorm is battling to come out in first. My dorm, the Accommodation Centre (AC), is mostly americans, and apparently we have a reputation of winning to hold. Tonight was dodgeball and it was nice to be the one playing instead of reffing (I ref intramurals at Northeastern). The girls from the AC came in 2nd and the boys from the AC came in first. So that was fun.
Bond is a pretty amazing place; everyone is friendly and welcoming. Having Australian friends is so fun and I am learning heaps from them (heaps being an example of my Australian-English vocabulary). I am accumulating a list of words that I am learning here to make a small-ish dictionary of terms that I have learned. The accents are easy to get used to, most of them are not that thick. It feels funny to be considered a ‘foreigner’ here- it can be comical at times in situations but it is also stressful. I feel very pressed to make the most of my time here and then have to remind myself that relaxation is a must as well. Getting used to my surroundings, meeting people and planning what I want to do, where I want to travel and what I want to be involved in on campus are the main things that I have been up to.
My friends and I have planned a trip to Bali for the end of February. I have joined scuba club and am planning on getting certified with the club and go on a few of their diving trips. I have joined ResWars and signed up for soccer. This weekend I am going to the koala and kangaroo sanctuary about thirty minutes from school. I joined the beer appreciation club. These are just a few things and I am planning to do so much more in my time here as well. I am still on the lookout for a REALLY good cup of coffee. And by really good I mean whatever I can get that is most similar to Dunkin Donuts. Yes I am a Dunks girl and am proud of it. There is a starbucks by one of the beaches and I got a coffee there- it was very nice. My friend Nicola calls starbucks ‘starchucks’ because she thinks it’s gross and it makes her want to throw up (upchuck). I got a laugh out of that one.
When technology begins to work in my favor I will attach a few photos of the absolutely gorgeous campus and a photo of myself as well so you all can see the face behind these words. Cheers! (No one says g’day mate here, hugely incorrect stereotype)
