Keeping up with hobbies whilst on exchange in Melbourne

By Amelie Duroux, University of Melbourne, Australia

What I hadn’t expected when I moved to Melbourne for my exchange was how much I’d miss the activities I would do every week in Manchester. When you suddenly leave that life behind, there’s nothing making you continue these activities, but I hadn’t realised how much they had contributed to my identity and given me structure in my weekly routine. Luckily for me, I found ways to keep most of these hobbies going, and also start some new ones. For example, in Manchester I went bouldering with my friend every Monday. I was worried that I wouldn’t find anyone who liked climbing in Melbourne, but the first girl I met when I arrived in Australia told me she did climbing, and we go all the time now – I had only done bouldering before coming to Melbourne but we found a rope climbing place just at the end of our road, so we tried it out! I went from thinking I wouldn’t go bouldering for a whole year to going more often than I ever did in Manchester. A new sport I’ve picked up is swimming – I always liked swimming but never made an effort to go in Manchester, but in Melbourne I started going to Carlton Baths on the weekend, a great open air swimming pool, and also the university swimming pool on campus, before my 9am lectures.

I have really missed playing my instruments, the cello and piano (obviously I couldn’t bring them to Australia with me), but I have gone to a few concerts and sometimes play the piano in my accommodation to get my music fix. I’ve also really missed ballet – I take a ballet class every week in Manchester – but that’s just something I know I’ll be able to pick up when I return from exchange. I’ve also started doing more walking, which I’ve found to be a great way to explore different areas which I otherwise wouldn’t think to go to. Whilst I go on a walk I usually call someone from home to chat to them at the same time. What I’ve really enjoyed keeping up is knitting, crocheting and sewing – I run a small clothes business in Manchester, and had to leave all of that behind, but I took the opportunity to expand to the Australian market and visiting nice fabric shops in Melbourne! I was so sad to leave my sewing machine but found out that in Melbourne there is a library ten minutes walk away from where I live that has a room full of sewing machines which are free to use – this was such an exciting discovery and I go there pretty often. The message I’m trying to get across here is that you should make the most of the activities your exchange location has to offer, and it’s always good to try something new. Doing something familiar that you are used to can help you from feeling homesick and can help you adjust to the massive change in your life you have made.