University of Queensland
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Australian winter: tis the sea-sun
By Georgi Fogarty, University of Queensland No matter where you are in the world, there will always be that short-lived sigh of relief between the last assignment and the start of exams. Fortunately for me, coming towards the end of my time in Australia motivated me to seize this fleeting moment devoid of academic stress and do something useful with it. So once my last few assignments were submitted and I had returned from Stradbroke island (which you can read about in another of my recent blog posts), I had decided that I am no longer a mainland person and started researching my next getaway. Having recently explored the…
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Student housing – the more the merrier?
Georgi Fogarty (University of Queensland, Australia) Housing can be one of the biggest worries when moving abroad, especially when you don’t particularly know anyone that’s going out with you. As a bit of a social butterfly, I had my sights set on a living situation that would allow me to meet a lot of people -ideally university halls, or a share house if not. Unfortunately, university halls were extremely far out of my budget which initially worried me as that’s where I’d envisioned myself; halls seem perfect as everybody is in the same boat of not knowing anyone. So in a slightly less than ideal but fairly common situation,…
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Island retreats
By Georgi Fogarty, University of Queensland Arguably the most attractive part of moving from Manchester to Australia for a year is the great weather and beautiful beaches. So after being away for a grand total of ten months, in May I finally took a weekend off work and visited the largest beachy attraction closest to Brisbane that I knew of – Stradbroke Island. To be honest, it completely amazed me that it had taken me ten months to get here in the first place seeing as it’s around 3 hours door to door and it was one of the first things that inspired me to do a year abroad…
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Whistlestop tour of Wellington
Georgi Fogarty (University of Queensland, Australia) After a whole month of not leaving Australia, my restless nature got the better of me and I decided to give myself a well-deserved holiday from the permanent warmth and sunshine of Brisbane. So after careful deliberation (about ten seconds of it), I booked myself onto a flight to Wellington for a few days. This was particularly exciting for me as not only was this a country I had never visited before, it was also a chance to see family members that I hadn’t seen in upwards of ten years; one of whom had graduated from the University of Manchester with a PhD back…
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Touching down in Oz: first things first
By Georgi Fogarty (University of Queensland, Australia) It’s obvious that when you move to the other side of the world, there are going to be some big changes. Jetlag, time differences, climatic, academic and cultural disparities had all been weighing heavily on my mind in the last few weeks approaching my 25-hour flight from Manchester to Brisbane. But strangely, what took me by surprise the most upon landing was the amount of time it took for me to adjust to the fact I was in Australia and no longer in England.
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Accommodation in Australia
I have received quite a few emails from prospective Go Abroad students asking about how to approach the task of applying for accommodation in Australia, so have been encouraged to write a small blog post about my experience!
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Summer loving
It is fair to say that one of the best things about spending your year abroad in Australia is the 3 month+ long summer holiday that you are given over Christmas. It allows for lots of travelling, both within and outside of Australia, as well as lots of time for sunbathing!
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Mid Semester break on Fraser Island!
by Jude Wiggins, University of Queensland, Australia, Geography Over the Mid-Semester break I was lucky enough to go to Fraser Island with my friends, Sophie and David. Fraser Island is the World’s Largest Sand Dune. The island is a massive collection of sand that gets dragged in by the Pacific Ocean currents and stretches about 120 km long but only about 24 kms wide. Fraser is a World Heritage site so there are no roads, only sand tracks that can be accessed by 4WD. Whilst we were on Fraser our tour guide told us that if the island did not exist, all the sand that gathers there would have traveled…
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Edible Flower Farming on a Tropical Island!
By Jude Wiggins, Geography, University of Queensland, Australia After my Australian Summer travelling around the Philippines and Indonesia was over I still had roughly a month of free time before I was due to go back to University. Most of the friends I’d made last semester had either gone back to the UK for Christmas or were still travelling, so Brisbane was a little lonely! A friend had mentioned to me that you can earn good money working on farms in the Outback so I decided to do some research. Through my research I was introduced to the idea of WWOOFing (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms). You do roughly…
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The Academic Experience of UQ
By Jude Wiggins, Geography, University of Queensland, Australia. Next week I return to University for my second semester at UQ after a 3 month Summer holiday. As this marks the halfway point of my study abroad experience I think that now is a good time to reflect on the Academic differences between the University of Queensland and the University of Manchester. UQ, Australia
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An Unconventional Christmas
By Jude Wiggins, Geography, University of Queensland, Australia. Last week I arrived back in Brisbane after 2 months of travelling around Indonesia and the Philippines. All my friends and family have been asking me why I’m not at University at the moment. Well, as I’m in the Southern Hemisphere all the seasons are opposite to the Northern Hemisphere so I am currently on my long summer holiday (November – Feburary). The end of last semester got pretty intense with lots of deadlines and exams so I was relieved to finally be able to start some travelling! First stop – Bali. Balinese sunset! Left: Pura Bratan Temple. Right: Ubud Rice…
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Safely Arrived in Brisbane!
By Jude Wiggins, Geography, University of Queensland, Australia. This weekend marked the 3 month anniversary of my arrival in Brisbane and I have no idea where the time has gone! (Also, sorry for the late post!) The first few weeks I was here I stayed in a hostel so that I could view houses, find somewhere to live and also sort out things like an Australian bank account and phone number. Staying in the hostel was really fun as there was always someone new to meet but it was relieving to find my own house and get properly settled into Brisbane. I managed to find a beautiful house with an…
