My name's Lauren and I'm a student at Charles Sturt University, Bathurst studying Criminal Justice. Through the CSU Global exchange program I'll be heading over to America to study for a semester at University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW).
After a year of planning, I am finally only a month away from flying out. Since the very start it's been the most exciting idea and now that it's only a month away I guess the realisation of leaving family and friends has set in a bit. The planning has been a lot easier than I expected, with Louise (CSU Global Coordinator, Bathurst) and Amy (my UNCW International Relations correspondent) helping me out a lot. The amount of emails and questions I've sent, they've both been really helpful no matter how trivial the questions were (and there were a lot!). Over the past 12 months I've gone through the application process; which was stress-free, organised my study visa and I just booked my plane tickets.
With only a month before I leave, I guess the mixed feelings about leaving are definitely here. I'm so excited about the whole trip, the experience will be unforgettable and I'm even looking forward to a bit of travel afterwards but I can't pretend that I'm not nervous about living in a different country or upset about leaving my family and friends. It's a scary thought knowing that I won't see them for 4-5 months but once I'm over there I know that it'll be a lot easier than I keep thinking.
It'll be a very different experience compared to uni in Australia. I've lived in on-campus accommodation at CSU for the past 2 years, in self-catered Diggings (which has been chaotic and amazing fun), but at UNCW, they have share rooms and catered accommodation only. So, I'm looking forward to having a roommate and being cooked for. It'll be interesting to see how my roommate and myself get along since I won't even know her until I arrive! The study will be fairly different too but it should be easy enough to adapt to (hopefully!).
Orientation at UNCW starts on the 15th Aug and then the classes and study start the following week, so it's not far away now!
Anyway, that's it so far... until the flight.
Cheers.
