Plans had been in motion for over a year and the time was finally here. I was leaving the country for five months to study abroad at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia (well the city is forty minutes away but still)! Studying abroad had always been at the top of my college to do list and as someone who loves to travel visions of adventures in far off places had always been flickering through my head. Where would I go? There were so many options, so many places I could see, but after sifting through flyers for what seemed like countless countries I finally settled on Australia.
The closer my departure date the more excited I became. I’d been on break from school for almost two full months and I was sick of being home (sorry mom and dad). I was more than ready to start the new adventure that would be my semester abroad...or so I thought. The furthest away of all the countries I could choose from, I’d known the flight to Australia would be long but I’d assumed as a twenty-one year old college student it would be no big deal. I was young. I could handle it. It couldn’t really be that bad, could it? After all, when would I ever want to travel so far again? (Answer: probably never) I wasn’t expecting the journey (almost thirty-five hours with layovers) to put my love for travel to the test. Could I really survive almost a day and a half of nothing but airports and flying? Only this across the world journey I was about to embark on would tell.
I’m somewhat of a frequent traveler so I’m past the point of paying much attention to the in-flight safety instructions (as anyone who travels a lot knows once you’ve heard it once you pretty much know what to do) but Air New Zealand put their own spin on it to make it humorous and capture the attention of even the most seasoned flyers. Their The Hobbit themed video was a new take on the same old information I’d been seeing almost monthly since deciding to go to school eight hours away in Baltimore (and yes to anyone who got the reference in the title I know The Hobbit was filmed in New Zealand and not Australia but parts of my journey here were and are “unexpected” so it fits). That being said it’s both the same and different here from the States.
I’ll admit the flights on Air New Zealand came as somewhat of a culture shock being from New England. Everyone was so nice and they were actually sincere (quite a change from Massachusetts I can assure you). Once the flight took off it was accents and manners oh my. When the flight attendants came by to serve the first meal of the thirteen hour flight across the Pacific it was “Will there be anything to eat love?” (I’m pretty sure a little piece of me died of happiness). Despite the length of the length of the flight (which really seemed shorter than the flight from New York to San Francisco thanks to the abundance of sleep aids our group brought not to mention the complimentary in-fight wine) it was an unforgettable experience and as far as I’m concerned any other airline will pale in comparison for the foreseeable future.
Now that I’m here there’s so much to discover (attempting to decode the Aussie slang among the most important but more on that later). I didn’t expect to stand out from the locals quite so much. I had assumed that going to a country a country where they speak English (always a helpful thing to people who, like me, are bad at foreign languages) would help me blend in more but every time I open my mouth to talk to someone new the first question they ask is the telltale “Are you American?” (My new goal is to blend in enough to avoid this but we’ll see how that goes).
A couple of the other girls and I are constantly making what could be considered “dumb” mistakes but hey we’re new here give us some time to adjust. We still look left when crossing the street (you’re supposed to look right because they drive on the left) which has resulted in a few close calls with local cars (I know I know we’ll try to be more careful) but they seem to know to look out for international students when driving around campus. Also, the wall outlets have to be turned on here before you use them (weird right?) which I discovered (thankfully without having to ask) when my new Australian hair straightener “mysteriously” wouldn’t heat up. But thankfully I’m not alone and the other students I came with are having similar experiences. I know we’ll adjust eventually but meanwhile the other girls and I are crossing our fingers that our new Aussie friends find our American ways and lack of understanding of anything related to the metric system or temperatures in Celsius (not to mention the things above) endearing and not idiotic.
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