Bijun HUANG

Student of Sun Yat-sen University, China
Exchange to University of Technology Sydney, Australia

Before writing down my exchange experience for this memoir book, I once again browsed through all my pictures in those five months, the small pieces of memories just came back to me all of a sudden.

Being an exchange student in a different country is completely different from simply being a visitor. This time, I feel like I am actually a part of this city, this country, rather than being excluded from the local society. Discussing with classmates and lecturers in class, performing trivials for my daily life, hanging out with friends in the bar... Everything seems simple but exciting.

UTS is a really young university, its vitality penetrates in this school everywhere. You can feel it from the design of the whole school, the services it provides to help students, the way of teaching and learning. And there are a great amounts of activities organized by different departments or groups, meeting all kinds of needs of students. We have more than enough chances to meet new people in these activities, making my life here even more exciting.

Sydney is a nice city, not only for its scenery but also for the people here, where meeting people with different backgrounds is normal. Different culture prospers here.

I have tried different ways to "feel" the real Australia. Travelling is one of them, which gave me chances to meet people and places other than Sydney. I found that Australians like travelling, they love activities especially outdoor activities. I can feel their passion for nature and life. Instead of being stressed out all the time, they would be more likely to give themselves time and space to take a breath. It is so different from people around me in China that it showed me other possibilities of a "good" life. For me, the other way is by attending lectures. One of my subjects is about the aboriginal people in Australia, in which we discussed the current situation of Aboriginals and government's Aboriginals policy, which presents me a whole new way to observe this country.

It is not a life-changing experience though, this experience is enough to be remembered for the rest of my life. The story did not end yet - I believe I can still get something valuable out of this experience when I reflect my days as an exchange student in the future, and the friendship will also continue.

I would like to express my gratitude to Endeavour Australia Cheung Kong Awards, for providing me extra funding for both daily expenses and travelling, enabling me to gain valuable experience in this beautiful country, also, for its endeavour to provide students opportunities to get an insight of different worldviews and lifestyles.

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