Yijia ZHANG

Student of Fudan University, China
Exchange to The Australian National University, Australia

An exchange program has a lot to offer, and mine is finding my Mr. Right.

I was a third-year student from Fudan University in Shanghai, and I exchanged to The Australian National University for the Spring Semester in 2014. There I spread my arms to the exciting student life. I joined the ANU Table Tennis Club, participating their regular sessions every week and played in the campus competition. I chose courses in different departments and tried to know how it would feel to be an undergraduate in ANU. Five friends and I travelled to seven places during the study breaks (thanks to the surprise scholarship, without which I cannot experience Australia so well). Above all, the wisest choice I have ever made is to reside on-campus and especially in Burton & Garran Hall.

B & G has a large kitchen in the middle where everyone cook and social. It is in this kitchen that I made most of my friends and one of them is my boyfriend. There are three hundred people in the hall but you always meet the person you are desperate to see. Thanks to big kitchen, S (let's call him so) and I ran across to each other every day after we first met. Frequent meetings led to small talk. Living at the same hall brings common friends and common topics. A cup of Meet Fresh bubble tea refreshed a mind stretched by the approaching mid-term deadlines. After we become a couple, the exchange semester seems to have even more to offer. We stayed up late to watch the sunrise at the Black Mountain, but accidentally bumped up to a league of kangaroos feeding themselves behind the laundry house. We walked from B&G at 4 am only to have a glimpse of the hot balloons yet they all failed to rise. We went to International Party and danced to the night. Of course, we do write papers and prepare for exams in a Chiefley cozy little room.

People might think six months in Canberra can be anything but exciting. Quite on the contrary, if you find the right people, the exchange program can do much more than adding one line to your CV.

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