Ayami TORITSUKA

Student of Hosei University, Japan
Exchange to The University of Adelaide, Australia

I am currently studying the Bachelor of International Studies at The University of Adelaide. I am very grateful to receive the scholarship of the Endeavour Australia Cheung Kong Awards to have this wonderful experience as an exchange student.

It is a big challenge for me to study in another country, but also a great opportunity to gain new perspectives. I live in Japan for most of my life, so living in Australia brings endless surprises. I think living in a foreign country is not only to learn about the country, but also to learn about myself and my home country. Since I am keen on making friends, I am glad to spend time with people of various backgrounds in Australia, which is a multinational country. I knew that Australia is a multinational country before I came here, but now I really feel that because I made friends from all over the world here and there are so many kinds of cuisine in the city.

Studying abroad in Australia has been a great experience for me since it has been my dream to study in an English-speaking country. It has been only two months since I started my life in Adelaide, and I felt I picked up the language skill quickly as I use only English to communicate with people here. As I want to improve my English to the level that I can convey my meaning easily, I am trying to engage with many more people and speak English as much as possible.

Although I have been here for only two months, I have taken part in many activities such as surf trip, coffee crawl, and Easter camp. It was also delightful to feed kangaroos at wildlife parks and to have some time off at beautiful beaches. I have been busy not only because of the study, but also because I participated in three programmes organised by the university, Exchange Student Network, and one club activity. All of them offered me great opportunities to experience new things and to broaden my interests.

I do not know what this exchange programme would be like eventually and where this takes me to, but I am pretty sure that it will become one of the most valuable experiences in my life. I want to thank everybody who supports me to get into this exchange programme. Especially, I am thankful to the CK Group and the Australian Government as it would be more difficult to study abroad if without the scholarship they offer.

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