Interpersonal Relationships: Australia (MAS)

Interpersonal Relationships


Over the past two and a half months I have been able to completely settle into life in Australia.  I know what to expect and I am comfortable with my daily routine.  The days I feel most at home are the common days of brekky (breakfast), class, hanging out with my friends, dinner, and some homework before bed.  All of my activities here feel so natural and I am now at the point where I could not imagine my life without Uni Hall and all of my friends here.

I feel the most at home doing the things I love like climbing the hill at sunset with my friends.

The relationships I have with my "squad" here are similar to friendships I have in the States, just with fewer boundaries.  We all live in the same building, attend most of the same classes, and eat every meal together which means we are virtually inseparable.  You get to know people in Australia pretty well when you are always by their side and there is little fear of offending people.  So while I may be closer with my friends here, relationships with my professors are the opposite.  At Allegheny I talk one on one with my professors and/or advisors daily and never hesitate to chat in office hours or before/after class.  At James Cook, I am fairly certain most of my professors don't know a single student's name.  I am not sure if this is a difference between a small and large school or between America and Australia.  Other than these differences and the lack of social "rules" in Australia, relationships between people are very similar.

Places feel a bit more like home once you have established a routine and climbing Castle Hill on Sunday mornings before the markets open is one of my favorite weekly activities.

We just had our mid-semester break and by the end of the ten days, I missed Uni Hall so much.  I was ready to go home and sleep in my bed and be with my hall mates again.  It is crazy to be so attached to a place and people I met just a couple of months ago.  I never thought I could feel so at home in a foreign country away from everything I had ever known.

It took a surprisingly short amount of time to feel comfortable in Australia.  Perhaps it was because the two countries are so similar.  Like most Americans, most Australians also strive for individual gains over communal gains.  However, there is much more college pride in Uni Hall than I have seen in any college in America.  People from both countries also take pride in which state they represent.  New South Wales people dislike Queenslanders just like Pennsylvanians dislike people from Maryland, especially when it comes to sports teams.

Above you can see all the freshers (first-years) wearing the green and gold Uni Hall colors showing off our college pride.

Above is the aftermath of Uni Hall's Men's Water Polo win in the team finals.  After we won, many students jumped into the pool to join the team in celebration.

Overall, Australia's views on gender and sexuality and race and ethnicity are very similar to the States.  The younger population is in favor of equality but Australians are not pushing for it nearly as much as Americans.  For example, same sex marriage is not legal anywhere in Australia but most younger citizens do not care if couples are homosexual.  Races here are also treated equally with the exception of the Aboriginal people, similar to the Native Americans of the States.  Aboriginals have been given their own land and abide by their own rules (ex. children do not have to go to school and cannot be punished by the law).

Wambiana: one of the many places I have been able to travel to within Australia.

My advice to students coming to James Cook next semester would be to embrace it with your arms wide open.  There will be some differences, but every experience is a good one.  Before coming to Australia I questioned if it was the right decision for me; but the minute I stepped off the plane I knew I was in for the best semester of college I have ever had.  To make your time here as amazing as it can be, do yourselves a favor and make friends with the Australians and people from countries other than America.  Some of my best times here have been comparing cultures with people I never thought I would meet (ex. someone from Hungary, Austria, the Philippines, etc.).  So make friends with those people, and then travel with them as much as you can before the semester work picks up near finals time.  There is so much to see in Australia and in the neighboring countries.  Your time here will go by faster than you believe is possible so take advantage of every minute.