Jacqueline and her internship in Sydney, part 1

Jacqueline: ‘From Miami to Sydney’

Hi everyone,

While writing this, I have been in Sydney for exactly one day and would like to take you back to my preparations and expectations of this big adventure.

I have always been that person who starts every single day very well prepared . I am not a great fan of unexpected happenings. Therefore you could say it is very impressive that I am in Sydney right now… The original plan was to go to the United States, something I had decided three and a half years ago. It was not hundred percent certain if I would go there for a year to do my minor or internship, but to make a long story short: this dream fell apart two days before the deadline of my university.

Luckily I never give up and this would not change on that day either. I called around and via Abroad Internships I got an amazing chance to go abroad for half a year to Australia, in Sydney! This was such a turn over as I was not expecting this – within four weeks I would be in Sydney which was a pretty short term period of time to get everything covered, as I experienced the long trial to go to the US. Despite no one thought I would ever get it done, I received great support from my boyfriend and decided to take the chance anyway and go to Sydney.

The next four weeks, I was mainly busy with the approval process at my university and with taking care of the visa. This went all so much faster than expected, especially the visa! Within an hour – yes for real, one hour – I received a confirmation email for my Working Holiday visa. This was such a relief. Other important business that you should take care of upfront, are a medicine passport and converting your bank account to worldwide (I thought it was also smart to give my parents access for important business).

The rest of the time I was looking at what to pack and take with me. At first I wanted to only take a few sets of clothes so I could buy the rest in Sydney. While buying my flight ticket – which I did via Kilroy – I saw I could take forty kilos with me! That is when I decided to take as much as clothes with me, especially old clothes so I could go shopping there. Lastly, I searched via Flatmates for an accommodation. This website worked best for me but I heard it was better to not directly confirm a room. In advance, I made several appointments for house viewings during my first week in Sydney.

As you can read, it all went pretty fast. I expect this to be a great challenge with of course setbacks but especially I believe it will be a fantastic experience that will be great for my self-confidence and for improving my English. Besides, I hope to learn many new things during my internship and to work along with great projects and assignments.

Last but not least I would like to make friends to discover Sydney and the surroundings with. Finding a room seems to be my biggest challenge and also dealing with saying good bye to my family, boyfriend and friends at home. This will not easy, but luckily there is Skype and WhatsApp. And my parents and boyfriend will also be visiting me for three weeks!

This was it for my first blog: I hope you look forward to my next stories. I look forward to be writing these for you anyhow. Now I am going to enjoy my first real activity day in Sydney. Bye!