Category: US

When I first arrived in Louisiana I a little shocked. I had been told that LSU was a huge college that was always bustling with life! I was hoping to arrive and jump right into class and meeting new people. However upon my arrival the campus was a ghost town which instilled some doubt that my exchange might not be what it’s all cracked up to be. Over the next week before class began, students slowly started to trickle in until there were more people on campus than I could ever imagine! I later realized this was because all the students had gone home to visit their families and no one wanted to return to school from their holidays until as late as possible.

I am just under 4 months into my exchange here and am absolutely loving my time here. I have never been travelling before so everything is new and exciting. There are so many things to do and see that every weekend is packed full of adventure. Some of these adventures include hiking at Tunica Falls, competing in a wake boarding tournament in Munroe with the LSU wake boarding team, staying in a beach house in Bay St Louis Mississippi and attending Mardi Gras festival in New Orleans.

American colleges are completely different to back home. Sports are a huge deal! Athletes are trained like Olympians with strict training schedules and drinking rules. Each game is shown on ESPN and the college has enormous sporting facilities. Colleges also have a cultural feel here. Not only is there societies like back home, they also have Sororities and Fraternities which has a multitude of events and traditions throughout the year.

I highly recommended for anyone going on exchange to join as many societies and sporting teams as you can whilst on exchange; you never know who you will meet or where it could take you!

Trent Pickup 11305570

It’s been two months since I first set foot on United States soil, and what a two months it has been. The beautiful San Diego provides much more than an amazing coastline and a buzzing community. The downtown and Gaslamp Quarter is home to a thriving nightlife and a litany of awesome events and concerts… I managed to see Snoop Dogg live at a venue for a piddly $10, the Australian equivalent would cost at least $80 if not more! Obviously, the beaches are stunning. Each one has a pier that stretches out at least 100m. And every beach has something particular about it; Pacific Beach is home to the bars and pubs that students frequent during the week, Mission Beach has a popular theme park for younger kids, Ocean Beach is very bohemian and offers a Byron Bay-feel to it, and La Jolla provides the high-end style of living where the streets are immaculate and the shores and caves are populated by very cute Sea Lions.

I am quite an outgoing person and so I didn’t have any trouble in meeting new people and making friends. The trick for anyone thinking of studying abroad and considers themselves shy is that because you’re foreign you are instantly more interesting. You have lived halfway around the world your entire life and your customs and way of life are usually very different. This is interesting. This makes people want to talk to YOU! However, if you never go out of your way and talk to people, you never give yourself the opportunity to be well received. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and you owe it to yourself and all the others that would love to be in your shoes to make the most of every opportunity that is presented to you.

I regularly party at fraternities that are very exclusive because I managed to meet people who were in that frat and who loved the fact that I was Australian. They have been very accommodating and ensured I experienced the true college life. What that pertains to I will leave to your imagination. Once again, I wouldn’t have experienced these opportunities if I hadn’t gone out of my way to meet the locals. Beyond the partying, the friends I have made have shown me all of the best spots around San Diego as well as a lot of locals spots that tourists just don’t know about. The walks and hikes are beautiful and the destination is usually either an incredible beach that is surrounded by canyons and cliff faces that simply don’t form on the Australian coastline. For anybody travelling to San Diego in the future I highly recommend Torrey Pines, Potato Chip Rock, and Sunset Cliffs; all are absolutely breathtaking and well worth the hike.

We did a trip to LA last weekend which was incredible. We did everything from exploring the magnitude of wealth held within the Hollywood Hills and Beverly Hills, to driving through South-Central LA stopping to look around Compton and Watts Towers, which is considered to be the most dangerous projects in all of America. It was an eye opening experience to witness the level of poverty contained by these areas and yet less than 45 minutes away there is such excessive wealth that could be donated to these areas to truly improve the quality of life. We visited Venice Beach also, which was absolutely riveting. The people were so eccentric and outgoing that nothing seemed out of the ordinary. People would hear a song they liked in a store and immediately start dancing and singing in the street and nobody batted an eyelid. We watched street ball on the famous courts and saw bodybuilders in the muscle beach gym which is literally on the sand. At night we either went out in Venice or Hollywood and both nights were very large and great fun, we were a little worse for wear in the mornings but the adrenaline of being in LA kept us going. All in all it was an incredible trip.

We have Cabo for Spring Break in a couple of weeks and Coachella a couple of weeks after that so will definitely be providing an update after those but for now I have to leave and continue to live the good life. Until next time.

Kieran Glynn