Changes? (Georgie)

Suzanne, it worked! Someone else decided to join in.

I was talking (read: exchanging facebook posts on a thread) with friends from Melbourne the other day and one of the comments, replying to ‘What’s going on at home’, was:

‘Not much, just the same really. It’s funny because you guys are going on exchange and you’ll come back completely changed and we’ll all just be the same’  

The topic came up again last night when I was talking to Lizzy, another girl from Melbourne on exchange here and she was saying that she can already see how she’s changed from when she left home.

So have I changed? I suppose I wouldn’t really know until I get back to Melbourne. I feel a bit more confident though and find it easier to just chat to people and initiate conversations. It’ll sounds really obvious, but more independent as well. I don’t know how I’ll go when I get back home and have to live with mum again.

It’s funny, becuase before I left Oz I was petrified about travelling alone and even contemplated not travelling before the exhcange and only coming to Ireland when the semester started, but travelling alone has been one of the highlights of the trip so far. You don’t have to worry about what someone else wants to do, or make any compromises. You can go as fast or slow as you want at sights and museums etc. And you meet more people, you’re more willing to talk to someone in your hostel room or on a bus tour. And you don’t get sick of a friend! Because when you spend that much time with someone it is so easy to get pissed off. That being said, one thing I’ve probably mentioned before, the big downfall of travelling alone is having to ask strangers to take photos all the time.

I think the big thing that has changed in my outlook is that I expect more from life now. I want to be able to grab so many more opportunities and feel a bit guilty that I could have been doing a bit more in my first year and a half of uni. But the luxury that I have over here, of not having to work and living so close to uni, I didn’t have at home so I suppose that why I didn’t get involved more with uni and with extra curriculars in general.

So that’s that so far! Shall type soon. Enjoy the rest of the break!