Upon completing my first few weeks of living and working in Sydney, I have been able to take away many key lessons, skills, and experiences. From first stepping foot in this country to the day that I will unfortunately have to leave, I have and will continue to learn something new about Australia, Sydney itself as a diverse city and everything that is has to offer, classroom lessons, experiential knowledge in the workplace, and through these all, myself.
When I considered potential countries that I would like to study abroad in, the idea of going to a place where the culture and language were far different than that of America was on the forefront of my mind. Australia was a country that I considered to not be all that different than my typical ways of life in the States.
During my first few days in Sydney, I was entirely lost in every way. I didn’t know my way around, where anything I needed2 was, the social norms that I may or may not have been breaking, or even what street or in what neighborhood of Sydney that I lived in. Arriving on a Wednesday morning, I don’t think the true “culture shock” of being abroad came until two days later on my first Friday evening in the city.
This Friday evening was the first time I truly explored Sydney Harbour where the iconic Sydney Opera House resides. Luckily, the Vivid festival, where various colorful lights and music illuminate buildings, surrounding streets, and the harbour had just begun that evening. Apart from the spectacular view of the city in this setting, there were just thousands of people in this area to witness the same marvels that I was seeing for the first time. It was in this moment, surrounded by countless people so different yet so similar to me, that I felt truly separated from the United States, and I could easily experience Sydney, not as just another American tourist, but as one of many people eager to be enriched and revel in all that the city has to offer.
Though it wasn’t a truly “shocking” experience where I realized how different Australia was from the United States, the surprise of how connected I was able to feel to surrounded by thousands of strangers in a foreign place was my form of culture shock. This initial association set the groundwork for my growing global perspective, seeing just how we are all interconnected in so many different ways despite where we may be at in the world.