Although Sydney is across the world from the states, the transition to the culture was quicker than I expected it would be. The easiest part of the transition is that everyone speaks English so communication isn’t a huge factor. Some words might have some different meanings, but that’s as complicated as it gets. As the program went on, my comfort with the city grew tremendously. One thing that helped this transition was my commute to my internship. Once I got a grasp of the train system, the city seems to shrink in size. We were also in a very central area so we had many things in walking distance. I would say the first moment I knew I was abroad was immediately getting out of the airport. The flight was so long and it was such a different scene when we walked out. Trying to get to our hotel, we ended up taking an expensive taxi instead of the train because we did not know how the trains worked yet. Do not take taxis in Sydney!

My internship with GWS Giants was an incredible experience. From the moment I walked in, I was connecting with my co-workers who I consider my friends now. I am going to try and stay connected with them when I go home as well. The head of the ticketing department is American so she made the transition easy for us. My internship supervisor was also there to help us if I had any questions. My internship was an upward progression from the time I arrived to my last day. The first week I did our training with the ticketing system and sales. Learning all of the terminology and software was a challenge but eventually, it started to come together. I then transferred to answering emails and working with excel sheets to answering phone calls and helping the customers over the phone. The last weeks we made outbound calls trying to get memberships to help the company get to 30,000 members. I ended up making a few sales which gave me a feeling of confidence. The timeline of our internship maximized the overall experience. The team has been away for a while but I look forward to attending my first Giants game before I go home!