Final Reflections

I would like to take the time and send a sincere thank you to the donors who helped make my semester abroad possible by offering this scholarship opportunity.  Your kind efforts help make students like me engage in an an incredible life experience that will have an impact on my future career and goals.  I…

Facing Challenge Abroad

I’ve realized that in my two stints abroad, there are challenges that one can predict prior to leaving and others that come up during the program.  For me, my biggest challenge was maintaining financial stability during my time in Sydney. Before I took my flight to Australia, I knew that being in another country for…

Reflecting on My Internship in Sydney

This semester, I interned at the 25fifteen Startup Studio located in the neighborhood of Darlinghurst, Sydney.  Prior to my arrival, I had the opportunity to have a Skype call with my advisor, Kim.  I was not sure what to expect in this “interview,” but it got off to a rather awkward start because of the…

Easter Weekend Excursion

Easter weekend in Australia is one of the few nationally recognized times when most people have a few days off from work and school.  Considering this was our last break before the end of the semester, a few friends and I decided to take a journey into the Australian Outback. Our plan was to take…

Thinking About Going Abroad? Here are some tips

April is upon us, which means in just about 3 weeks I’ll be hopping on a plane back home to New Jersey–I can’t believe how fast the time has gone by. Being abroad for over 3 months has been a surreal experience and in that time plus my 3 weeks in Germany this past summer I’ve…

Hike of a Lifetime: Mt. Batur, Indonesia

11pm: I travel to some friends’ villa in a neighboring town in Seminyak, Bali.  We then get some sleep in preparation for a long night/morning. 1:30am: Our driver, Made (“Ma-rey”) picks us up down the street and we begin our two-hour drive up North. 3:30am: We reach the bottom of Mt. Batur.  It is still…

An Un-BALI-evable Spring Break

This Past week, I spent my Spring Break with some friends in Bali, Indonesia.  I can’t say that I’ve ever really experienced full on culture shock before, but Bali was unlike any place I’ve been to before. In terms of preparing for the trip, there were some health concerns that needed to be taken care…

Food Scene of Sydney

Sydney is a true melting pot of the Asia Pacific, including a wide range of diversity and culture throughout the city.  This is well reflected in the food scene, where you can find delicacies from around the world within a couple of blocks.  So far, I have found myself eating plenty of Southeast Asian food…

Weekend in Melbourne

This past weekend, a few friends I spent a couple of days in Melbourne, which is part of the Victoria state in Southern Australia.  Melbourne is quite different from Sydney for many reasons.  As a person who grew up in the New York metropolitan area, I appreciated the city because it is more condensed and…