reflections on studying abroad.
I could spend years on this. Or not. Probably more like days. But I don’t want these blog posts to be marathons and I don’t want to steal RMU’s thunder when I finally update my blog over there.
To those who want to study abroad, I say do it if you have the funds. It’s been a great experience and I’m so glad that I did it.
However, don’t get sucked into the travel game. Take this with a grain of salt because I know that I don’t speak for the majority of people who studied abroad, but don’t feel like you have to see everything.
I’m sure I’ll take heat for my lack of travel. I did Tasmania for a week, Sydney for a weekend, The Great Ocean Road, and a fair bit of Melbourne. If I had had the time, money, and motivation, I could have done Central Australia (the Outback), Cairns (Great Barrier Reef), and Brisbane (Surf Country), as well as the minor destinations of Adelaide and Perth. Had I been bored with Australia, I could have gone to New Zealand, Fiji, or even places like Thailand, Singapore, or Papua New Guinea.
I barely scratched the surface!
But I don’t feel like I missed too much. When I was in Tasmania I went to Cradle Mountain and saw some of the most spectacular scenery in my life. So amazingly beautiful, but I just got this feeling that I didn’t need to travel halfway around the world to find amazing beauty.
No, I wasn’t sucked in by the travelling and the scenery and the tourism.
What did I truly value? Two things. First was living in a different culture. What is Melbourne? Is it a series of photographs and tourist destinations? No. Melbourne is sport, Melbourne is food, Melbourne is ethnic diversity. Australia is friendliness, Australia is a whole new set of brand names and staple foods and cheese colours and spellings of words, Australia is driving a car on the other side of the road. I didn’t have to travel every weekend and blow my life savings to get that. For less than twenty bucks, I could get a tram into the city and watch a footy match. That’s Melbourne, and that’s one example of living in this world that I loved.
Second was the cultural exchange. I love people, and I learned to love people who were different than me. Where else could I sit on a couch with two Sri Lankans as they taught me the rules of cricket? Where else can I sit in a really really Chinese restaurant with a Zimbabwean across the table as we talk about Mugabe and the election? Where else can I talk about the Euro Cup with rabid Germans and Dutchmen who would get up at 4 AM to watch the matches? Where else could a Serbian refugee blame me for my government bombing their country? And it wasn’t just receiving, it was giving. Not all Americans are party animals, and not all Americans are gun-toting conservatives (though I loved playing up my experiences with guns). Just what is Christianity all about? How do you skate backwards on ice?
I’ll elaborate on this more and send it over to RMU so they can put it on my blog. But I hope you see the value that I found in the experience which could perhaps be motivation for you to venture beyond the borders of America and gain more of a global perspective.
“Cheers!”
Brendan
