I hate the expression of going travelling to “find yourself” and passionately denied that it was my reason for coming to Australia- but as I am now into the final quarter of my time here I can wholeheartedly say that this has been the most valuable experience of my life and I have learnt more in one year than I have learnt from 18 years of education.

Similar to the reflection on my experience of making friends here, I think I arrived in Australia with an ignorant approach towards working abroad. I thought I would arrive, have a few weeks to settle, explore, and get the usual life admin together (Medicare, Tax file number, etc), then land a job within a week or so of applying. It has proven otherwise!

Travelling in its conventional sense of the word has never appealed to me, but I’ve found it really refreshing to have five solid weeks of exploring a new city with no pressure to do anything other than what I wanted, while equally having a permanent form of residence. I definitely would have felt uncomfortable staying in a hostel, sharing a room with half a dozen other people and having no option but to eat out for every meal of every day.