A semester in Leprechaun land

The 5th of August came around surprisingly fast, after months of counting down, planning and organisation it was finally the day I was off on my 6 month adventure to Dublin City University (DCU). After a few hugs, tears from Mum and final goodbyes I was finally on my way.

I spent my first 2 weeks in Dublin, staying with family and getting used to the city. I had previously visited Dublin in 2010 whilst on a family holiday but this time I have quite different expectations seeing as I will be living in the city as a 20 year old student.  After getting settled in, I then travelled to London and I’m currently still here. I have been visiting more family, seeing the sights and enjoying my downtime before the semester starts in the end of September. I am heading to Greece next week with other UTS Students that are also doing exchange which should be a memorable trip.

I’m excited for the coming 6 months, I’m particularly looking forward to being able to live by myself and the freedom and challenges that I’m going to face not living in the family home like I do in Sydney. Fending for myself is definitely going to be a big change for me, but I’m fairly confident that I have the ability to adjust quickly.

I’m involved in a lot of sport and extra curricular at UTS, which I will hopefully be able to mimic whilst at DCU. I’m going to see if I can try gaelic football (a sort of soccer come rugby sport with a bit of AFL rules chucked in there too) so I’ll be really thrown into the culture, at least in the sporting side of things. It’ll be interesting going to DCU where the campus is very big and spread out, especially coming from UTS where everything is relatively close and built up together. I guess all these differences are only going to make my semester abroad even more interesting.

I have orientation at DCU starting on the 15th of September, with classes starting the following Monday the 22nd. I’m wasting absolutely no time during my trip, with a quick trip to Munich for Oktoberfest planned on the weekend between Freshers Week and Classes.

Hopefully by throwing myself into everything I can at uni, travelling when I can fit it in, getting to know more of my family from this side of the world and living independently in the centre of a currently unfamiliar city will all add up to me having a very memorable and worthwhile exchange. I’m already loving the experience and it’s only been 3 weeks, I’m excited to see what is going to happen for the next 6 months. I certainly don’t feel like I’ll be in a big rush to get home!

Bronte Finegan – 11417235