While you’re studying abroad, you’ll likely meet some pretty cool people that come from diverse backgrounds. For my orientation at the University of Canberra, all of the exchange students went through it together with some free activities during the week as well. My first friendships were with the people I met in those first couple of days. It was interesting to learn about people from different countries, why they came to Australia, and what their lives and home universities were like. I also learned that instead of answering the question “where are you from?” by saying “Iowa,” I had to start by saying “the United States.” That was such an odd thing for me having been out of the country only a couple of times on vacation and once on a mission trip to South Africa.
I met people from several different countries, and now I can consider some people from all around the world close friends. Germany, Switzerland, Canada, Hong Kong, and the US are where my closest friends here are from. However, I’ve also gotten to know several people from France, Great Britain, Ireland, Sweden, the Netherlands, China, Japan, and more. I think I’ll be better at detecting peoples’ country of origin based on their accents when I get back which is neat. One of my close German friends is slowly teaching me German phrases, so I felt pretty awesome when I could ask another German friend what his name was and how he was doing in German. I hope that I can keep learning other languages at least on a basic level because I’ve felt a little strange only knowing one language while English was most of my exchange friends’ second language. I know some Spanish, but I hope to better my language knowledge in the future. Even though I’m studying abroad in Australia where the most common language spoken is English, this experience has made me want to learn more languages and expose myself to different cultures even more. I think that talking with people from other countries is a unique experience because you have to move past cultural boundaries and be open to how they think differently. I have loved learning about all of the traditions that people have in other countries. I have been convinced by one of my new friends that I need to experience Oktoberfest and Christmas time in Germany sometime in my life, and now I even have a place to stay when I go! It is pretty cool to have friends from all around the world get together because there are so many different perspectives and ideas about things that you might never have thought of. I think it really opens peoples’ minds, and personally, it’s taught me a lot about myself and the world. In some ways, people from different countries are very different, but in most ways, we’re quite similar. Everyone is unique; some of my new friends are shy, some are extremely sarcastic, some are quiet and sweet, some are always happy, some are extremely thoughtful, and some are always ready for a new adventure. Together, we manage to have a pretty good time. I think the key to making new friends is finding shared values, accepting people, and taking advantage of all the awesome opportunities that come with studying abroad.
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