Jake Mix
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Jake Mix is an agricultural business senior and Mustang News study abroad columnist.
When I was entering my first year at Cal Poly, I consistently heard from older students and graduates that their one regret in college was they never studied abroad. It might have been one of my regrets, too, if my parents didn’t encourage me this past year to look into some of the programs available. So, I went to the Study Abroad Fair and one program immediately had my attention: Cal Poly in Australia.
I learned it was a program where approximately 30 Cal Poly students would travel to Adelaide with two Cal Poly teachers to take 12 units while living in the wine capital of Australia. Everything about the program sounded like an amazing experience, so I applied as soon as I could.
Fast forward six months and I’m at home during winter break, frantically trying to get everything ready to spend a quarter studying in the Australian summer. I had to do a lot of shopping to make sure I had all of the necessities for life on the opposite side of the world. This included buying things like sunscreen and lotion (it’s very expensive in Australia), a new backpack, a Kindle and of course, the ever important GoPro.
However, even with everything packed up, I still wasn’t ready to go. I had not properly mentally prepared myself to make such a long journey, and for the few days leading up to my trip, I tried to spend as much time going to the beach and movies with friends and family to rid myself of all travel anxiety. It was certainly time well spent, considering my flights to Australia would prove to be quite stressful and physically taxing.
I flew from San Francisco to Shanghai, made a connecting flight to Sydney, then right away hopped onto another flight which took me to Adelaide. My total travel time was approximately 36 hours, which might sound quite miserable, but starting from the moment I landed in Sydney, I had an ever-present smug smile on my face I couldn’t seem to conceal because I realized this could well be the adventure of a lifetime.
Moving into my apartment in Adelaide felt very much like moving into the freshman residence halls; I didn’t know anybody and I was in a strange new place. So after unpacking and taking a shower, I went on a quick little tour of the building with a bunch of the other Cal Poly students who arrived the same day. Once that was over, everybody decided they wanted a chance to explore the city and see what Adelaide would have in store for us in the next couple of weeks.
One of the first things everybody seemed to notice is that Australia’s cost of living is vastly more expensive than life in SLO. It seems like most things cost double what they do at home, including the Quarter Pounders at McDonald’s (which I was hoping would be called a “La Royale with Cheese” in Australia since they’re on the metric system). With everything priced so high, it was starting to look like this trip might just bankrupt all of us Cal Poly students studying abroad – well, at least until the second day when everybody heard a story about one lucky student winning $1,000 at the casino conveniently located across the street from our apartment building.
On our first official day after move-in day, we had our orientation to the University of Adelaide. This included a review of our trip itinerary (which involves things like winery tours and an overnight trip to Kangaroo Island) and then tours of the university and the surrounding city of Adelaide. We were able to find out where many amenities were located: good restaurants, the mall, the local market, the casino and many other worthwhile whereabouts.
Our orientation was capped off with a “sausage sizzle” and a chance to learn how to play cricket. Cricket proved to be very fun; albeit, it quickly morphed into a bastardized version of baseball because we had trouble with the rules and fundamentals. It wasn’t really about learning to play cricket anyway. Instead, it was a chance for all of the students to finally meet each other and socialize.
The first couple days in Australia have been a blast. It’s quite clear to me that the next couple weeks will be some of the most fun and life-changing times of my college career. Even the start of school in the next couple days can’t deter from my overjoyed attitude toward getting this opportunity.