I always wanted to go to Australia, everybody talks about this country and it has something that attracts people. I wanted to find out what that was and I also wanted to experience the beach life. Therefore, I applied to University of Newcastle in Australia. I knew that it was going to be summer and really hot in Australia during January-February, but the thought of being able to hang in the beach while it was snowing in Sweden made me happy. I was applying to University of Newcastle because I wanted to see something different and to meet people from other countries, I heard before that Australians are very relaxed and outgoing people and that sound perfect for me since I went there with the same attitude. I also wanted to get more experience both in the English language and to work in a laboratory environment that I am not used to work in. People asked me why I chose Newcastle, a smaller town with few tourists, and not Sydney or another big city. The answer is because I wanted to experience the real Australian culture by meeting Australian people and see the real Australian environment. My opinion is that, it will be hard to really experience the unique Australian life in a big city because of a lot of tourists and time-pressure that usually is experienced in big cities. However, there are a few things that are good to think about before you getting on the airplane!

We decided to arrive in Australia as soon as possible after our last course here in Sweden, our last exam was on the same week and we also had one project work that needed to be presented so with other words, the last week was  stressful. But at the same time, the idea that we were leaving after all the hard work made us excited! Me and another girl from the Biomedicine programme were both going to do our research project at University of Newcastle. It was nice to know that we were going to the same town, so we decided to find accommodation together and to share the rent.

But during the last few weeks before we were heading to Australia we had some problem with the communication with the University of Newcastle, the biggest problem was the time difference which can be quite annoying! My recommendation here is to contact the university as soon as possible, because one thing that I have learn is that Australians really are relaxed people, and together with time difference, a big NO! But they are very friendly and we got the information that we needed to apply for visa days before we were flying, not good since it can take up to two weeks before you get the visa. You should definitely not wait with the application for visa, as soon as you can fix it, do it directly, as I mentioned before, it can take up to weeks before you get it! I got it two days before I was flying, and it was a Friday, so imagine how stressed I was!

There are also other forms that you need to fill in, even after you are admitted which also takes at least one week if they are working fast, before you can be sure that you are admitted. So to summarise, do all the administrative stuff as soon as you can and do not leave it to the end. The weeks before you are flying will be stressful anyway, to see everybody before you leave Sweden and to pack everything you want to bring and so on. However, the administration in University of Newcastle will send you the information and the form that you need to fill in when you are admitted. 

We booked the flight tickets directly after we were admitted by the university in Australia, which was just two months before we leaved. My opinion is that it was a bit late, but at the same time, it is not worth to book tickets before you know that you are admitted. We had to wait for the confirmation from the university in Australia. 

The flight arrived around 6am on the 21st of January in Sydney and my first thought was "finally!" We flew in approximately 25 hours which felt like ages, I was so nervous and I did not knew what to expect. We flew with Emirates from Arlanda Stockholm, and our first stop was Dubai. I really recommend Emirates, they are offering really good flying times and really nice staff that are happy to help. We were five people from the Biomedicine programme that booked the tickets together, it was very nice to have some friends that you knew since before during the long flight. We were are helping each other and keeping each other company, so I will definitely recommend you to book flight tickets with the other people that is going to the same country as you. 

The first thing we did in Sydney was taking the train to the famous Opera house that looks so beautiful on the postcards and pictures on internet. I have to say that I was a bit dissapointed, it was cool to see the Opera house and to be in Australia! It is easy to take the train in Sydney, you can find ticket machines almost everywhere at the trainstation. However, on the other side of the harbour you can see the Sydney harbour bridge which was huge, on the top of the bridge you can see people walking on a line after each other which looked really fun. If you pay you can be one of them but it was quite expensive so we decided to not do that. 


At this time we were all very hungry, so we decided to find something to eat. We walked around and realized we were just outside the city, we found a food court with many different options. After lunch, we walked into the city by using Google maps which has been very helpful so far! We found a shopping centre called Westfield that you can find in everywhere, it has many shops inside with different class of prices, some are brand stores for example Gucci or Dior and other stores are more affordable for us students. 

After a few hours we were so tired so we headed back to the hostel and slept for a few hours. The hostel we were staying in called Bounce, it was really nice and clean but a bit expensive compared to other hostels. The hostel had one activity every night, and at our first night it was a party bus from the hostel taking us out to a club. It was fun and it was also the first time we experienced the Australian night life. 



During day 3 we splitted up and continue our journey to our respcetive cities, we took the train to Newcastle which is located approximately two and a half our away from Sydney. The other booked flight tickets from Sydney to Brisbane before they leaved Sweden and another of us was going to visit a friend in Melbourne for three weeks. I was very lucky to have such a nice supervisor who picked us up at the train station in Newcastle and we lived at his place with his lovely family for two weeks. I was so nervous before I met my supervisor, I did not talked much to him before I leaved Sweden, sometime people have "Skype-meetings" with their supervisor before they leave Sweden but I did not so I was extra nervous! We tried to find accomodation on internet directly and my supervisor drove us around town to show us the different beaches and he came with us to the different apartments we found on internet to make sure it was in a good shape. Some places were good and some were bad. We also celebrated the Australian day at Nelson bay with his family, that was a new experience for me. His daughter is a part of the marching band and it was so fun to see the performance! Nelson bay is one hour drive from the Newcastle city and here you can participate in dolphin/whale cruises and also go to the sand dunes.

It took us around one week to find our apartment and we moved in a few days after. We found our apartment via a real estate agent so we knew it was real and trustworthy. The apartment has two bedrooms, kitchen, laundry and was fully furnished. We did not needed to buy any equipment at all. Even bed sheets and towels were included, and we also got a TV! With other words we were very lucky to find an apartment located on such a nice area. The apartment was located on The Hill, and it took us around 5 minutes to walk to the closest beach called Bar beach and 15 minutes to Newcastle beach, it was also really closed to Darby street, LOVE Darby street, which is a street with many restaurants and cafés! It is dangerous to live so close to Darby street since it smells so good from the restaurants when you walk home from trainstation! Newcastle is a very good place if you want to get to meet many Australians and to feel how it is to "be" an Australian since it is not a big city. Newcastle has it own culture, and there is a different food culture here, it is very common to go for a walk or for a run in the morning by the beach and then  meet a friend on Darby street to have a brunch. Which we did a lot during our time in Newcastle!

We came to Newcastle around three weeks before we started at the lab, which was good since it took a while before we found a nice place to live in and learned where everything were located. It is good to have a person that lives here since that person can tell if the places you are looking for are good or not, and also where to find everything. We looked for maybe five different apartments before we found the perfect one.

The students here starts the first week of March so it was quite empty at that time when we started. The O-week for the new students was during the last week in February, is a week full with different activities such as dolphin tour, parties and orientation around the campus. It was a lot of information from the university and the different clubs that you can join. In the end of O-week it was a party with jungle theme at The Bar on The hill which is one of the bars at the university campus. We met many exchange students during O-week. Before the party we also went to Nelson bay with the university where we did the dolphin cruise, unfortunately the weather was really bad and it was raining whole day but that did not stop us from seeing some dolphins, the chance of seeing dolphins is very big so it is definitely worth it, and the university had some kind of deal so it was very cheap compared to if you were going alone. If you are coming later during the year you might also see some whales (during May-June), but do not be too sad if you do not see dolphins and whales during the cruises, because the dolphins and whales are swimming through the Newcastle beaches during May-June. So there is a very big chance of seeing some, especially from the Look out point at Bar beach!

Before I leaved Sweden I heard that the prices are quite similar. I think it is little bit cheaper sometimes, for example when you want to eat in a restaurant it can be cheaper depending on where you are going, but it is quite similar. I used to go to restaurants on Darby street, the prices were affordable and it is not so big difference compared to Sweden. The prices on clothes and other personal stuffs were a bit cheaper sometimes and they have much more to choose between here. The only thing that is expensive is the rent, if you want to have your own apartment and live in town (close to the beaches) you need to be prepared to pay a bit more. I saved money before I leaved so I would be able to do stuff here like travelling around which was very helpful, I strongly recommend you to save as much as you can before you leave Sweden. 

The only thing I needed to pay for before I leaved Sweden was the flight tickets and the student visa, it cost around 3000 SEK which was very expensive. I have vaccination since before so I did not needed to be vaccinated again, but if you are not vaccinated it is an additional cost before you leave.

You can spare money here by not eating in restaurants so much, but I find it really hard since we lived so close to Darby street. We cooked a few times a week so we had lunch boxes to school. There are not so many common micorwaves here for the students, so KI students are very lucky! There are only two microwaves, but luckily we used microwaves for the staff so we did not need to stand in the long line to the microwaves. Otherwise you can eat meat pies, which is typical Australian, there is a place at the university campus that sells meat pies and they are very cheap and yummie!

Newcastle is quite big, compared to a city in Sweden so there are many places you can live in, some are better than other. I will strongly recommend you to find something in town since you will have everything here. Some people that I met, lived in campus and they wanted to move into town instead after a few weeks, not because it was bad but because of the distance from everything in town. However, I can imagine that the rent is a bit lower close to campus. Also if you choose to share with other people the rent can be around 150 dollar per week.  We paid 450 dollar together per week, and we think it is worth it since everything is included and we have two bedrooms. Our apartment was fully furnished, we did not even need to think about detergents or other kind of cleaning equipments, even sheets and towels were included. The only thing we did not have was internet, and we thought it would be a problem in the beginning but it was not a problem since we were going to the university every day where we had wi-fi and we also had internet in our mobile phones. Otherwise we had everything, even a grill on the balcony!

If you find an accommodation via a real estate agent, make sure to be specific with everything, such as payment and the standard and quality of the apartment. If there are small scratches on the wall, write that on the paper with the contract and take a photo of it, or if there is dusty under the bed, write it down! Otherwise you have no proof when you are moving out and you may need to pay extra so the real estate agent can hire someone that cleans the apartment professionally etc. And make sure to have an Australian referee person (for example your supervisor) that can help you with all the administrative stuff. 

The standard is not the best here, do not have high expectations! That is why it was good to have my supervisor with us since he knows about the standard here and what is worth the money. Sometimes we found apartments that looked ok for the same price as we payed for the nice apartment we lived in.

The town is surrounded by beaches. I recommend to live close to Darby street, it is like a main street in the town and everybody knows where it is. The train station is also close to darby street and there are also some busses that goes through Darby street that takes you to a big shopping mall in Charlestown.

Since we were living in town we needed to take the train to school which took around 15 minutes, to walk to the trainstation took around 15-20 minutes. Since our apartment was located on The Hill, you can imagine how it felt everyday. There is a reason why it is called The Hill, but it is a really nice and safe place to live in. You can find hospitals in the town, but the university has its own medical centre with nurses and doctors for students, it is also cheaper to go there compared to hospitals and clinics in town. You just need to bring your health insurance that you will get from KI if you are a KI student, save the receipt and send it back to KI.

In the end of my research project I spended a lot of time in the City hub, which has computers, study areas, and a library. Many students that lives in town goes here to study, the opening hour is long and there are also staff that can help you with computer issues. 

Australians love their NFL (Northern Football League), which is not about soccer! It is like American football, a lot of action! Which I love, so I went to see a NFL game when Newcastle Knights was playing their home game and it was such a fun thing to do! After that I also watched the game on TV. 

The biggest games ever are the State of Origin games which is a best of three league, the Australians are crazy during these games and there is a big battle between two rugby teams that represent the Australian states of New South Wales and Queensland respectively, with Australians best rugby players in each team!