By Ayla Montgomerie

It has now been four months since I returned home, and my study abroad experience at Cardiff University in Wales feels like a fever dream. Yet, it is an experience I will never forget or regret.

Looking back at my pre-exchange self, I couldn’t deny that I’ve changed. Like everyone who has gone before me, I will stand by the idea that going on exchange is one of the best things you can do for yourself. Throughout the application process, going on exchange felt unlikely to happen. Even when I landed in the UK and started attending classes on the Cardiff University campus, it still didn’t feel real to me. I spent the first two years of university living at home, working the same job, and following the same routine, which had started to feel repetitive. I had never lived in student accommodation or had the opportunity to experience life on my own, and my exchange in Cardiff gave me the chance to do both, and so much more. I am now a more confident and independent person than I was before.

When people talk about studying abroad, they often mention the people they meet and the places they travel. For me, these were easily the two biggest highlights of my exchange.

My exchange friend group was made up of seven of us from all corners of the world, brought together at Cardiff University. Kiwis and Aussies, Canadians and Americans gave me a kind of culture shock I didn’t expect. I will say, it was weird being back home without having to explain what a ‘flat battery’, a ‘ute’, or ‘prickles’ were.

Secondly, I travelled to a total of 11 countries over five months. This included all capital cities of the United Kingdom, solo travel around Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Ireland, group adventures in France, Monaco, and Spain, a weekend exploring North Wales during a UK heatwave, and a post-semester trip around Scotland with my Aunty and Uncle. I had become so used to one-to two-hour flights that the 26-hour journey back home was pretty intimidating. I have also mastered the skill of finding the cheapest flights, trains, or bus journeys, even if that means travelling to a random Italian city just to catch a cheaper flight back to the UK. Having a base in the UK made travelling around Europe so much easier, especially coming from New Zealand, where visiting another country isn’t as simple as taking a short trip.

Luckily, I didn’t face as many challenges as I thought I would. Honestly, the only difficulty was completing a University of Waikato paper online. Communicating with my lecturer, accessing recorded lectures, and figuring out time zones were not as easy as I had hoped. However, I managed to keep up with coursework alongside the three papers I was also taking at Cardiff University.

There is so much this exchange has taught me that I would never have learnt if I had never taken that leap. I gained independence by navigating life overseas. I took a two-week trip around Italy alone, something I never would have believed I was capable of doing this time last year. I also learnt to become more aware of my surroundings and how to navigate the many different transport systems across Europe. I feel like I’ve also become more spontaneous. In my usual life, I pretty much follow the same schedule every week. However, a last-minute trip to a new place, whether that be a new country or somewhere I wanted to see in and around Cardiff, became the new normal. I also learnt to value time and realised how much can really be achieved in a day. To be fair, I wasn’t working, and I had fewer classes to attend, so I did have more free time. However, I hope that I can continue to find new and exciting things to do with my free time as I navigate the next chapter of my life.

Something else I’ve realised has changed since being on exchange, especially as I finish my final semester of my bachelor’s degree, is my time management. Before exchange, I was very last-minute and struggled to focus and figure out the best study routine for me. However, this past semester back home, I have never been so ‘locked in’. I think this is partly because my exchange experience taught me the benefits of getting assignments done as soon as possible. In Cardiff, having overseas holidays booked meant that I needed to finish assignments a week early to make sure I could enjoy my trips. I think this mindset has subconsciously stuck with me, and I have finally seen the value of being on top of assignments. Honestly, I probably should be more stressed during the final week of class than I actually am, and I think that says something about how much my approach to university has changed.

Moving on from this experience, I hope that I continue being more spontaneous and make time to explore more of New Zealand. While overseas, I found myself becoming an advocate for New Zealand, as so many people I met said it was somewhere they hoped to visit at least once in their lives. It reminded me how lucky I am to call New Zealand home, and I want to take what I’ve learnt from exchange and use it to see more of my own country.