Albion College Admission

Albion College has given me the amazing opportunity to go to Australia.  I was in Australia for almost 5 months and in those 5 months I traveled all around Australia and learned a lot about the culture and about my self.  Within my first week in Australia, I got the opportunity to scuba dive in the Great Barrier Reef, hold a koala bear, throw a boomerang and take a trip through the rainforest, I was able to do all of this through my program, Australearn. During that week I was able to meet some of the Americans studying at Macquarie university who also studying abroad through Australearn.  After our amazing week we flew back to Sydney and moved into our apartments.  I had four other roommates but had to learn to cook by myself quickly.  Shopping was another barrier I had to climb over.  You think that the stores would be the same here in the U.S. as they are in Australia but that is not true.  My first shopping trip took me about 2 hours because of the different brands and styles of food, also because of the way they place their food.  I was looking for eggs in the fridge area, where they should be, but they don’t keep their eggs cooled.  I also had the problem of some of the differences in names.  They don’t have granola bars they are museli bars and everyone thinks you could save money and live off of cereal because its cheap and easy but cereal in Australia is about $6 for a small box and they don’t have fun kid approved cereal, its all adult not sugar cereal.  After the big shopping adventure I had to learn how to use public transport.  Living in the suburbs of Detroit I had driven everywhere in life and only taken public transport with my family when we went on vacation.  The first time I took public transport alone I got lost and of course it was at night; it took me more than two hours, a lot of questions and a few tears to find my way home.  Eventually, I made it and never got lost again.

These problems/adventures all came within my first 2 weeks of being in Australia but I also learned that I could live on my own and survive.  Before going to Australia I thought that surviving college would teach you about the real world and how to survive but after going to Australia I know that going abroad was the best choice I could have made and it truly helped me to become an adult.

To be continued…

Ashley Hayes is a junior Economics and Management major. Ashley attended Salem High School where she played volleyball. Ashley is a part of the Delta Gamma sororit, Albion College Volleyball and the Gerstacker Institute.

Ashley would have loved to have been at the siege of Troy.  The siege of troy had so much action, adventure and of course many amazing love stories going on during the battle that would have been amazing to watch, from a birds eye view, of course.