Trading America for Australia: making new friends

Classes are about to start up again for me over on the Camden campus at the University of Sydney. After a lot of debating, I have decided to stay in my apartment for the first part of the year and maybe move out to Campbelltown, which is closer to the campus, later. One of the things I’ve been thinking about because of this though, is who I am going to hang out with for the next chunk of the semester.

When I first came to Sydney, it was very easy to make friends. Everyone was there for similar reasons, we were no longer competitors for a spot at the vet school, and my classmates were extremely supportive of helping me around in a new country. However, I did find that the people I ended up hanging around with the most were the other international students. It’s not that the Australian students weren’t friendly or welcoming, honestly it just ended up being easier.

I remember when I was an undergrad, I used to poke fun at the international students because they seemed to all hang out with each other. I remember thinking, “You move all the way out here and then you just end up hanging out with people who are from the same place as you? That seems like a bit of a waste.” However, after moving out here, I get it.

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Trading America for Australia: comparing practices between countries

I lived fairly close to campus in the beginning because as an international student I didn’t have access to a car and needed to factor in the commute by public transportation. Many of the other international students did the same. So for that reason, they were generally a lot easier to meet up with than the Australian students, many of which lived further away and then commuted everyday.

Also, many of the Australian students worked outside of classes. Again, this often made it pretty difficult to find a time to meet up. Most of us international students though, even if we were looking for a job, didn’t have one at the beginning of the year. So in the meantime, when someone wanted to go explore a new spot in this amazing country we all just moved to, you could almost always count on finding another international who was available to join you.

The last factor was honestly that it was sometimes difficult for me to get to know some Australian students because they seemed to already have well established social groups. I know it sounds lame, and generally the whole “clique” thing was left back in high school, but it’s just a fact that everyone establishes close friend groups for their “go to” people to hang out with. Many of the Australian students knew each other through previous classes or degrees, so they had already sussed out the people they got along with best. I sometimes found it difficult to “infiltrate” a group of people mainly because of my own feeling that sometimes I am trying too hard or being pushy.

Eventually I established my own friend groups, and I did succeed in making friends with a wide variety of people. But, unfortunately, most of them are moving out to Camden this year and the people who are sticking around my area are people who I know, but I don’t necessarily see them often outside of class. Given the circumstances, I am determined to use this opportunity to make new friends and get closer to some of my fellow classmates. I’m sure it’ll be fine, considering we’re going to be seeing a lot more of each other this year.

Read more: Five ways to make friends at university