Thursday 11 September 2014

Leaving London

My last month in England went scarily fast, filled with goodbyes from both friends from home and also from my University in London.
After my exams finished i had just under a week to embrace london before i went home for the final countdown. That week was incredibly busy, filled with goodbyes to the friends I'd made during my time in London in the past 2 years. I did a lot of the typically touristy stuff, such as exploring central after a long time of avoiding it, whilst also going out for about 3 meals a day, trying to see everybody before i went away. My best friend came down from Essex for my final weekend, so we partied it up in a way that would've challenged my fresher days, going to all our favourite places before admitting defeat on the final day and ending it with a chilled out pub night. Its weird thinking back to that last week, i remember at the time i didnt feel like i was going away, so saying bye to everyone seemed forced and false, asif it was a big pretence and i would see them again the week after. Even now i don't think its properly sunk in, as most of my friends haven't started back at uni, so i feel like this is just my holiday, where unfortunately I'm made to go to class. I was really fortunate with the weather, so spent a few of my last days in my favourite part of London, Camden. I spent so much time on Primrose Hill, which embarrassingly i only discovered towards the end of my time in London. 
I travelled back home to the north of england, and was back for just 1 night before going to Download Festival with a big group of friends from home. We had the most amazing weekend, seeing a lot of bands and drinking a lot of alcohol, i couldn't have asked for a better last weekend with my oldest favourites, cheesefest. 
After that I only had 5 days left in England before flying out, 3 of those spent in my hometown. 
My last few days was spent mostly with my mum, whilst also making sure i had everything packed. on the evenings there was a lot of leaving meals going on. My last day was really sunny and we all went to the pub and drank rekorderlig all day. i miss that a lot. i always thought that stuff was expensive but you would actually have to have a 6 figure job to be able to drink that stuff on the regular in Australia. It was bittersweet saying bye to the people I'd been friends with for so long. We'd already dealt with goodbyes before, when we all left each other 2 years ago to to go to university, so this didnt feel too weird as i spent the majority of the year away from them. 

Tourist shot with Beans

struggling to move my life from London back up North


us 4 gals having a ball through Avenged


half the gang 2nd day



favourite photo with fireman 

drunken photography turned good- Aerosmith

favourite people very messy

actual line up
goodbye meal with my family before me and Alisa flew off to Japan
down by the pub river for my final night

so thats a somewhat brief summarisation of my last few weeks in London, ending on the 22nd June when i flew out to Japan, Thailand and finally Australia. it still feels weird knowing how far away i am from my friends and family, and that even if i wanted to it isn't really possible to go home. its the most challenging thing I've done, but right now I'm 100% glad I did, as its literally been the most amazing experience, so much better than i ever could have imagined :)


Sunday 7 September 2014

last minute life changing choices

Before I start, I guess I should introduce myself, and my aims for this blog.

My name is Sian Gers. I was born and raised in England, spending most of my childhood in London. My teen years were spent in an idyllic village in the northern part of England, surrounded by fields, pubs and a delicious chicken dish called 'the parmo'. When I reached 18 i bounced back off to London, to study Business Studies at Cass Business School (also known as City). Having spent the past 2 years living in London, I decided to take a year of my studying abroad, to Melbourne, Australia. In typical me style, i left it to past the deadline to apply, thinking nothing of the opportunity to explore a new country and shake up my life. it was only mid february when i was cold and sick of England i thought about the possibility of experiencing university life in a different country. my first choice for this was Canada, with the options being Vancouver, or British Columbia. My real dream was to go to New York and study there, but sadly my university only offered places in rural suburbs in America, so that option was crossed off. it was only after i spoke to the advisors that i really thought about Australia as an option. for me, the chance to live in Australia has never appealed to me. I'm far too high maintenance, having lived in London the past few years I'm used to everything being on my doorstep, and enjoy the hustle and bustle of a fast paced city. therefore, the chilled out perception of Australia didn't appeal for anything more than a holiday. However, when i really thought about it, Australia seemed perfect for a semester abroad, whilst also being a huge challenge i was scared to partake in.
once I'd been told by the advisors that, although i was applying three weeks past the deadline, i could still be considered, i spent more time researching into my future. slowly i became to realise how perfect Melbourne would be, with it being voted the most liveable city in the world multiple times, it features the multiculturalism that London also has to offer, whilst having a great student vibe towards it. My next step was to talk to my parents about it. for me, this was really hard. I'm really close to my parents, but I'm often known for jumping to decisions irrationally, so i didn't think they'd take me seriously on this idea. surprisingly, they were really supportive and all for me going, saying that it would be an experience of a lifetime, and if i were to do it they'd support me in every way. with this, i had encouragement to carry on with my application. i had to go to an interview with the study abroad office, declaring why i wished to study abroad. and although its a known fact that you pretty much get accepted at my uni from them, i was still nervous, thinking that my scattyness and late application would hold me back, with them thinking that i wasn't 100% serious about applying, and that it was just an irrational thought of the moment. luckily, i was convincing enough for them to accept me, and put me forward to my chosen university, RMIT University in Melbourne. For me, the choice was perfect. I had a lot of relatives in Melbourne, and whilst they are distant, you come to realise whilst travelling the importance of relatives, no matter how close you were to them before. its always nice to know that you have a comforting surround to go towards if you're ever feeling homesick, or just someone who's going to be interested in everything you say regarding school and your subjects, and check you're doing okay. To fast forward the boring part, my application got accepted on both ends, and whilst there was a moment on holiday where i thought i wouldn't get the whole thing submitted on time due to a dodgy connection, i managed to make the deadline and choose my options within the time permitted. once all this had been done it was on to applying for visas, booking flights and sorting accommodation. the only thing was, id booked a return flight from England-->japan-->Thailand-->England. the return date was the day before i was supposed to be arriving into Melbourne. after much consideration and debate with my mum and the study abroad office, we decided that opposed to arriving late, i should just go straight from Thailand to Melbourne after my travels, as they're closer, meaning i would have to be carrying everything i needed with me for the next year around my backpacking trip of Thailand... fun.

once id told everyone and got over the initial excitement, i started to feel regret and fear towards the massive decision id made. before, it had just seemed like a fun idea to play with, studying abroad in Australia and living in a hot climate. however, when i thought about uprooting my life in London, and leaving all my friends and family for such a long time, i had a massive freakout, and pushed the whole thing to the back of my head, refusing to talk about it with anyone. looking back now, i can't believe i was so scared, as now that I'm here its literally been the best decision of my life, its opened my mind so much, and allowed me to experience things that wouldn't have been possible before. all I'm saying is, whilst its nice to have a comfortable life, and be happy where you are, don't be afraid to mix things up and move abroad. the first few weeks are hard, and saying bye to your friends is even harder, but theres so much more of the world to see and be experienced, it seems pointless to just live your life in just one small part of it, missing out on so much.
whilst over in Australia, i plan to travel around, visiting both places in the country, and other countries in the southern hemisphere. so far, i have travelled to Japan and Thailand prior to flying out. i also have just been on spring break, and went to Indonesia, which was absolutely amazing.
i'll continue to blog directly about these places and my experiences in these places, and i hope to inspire people to take the leap and jump out of their comfort zone, as for me it was completely worth it.