Hey There, Mate! – The story of a German import

Hi all, it’s Nadine from Münster, Germany. I am staying in Australia for six weeks to see some spots in this magical country, improve my English skills and expand my horizons, as I have barely travelled anywhere, especially alone. So how’d it come to this?

I have been wanting to go to Australia for quite some time now – my cousin lives in Traralgon with his family as he married an Australian girl! When I first saw the photos of their trip to Australia where they visited her family, it really sparked my interest. My decision was settled when they eventually moved here after living in Germany and the US. I wanted to pay them a visit, see how and where they live here and also get a peek at the kids growing up. Plus, I am interested in the variety of nature in other climate zones.

Now something more about myself: I did a kind of dual study which included studying business information technology while doing an apprenticeship as a software developer. Some time into the studies, a fellow student told me about a colleague of his who was studying the same as us, only was a year ahead. He got this scholarship from a governmental institution for on-the-job training and used it to go on a language-learning holiday in Australia. ‘That’s what I wanna do!’ is what I said back then, not being too serious about it. That was because I wanted to go but I couldn’t imagine myself doing something like that, never being a travelling kind of person.  (BTW this is probably because I was never really introduced to travelling when I was a kid or with my family at all as my parents have a farm. And when you live and work on a farm, you don’t have that much time to visit far away fancy places, as the cattle still need to be fed and the cows need to be milked. So the farthest we went were some holiday parks in the Netherlands and some North Sea beaches in Germany.)

Anyway, after my studies were finished, I started to think that I really should try to get that scholarship and use it to go to Australia. The thing is, that scholarship is limited for three years and you have to be under 25 when you apply (amongst other qualifications), so this was an opportunity to push myself out of my comfort zone without the possibility of postponing it for too long. So I applied. And lucky me, I was accepted!

Feeling great on Magnetic Island

Well, the first year passed by and I hadn’t used the scholarship for anything because there was still other stuff going on in my life that kept me busy. But towards the end of that year, I realized that I should get started on some planning. Nevertheless, I am a really lazy person when it comes to planning trips. So it still took me some time before I got into real action. Finally, I realized that I should just find someone who is better at this than me – so I looked up a travel agency in my home town that also specializes in language-learning holidays to Australia and went there. Usually, I like getting all kinds of stuff done online instead of having to go somewhere (shopping for clothes in particular^^) but in this case I really wanted to talk to someone face to face and get some good ideas about where to go on this trip.

First part of the journey: Frankfurt to Hong Kong (9166 km)

So, that’s how I ended up at Aylin’s desk. And that was the best thing that could happen to me as she had lots of helpful info and we instantly had a very relaxed atmosphere going on.  I told her that I wanted to see the Great Barrier Reef and also wanted to visit my cousin down at Traralgon, so she recommended a few places in the north to me, gave me a little info about each of them and told me to book a flight to Melbourne for after my course was done (I didn’t realize how far away everything is in this country :D). After going through the info I decided on Cairns as it seemed fun and also close to some other nice places.  I liked the idea of being in a homestay family for the duration of the course as I wanted to get some intel on life here. In addition to that, the thought of living in a family comforted me as I was getting worried I wouldn’t know how to spend my time best in this new environment (still too lazy to plan activities, remember?  ;)).

…almost there…

After some paperwork, my trip was approved by the scholarship institution and my company agreed to give me some unpaid weeks off (I needed most of my normal holiday for festivals and such^^). I got really excited about this trip but at the same time getting quite scared. What if this trip is too big for me as my first solo trip? What if something happens to me? What if I waste my time on doing the wrong stuff over there and miss out on the important things? Lamentations like these buzzed through my mind. On some days, I was able to calm myself down through the belief that everything would turn out okay as soon as I got there. On other days, I panicked. Seemed stupid, as I had been looking forward to this for a long time and others would love to be in my place.

Eventually, these mood-swings intensified during my last days in Germany. But as soon as I got on the plane (going to Hong Kong for a stop), all the stress was washed away and everything that stayed with me was sheer excitement and happiness. However, I cannot deny that dilemma as to the best choice of activities here still catches up with me every now and then. But it’s getting better little by little 🙂

So far, I have had an amazing two weeks in Cairns: My homestay family is great, the English course is interesting and I have seen and done some very cool stuff as well as meeting loads of awesome people.

See ya!

Nadine Feldmann, Academic IELTS Class

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We are teachers and students at the Cairns College of English and Business (CCEB). How lucky are we to work and study in the Australian Wet Tropics with the world's oldest rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef at our doorstep! We would like to share our happy posts with the world! Welcome to the CCEB space eveyone.

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