By Cheyenne Rode, Vancouver Island University, winner of the BC Study Abroad: Stories from Abroad Scholarship
Study Abroad Destination: Melbourne, Australia
Since this is my second exchange what I did not expect was to get strongly affected by culture shock. This fact might of made it worse and also because I went traveling beforehand, I believe I experienced culture shock before most of the other exchange students around me and therefore felt more alone. I love traveling too and didn’t think I would get as depressed as I did about being away from home.
What I think really affected me was that was Melbourne in a way felt like home. English was the main language, people seemed similar (although a bit grumpier and with an accen...