Changing goals

      Studying abroad has absolutely changed me both personally and professionally. Professionally, my internship taught me that I know marketing is the right field for me. This was my first experience in a major marketing department. I’ve had experience in small marketing departments, but this internship focused on the marketing you can’t learn in a classroom. I learned how to do everything from writing a creative brief, plan and execute a budget, how to work across teams, social media marketing, planning a photoshoot and so much more. I never thought I’d be able to have this much experience before even leaving college. Doing all these tasks and working across all these teams assured my decision that marketing is the right field for me. I love the fact that I was always on my feet and constantly interacting with people to get a task done. I’ve learned that you when you have a large business like the Sydney Opera House, having a solid team behind you is essential. As for me personally, I now know that I want to be a world traveler. I never want to be the person who stays in one city the rest of my life. I would love to travel as a part of my career and see all different parts of the world. Studying abroad has given me the travel bug – I’m already planning trips for this summer.

One more week

As my time in Australia is slowly coming to an end, I've done a lot of reflection on these past three months. For one, the time absolutely flew by. Of course, I missed my family and friends - but the new people I've met will forever share the bond of Australia with me. There's a group of about 10 of us who've bonded and clicked from the start. We're basically a family! After spring break, we became a lot closer and went on adventures every weekend together. This past weekend, 7 of us went to this giant waterfall called Kelly-Falls. The website said an "easy hike", we ended up scaling rocks and coming out with a few cuts, bruises, and leeches. It was all worth it to spend the day with some of my best friends and see an incredible waterfall. The water was absolutely freezing, but obviously, we still jumped in. I'm pretty sure my body went into shock when I first jumped in, worth it for the Go Pro video.

Okay - now for the serious reflections. What surprised me most about studying abroad is a common question people ask. I'd say I was most surprised about the different culture. Australia is very Americanized, with American brands, speaking English - I didn't expect to come here and have a completely different culture of people. Everyone here is so laid back and very outdoorsy. I love it! They're all about "good vibes" here and love to live life. Australians value personal relationships and being able to joke with their mates. Also, everyone calls you mate here and I've picked up the habit. I'm trying to bring it back to the States. But, when I first arrived I was so thrown off about the personal attention and interest in my personal life from everyone in school, work, the CAPA staff, and even Australians I'd meet. It's very different from what it's like at home with everyone minding their own business.

One thing I wish I knew before I came to Australia was how fast time actually flies by. We've been here for around 14 weeks, coming here you'd think that's heaps of time! In reality, those weeks went by like days. Some advice I have for people studying abroad or traveling for an extended period of time: know what you want to do, and do it. Making plans for weekend trips and actually following through with plans is what made my trip so fun. I've seen so many people want to do things, yet they never made the plans to actually do them. You're only here for a short period of time - you can sleep when you're home!

This week's finals week and my last week of work - I'll keep you updated on how I finish off the semester! I'm sure I'll be posting more sappy stuff, but until then, talk to you soon, mates!

Another day at the Sydney Opera House

Yes, another day at the Sydney Opera House!

I only have two more working days at the most iconic building in Australia, I'm slightly depressed. These past two weeks have been hectic. Last week I was preparing for my co-worker's leave and this week I'm covering for her leave. I'm doing the regular workload that I would do on a daily basis while covering half of her workload AND managing the April School Holidays!

I'll start with our Well Being campaign. Remember when I told you guys about having to be a yoga model? Well lucky for me, the shoot got rained out so the yoga instructors ended up rescheduling and doing a shoot of their own - no downward dog for me. Our fitness classes are offered 7-8am Monday-Friday. I signed up for this weeks Monday and Wednesday class - Monday I worked to sign people in so I came in an hour early. Turns out, Sunrise at 7, the news program was filming a posed yoga class at 6am as well as the High-Intensity Class at 7am. So, I show up at 6am, ready to work, and turns out I have to join the posed yoga class (front and center, no less) for them to film us and put us on live television! It was actually a really cool experience to see this side of marketing, I've never been a part of a photoshoot or a filming for the news. Wasn't my best angle, but it was still a cool experience!

As for work, my brochures were put on hold because there's a new law in Australia about clarity with pricing. Apparently, Australian Government passed a law to require businesses to be 100% clear with pricing no "starting as low as...". I actually really appreciated this! Being a consumer, having the honest pricing displayed helps me make more informed decisions. But they are to go to print next week, don't worry - my boss said she'll mail me the prints so I can add them to my portfolio :)

My school holidays campaign is going swimmingly. It's my first campaign so I didn't really have an idea how to track the sales, what to do to increase sales, how to manage the website and apparently we're scheduling a photo shoot! I found out this week that the Kid's team wants to have new photos for this school holidays, so there's some last minute planning to schedule a photo shoot for this Saturday (scary because it's already Thursday). Anyway, the campaign is going well, a few bumps but overall I'd label it a success half way through.

Oh yeah - I was able to see one last show last week! Total I've seen 6 shows at the Sydney Opera House in 3 months! How crazy is that? I'm not ready to talk about the fact that I only have 2 work days left...we can talk about that next week. For now, I'm living in the moment and enjoying each day - so I'll think about leaving next week.

Gold Coast

Sorry for going MIA these past two weeks - as you can image, this last month is unbelievably busy. I'm going to split up these next few posts just for your sake so you don't have to read paragraphs on paragraphs.

So, this post is dedicated to my last weekend trip in Australia, the Gold Coast! A few of my friends and I went north a few weekends ago to experience the last bit of Australian summer. Since 1 March, it has been Autumn in Australia, but it felt like summer until around 1 April - the day we left. Since the Gold Coast is up north, it was so warm and beautiful! It was around 85 degrees, which was the perfect temperature to relax on the beach. The town reminded me of Miami, there were large skyscrapers right on the coastline and beaches that lasted for miles.

This city was arguably the most Americanized city I've visited since my time in Australia. It was a clear tourist destination, less locally populated. The main skyscrapers were condos and hotels, not businesses or apartments. Also, the town was very small which reminded of touristy beach towns found along the coast of New Jersey. During this trip, our group mainly just relaxed and enjoyed a low-cost vacation. We had been going away weekend after weekend experiencing new cities, it was nice to travel to a new city but still have a relaxing time. The beaches there all looked relatively similar, which is different than in Syndey. In Sydney, each beach is a different experience with a different atmosphere - while at the Gold Coast, there are literally miles of coastline. The one beach that was my favorite was Burleigh Beach,  the sand was made from seashells near the rock pool! Oh yeah, that's another thing about Australia - there are all these natural rock pools near the beaches. These rocks act as a natural barrier between the ocean and the pool and create this natural ocean water pool. It's safe to say that going back to beaches in the States will be pretty disappointing...

During the trip, we also rented jetskis. I've been jet skiing before, but I've never ACTUALLY gone until then. I went with my friend Andy, and he goes often and we had competitions on who could whip the other off the back. In the wise words of our jet ski instructor, "if you don't fall off you're not going fast enough". I walked away with a few bruises, but it was well worth it.

There weren't many locals at the Gold Coast, but apparently it is referred to as "The Vegas of Brisbane" which is a city about 45 minutes away. It's one of the most popular cities in Queensland, Australia. That's another thing about Australia, there are few cities with dense populations and sparse population in the bush and the outback. For being the same size as the US, Australia has a smaller population than New York state alone - probably because of all the deadly animals! After this weekend, we all settled into a state of slight depression with the realization that we only had three weeks left in Australia (1 1/2 now). The most we can do it take each day on its own and make the most of the rest of our time here.