Patrick Deniger ‘17
Economics major
University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia (with IFSA-Butler)
Fall 2015
As I sit in LAX awaiting my connecting flight back home, it seems natural to reflect on the best semester of my life. The international terminal flashes me back to my layover before 
my July flight to Sydney, Australia when nervous jitters were circulating throughout my body. Would it be difficult to make friends? How hard would it be to get acclimated to the Australian culture? How would I survive the 14-hour flight? Well, 5 months later I have clear answers to all of my previous questions: I already miss my friends, the Australian culture, and even Qantas airlines.
I learned a lot about myself this past semester. I know what kinds of people I enjoy being around, the types of classes I prefer, but most of all, I learned that when I approach situations with an open, judgment-free mindset, the experiences that follow are unforgettable. I was open to all sorts of ideas this past semester, including a trip to Thailand with a group of kids that I had only known for a couple of weeks. Sure, I was nervous, I didn’t know anything about Thailand (outside of Hangover 2), and there was no guarantee that I would even remain friends with these people towards the end of the semester, but the seven days I spent traveling around the country included some of the most memorable moments of my life. It was also easy to shy away from befriending Australians with their different mannerisms and vocabulary, but again with an open mindset, I made a ton of Australian friends who embraced our differences and even had fun with them.
Studying at University of New South Wales was a strict contrast to daily life at Colby. 
UNSW is public university with about 60,000 students, although only 5,000 or so live on campus. Classes were taught in large lectures with smaller tutorial periods scheduled for a later date. This, compared to Colby’s emphasis on small classes and close student-professor bonds, was tough to get used to. If anything, it made me feel fortunate to study at an institution like Colby where professors really do value their relationships with students. Assignments were also less frequent and of higher proportions so that took some adjusting as well. Although different, it was nice to experience classes taught in a larger setting.
It didn’t really hit me that my time in Sydney was coming to an end until I received my confirmation email for my round-trip flight home and saw the date of my arrival (July 14th). It was the first time I fully grasped just how long I had been across the world. The 5 months I was abroad could not have gone by faster and I will miss every single person that impacted my experience in Australia. But as I conclude this chapter of my college career, I am equally as enthusiastic to return to the Hill even though it will be difficult to trade the mounds of sand at Coogee and Bondi beach for the mounds of snow covering Waterville and Sugarloaf.
Read more of Patrick’s blog posts on the IFSA-Butler Blog:
Now That’s Commitment
Busy busy busy
Bledisloe Cup
O-Weekend Fun
Oh How Wonderful Bureaucracy is …