Sydney International Student Guide

At 24 I had struck a rut in my life. My career was going fine but not fantastical, I had not reached my ideal weight and I still lived in my parents' home. After battling with my procrastination, I eventually put into action a plan that had been on hold ever since graduation – leaving. I did not want to stay in Singapore any longer, as I craved for change, romance and drama. My fantasies were wasted on the watered down, sensible Singaporean friends and my straight talking Indian mother.

I glanced over my to-do list that included developmental projects in the Niger Delta and grape harvesting in the Rhone Valley and evaluated their practicality. Was I ready for any of this?

After another month of deliberating, procrastinating and unnecessary conversations over endless glasses of wine, I finally took advice from my good friend who was about to start graduate school agreed to evaluate some study options. "Let's not get too crazy," my parents rapped me when I told them that I was considering law school in a Scandinavian country.

Six months later, I found myself landing at Kingsford-Smith with four suitcases and a student visa. Hereon began my journey as an international student.

The Move

The first step was finding a great apartment. Two weeks before my departure for Sydney, I registered on EasyRoommate to search for apartments near my university. The site is a convenient source and is used mostly by students and young professionals looking to share apartments.

I wrote to several potential housemates who had advertised apartments that were well within my budget, and set up appointments for various times after I had landed in the city. This worked out wonderfully because Sydney's inner city is one of the most difficult areas to find a good and reasonable apartment. Because of the pre-arranged appointments, I was able to settle on an apartment in 5 short days.

Getting Around

Getting around in Sydney is not difficult. The buses run decently and the train network works well. As an international student I was not granted a student concession (a hot point in the student community), so I had to buy a full fare ticket. The best deal is the $16 TravelTen pass, which gave me ten rides for the amount within the city.* All the information on how to get around was easily obtainable from the Sydney Buses website.

The best part of discovering any new city is walking. I had a great time just taking long walks around the city and checking out iconic landmarks like the Queen Victoria Building, Capitol Theater,Paddy's Markets, and Darling Harbor. This not only took care of my sightseeing needs, but enabled my usual lack of direction.

Socializing

I was not exactly alone in the big city. I had a great support network of friends and family when I moved here, so I had people giving me great advice all the time. Being in university would eventually give me the opportunity to get more friends, but I had to make an extra effort on my own. Discarding any hang-ups, I placed an advertisement on Sydney Gumtree asking for people who just wanted to meet on a weekly basis to catch up over drinks or coffee around the inner city. The response was fantastic and to this day, we meet up once a week unfailingly for a fantastic time.

Gumtree also has listings for language swaps, community classes and other activities ranging from social tennis to dance lessons and is worth checking out from time to time. At some point, I even tried doing a French-English language swap.

Shopping

A college student's life is equated with a shoestring budget and Sydney is full of otherwise temptations. Sydney has been listed as one of the top 10 most expensive cities to live in, so everything...(read more)