Katerina Alemis, the Illinois Abroad marketing intern, writes:

The saying, “It’s not where you are, it’s who you’re with,” is one that truly resonated with me throughout my time in Australia. After eight weeks of class together, I still felt overwhelmed by the fact that I was going to travel halfway across the world with a group of people whose names I could barely remember. Oddly enough, a twelve hour delay and a night spent in California would quickly change all of those unsettling feelings. Everyone’s positive attitudes throughout our traveling revealed that we were going to be a great group.

Our trip was centered around gaining a perspective of the diversity of health in a foreign country. Most of us failed to realize, however, the diversity right there in front of us. After discussing our opinions at the end of the day at the beautiful Pichi Richi Park, I got to hear from students who, before this trip, had never flown in an airplane, had never been out of the country, and even students who had never taken public transportation.  This exposure to people from all different walks of life definitely made me appreciate the diversity among us and understand that everyone’s trip would have a unique significance to them.

Venturing out with our groups during our free time and then reconvening at night to talk about our days provided us with a glance into everyone’s personalities and interests and even ideas of activities to do the next day. From learning how to navigate through cities, to cooking kangaroo (actually pretty tasty!), and even boosting each others’ morale during seven-mile hikes, I couldn’t have asked for a better group of people to experience this beautiful place with.

If you keep an open mind, you will not only experience a new country, but get to meet great people to experience it with you.