Sandy LAURIE, Alexander and Matthew HOULAHAN

Students of The University of New England, Australia
Exchange to The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

We undertook an international exchange program through the Endeavour Australia Cheung Kong Awards for the first half of 2015. Our home institution is The University of New England and we spent one semester on exchange at Hong Kong University. This opportunity forged memorable education, sporting and social experiences.

One other mate from the University of New England was also involved with this exchange program and keen to make the most of the opportunity, so, before our studies started we decided to travel to Japan to spend a week skiing in Niseko. This set the tone for the trip.

After a solid week in the snow we made our way to HKU and got ready for class. We enjoyed meeting the eight hundred other new exchange students through our introductory week and familiarised ourselves with the university. Plenty of student and staff support made it easy to settle into the first few weeks of class and adapt to the HKU learning style. These weeks passed rapidly and the mid-term break quickly approached. Most of our exchange peers used this break to travel. For us it was a week in New York.

Returning from New York it was time to hit the books again and get back into rugby training. The Hong Kong Football Club had taken the three of us from UNE into their ranks and we played with multiple teams domestically and internationally through tours. Undoubtedly, the HKFC network of players and families helped us through our time overseas the most.

Our rugby season finished just before the Hong Kong Sevens tournament started, a highlight for the trip. Recovering from the sevens weekend we rolled into April and began to knuckle down for exams and final assessments. There was plenty of time for travel and rugby over the preceding months but during April-May it was important to make sure that we fronted up to our class commitments.

Exams were soon over and it was time for our final break. We filled in the break with internships that took us to July, to fly home. All in all it was a great trip and we would recommend exchange to HKU to anyone.

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