Who are we? – Michael

Michael is the name. For those of you who know me, I cordially welcome you to the blog and hope you enjoy the (hopefully) entertaining prose I can drum up to describe our time here in Melbourne, Australia.

For those of you don’t know me, I am a third year Mechanical Engineering student who is on exchange to Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne from Northeastern University in Boston. I try to be as respectful, gregarious, and honest as I can towards others. I grew up in a town called Ludlow in Western Massachusetts with my parents John and Karen, and my brothers Daniel and Stephen. I have a wide range of interests and passions. I’m a filmaholic, and proud of it, I always welcome the challenge of a movie trivia quiz. I love tennis, adventure novels, puzzles, anime, music (go Oasis!), bubble tea, impressionist art, video games (go Minecraft!), and various other things.

I decided to study abroad for many reasons. I’m a big fan of travelling the world, of seeing thing from different perspectives. I’ve been to the Caribbean, Alaska, England, France, Italy and Spain to name a few. After attending a Study Abroad information session at Northeastern University (which I highly recommend if you have the chance), I got it into my head that I needn’t travel just during vacations, but travel for school too. Swinburne has a great partnership with Northeastern, so it was an easy choice.

And then I mentioned my plans to Jason. He was thinking of going to Dublin, but when he looked into Swinburne we started to think that we could travel together.

Fast-forward a year and a half and here we are, living together in Melbourne, half a world away from our home…. And loving every second of it!

P.S. – A word of warning, as I mentioned I am a Mechanical Engineering major, not a Journalism or English Lit. major, so my apologies in advice if my writing is long-winded or sporadic. I hope you enjoy!

Who are we? - Jason

Hey mates!  I'm Jason and I plan on documenting all four months of my adventures with Mike here in Australia.  Whether it be the difficulty of classes, to where we went shopping for food last night.  But, first for the many people who may not know who I am, I'm Jason a college junior at Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont.  There I work in the dining hall on campus for good ole' Sodexo, and I'm working on a Bachelor's in Computer Information Technology.

Other than attending college, I also hang out with a multitude of friends, play video games from Minecraft to Rock Band 3.  With video gaming and friends, I also need a job to help balance it all out.  I work about 26-28 hours in Champlain's Dining Hall.  Other than gaming and hanging with friends, I also do homework/essays in the hours before they're due.

The final thing you should all know is why did I choose Australia?  I was originally planning on going through a third party to Europe by myself in Portugal, or going with Champlain College and staying at their Dublin campus.  But, as my friend Mike of thirteen years could only go to a few colleges that work with his degree, he chose Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia.  After further investigation on my end, it worked well with my major as well!  Fast forward a year and a half of paperwork, stress, Australian Student Visas, etc. and I'm now in Melbourne, Australia!

And this is where my blog begins of our adventures, classes, and travels.   :)