Business As Usual

In my last post I mentioned that there are many opportunities at uni, and I am currently in the midst of reaching out for one of them – exchange!

One of the reasons I chose Monash was for its vast, and quite literally ‘wordly’, exchange program. As well as having over 150 partner universities globally (just meaning Monash does a lot of the hard work for you making the connections), they have campuses and study centres in Italy, South Africa and Malaysia (to mention a few).

As luck would have it, it so happens that I could line up a law unit at the Malaysia campus before heading to Bocconi University in Milan for a semester. But is it hard to apply, I hear you ask.

Although I am only really half way through the process (just waiting to hear back from the host university), it is relatively straight forward – especially for business students! After having a chat and receiving advice from students who have been on exchange, it was just a matter of choosing possible subjects and having them approved by my faculty. To top it all off, there are extensive grants and bursaries available. It’s a tough life studying at Monash, I’ll tell you that….

Finally here! After a horrendous flight with multiple delays I am finally in Brussels, and wow it’s cold. I arrived just after midday and took a train to my hotel where I met up with the rest of my team (some people came early and did some travel, but I’ve decided to travel after the conference). We had a few training sessions and then we headed out to dinner at an amazing Belgium waffle restaurant where they had both sweet and savoury waffles, which were absolutely amazing.

After dinner, we went to ‘Night Zero’, which is a social event held at a club in Brussels. There were over a thousand people from all four corners from the world and everyone was keen to hit it up so it was a really enjoyable night.

The next day was quite relaxing. We had a training session run by Harvard at an amazing venue and then ate some double-deep-fried Belgium chips for lunch. That night was the official opening ceremony and included keynote speakers, dancers and musical performers.

Now I’m just getting ready for dinner and another social event called ‘Global Village’ where delegations from various countries set up stalls to show off their national food and culture. It should be really fun! Hope all is well in the land of Aus.

Monash University is sending a delegation of 20 students to compete in the 2014 Harvard World Model UN and I’m lucky enough to be one of them. Monash has been assigned to represent the Republic of South Africa and I will be taking part in the World Bank Committee.

The conference runs for five days, and there are a whole bunch of social events planned for every night which should be great. Also, I’ve decided to stay in Europe for an extra week and meet up with a

friend in Amsterdam which I’m really excited about. However I can’t say that I’m looking forward to this 24 hour long trip from Melbourne to Brussels (stopping over at Abu Dhabi) or the 8 degree days in Brussels.

I will try my hardest to keep you all updated on how it goes!