From the sleepy coastal town to the thriving Megalopolis

On July 21st 2007 I left my little coastal hometown in Australia and headed to one of the biggest and craziest cities in the world - the city of Mexico. My project was to do a year of exchange at the Universidad Iberoamerica. I would study Spanish, as well as other subjects about Mexican and Latinamerican culture. I was excited! I had already graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literatures and French, but missed out on the chance to go on exchange during my degree. Speaking to my former Spanish professor one day, I realised that I could still go on exchange, by enrolling in a Graduate Diploma in Arts (Modern Languages). I looked into it, and soon found that not only could I study the entire course on exchange, but I would be eligible to receive Austudy whilst studying in Mexico, and there were three scholarships up for grabs from the University of Wollongong - $3000 each! With help from the brilliant staff at UOW's Study Abroad & Exchange office, I got all my applications in, and it all came together. I was on track for a Mexican adventure!

Preparations

In preparing for my trip, I really took advantage of the resources in the Exchange Office Library, particularly the past student's stories. It was really interesting and helpful to read how other Wollongong students had gone in previous semesters abroad, and I was able to meet up with 2 students who had studied at the Iberoamericana for a year themselves. This helped make the whole thing a little less scary, and I would recommend it to students considering going on exchange, particularly if you are going to a country where English is not the spoken language. Sometimes navigating a website from a foreign university can be frustrating, as things are not found where we would expect them to be, or they use totally different terms than we do at UOW. Being able to speak with former students about those things can really save you some time and frustration in front of the computer, and as many in the know will tell you, preparing your Advanced Standing form is one of the most time-consuming steps in the Exchange Application process. Make sure you take advantage of all the resources that are available to you! The Exchange staff are only too happy to help you out.

Tickets, Visas, Banking and stuff

Flights

Its difficult to find a cheap flight to Mexico. There are no flights that go directly between the two countries, and the airlines that will give you a ticket from Sydney to Mexico will usually all fly to a country in South America first. I decided to look for my own flights online, and I knew that there were a lot more flights to LA than to South America, so they'd likely be cheaper. In the end I went through a website called Budgetflights.com.au. Through them I was able to get a flight to LA for about $800, and an LA to Mexico for about $180. So all up I paid around $1000 to get to Mexico. I decided not to go for a return ticket, as I was sure I'd want to do some travelling after my exchange year, and confident that I could just buy my ticket home when that time came around.

Visas

Make sure you check the most up-to-date information when it comes to visas, as rules change all the time, and if you get to a border visa-less with the excuse that your mate told you you didn't need one, you might not find the immigration officials to be that understanding. I checked the website of Mexico's embassy in Canberra to get the accurate information. An application was easy enough, and I received my visa in the mail a few weeks later. Still, its important to make sure you get this ball rolling early on - just in case.

The only thing with flying through the US, is that you will need to get a proper visa from the US consulate in Sydney. It's a really stupid rule, but the US apparently considers time spent in Mexico as eating into the 90 day US visa waiver. They told me that even though I was only transitting LA, with no intention of going to the US during my year in Mexico, 90 days after my arrival at LA airport I would have been considered an overstayer, even though I'd be living in Mexico city. Getting the visa is a bit of a pain, but better to be safe than sorry. I didn't want to get sent back to Australia at LA airport, or have a record of being deported from the US.

Centrelink

Make sure you're totally upfront with Centrelink about your exchange, and get them the necessary documentation before you head off overseas. Think about how hard it can be to deal with them in Australia. From overseas, multiply that by 1000. I had been given the heads up about this by a former exchange student, and so far haven't had any trouble. I have heard stories about students getting their payments stopped for not providing all the information though, and getting it reinstated can take time, not a good thing if you're relying on your payments for food and rent.

As an extra precaution I filled out a form to nominate my mum to be able to act on my behalf for any Centrelink matters. I would recommend this, as its almost impossible to organise once you've left, and is a lot cheaper than racking up your phone bill with calls to Centrelink from overseas.

Banking

I learned the hard way that my Australian bank was charging me $5 per transaction! In the first month I racked up $60 in fees. There are a lot of different options for how you deal with your money, make sure you do your homework to find the option that will leave you with less fees to pay, and more to play with.