Motivation
I wanted to make new friends, improve my French writing abilities, experience a different education style and also experience a different weather climate to what I am used to!
Personal Development
From this experience in terms of language, I was able to improve my French speaking and writing abilities. I made lots of new friends from all over the world who are some of my best friends now and who made everyday feel more exciting. I learnt to get out of my comfort zone by initiating plans with new people weekly to make new friends and learnt to maintain good communication with others. I also was able to explore New York City as it was only an hour flight away from Montreal.
Academic Development
I was able to adapt to new university learning styles such as attending every lecture in person as there was no recorded lectures. I enjoyed the multiple lectures per week that were given by lecturers who are very passionate about the content. This made learning more interesting and inspired me to try hard. There were many assignments and more exams given in short periods of time (more than what I am used to at UQ), which was challenging at first to adapt to. By the end I had developed new study strategies, such as studying during the semester instead of at the end in order to be more prepared.
Professional Development
I developed communication strategies, in terms of approaching people to ask for help and communicating my needs to lecturers and faculties by email which I used to find challenging before. I also learnt to organise my time better, with managing a greater workload and trying to see new friends weekly it made me adapt better organisational skills to sustain a balance between workload and socialisation.
Costs
I separated the money I had saved into different spending categories before commencing my exchange on Excel. I spent overall AUD $7000. I spent $4000 on rent in a shared unit. I walked everywhere, however occasionally caught the metro or hired a bike. I cooked for majority of my food which allowed me to spend less. I spent about $100 on groceries a week. This came to be $2000 on groceries, with some weeks being more than others in spending. I had about $1000-1500 of 'random' spending money for coffees and experiences out with friends and a gym membership. I also saved more money for travel after the exchange.
Accommodation
I found accomodation by joining a Facebook group for McGill exchange student housing. I chose a room from someone who was subletting due to also going on exchange themselves. I really enjoyed my living situation as I lived in an apartment which was a 5 minute walk to University. I lived with two girls my age, one who was a permanent student from McGill and the other who was also on exchange. The pro was that we got along and would hang out often, however the con is that sometimes there were household disagreements. I would suggest finding accomodation this way as it is cheaper than University housing and a good way to make friends quickly.
Highlights
The highlight was the fun day trips on the weekend with new friends (like skiing and the countryside).
Top Tips
I would advise to go into the exchange with no expectations of how things will go as the experience is so unpredictable in terms of when certain things will happen or how you will feel. I would also recommend making a budget before going to be able to enjoy the experience.
