I love Brandeis, I really do. But by the time fall of my junior year rolled around, I knew it was time for a change of scenery. So, I hopped on a plane with 70 strangers and flew across the globe to Melbourne, Australia. I left Boston a frigid five degrees and landed in Melbourne with a stifling temperature of 112 degrees. Talk about a change in climate! Immediately, I was immersed into Aussie culture. During my first five days there I bush danced, threw a boomerang, watched an aboriginal dance show, patted a koala and fed a kangaroo. That's more than what an average Australian does in an entire lifetime!

Apparently, that's what non-Australians think Aussie culture is. Like most people, I'm sure, I thought of Australia in a very typical way-a country where kangaroos hop down busy city streets and boomerang throwing is children's outdoor sport.

However, life in Australia is very different than people think-it's much more normal. When I tell Australians I wanted to come to Australia because it's exotic, they laughed at me. In fact, life in Australia is very similar to America, except for its slower pace. The country lives according to a "no worries" philosophy. As a result, people are very relaxed and calm. What a refreshing way to live!

The real reason I traveled to Australia was for school, but even school was an exotic experience for me. I am used to Brandeis with its 3,000 students, small and enclosed atmosphere and personal touch. So, you can imagine my shock when I arrived at the University of Melbourne (Uni, as Australians say) to find 37,000 students.

The University is located in the heart of the city, and it's not uncommon to have a 25-minute walk between classes. There are huge lectures, and the lecturers do not care if students participate. For someone who likes to sit in the back and take notes, that's ideal. However, I am not one of those people. Rather, I like to sit in front, make sure the professor knows my name and make my voice heard when I have a questions or a piece of information to share with the class.

Another difference: there was no meal plan; and I must say, I missed Sherman. Mealtime in Australia is not a social occasion. You can plan to meet up with your friends and eat out in the lawn, or in the student union, but there is nothing like Sherman where you walk in and your entire social network is sitting two tables away.

Perhaps these differences are the result of most Australian students living at home. The few who live in dorms, called colleges, usually do it only for their first year.

But, the colleges aren't like our dorms. They are quite formal, having specific mealtimes every day with two or three days a week requiring all the residents to wear robes to the meals. Also, many of them are religiously based, which means there is a church attached to the college where a priest lives. I was thinking about living in one of the colleges to get more of an opportunity to meet Australian students, but alas, there are no kosher colleges in Melbourne.

I did find, however, another way to meet Australians. Every weekend I travelled 45 minutes by tram (similar to a subway) into a suburb called Caulfield. I spent each Shabbat with different families. I began my semester only having one connection, but by the end of my experience, I could go two months without visiting one family twice.

I had a unique Aussie experience that I would not have had in the colleges. For two days a week I lived like an Australian. I ate Australian foods, heard Australian politics and spoke Australian slang. The community was so warm and open, and I truly miss the friends I made there.

Uni aside, I love Australia. For my fall break I went north to the Great Barrier Reef. I went scuba diving down into the depths of a completely different world where humans are inconsequential. I caught a glimpse of a completely self-sufficient world full of indescribable beauties. While I was up there I also explored the Daintree Rainforest, the oldest rainforest in the world. I tasted exotic tropical fruits indigenous to the region, and I took a nighttime hike through the rainforest, which allowed me to see wildlife that only comes out in the dark.

Although travelling was great, I didn't have to go so far to experience some of the great wonders Australia has to offer. Melbourne is a great city, and Victoria is a beautiful state. Just down the street from my where I lived, I could sit at an outdoor caf or walk along the Yarra River. And, if I travelled a little further, I could lie out on one of Australia's many beaches. To a native Bostonian, Melbourne had a real homey feel to it. The trams run on the street just like the T, and there is a similar mix of busy city and calm suburbs that Boston also has.

But unlike Boston, the people were nicer than any other place I've ever been. As I mentioned one, one of the most popular phrases is, "no worries." I've been called "love" by a bus driver, and "mate" by the movie ticket guy. In the supermarket, I was invited to a house for Shabbat when I asked a woman which brand of canola oil was kosher. Maybe it was the simple fact of being in a different country and being hypersensitive, but there were notable differences in the way people treat others.

Even if not in Melbourne, I definitely recommend spending a semester abroad. In addition to all the wonderful times I had here, it really made me appreciate Brandeis and the amenities it affords us. Despite some shortcomings, coming to Australia was a wonderful, eye-opening experience. I met some of the most wonderful people on my program-both Australians and the Americans-and I had experiences that otherwise would have remained untapped.

Editor's note: Lupatkin is a member of the class of '05