So I’m departing for UTS in Sydney (Australia) in a month or so. I’m part of an exchange program - I’m 21, currently live in Ottawa (Canada), and study finance at U of Ottawa, I’ve never been to Australia and I’m departing in a month. (I already have a student VISA, plane tickets etc)
So, I tried searching the net for info on living in Sydney but althought there are LOTS of info for tourists, there’s not much on truly staying there for a prolongued time.
So, I would like to know how hard will it be for me to find a good appartment, I wouldn’t mind a bachelor or sharing an appartment with someone else; how much should I expect to pay per month (or week) in AUD(I’m searching for inexpensive student lodging); where are good and bad neighbourhoods (sp?), Are there any place to avoid or place that I must go to.
Also, is there anything that should be avoided; i.e. local costums or stuff that (french) canadians might do that will insult australians. How’s UTS compared to The University of Sydney? Is it like, people who aren’t good enough to get into University of Sydney go to UTS, vise versa or neither?
Where are the good bars and pubs, gathering places for locals (not tourist attractions); where are the best place to meet people.
Antyhing else that you know and would like to share will be appreciated!
No doubt our Sydneysiders will be along to give you advice on details. I suspect you will find Sydney expensive relative to Ottawa, given that UTS is near the centre of Sydney. I expect the student union and/or the exchange office could advise you about accomodation. I’d recommend looking for places in Glebe, but that’s only because that’s the part of Sydney that most reminds me of Melbourne. Don’t worry about offending anyone. Australia - even Sydney - is a multicultural and cosmopolitan place and you’ll be just exotic enough to be interesting to the locals.
There is, by the way, a little board run by The Loaded Dog for the Australian and New Zealand Dopers - you may want to check it out: G’Dope.
I assume you’ll be at the Broadway campus of UTS. It’s basically in the middle of the city, so there are lots of cheap eating places and bars around.
Accommodation is extremely expensive in the city, but UTS operates some group houses around Redfern and Newtown - I’m not sure if they’re available to overseas students. There’s hostel accommodation available in the city - around $100 per week - but I’d advise you to avoid it like the plague; those places are basically flop houses with all their attendant problems. Most students here work part-time in order to survive.
Remember that you don’t need to tip in Australia, and don’t EVER try to outdrink a local.
UTS and the University of Sydney are very different. UoS is more of an old school uni which reveres academia; UTS has much more of a vocational focus, with regular placements in the real life working environment being a feature of most ciourses.
Great, thanks for the help…(I’m checking out your board… hehe … I like the term ‘teeming handful’ - and the big butt smiley… )
But, what’s so bad about the hostels? Will I get my stuff stolen? Beat up by street gangs? (I’m not familiar with the term ‘flop houses’)
And When you say that it’s expensive, how much would you consider to be expensive;
for example, here in downtown Ottawa, if I search really hard, I can find something for $350 CAD per month…(that would be something like $400 AUD per month) - the exchange office guy told me to search at www.domain.au (or something like that), but for some reason I don’t find renting by the internet very apealing…
Wear maple leaves prominently. We have a hard time sometimes telling the difference between merkin and canadian accents which is a major shame because we mean to be nicer to canadians.
Such a pity you are coming all this way just to wind up in shocking old Sydney. Hopefully you can escape to Melbourne for the occasional weekend of decent living. Please do not judge us all by the New South Wales population.