Accepted

Today I got a long waited e-mail from international office. They offered me a whole year exchange place in the University of Newcastle in Australia. I had a plan to study only one semester and spend the rest of the year travelling around pacific. Luckily studying for one semester was ok for international office as well, even though people usually spend a year studying. I will be on my way to Australia in the beginning of 2006.

There was 20 applicants to Australia's exchange program and 8 were accepted. My hard studying during the last year now really paid off. Managed to get my GPA a good way up. Now I don't have to pay any semester fees in Australia and I'm getting 1900 euros as a scholarship for studying for a semester. Those who study a whole year can apply for 2400 euros scholarship. If I wouldn't have been chosen, I could have applied straight to one of the Australia's universities and still got the scholarship. I would only had to pay half of the semester fees by myself.

Tampere University of Technology offered two exchange places in all of these Australia's universities: Griffith University, Bond University, University of Newcastle, Canberra University. Which sums up to 8 places in total.

The reason for taking only one semester was that there's a problem between studying and travelling. It's really hard taking part to the lessons when you're 1000+ kilometers away and even if you get 2 weeks off you will only see a scratch of the massive continent. Now I'm able to travel without strict timetables and that's what I have never experienced before. Anyways, I'm glad that I got accepted. Now I have a good excuse to go to the journey of my life. The journey to the other side of the globe.