"My home has always been by the water and it’s basically just a small town in Minnesota. I’ve grown up there my whole life but I can’t see myself leaving. Hayseed is a really small place and everyone knows everyone and there’s an old saying called ‘Minnesota nice’. It really shines through in my town because everyone is just so nice.
We’re the land of ten thousand lakes so we get the best of both worlds. Since our summers and winters are really extreme, we get really hot summers and really cold snowy winters, so we just live on the water during the summer and play in the snow during winter. So I guess you could say the lakes are a big part of life from where I’m from, which I guess is why I chose to come to a university with a beach nearby.
I’ve always wanted to visit Australia and I’ve always been curious about this place, but the biggest reason I came over is that it’s an English-speaking country. People ‘go about their own business’ here. Back home when you go to the grocery store you always have to talk to people, it’s like a big social thing. Here I’ve noticed people don’t really tend to do that plus the accents are a big difference and it takes some getting used to. When I got here I was always welcomed with open arms and it was really nice to see how big the international student population is.
Because of my small-town background, I didn’t really want to be in Sydney, plus UOW was the best fit for my course. I love having a big beach nearby as well, but it’s just a bit too cold to be swimming yet which is really unfortunate. I’d like to go travelling around Australia especially go up to Byron Bay or even further but we’ll see. I don’t know my plans just yet."
Kary Bezdicek - Bachelor of Psychology
