I've decided to start writing here as a way to organise my thoughts and share my experiences during my 12 month stint abroad next year. I'll be travelling to Hong Kong, Nepal and hopefully a few other places as part of the New Colombo Plan scholarship program- an Australian government initiative that supports Australian undergraduate students to live, work and study in the Indo-Pacific region. The aim of the NCP program is to lift knowledge of our region in Australia, and to help forge stronger institutional and personal ties between Australians and our regional counterparts. I'm feeling very overwhelmed, excited and so fortunate to be able to be a part of this program, and I really want to make the most of every opportunity next year.
According to the English-Nepali dictionary that I excitedly bought at a secondhand bookshop last week, 'pardeshma' is the transliterated way of saying 'going abroad' in Nepali. I thought that was a pretty relevant thing to name this blog, particularly because I'm going to be learning Nepali next year as part of the scholarship program!
Writing and photography have long been huge hobbies of mine- I've written a few blogs on various things before this newest incarnation. I'm hoping to use this as a way to be share photos and other bits and bobs to keep friends and fam (and anyone else who stumbles upon this!) updated while I'm away.
