Hey Eastsiders,

It’s Hannah again with rather sad news this time: I’m leaving. Leaving Sydney, leaving Eastside and also leaving Australia in one month. Even though I really look forward to seeing all of my friends and my family again when I’m back home, I’m pretty sad not to stay longer. Because apart from the slightly better weather here in Australia (having the -5 degrees in Germany right now in mind, I enjoy the beach even more), I will also really miss the whole Eastside community.

During the whole last 3 months, I have enjoyed all the presenters’, other interns’ and volunteers’ company incredibly much. I had great laughs as well as deep and interesting conversations. I got to know great music and artists, ate delicious food as well as… Vegemite. I learned how to present my own program on air and I learned how to use a TimTam as a straw. I talked to both presenters as well as some of our incredible listeners. I met the most amazing people, having a great time with both 20 and over 70-old persons. But most of all: I learned the value and the fascination of voluntary work. With all of our presenters being volunteers, I could always be sure to look at motivated and happy faces as soon as I come in at 9 o’clock in the morning. With all of us having our own ideas and music preferences but working for a common thing, something that all of us shared and that all of us dedicated ourselves to: Eastside Radio.

While I stayed here in Sydney, I met lots of different people, groups and communities. But Eastside Radio is definitely one of the most special things about my stay here in Australia. At this point, I’d also like to thank some people: Thank you Tony for having me here, for being so laid-back and understanding all the time. Thank you Sylvia for showing me how actually present on the radio and for the great arts interviews – I really enjoyed listening. Thank you David for taking us interns to the opera house for one of the most interesting performances I’ve ever seen. Thank you Mel for being so patient and friendly with me every time I had to ask again how something works. Thank you Anna for becoming one of my best friends here in Sydney. And finally, thank you Paul for all of the Tuesday talks and laughs.

It’s been awesome three months here, and I learned a lot: I learned not only how to manage different tasks here at the station but also I feel like I’ve been growing a lot personally, and Eastside Radio has definitely made a big contribution to that.

So for the future, Eastside will have one more listener for sure! Apart from the great music, it’ll also be amazing to hear all of the presenter’s voices again and to literally see in my head how they look sitting in the studio as usual, with one of Tony’s fabulous coffees in their hand.

One last thing I wanted to tell anyone who considers volunteering or interning at Eastside Radio, especially internationals: Do it! To me (coming from a very small town) it was like a little piece of familiarity in this fast-paced, rather anonymous environment that predominates such a big city as Sydney. And Eastside definitely left me with good memories I don’t think I’ll ever forget.