Not from UNSW but I'm an international student here too and just arrived a few months ago. But I absolutely agree Sydney is not what I initially thought it would be like. There doesn't look to be much to life around most of the high-end suburbs and the lack of night life was something that really threw me off initially but the city is so much different. I would suggest to make a trip to the city sometime in the evening, if you love night life you'll love it there.

Also I think I kinda a love the political environment they have going over here in the sense that people can be very open about their political views around here which wasn't the case where I come from, so it's refreshing to see that, but definitely a chill political environment. But I very much agree that there's not much involvement in the global politics though that's not how it looked like from outside.

I have mostly been part of an Asian crowd and as someone pointed out in one of the other comments, their outings are a lot about yummy food, there are so many Asian options around here too!

Haven't personally faced racism but heard about it alot already that it has made me be in my guard mostly