Thursday, 15 July 2010

Chapter 1 - Where am I?




Flight.
Left at 23:55pm (local time) on the 8th July in Frankfurt and arrived at 08:45am (local time) in Melbourne. So, I was travelling for about 24hours. The flight was not as boring as I had thought. In Qantas everybody has their own screen, so I watched a few movies and series and also slept for a while. What was the most confusing was the eating. I had dinner, breakfast, dinner, breakfast, breakfast, and upon arrival breakfast again. Then I slept through lunch and had dinner again. My jetlag is getting better after 4 days, but I am still tired most of the time.

Moving in.
I have on campus accommodation at a complex or college called Chisholm. The room is quite small, but it's good, I don't need much for the next six months.What is a bit strange is that we get bracelets which work as keys and there are absolutely no doorbells, so it is impossible to meet a friend without previous notice. Reminds you a bit of a prison, except you have the key to escape ;)
The campus on the other hand is absolutely beautiful. There are trees, rivers, ducks, little parrots and all kinds of birds around. I have a eucalyptus tree right outside my window. But, the campus is really big and I am quite confused about where to go. And the fact that all buildings are somehow connected by these bridges does not make it any easier.

O-week.
This is what the Aussies call our orientation week. It started wednesday with some kind of general introduction and today we had a city treasure hunt where I could explore Melbourne for the first time. But, we had free lunch and the Dutch in me took full advantage of that. Also, we have chances to win travel vouchers at the end of the O-week which of course we are all extremely excited about. This is probably also due to the fact that most of us (except the Scandinavians) calculated in that food and drinks would be so expensive here. But, I saw an Aldi, so I might go check that out.


Talk to ya later mates!

5 comments:

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  2. Hi Jasmin
    I am glad you arrived safely and did not lose the excellent Dutch quality of taking advantage of opportunities. Although your point about prison being the same as a normal housing complex just without doorbells seems a bit strange but I am glad you like the outside ;) . A question I have been meaning to ask: Does it disturb you that the water goes the other way when you flush? Does that leave you flabbergasted? Anyways, I hope the doorbell thing doesn’t stop you from making a lot of new friends quick.
    All the best! X
    Pierre

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  3. haha, lovin' the "dinner, breakfast, dinner, breakfast, breakfast, and upon arrival breakfast again" bit :-) Personally, I would have preferred 4x dinner 'cause that comes with desert ;-)

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  4. Hahaha well I enjoy breakfast :P
    And prison is getting better. We realized that knocking works almost as well as a doorbell. And I think from the picture of the hallway you can kind of see what I meant with my prison comparison. But, I have hung up my german flag, taped some postcards (free ones of course) on my closet and now it feels much more like home already.
    Hope your preparations are going well Pierre!

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  5. Hey Jasmin! Best of luck over there!

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