First Post in Down Under!

It has been two months since I arrived safely in Melbourne, Australia and yet I have not posted a single post on this little space of mine yet. Sorry for that!

I guess I should start from 2 months back, to the point before I boarded the plane which brought me here.

I had to leave everything behind in the beautiful island I was from, Bintan and hopped on the ferry to Singapore on that very morning. My flight was scheduled on the 15th of February 2010 from Terminal 1 of Changi Airport, Singapore.

It is interesting to sit down here and realise that I actually had to leave two places where I had spent most of my years on the same day. I spent 15 years in Indonesia, a place where it all begins, a place where I first got to know this world. And I spent the next following five years in Singapore, where most of my principles, values, thoughts and opinions are shaped. This is the place where my life started to change. So, these two places are important to me.

I did not have much feeling (maybe not at all obvious) when I was on the ferry, but it was all different when I was on the way to the airport. My uncle was kind enough to send me to the airport along with my aunt and parents. As I was sitting on the car, my stomach started to turn. I felt butterflies fluttering their wings in my stomach. It was that point of time where I first had this thought, “Shit! Why the hell did I choose this path?”

However I knew I was just being nervous. Seriously nervous about what is going to come. I felt like crying. Felt like crying. Obviously I did not. I swallowed that feeling and managed climbing out of the car, appearing perfectly normal.

So I saw quite a number of good friends in the airport, those who were nice to send me off despite the festive season of Chinese New Year. That day was just the second day. I really need to thank them for coming (I am sure we will see each other soon! (: ). As usual, my parents would bid me goodbye by giving me advice to be good and to take good care of myself.

Entering the gate was difficult, I knew someone would start crying, my mum did, my dad followed shortly after. I tried not to be too emotional, it does not make the situation better. I braced myself to quickly walk away from the custom once my passport was checked.

I took a direct flight with a bunch of ‘then potential’ coursemates which made the seven and a half hour journey much less painful than it could be if I were to be alone. We knew that we have to depend on each others for the few years to come.

Melbourne is beautiful. I am loving the place, the weather (though it is most of the time erratic and unpredictable), the people and my university! I love the place where I am staying now and might consider staying here again next year (I shall post some photos on my next post!).
The suburb where my university is, Clayton, is not too near to the city. I think it is good this way because we will not ever get sick of the city as we only get to go there during the weekends and ‘going to the city’ serves as a good escapism from the huge pile of reading materials and studying. I love how the university is simple and easy to navigate around and it is literally difficult to get lost here.

University life has finally got into me. I realised I had to do so much on my own as compared to before. Independent learning is extremely crucial and everyone is extremely smart! Somehow, I felt like I am lagging behind because I seemed to take things really slowly and easily from the very beginning. Did I mention that we have had our first exam last Friday? It was not at all pleasant. I felt that I had not done as well as I could have possibly done.

That was a a wake up call for me.

I have to acknowledge that I have, subconsciously, settle in well to the life here. It was not such a big change from it used to be other than the fact that I had to cook for myself. I started cooking frequently and I think my cooking skill has actually improved quite a bit. Haha. Seriously!

So, I should get back to studying now. I will come back and post photos and some other things I forgot to post.