Australia

I departed from Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) on 0900 hour after saying goodbye to my family and relatives that came on that day to send me. It was on the quite, usual morning of 9^th February 2008. After 9 hours of cramming and not so comfortable seating in the flight, I finally step my foot on the ground of Melbourne International Airport, Melbourne, Australia. To be honest, this was the first time that I actually went abroad on my own, without my family around. At first, I was feeling quite afraid and fear of the unexpected. I'm not so fluent in English, which can be clearly seen by getting only band 6 for speaking component in IELTS. The feeling even got worse during the custom checkups when I have to present my passport, and my stuff was scanned to see if I brought something illegal. What if someone smuggled something in my luggage, and I got blamed for it? (o.o)

Fortunately, everything went smoothly and I got out into the arrival hall safely. (^.^) Immediately after that, I saw the JPA officer in charge was already waiting, with some other officials and a few seniors. We then move to Monash University, where a short briefing by the officer will be held. During the journey to Clayton, I sat next to the window in the coaster and get to see all the buildings and new surroundings that somehow, doesn't look so much different than Malaysia itself, except for the cold weather. Then I thought to myself, this isn't so bad. Its basically similar to my own country, except for the weather and a few other things. I can live with this. With that thought, I kept onto it to calm myself and instil some self-confidence. It works, even until now. But its not so useful when you're communicating with the locals. I've experienced it and it doesn't feels so good.

Putting all that behind, finally, I arrived at Monash University, the place where I'm going to study soon. After a quick briefing, I went with the seniors to Melbourne city, because I couldn't move into the hall yet so I stayed at their house. I think its about 12.30 am when we were in the city that I say so many people outside pubs and bars, waiting in a queue to go in. There are some drunk people too but the most interesting part is the huge amount of taxis, waiting to pick up anyone who doesn't have their own car or is too drunk to drive back home. It seems like the taxis are not wasting their chances to get extra money, working after hours, even though its already past 12 am. Apart from that, the night view in the city was beautiful! The sky was clear and lights from the skyscrapers were illuminating the dark night. Around 1 am, I arrived at the seniors house, at that was how the day ended. It was a very exhausting day, with the 8 hours journey, meeting with the officials, listening to their briefing, and not a rest! Still, it was worth it.

a view from Yarra River, Melbourne, Australia