(Photo: Keni on the right in green dress)

 

Anyways, I’m here to study..not to worry about whether I should put on shorts or coats.. So, I arrived in Melbourne one week before my University orientation start. I figured it would give me enough time to settle in before getting my mind into study mode.

Back in Indonesia, I contacted a friend to see if she could give me some advice about where to live (apartment/ student accommodation/ dormitory) and it turns out that she was looking for a roommate. Straight away I got a place to stay. It was a two bedroom apartment in the Central Business District area, near my campus (5 minutes walk to class.. literally to my seat in class), near restaurants and the busy city life. Although the location was perfect, I consider the rent quite expensive because the apartment was quite small, had noisy neighbours and did not have a view at all. After six months (of paying the high rent) I found a nicer place (bigger, better and with a nice view) for a cheaper price just outside the city. I have to travel 30 minutes by tram (one of Melbourne’s public transportation) to get to my campus, but with the city’s superb public transport..I can’t complain.

During my first few weeks of study, it was all about adjustment. I took a foundation course in Indonesia before coming here and the course prepared me to study in Australia because the teachers were from Australia and they had Australian accent, so I was pretty used to it. Moreover, the course taught me how to think critically and write in an academic style. The teaching and learning style in Australia is quite different from my home country, so the foundation course really helped me adjust with the style.

One thing that I had a hard time adjusting to was the class participation. The studying environment expects you to participate in class discussions, speak out your opinion and be active in class. That was not something I’m used to doing..so that was hard for me. It was very hard at first, especially because English is not my first language, but once I forced myself a little bit to speak my mind, I was getting used to it and actually it’s not that scarry!

After three years of studying, I graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree and went back home to work in my field of study. I got quite a good response from a few companies. The learning style in Australia really helped my confidence when I was starting my job. I was active in staff meetings, I was thinking critically and coming up with ideas. Of course I didn’t get upset when my ideas were rejected. because I had a lot of experience with that in class. All in all, I had fun studying and living in Australia and now I’m more than ready to practice everything I’ve learned in my career.