My first morning in Japan. I came to Saijo yesterday afternoon, feeling a bit jetlagged and alone. Today I have taken my first jog and got outside the city to a small “forest”, good for the body and soul. In the afternoon we’ll meet for the first time, exiting and scary.
Poster is ready thanks to my dear friend Klara Desser! Next week I’ll bring it with me to Japan.
Hi! Today I will write about the first 9 days I’ve experienced in Melbourne (11 in total if counting the two arrival days I wrote about in my last post)!
So I arrived and enrolled to my subjects and got my student ID. One and a half week left before semester and nothing to do with school? Well not quite right. Friday the 16th was off school though. I actually had time to go around the area of Prahran where I live (a suburb to Melbourne City Business District). Plenty of cool bars, stores, old school barber shops and much more. It feels like a hipster area. Very modern but at the same time old. I had finally time to contact my family and the day went pretty fast. Next day, Saturday, was planned for THE AMAZING RACE! A student activity arranged by school for the exchange students. Only 80 tickets for the game were available and I bought one as soon as I knew about it (first day of arrival). We got free lunch to start the day and after that the race startet. We had to get around town to get to know the city, Australian culture and much more! It was an AMAZING Amazing Race!
(A Dogs Eye with a Dead Horse (A meat Pie with Tomato Sauce) – one of the items we had to find during the Amazing Race and an Amazing Race Jump)
Well my team didn’t end up winning, but still we got to know all of the city in one day. Okey that’s a lie.. I still don’t really know how to get around. After that a few of the students went out for a drink.. or more like plenty of drinks, which resulted in a slow Sunday pretty much hanging around in the apartment Skyping, which also is needed.
Upcoming week was orientation week in school. Everything from compulsory sessions to lectures about how to be Australian. Very fun and I made a lot of friends! Since I missed the compulsory information meeting on my arrival day I had to go to a new meeting during the week, which was fine since it had to be done! During the first 3 days of the week all students got free lunch and morning tea, BEST THING OF THE DAY.. haha! Monday to Thursday had a planned schedule where I had to attend to sessions and Friday was off.. Well not for me. I had forgot about my Arrival Form that had to be turned in to Malmö University, so I contacted La Trobe and arranged a time to get it signed during the Friday. Oh yea.. I also found a new place to live!! A house about 1 km from school. I will live together with one La Trobe student and a Football player. Feels like a really great place! And I got a Cruiser Skateboard to get around town! And a haircut. Aaand… Well yea alot of things happen all the time! 
(My new accommodation – Cute House! 😀 )
Yesterday (Friday) I went out with friends after getting my paper signed. We went down to the Docks to see fireworks and later during the night we went to a sport bar for a drink! The evening ended early and I came home for some late night Skyping!
Today I am trying to clean the apartment since I’m moving to the house next week!
Cheers,
Hi! I arrived to Melbourne 8 days ago! So much have happened and I am not quite sure if I am done with everything I need to do before the semester starts. NEXT WEEK!! The 27th.
This will be a long post, but don’t drop out! It will be fun to read, promise!
Lets take it from the beginning. I was supposed to arrive to Melbourne the 13th July to do my registration and enrollment. But due to waiting times with my visa and CSN I had to wait with booking my ticket and it went so far that all normal tickets were all sold out. I PANICKED! The cheapest ticket to Melbourne was 28000 sek, but after a whole day of calling and mailing with TICKET.SE I finally found a ticket for a decent price. What I didn’t get was a decent travel time. Copenhagen to Melbourne should take around 30 hours.. my trip was 50. Copenhagen – Amsterdam – Guangzhou – Melbourne. I had 15 hours in Guangzhou, China. In my mind 15 hours of boring waiting at the airport in China. This wasn’t the case when I arrived. I came to the airport, got checked in to a 5 star hotel, had free rides in town and it was actually really good! Extremely fun to take a short visit in China before the final destination, Melbs! Well I will not talk about my China trip to much, but I actually recommend to take a flight with a long transfer. It doesn’t really matter if it takes 30 or 50 hours to get to the destination.. it’s already extremely boring to travel for 30 hours. Take a 50 hour flight and a mini vacation at the same time!
Well, I arrived at Melbourne Tullamarine Airport in the morning the 15th, LAST DAY OF ENROLLMENT!!! I was stressed out I had to get to La Trobe University in time I had 3 hours to get to the compulsory information meeting. 3 hours sounds like a good time span… well not if you realize that there are about 2000 human beings in front of you in a line to get in to the country. One hour passed, Two hours passed, and another half hour and I’m in front of line. I check all my papers and… I forgot the paper that proved that I haven’t visited an “ebola country”. Well it was solved eventually and I was finally in the taxi to school. I registered, ran around school to fix everything I could and then took the bus and metro to my accommodation.
I was quite lucky I thing. I got to borrow a friends apartment in a really nice area of Melbourne, only problem, over an hour to school, one way. Next day I enrolled to my course and subjects, got my student card and most everything for that week was finally done!
I did not really have time to reflect over my stay. It was up and down fast forward both days. Was it worth all the stress? YES! It was a relief to be done that quickly and everything worked out fine even though I was late 2 days. Well I think this is it for this post. Next one will be about the first weekend and second week in Oz!
Cheers!
Finally I have booked all tickets and hotels for the journey. I was accompanied by my daughter to Malmö to pick up my Yen. I don´t think there has ever been a more nervous student going abroad then me. Before departure to Japan my family and I will go on a vaccation to Dalarna arriving home only a day ahead so I need to get started packing now…
Well, so much has happened since the last time I wrote.
First of all I have been away, I went to Riga in Latvia and Russia! Riga is a beautiful city, feels much bigger than Vilnius, more international and much more easy to speak english! A nice experience and it is really easy and cheap to travel to the nereast contries by bus from Lithuania and Vilnius. Especially if you are student you can get really good price of different trips!
My “biggest” trip was to Russia, and it was an amazing experience!!!! First we went to St Petersburg, later on to Vieliky Novgorod and last to Moscow! St Petersburg and Moscow was hughe but absolutely wonderful, big beautiful building, friendly people and a lot of museums, churches etc. And once again, to be a student abroad gives to possibility to have great prices and experience a lot!
Vieliky Novgorod is a really old City between St Petersburg and Moscow (it is about 500km to Moscow from there). It is really a typical sovjet city but has a lot of older history and we had a nice guide to told us about everything from battles to vikings and traditions.
After my trip can say that Russia if the contry of contrasts!
We went by bus between the cities which gave us the opportunity to see more. To go bo buss was a good idea but I couldn’t imagine how the “big” road should be…. I expected a good high way, but I was soo wrong…
One very interesting thing in Moscow was that I had the opportunity to watch the 1 of may parade which is the Labours Day in Russia and is a very big celebration on the Red Square.
Finally I also had the opportunity to by a really nice Mathryoskha, post cards and travel books.
Right now it is like summar here in Vilnius, beautfil weahter, hot actually and almost everyday the sun is shining. That good for me because I’m doing all my exams now, I have done three and I have two more. And of course the biggest and most difficult is saved for last… But at the same time it is a fun period with some press but also a sign that my time here in Lithuania is coming to an end. It is a little bit sad because I really like to be abroad and to be a exchange student is a fantastic opportunity, but at the same time I will appriciate to have a room on my own, cook nice food and have some peaceful and quite time on my own.
Luckely for the next exchange student who will live in the dorms, they are going to renovate this summer!!
Well, yesterday I came back to Lithuania after spending the easter with my family back home in Sweden. I can really say it was nice to be home in Sweden, sleeping in my own bed without earplugs, close the door when I wanted privacy and take good showers!
To be home was a good time to think, get knew energy and reflect a little bit over the time I have been in Lithuania. To be home was a good way to get perspectives and to think about all the differences between living in the countries.
When I came to Lithuania it was impossible not to notice the different living conditions, but coming home made it even more clear.
To got back to Lithuania was not difficult but I most admit I enjoyed home. I thought that maybe the spring was on its way hear to but when I came it was a lot of rain and storm and I start to think if there really is a spring in Lithuania, but i most be!
It is about midterm right now and I start to think a little bit about the final exams in june, even if it is a long time until then! Right now there is quit a lot to do in school and there is never a time when I can sit back and se “I don’t have anything to study”.
I have so say I am impressed about the quality of the education, in the beginning I was a little bit sceptical but now I really can feel I have learned a lot. And learning is not only about the subject in the classes, it is also about myself. To be abroad really is a time to get to know and develop yourself.
Well, I will keep holding my thumbs and wish that the spring soo will be really on its way in Lithuania.
So, I have been living in Vilnius for over 7 weeks now. Today I went to the rail station because I should fix my visa for my trip to Russia in April. On my way home, searching for the bus stop I took the wrong street so I got lost. But it was actually good to get lost, because I had a chance to explore new parts of the city as I haven’t visit before. I got the opportunity to see new quarters in the old parts of the city, I found a lot of small places to eat and know I now where I will go this weekend!
Overall I really enjoy to live in Vilnius. It is a little bit different from other cities in Europa, especially capitals. In Vilnius their lives about 550-600 000 people and the most famous part of the city is the old town with all the beautiful buildings, churches, cafés and so on. There is a lot of history in Vilnius so if you are interest in history, the city is a very good place, both for old history and modern history.
If you go outside the old town, you will see a totally opposite side of the city, no colour and everything looks the same. When I took the bus to the city centre, I passed several of buildings, they look all the same and the only difference between them is the house number, written with big numbers at one of the walls. I will later, when not also the sky is grey, post some pictures, because it is quite interesting and different from Sweden.
When I first arrived I had a hard time when I went shopping etc. because Lithuania people normally doesn’t smile when you meet the out walking or when you are doing you groceries etc. It is a lot of exchange student who under lectures has said the same and usually the professors answer them that a Lithuania smile is very nice, but not that usual.
For some weeks ago it started to snow and it got really cold, but today, actually I think the spring is on its way even to Vilnius.
Hello again.
I can’t believe it’s two weeks since I arrived in Melbourne.. Still I feel like I’ve been here forever. It’s strange, isn’t it? There’s so much going on in this city ALL THE TIME, and I love it.
I’ve seen my first cricket game ever together with 90.000 people at Melbourne Cricket Ground (England – Australia, world cup). Such a cool stadium! Did I enjoy it? Yes. Will I ever see one again? No. The game was boring. It took a while to understand the rules, and I still don’t get all of them. Atmosphere was OK but I expected a lot more considering the number of people watching. We managed to stay for 2,5 hours, the entire game lasted 7 (!!) How crazy is that.
I am now done with the registration and enrolment part. The University area is nice, and very different from back home. I don’t know how exchange students at Malmö University are enrolled but I hope things are smoother for them. I’ve attended so many unnecessary, still compulsory, information sessions. And I’m not just saying this because I’m lazy. They’ve really been unnecessary. Definitely handing in some tips for improvement. All the wonderful exchange students I’ve met so far though!! Wow, they are great. This Monday the Exchange club had their welcoming dinner and it was so much fun. We had Japanese tapas together and chatted a lot.
As for accommodation my friends and I have not left our hostel yet, and truth is we might stay here the entire time. It’s the greatest place ever, located right in city centre. Wonderful people staying here too!! Have to say I’m very happy about not living at campus, especially as I will spend all my time at the clinical school at Austin Hospital. Lectures are held there too.
Now I have to enjoy the sunny weather. Talk to you later.
Jennie
So my dream became real. After almost 11 moths of preparations, motivation letters, using Google maps for locations on the other side of the planet and packing only one luggage for 5 months I was finally standing before the gate of Prague airport. I truly tried to imagine how it is going to be like. Who would ever expect that you can spend 30 hours flying in the air and then suddenly appear on the edge of the Earth?
Australia is a hot and dry country. The temperature difference between Europe and the land ´down under´ at this time is almost 40°C so this was one of the first things that hit me after walking out from the airport in Melbourne. Australian sun and its strength is simply incredible. Especially after spending last few years in the south of Sweden where the sun does not show most of the year. The air smells differently, trees look taller, grass is less green, birds are noisier and cars drive on the left. I can honestly claim that my way from the airport to the campus of the La Trobe University was the most challenging ride I have ever experienced. And there was much more to come.
After moving in the dormitory me and my two new japanese friends went to explore the campus. It seems to be huge, creating its own little and unique student town inside of a much bigger city. The whole area is surrounded by parks, lakes and basically australian wildlife living in it.
There are animals I have never seen before and could not even imagine that exist. Cockatoos waking me up every morning, birds colourful more than all the crayons in my pencil case and long expected kangaroos, hopping in a nearby sanctuary. My first impressions of Australia were far from what I expected. I found out my imagination is limited more than I thought and there is so much to experience.