By Jellaby Lai (Australian National University, Canberra, Australia).
Hold Up. What? Is it really happening now?
It has been a hectic few months for me. Writing all these down is exactly what I need to do to record every insignificant (probably for now!) events that had occurred to me during this time. I know I will regret it deeply if I do not do so. After all, these have been the most exhausted, challenging and daunting months to me.
Where should I start? Well, I started to notice ‘time isn’t enough for me’ since in the early December. I was told many times 2nd year is a real deal. Yes, they are all right about it. Few weeks before term broke up; I started to panic not to have enough time for revision. Yes, all of sudden all the lectures seem to so far out of reach of my comprehension. Has my IQ gone worse or what? I do not know. Then Christmas came. Countless nights out with family and friends (my bad) and the aftershock of the big Christmas dinner usually left me needing a good few days to recover to my normal self. I went back to uni earlier and almost camped in the library every day before exams.
I know, I know, I am not the brightest student; in additional with the occasional visit to the doctor appointment and Australian embassy for student visa; and filling forms for my accommodation application in Oz were just driving me nuts. Anyway, exams went okay and I’m still left sound and completed (apart from sleep deprivation) Haha. But, don’t get too happy yet. After the exam, I had only TWO days to evacuate out the room and jump on the next plane to Canberra. (This is because I decided to stop over in Hong Kong for a week before heading to Canberra). So it is the time when I blamed myself for buying too much. I would not want to go into details how I moved (like how I battled with my mind on how many pairs of shoes I have to bring to oz and how many cosmetics I have to sacrifice because of the luggage allowance, blah blah blah); In the end, I just somehow managed it within 48 hours. Shamefully, I don’t have much time to farewell with my friends, please stay tuned here for my updates and I promise to bring you back lots of SUNSHINE as souvenirs.
Yeah, en route to Hong Kong, there, I treated myself a pair of sunglasses – hope the Australians aren’t laughing at me, yes, I am THAT craving for the sun and I have geared up to embrace the sun, please do not disappoint me. It was only the time I started to do more research about what I want to do in Australia, what I want to see, what am I expecting, how is the university life there?
Thank you UoM of providing the exchange program to broaden my horizons. I am unsure what is yet to come, but I truly believe it will be a very extraordinary adventure for me.
To whoever reading this journal, I strongly recommend to try to participate any kind of exchange. Do not be put off by the paper work, the hassles of settling in new environment etc. Do it when you still have youth and passion. You will be amazed how much the world is yet to offer and how much you will develop yourself in just one trip.
To whoever that is already a student of UoM, you are the lucky ones. UoM offers many exchange programs and have many partnerships with other unis, so start doing your research and you will be the next one writing about how exhausting packing is and how much fun it is to follow after.