Artemio Soto Breceda

November 2008 Update

The first semester in Australia has finished and I can say that it has been the best semester in my life, the past two weeks I had to say goodbye to many people that I will never see again and it makes me think about how the life brings us very good moments but they eventually have to end.

My last class was almost one month ago so I could study for my exams in which I think I did a good job, in general I will have a good result in my subjects. I am just afraid of one subject but hopefully it will be as good as the others. A very unusual thing for me was the massive examinations, I was used to do my exams only with my twenty five or thirty classmates, and I think that is interesting how in Australia the rooms are shared with more than two hundred students from different subjects. I think that this adds stress to the exam.

Two weeks ago I traveled to the Great Ocean Road with four other Mexicans from my same university, two guys and two girls. We drove a rented car and camped in a town 4 hours far from Melbourne and we stopped to see many beautiful places such as Twelve Apostles and London Bridge.

Another interesting thing that happen this month is a cause called “Movember”; I grew my mustache all the month of November as a symbol that I support the fight against prostate cancer.

Finally, I just want to say that I expect the next semester to be as good as this one.

September 2008 Update

This is my third month here and I still find it amazing, now I am in the routine of the school and the life at the Student Village but I like it and it will not be like that many more time because the mid semester break just started and there are just 3 more weeks of classes.

I have made only 2 exams but I feel comfortable with them, they are not so hard, I think that I am doing well with the school, it has not been so hard, the hardest part is about to start I guess with the projects and the final exams.

As the weather is starting to get better I have gone to St. Kilda beach a couple of times, I like it because there are some cultural events like music and art and there is where the best pubs and bars are.

September is the month of the Mexican Independence Day, so almost every Mexican I have met in Melbourne went to a Mexican party in a place called ‘Los Amates’, there we had good Mexican food, drinks and music that made me feel like back in home, it was very nostalgic, I really felt that I was in a small part of Mexico inside Melbourne.

August 2008 Update

It has been almost two months since we came to Australia and I am still really happy here, now I feel like I am used to my new life, I find my University so good and maybe easier than I thought it would be, I haven’t made any examination yet so I don’t really know if it will be easy but I hope it. I am taking 5 subjects but I only go to school Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday so my weekends are huge.

Since August 1st I am living in the University residences and I like it, I have met a lot of new people here and there is always something to do with them. As La Trobe is so far from my University I don’t see the other guys from the scholarship often but I still see go out with them almost once a week or every two weeks now I have new friends who live with me in the residences; I have a nice roommate from Botswana called Frank who let me use his fridge, his internet and his guitar.

I have already started to make some sports, as I like martial arts I am going to a gym in the city to train Muay-Thai 3 or 4 times a week, I always go at 7am, before going to the Uni. I like it so much because it will keep me healthy and fresh, and it also helps my mind to be more relaxed. I am also going on Sundays to train parkour with the Australian Parkour Association but as it on Sundays sometimes I can’t assist because there are always other activities to do on Sundays.

The past month I went to the zoo to see some Australian marsupials, here in Melbourne you can only see kangaroos in the zoo as is a big city; and I also went to Mount Buller to snowboard I had never seen the snow and I enjoyed it a lot, but I am grateful that there is no snow in Melbourne because I couldn’t bear it more than one or two days.

There is going to be a Latin party on September and will sell tickets for the Afghanistan fund rising, we will have 50% of every ticket we sell but it will be until next month, I hope we could sell a lot of tickets, each one will sell tickets in its own University.

Today, I and Fabiola are invited to a Council dinner in Victoria University to talk about our experiences and our activities for the scholarship and for the University. I think this is an opportunity to find some place to make community service or something with the environment which is the activity I would like most.

July 2008 Update

This is my first monthly report and I do not know well how to do it, but I will try to do it perfect. I arrived to Sydney the 6^th July after a very long trip by plane with my new friend Pablo, I just met him in Los Angeles but I liked him a lot, the first thing we did was going to the streets an knowing a little bit of Sydney by walking, I enjoyed every moment in Sydney and I loved it. Then we went to the hostel and met the other recipients which I like too. We spent about 3 days in Sydney and at the time we had to say goodbye and go each to their own city I felt very sad, I have missed everyone.

I came to Melbourne with Diego and Borchi, and we knew the city met some new people from La Trobe because they were in the Orientation week and spent a little time searching a house but without success. Few days later arrived Susana and Daniel to the city and we spent some time with them. We have already gone to one or three parties, they are a little bit different than they are in Mexico, well, here many pubs and bars close at 1:00 am which I think is too early.

The last days I have been searched for accommodation a lot but is a really hard work because every year come to Melbourne many students just like me who are searching the same as me. In the orientation program of Victoria University I met some more people and some of them are living in the “Student Village” I went with one guy to his room just to see it and he told me the price, I loved it really and instantly I went to ask If there was still some room for me, I think I will be lucky and I will can rent the room there because they told me that someone had just leaved so right now I am so happy, I was starting to desperate but now I am very well. Another thing that happened to me was that I did not bring all my money in Cash, my mom was supposed to send me the rest when I opened my account but I did not think that doing that took so many time and I spent about 4 days without money, I think I should say my mom to deposit the money in the Mexican account of one of my friends here but I did not think that before, it was my fault. Actually I had to ask Diego to lend me 50 dollars to survive those days.

Last Sunday we went with an Australian friend called Steph to see a Footy game, Carlton vs Sidney, I enjoyed it so much because I think is one of the must Australian thinks I have done in the trip and I have learned the rules of Footy, I like that game.

That is everything until now, the whole experience has been marvelous and I hope it continue being great all the year.