Daniel Putra Sianipar
September 2008
Update
In the last two months,
I have experienced several amazing things that was impossible to
happens back home. First of all is the fraud. In August someone
wanted to use my bank account for money laundering. The bank
reported me that a couple of hundreds thousand dollars was coming
into my bank account from overseas. I was very terrified. The bank
said this could become a big problem if the police involved. They
even suspected me as the part of this money laundering. But
fortunately the they trusted me as being innocent but I still
needed to change my account number and opened the new one. I never
thought someone wanted to clean his money through my bank
account.
In the end of August I
moved to the new sharehouse. This sharehouse was better then the
old one and more importantly cheaper and quieter but the negative
side is all the sharemate are male. They are one India,
Philippines, Hongkong, and one local Australian. The problem is
with this local Australian. He talks very fast. I hardly understand
when he is talking, even until the time I write this updates. But
they are all very friendly and welcomed me nicely. This will become
my permanent place until I go home to Indonesia.
Next is the job
interview. I tried to apply some jobs in Brisbane. It turned out
that I had two interviews in one day. One is the job for office
receptionist; the other is for restaurant staff. The problem is the
clothes I need to wear. On the first interview I need to dress
formally, but in the second one I need to dress casually. I was
very nervous because after all these were the first time I ever
went to an interview and even worse I was not in my own country. So
I prepared myself but the nervous just could not go. But somehow it
went well but I did not get those two jobs. But I took the bright
side that I got the experience of being interviewed in English by
foreigner in foreign country.
Last one is the UNIFEM
Springwalk, As peace scholarship recipient, I need to do community
service. So I decided to help organizing, promoting and participate
the Springwalk held by UNIFEM in Brisbane in 21st
September 2008. All money raised will go to the UNIFEM Peace
scholarship program in Afghanistan. The event turned out good.
There were more than thirty person came and participate. One person
gave the minimum of $10 and most of people gave more than that.
This event also gave me the opportunity to meet other people and
socialize. One of them was gitts who wants to take us to mount Kuta
in the next couple of weeks. The money raised from this event is
not small. I think this event is a success.
As most people told me
when I arrived in Australia, I experience homesick sometimes in
this couple of months. Sometimes, it just hard to do something, or
go to university. But I in the end of September I already regained
my strength and pushed aside the homesickness. In future I hope I
can enjoy Australia and discover my purpose here. Thank
You.
July 2008
Update
July is my first month in Australia. I was
hoping I would get much new experience and knowledge in this
country and actually I got that in this first month. Well, in fact
from the very first day I arrived in the Sydney Airport, I already
got something new for my life. I had chance to met new friends and
person from the other part of the world such as Mexico, Chile,
Vietnam, and Cambodia. That was very exiting.
Three days in Sydney really gave me so much new
things. For the first time I could go to the beach which is very
cold, because we do not have winter in Indonesia so the beach is
identical with the hot weather. This was new experience for me.
Next is the orientation program for the Peace Scholarship
recipient. This was also very good. The program gave me a broad
explanation and information about living in Australia. Later, this
information was very useful in settling down in Brisbane. We also
have some fun in the orientation like bowling, city tour, and many
more. Finally in the last day, I went to Brisbane to attend the
orientation week in my University, Queensland University of
Technology (QUT).
After landed in the Brisbane Airport, me and Ly
Kim Cuong, were picked up by the Airport Reception service from the
(QUT). We waited for the other student from China for an hour and
then head to our temporary accommodation. The trip to our temporary
accommodation was not too smooth. The driver got lost a couple of
times and said the impolite Australian slank in many times ( Where
is this bloody address…). But finally we arrived in our temporary
accommodation safely. I stayed In my friends place for about 4 days
before I found my permanent accommodation until now. My permanent
accommodation is a share house where four international student
live. They are a girl from Peru, girl from Sweden, and the
Australian student and of course me. I had a lot of wonderful and
great times interact with them. Many cultural exchange and
perspective even debates occurred in our house, but of course
everything happened in the peaceful and polite manners. But I got
many new things and also vocabulary in English, even in Swedish for
only two weeks times. And last but not least, I finally had to cook
for my own meal. That was very fun. I bet my mother will be very
happy when she knows I can cook.
I mention earlier about the QUT orientation
week. That also gave so much fun, but it was pretty much the same
like the Peace Scholarship orientation week despite it had
information about how to enroll and using online facilities within
the QUT. The international student service also gave us very warm
welcome. They also welcomed us with the indigenous dance and art.
That was so interesting and new for me, not to mention they had
loud voice and instrument that sometime annoyed my ear. But overall
it was fun. I also made a couple of friends. They were also
International Student so we could connect quite easily. We had some
dinner, a night out, we even celebrate Bastille Day (it was like
national Independence Day of France) with a French style dinner. I
ate a delicious French food. That was great.
One thing that very surprises me was the price
of the book. In the unit details, they highly recommended us to get
on copy of the prescribed books. After read this, I went straight
to the QUT book store in the campus. Then, I saw the price of book
was very expensive. There was no way I could afford it. But I did
not lose hope. I tried to check the second hand book store and the
price was reasonable but still I could not afford it. Next, I tried
to contact Eleanor and fortunately she gave me the solutions. But
still I never expected the price would be that expensive.
Maybe I can not write and tell so much because
I did not have to much activity this much. It was all about
settling down and looking for accommodation. The orientation week
was not so surprising though. But overall, I had a great full of
new things times in this months. I hope I will get more and do more
things in the next months so I can also share more with you. I also
want to apologize if maybe there are many errors in my article
because this is my first report and I am still working on it so I
can write better next time. Thanks
