Elizabeth Alhondra Arredon Mier

October 2008 Update

During the first half of this month I had two weeks of holidays. Me and two friends, one from Germany and one from the States, did a road trip from Brisbane to Cairns.

We flew from Newcastle until Brisbane one Friday. We took a train from the airport to surfers Paradise. We spent the weekend there and we met Violeta and Angie. They both were on holidays as well with her Australian friends. We had an amazing weekend all together. On Monday morning we took the train to Brisbane to pick up our camper. We rented a Wicked camper, it was pretty cool, it was blue with the words “Free Hugs” written on both sides, and a funny message in the back.

We stayed in Brisbane for two nights; then we drove to Noosa Beach, Rainbow Beach, Harvey Bay. We went to Fraiser Island and stayed one night in a resort. Then, Airlie Beach an the Whitsundays, we got a sail trip for three days and two nights. Finally, after 2 weeks we arrived to Cairns and flew back to Sydney.

First days were a little bit difficult, since we had to find a place to park and sleep overnight. We slept in parks, streets, camping places, gardens. Cooking was also difficult because we only had a cooler and we had to find a good place to set up the table and a small gas tank to cook. Over the time we got use to our camper and everyday was a great adventure.

In our trip we meet a lot of people, some of them were three French guys who recommended us a place to park, another girl from France in our sail trip, a girl from Czechs Republic and other one form England who were backpacking throughout Asia and Australia, a hippy guy who offered us his house to stay overnight, some funny guys who were in a football trip. We also met a couple of our friends from Newcastle.

I enjoyed every single day, and I am impressed from the landscapes I saw… the sunrise at the beach, the islands, the white sand, Lake Mackenzie and its beautiful colours, the sea, the corals, the colourful fishes, the sunset, the sky, the shutting stars… I never thought I would see the most beautiful landscapes in Australia…. It was just amazing!

Sadly, holidays were over and I had to come back to Newcastle. These two weeks I have been really busy with my studies. I wrote my Marketing final paper and I had a presentation for my Human Resources class.

Now I am organizing my summer, I am organizing a Christmas dinner with my friends, New Year’s Eve, and my trip to Asia. I have to decide where I want to live next semester, and my courses. I have to leave everything ready because after my trip to Asia I will begin my second semester. Sometimes it is difficult when you realized most all the people you like and your friends are going back to their home countries and you need to start over. However, I am spending more time with my friends since I am done with my assignments, time goes so fast so we cannot waste any free time.

September 2008 Update

This experience has given me the opportunity to know more about other cultures, in specific Asiatic countries. At the end of August I went to a nice dinner organized by the Malaysian Student Association. They celebrated their Independence day. The dinner was at the University and there were 300 guests. They served traditional dishes from Malaysia and during the night several performances were shown. They also played some videos and sang typical songs. I spend a great time with Socheata, Vincent and Keith (both guys from Singapore). At the end there was a contest for the best dressed male and female of the night and we took a picture with the winners. It was such a nice evening!

September has been full of important changes and difficulties. At the beginning of the month I got really sick, I had fever for two days. Socheata, Vincent and Silke took me to the hospital one Thursday night. I was very lucky because the doctor was from Colombia. I had my medical check in Spanish. It took me a week to get better. Now I am doing well, but being really sick in a foreign country is one of the worst things can happen to you. I am glad that my friends were with me and they supported me all the time.

My University held “The Cultural Awakening Festival”. This festival lasts one week and offers different workshops, presentations and a food fair. I participated with the other two Mexican students organizing a “Piniata workshop”, I danced salsa and merengue with the Latinamerican Students Association, and I also participated in the food fair. We cooked five Mexican dishes and offered a tequila tasting. There were 20 different countries in the Food Fair. I was very exited about the whole Festival, but in particular about the Food Fair. However, I did not enjoy it because the night before I was in the Hospital, and also it was so crowded I could not go to see the other countries due to I had to stay in my Mexico stand.

I went to Melbourne for celebrate the Mexican Independence Day. I stayed with one of my very best friends from Mexico. She also came to study abroad. She is studying in Victoria University and she lives in one student village. In this village there are other seven Mexicans including Artemio. We went to a Mexican Restaurant called “Los Amates” I found people from my city there, some peace scholars and also I met two other good friends of mine. The night was perfect: nice weather, full of friends, Mexican food and tequila. During my visit my friends took me to a different places. I enjoyed and loved Melbourne. It is very different from Sydney. It is similar to my hometown because it is full of coffee shops and restaurants. I want to go back a couple of times more during my year in Australia.

After I had a beautiful holidays I came back to Newcastle and a lot of things have happened since then. Socheata decided to move out, and my landlord wants me to move out to a different room from the house or pay the full rent of this room. I refused both options because I have an agreement and I will move out until my agreement expires. The house feels very different without Socheata. Now I need to find a house to live in, I am still thinking if I want to move into the campus. Since all my friends are international students, they all will come back to their countries on January. I think living on campus will give me the change to meet new people. In the other hand I would like to move to the city because I go out twice a week and I always stay overnight in my friend's house. I am still thinking about it, but now I have a clearer idea of what I want when I look for a house.

In general, I have been doing well in my courses. However, I got my result of my first exam and I received a bad mark. This made feel really bad. I asked for a feedback and I have an appointment with my lecturer after the break. It is important to me know what I did wrong in order to not make the same mistake again.

Now I am packing for my Holidays. I have two weeks of spring break. I planned a trip with two of my friends. We are going to Brisbane, spending the weekend in Surfers Paradise and then getting a camper to drive all the way north to Cairns. Then taking a flight back to Sydney. I am really excited about this trip.

August 2008 Update

I remember when I arrived here. It was Monday 6 o'clock in the morning. It was cold, the trip was really tiring, you have to take a long flight in order to arrive here. I spent some days in Sydney in the Peace Scholarship Program Orientation. We had a great time there, a lot of sightseeing and having the opportunity of meeting all the recipients was the best.

I took a train with Risky and Socheata to Newcastle. We talked a lot during our trip, we are very different, but somehow we share ideals and values. Once we got there, we split up, Risky went to her house, she is living with a family. Socheata went to a hostel and I met Lalo (a Mexican guy who is studying a PhD in Newcastle), he offered me accommodation for the first week. It was nice he picked me up, because he has been very supportive. It is very important to have someone to trust to.

Socheata and me decided to live together, so we started to look for a house. Those days were really cold and I spent most of the time at the house with Lalo, watching movies. Finally we found a house. We decided to live around Uni and around the supermarket. It has advantages and disadvantages, but in general is very good. We are a sharing a room, it is really nice, and we have became it in our home. We share the house with other 5 people. Keith from Singapore, Alfred form Nigeria, Liam from Australia, and a couple, Sophie and June from South Korea. Our house sometimes feels really crowded, specially when we all cook. In general, it has a good environment, but sometimes I feel is too mesy. Keith, Socheata and me are the only ones who take care about the house.

Living with Socheata has been a great experience; every time I mention I share the room, my friends asked me if I've ever feel that I need my own space. I think I have my own space even though we are together most of the time. I think I have not had homesickness because she has become into my sister, we are very supportive and we always look after each other. I have a lot of fun with her, specially when we are cooking. The very first times when we were together cooking, I saw her very confident cutting all the vegetables and the beef, while I was just cooking pasta. I asked her: What are you cooking? and she replied: I have no idea. Now, one month later, she is becoming a very good cook.

The University of Newcastle is really beautiful, it is located in a forest. You can get fresh air, nice views and some animals like ducks and parrots. You must walk a lot to go from building to building. But the environment is so nice, that I really enjoy walking through it. All the building are nice, the library is huge and colourful (very different from back home), there's a building called Shortland Hub, and it is the place to be in. It is the cafeteria area, we have a garden in which every week a band play live music. We have two pubs: Bar on the Hill and GT Bar. Every two weeks there's a party, and parties are really good.

I enjoyed a lot the o-week, we did so many different activities. We had 2 barbecues, one big party, a city tour and a tour in a natural reserve where we saw kangaroos, koalas, wallabies, and wombats. The University is well prepare to receive international students. We had conferences about everything, and there's a lot of supportive departments within Uni.

My classes are going well. I really enjoy my classes but I had some difficulties on adopting the education system at the beginning. Now I am used to the system, and how to use the internet services. I already adopted a routine, so my time is completely organized.

My friends are mainly from Germany and the States. Most of them are coming only for one semester, something that makes me sad because I have known great people in here who have become really important to me. However, I am glad to know that I have other friend who are staying longer or who already live here.