Genaro Laurel Cifuentes
October 2008 Update
October is the last month of official classes.
What is left till the second week of November at Deakin is just
review and examinations preparation.
This month was bit a of challenge, in one of my
units I had to make a movie trailer about any hobby or social group
that I belonged. I decide to do it about the Deakin Soccer Club,
which I’m part of. This project gave the opportunity to do
something different to what I’m used to doing in the teaching
field. However I had to use some the same skills on it, like taking
initiative, talk to people, ask people to do special tasks for me
and lead a group of people to do something co-ordinately.
Once I had it finished I showed to guys from
the Club and they made me feel they had liked it. By the way, my
video got short listed as one of the 20 best trailers to be shown
in the lecture theatre.
Some days ago I got invited to an Australian
barbecue and I had the chance to get in contact with some local
guys, it was a good chance to meet new people, chill out, taste
local drinks and have a piece of meat. I meet a Peruvian guy called
Felipe, he has been in Australia for three years already and he
told me about his experience of living and working in this
country.
Yesterday I went to Melbourne city and I decide
to have a look at the city from one of the highest points. I went
to the Rialto Tower with two friends and I took heaps of shots of
the most interesting places. Everything looks so smalls when you
are up there and you can realize how big this city is.
Currently I’m just waiting for the exams and
making some plans on how to spend my last days in Australia, I hope
to do well in the exams and that my last days in here are as
exiting as the first ones.
September 2008 Update
This month went away real fast. It seems just
like a couple of days ago when I celebrated my birthday on august
27th.
As IDP recipients we have been given the
opportunity to raise money for women in developing countries. This
month the Melbourne group was in charge of pre-selling tickets for
a Brazilian Latin Party. Part of the money of those tickets was
donated to this previously named cause. I was in charge of selling
tickets in my university, unfortunately I just sold a couple of
tickets, but I heard from the other recipients they had had a great
journey.
From 8th to 12th of
September Deakin uni celebrated the so called Intercultural Week.
During this week an indoor soccer championship was held at uni,
every team was supposed to represent some country or area of the
world, so I joined the team representing Africa, unfortunately we
didn’t win we just got second, but it was really fun.
On the 20th and 21st the
Chilean Patriotic Celebration took place in Melbourne, just in case
I want to point out that originally this celebration is on
18th and 19th back in Chile. Anyway me and
some Chilean friends went to the celebration and had a great time
there. We met a lot of people from South America there, most of
them Chileans and Salvadorian, we saw some typical dances from
Peru, Bolivia and Mexico and of course the Chilean national typical
dance “La Cueca”.
Some days ago I went with some friends to St
Kilda were one of the beaches is on Melbourne. We walked all the
way till the end of a sort of pier, and at the end of it there was
a kind of rocks barrier and to our surprise that barrier was full
of little penguins. Some of them were yelling really loud and
opening and moving their small wings. I didn’t know one could see
penguins in Melbourne so I was really surprised and amused.
September was a beautiful month, passed real
quickly though, the best of all is that the weather is getting a
lot better and the summer is every time closer.
August 2008 Update
Finally I moved into my house, it is only 15
minutes walking to uni and it is a fairly big house with nice
people from different places like Australia, India, Norway,
Indonesia and myself from Chile, it’s quite a big mixture of
cultures and personalities, so far I don’t know them very well but
I have the feeling that they are good people. I have to share the
room with another guy from India who hasn’t come yet.
On the 7th of this month I attended
the inauguration of the new IDP office in Melbourne, we had some
drinks some snacks and got to know the place it was a nice evening
sharing with people from IDP and recipients.
Classes are starting to get a bit more complex
and I’m trying not to fall behind. This month I have handed in two
assignment and I have done two online quizzes but I haven’t got the
results yet, I hope to have them very soon so I can see if I’m on
the right track.
I don’t talk much to my classmates because I
just see them once a week in the lectures or tutorials. I figured
out that maybe that wasn’t going to be a good way to make friends
so I thought that I could join the soccer club, since I love
playing that game back home with my friends. I was right, I have
been playing for 3 weeks already and it has been great, there are
some Australian and bunch of guys from overseas and there are also
some girls that come and play from time to time. It is nice to be
part of Deakin soccer club because you can have fun playing and
besides you can meet a lot of people.
There is a swimming pool near my house like 15
minutes by bus, and one day we went there with some of the guys
from the house. It is a nice way to exercise and to hang out with
people. I really like to hang out with people from different
countries because sometimes there are curious things about that. I
try to talk about my backgrounds as much as I can as well as hear
and learn about other people’s one. Some of the guys from the
house like to ask me how to say things in Spanish, so I leave them
messages in Spanish in a small whiteboard we have in the kitchen
from time to time.
Today august 25th we made a little
celebration on behalf on Adam, who is the youngest one in the
house, he is turning 19 today, one of the girls popped up with a
birthday cake and candles, I suggested singing the birthday song in
all of our different languages and it was very funny. This month
was a bit quieter that the previous. Let’s just wait and see what
the next month brings.
July 2008 Update
Hi everyone! I want to start by saying that I
so exited just for being here in Australia. My first day in
Australia were tiring but at the same time they were great. Those
days were great because I could meet the other recipients and share
with them. We did several kinds of activities in the orientation
days but by far the most amazing thing was going on a walk to the
Opera House, which seems awesome when you get there. We took some
pictures there and then we just stayed there just talking about how
great was to be there.
After the orientation was finished in Sydney I
went on my way to Melbourne where “Deakin”, my host university is.
I had no place to live at first, but fortunately Bernardita my
girlfriend who by the way was an IDP recipient in the first
semester of this year, became good friend with a Australian girl
who lived near Deakin, so we offered me to stay at her house till I
found a place. I got to know her and her parents and they were all
very kind to me, they treated me as a friend and gave useful
advices for my staying in Australia, reason why I feel very
grateful for.
On the 14 of this month the uni orientation
began, they took us to Lorne, which is near the Great Ocean Road
and we stayed there for three days. At first I felt a bit awkward
surrounded by people I didn’t know at all and I felt homesick, but
as time passed and I started to talk to people I felt a bit better
It was good opportunity to meet the other international students
who were mostly from U.S.A. Germany, Holland and some other
European countries. In those three days I learned the basic rules
of Australian football, danced some Latin music, and went to surf
in the cold water of Lorne, which by the way has been the most
exiting and breathtaking thing I’ve done since I got here, that was
awesome.! On the last day we went to see the Twelve Apostles, it
was a windy day but the beautiful landscapes kept us there just
enjoying the view and talking about how the sea air shaped those
nice pieces of land.
On the next Monday I went to uni for the final
orientation and enrolment, I chose my units online in a totally
different way that I usually do it back home, this kind of
technologies I’d love to be implemented back home because would
save a lot of time and human resources. I started class on the
21st of July and it was quite a change coming from small
campus with only 800 students approx. to a big uni with thousands
of people culturally different. There are many things that are
different but so far I haven’t had any big troubles.
During this month of settlement I have had
great times in Australia, I went to the Opera house, surfed in the
great ocean road’s water, and have walked down the beautiful
streets of Melbourne city and got into a couple of good cafes. I
hope this moments everything goes just like this or even
better.
