Intan Hadidjah
October 2008
Update
This month has been very
exciting for me, except for one thing: it rains heavily in Gold
Coast. I don't know what happen to the city with 300 days of
sunshine, but definitely October is not sunny at all. There was
even hail for the last 3 days. I seriously feel like I'm in Jakarta
(my hometown in Indonesia). Nevertheless, things have always been
fun and exciting.
I started October with a
trip to Byron Bay in New South Wales. Byron Bay is a very famous
surfing spot in Australia. The beach is beautiful and the view is
just amazing. Me and my friends spent the night there and we got 2
days to explore the city. We woke up very early in the morning
(5am) and we hiked up to the hill and went to the lighthouse. The
view is even more beautiful from the above. After that, we had
breakfast and took a nap in the beach.
The week after was also
very fun. I went to Brisbane and had lunch with the Brisbane group.
Yay! I am so happy, especially because I never get the chance to
meet my group. So I took a train to Brisbane and we had lunch also
with Eleanor. I am uber excited! I finally met Eleanor, the person
whom I only get to contact through emails. So Brisbane lunch was
definitely fun. After that I went back home to Uni as fast as I
could, because my friends and I were having Slumber Party on Friday
night. It was fantastic! Nothing can beat the excitement of 9 girls
spending a night together. Lots of chips, tim-tams, gossips, and
scary movie were definitely what we had on our PJ party.
There is so many
happenings in October. At Bond University, we had what we called as
Bondstock. It is the biggest event for this year at Bond. Bondstock
is a one-stop excitement where we had well known and outstanding
guest speakers, social events, networking opportunities, and more.
This year we had John Howard as our guest speaker. Well this was
not John Howard's first time coming to my Uni, but it is definitely
my first time meeting him. He is an outstanding speaker. Very smart
and well articulated. I am so lucky I get to see him delivering a
speech live, not just on TV.
More on this month,
we're celebrating a friend's birthday. My best friend here (Anne,
she's from the States) are having her 21st birthday. So
we celebrated it and as addition to that we flew to Sydney. Yay! So
I spent 4 days in Sydney having so much fun. To me, it was a dream
comes true. I always thought that seeing opera house is only a
dream but last week I had it came true. Sydney is so beautiful. I
am so sad that my family was not with me to see the amazing city,
but I pray that next time I will come back there with my family and
friends.
For now, I need to stop
traveling because I have heaps of assignment and I better work on
it. I am entering week 8 and that means more presentation and
essays to submit. Pray for me!
September
2008
I am so excited for being in Australia. I have
so much to tell that I don't even know where to start. Anyway, let
me just start with talking about my university. I have the
privilege to study at Bond University in Gold Coast, and trust me
this campus is amazing! It's a relatively small campus with only 4
faculties, nevertheless it feels great.
So I arrived at Australia on 31 August. Yes it
is very late compare to other Peace recipients. That is due to the
uniqueness of my Uni which has 3 semesters per year, so actually we
only have to spend 4 months doing 1 semester. That I think is very
smart, because the students don't have to spend 4-5 years doing 1
degree. It is definitely more efficient. So anyway, I arrived at 31
August and from 1 -7 September we have the Bond Week. Bond Week is
an orientation week, but aside from doing it the old fashion way,
they actually conducted many activities. The activities were varied
starting from barbeque party, trivia night, a hypnotic hysteria
show, rock climbing, beach day out, and lots of parties. Well of
course Bond Week is not only about that, they also provided us with
many seminars and information session for new students.
The thing that I also adores about my Uni is
how we have so many international students. According to the
statistics, Bond University has more than 1.000 international
students coming from 80 different countries. That for me is
unbelievable. From the moment I first arrived until today, I have
make friends with so many students from 5 different continents. You
can name me any countries in the world and I can assure you that I
am friends with them. All of us here highly respects each other,
very polite, and very friendly. Although we only been together for
couple of weeks, but we know we'll miss each other very bad when
the semester ends.
I also have life outside college. Here me and
my friends love to travel. Especially because beach are 15 minutes
trip by bus, so in every weekend there must be a beach day for us.
We have experienced Surfers Paradise and Burleigh Heads beach and
it was beautiful. Spring is here in Gold Coast, so the weather is
perfect. Moreover, we also travel to the Currumbin Wildlife
Sanctuary where we get to see kangaroos, koalas, dingoes, and
tasmanian devil. I took so many pictures with kangaroo and koala.
They are beautiful creatures. I wish I can bring them home.
So, I guess that pretty much is my stories for
September. I wish I can write more but I have assigments waiting
and I need to work on that. College has been tough and very
demanding, yet exciting and challenging. Happy Idul Fitri to
everyone that will celebrates it! Hopefully we'll all receive
forgiveness and mercy from the Almighty. Please accept my deepest
apology. Bye mate!
