Melbourne mayhem

So it's been some time since my last post, but I wanted to properly settle down first before writing down the story. 1,5 weeks ago, I finally arrived in Australia! The journey went fine, no troubles whatsoever. My first hostel seemed more like a nightclub than a hostel, however (not that there's anything wrong with that, but if you're also expected to attend orientation activities, including catching up on things because of my delay, it's a bit too much). Furthermore, it was quite far from uni, so after 2 days we changed hostels, to the Back of Chapel hostel where some other exchange students resided as well. It's near Chapel Street, an amazing street with tons of restaurants, shops, bars and what not. Living there wouldn't be that much of a punishment either.

My delay hasn't caused me much troubles. On my first day of orientation I could immediately enroll for my courses and enter my preferences regarding my timetable. I actually got all my first preferences, which means that I have 4 days of weekend! On Friday, the last day of exchange orientation, there was (supposed to be...) an amazing party to celebrate the ending of orientation. Tickets were only 25$...! It turned out to be a really lousy party, with the bar closing at 23:00 and the party ending at 23.30 or so, so that was a waste of time and money, unfortunately.

In the weekend I tried to get a bank account and a cellphone number sorted, things that make life over here a lot easier. Prepaid cards over here can be charged with a "plan"  that includes internet as well, so that's really convenient as I don't have to get any membership or anything. During the week there was faculty orientation as well, but that turned out to be mainly for first-year students, so we skipped that after the first day.

Last Friday we went on a trip for exchange students. We went to the Healesville Wildlife Sanctuary that takes care of all sorts of innate Australian animals. Here we finally saw our first koalas, kangaroos and tasmanian devils! (to name just a couple of the animals that you feel like you should really see when you're in Australia) it was a bit cold and the animals weren't very active, but there was a really awesome bird show and it was good to see a kangaroo :)

This weekend, Melbourne hosted the Melbourne Open House, an event in which big landmarks and important buildings open their doors to the public. Hence, I've completely acted the tourist this weekend. On Saturday, I went to the National gallery of Victoria (with some really creative exhibitions but also quite a lot of boring ones, at least to me), St. Patrick's Cathedral, Federation Square and a boat tour through the docklands. At night, we went to a rooftop bar, a great invention, despite the cold!

On Sunday, there were tours at the National Tennis Centre that I really wanted to attend. I was convinced that it would be a tour through the tennis arenas (including the Rod Laver Arena!). However, this was not the case. The National Tennis Centre serves as a training centre for Australia's future tennis stars. Not quite what I expected, but interesting nonetheless. After the tennis tour I joined a tour around the Olympic Park (it's really amazing, all the big stadiums are packed together in one area), guided by the engineers of some of these buildings. After that I just strolled around the city, followed by St. Kilda beach (which is really small compared to home, surprisingly).

During all these fun activities there was one thing that really got onto my nerves: I still didn't have a permanent place to stay! The hostel was fine and all, but I really just wanted to unpack my suitcase properly. During the week we had some viewings, had a look at tonnes of advertisements, called what felt like dozens of people, but it was hard to find something decent. However, i found a room! It's in a sharehouse with 5 other people, but there are 2 people moving in later this week. The location is right between uni and the city, so that's perfect. At the moment it's still a bit messy, but that should be fixed by the end of this week hopefully. Pictures will follow soon.

All in all, I love Melbourne already. It's vibrant, diverse, buzzing, clean, everything! There are so many things happening over here, I think it'll be really difficult to get bored!

Next time I'll post a few pictures of the house and the things I've seen. I'll spend this week trying to figure out what clubs and associations I want to join and with trying to find my classes :)

Ayutthaya

As promised pictures from Thailand and Ayutthaya, where I went on my last day there. Once I get properly settled room-wise I'll update on Australia.

72 Baht and a typhoon

So after my first long flight ever I arrived in Bangkok. After trying to find my way at the airport, I finally got outside; what a heat! Once you get outside over here, sweat starts dripping out of every pore of your body. And Thailand is not even in its hottest period at the moment! I'm not built for this climate.

After I got a taxi, while trying to make sure that I don't get ripped off on my first day in Bangkok, I had the ride of my life. What a chaos! Sean, I'll never be afraid as your passenger again! Some things I experienced during my ride:

- You can stop on the road verge whenever you want. At least that's what the crying lady who ran out of the car seemed to think.
- Once three cars ride behind each other, it's a driving lane, road markings or not.
- Everyone can change driving lanes anywhere, anytime.
- My taxi driver put on his safety belt about half-way, I didn't have any (why would I need one right?).
- Being on a scooter with your one-year old in one arm and the throttle on your other arm is completely safe.

So after this crazy, but nevertheless awesome ride, I arrived at the hotel where I met up with my friends Maartje and Bas. In the afternoon we went on a bike ride through Bangkok, which was really amazing (but hard, due to my jet-lag). This tour is quite special as it shows you places and daily activities that you wouldn't normally see.  Before the tour, we saw the golden Buddha in the Wat Traimit, worth a staggering 250 million USD! On the tour, we went so the back-alleys of Chinatown, where they have big storage places for old car parts (think of 1000's of ball bearings, for example). After that, we went by a couple of temples (of which there are numerous in Thailand) and some food and flower markets. When we went through all of these, we got into a longtail boat that showed us the canals in the Venice-like part of Bangkok and subsequently we cycled through the remote plantations and neighbourhoods that flooded some years ago.

The next day, Maartje had to leave us early to get her flight to Brisbane. Bas and I intended to get to the palace, but found it too expensive and too much of a hassle to get in (you can't wear shorts). Instead, we went to Wat Pho to see the enormous reclining Buddha (there are so many Buddha's and temples here, it's ridiculous!) and the Wat Arun, a really impressive temple.

Wat Arun

On the third, and intended final day, Bas and I went to the seven-eleven to get some groceries before we had to go to the airport. We had only 72 Baht left (which is about EUR 1,80 for the record). Unfortunately, price tags are not as well arranged as we're used to, as the cashier told us that we had to pay 105 Baht. In easily one of the more embarrassing moments in my life, we had to put something back, after which the lovely lady behind the counter had to scan every product again (amazing system by the way...). Second score, 75 Baht! Again, we had to tell her that we would like to put something back. I hope she found it was as funny as we did, otherwise I sincerely apologize for wasting her time.

Overall, Bangkok has been quite interesting, but we were glad that we could finally leave. It's chaotic, smelly, ridiculously warm and nobody speaks English properly (and if you think that you found somebody who does, they prove you wrong in no time). I can imagine that people find that amazing, but it's just not my cup of tea. After the first big-ass Buddha, I don't necessarily have to see ten other big-ass Buddha's (although the reclining one was a nice addition).

Once we got to the airport, we got the message that we couldn't catch our follow-up flight in Taipei because they would most likely suffer from their first typhoon of the year. First possible flight: in four days. They could not help us with re-booking and we weren't allowed to use their phone. Actually, I don't think they understood what we wanted at all. The lovely Chinese lady only kept smiling and saying " please call China Airlines re-booking". In a 20-minute phone conversation (which, in proper English, could have taken 5 minutes), we got our flights re-booked to next Tuesday, which means that we still had to spend 4 days in Bangkok! And that is what we're doing right now, not really inclined to go outside as our new hotel is quite far away from town. I might go to Ayutthaya though, I think I'd like it there.

Next entry: our remaining days in Bangkok and hopefully my arrival in Melbourne! (I'll try to upload some more pictures as well)

Into the deep

There I went. For the second time in my life on a plane, first time outside of Europe (not that I've been to many places INSIDE Europe anyway). It's strange, from the very first moment that I started my studies in Maastricht I've looked forward to my exchange, but in the weeks before my departure I started getting anxious. Such a big step, can I really do this? Will I be able to find a room quickly? So many hours I spent on doubting where to go, reading exchange reports, emailing people and so forth. Final destination: Melbourne! So after the last eventful couple of weeks in the Netherlands and my goodbye+birthday party (thanks for the farewell videos guys!), we got to the point of saying goodbye. Difficult, but inevitable. After going through immigration, I went through some stores (even though duty-free, some stores are still way too expensive!) and entered the boarding area. Suddenly, I actually felt calm: I'm going to do this!

First stop for 2 days: Bangkok! My flight went quite well, although I barely got any sleep which kept bugging me during the day.

Next entry: my time in Bangkok and arrival in Australia!

Mitchell

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