Making Friends and Enjoying Life in Australia
Ramya Chitters | August 17, 2009
Chitters poses for a picture at the Melbourne Museum.
It’s been over a month and half since I first stepped into the winter weather of Melbourne, but time seems to have flown by so fast that I can’t believe I have less than three weeks left here. So, that must mean that I have been thoroughly enjoying my time down-under. It is weird really, the fact that I got used to a new lifestyle in less than a month, me, the person who loved her lifestyle back in the States. I would most definitely attribute this comfort level in Australia to the people around me: friends, cousins, people in the lab and even our hotel staff.
There have been so many memories to take back, from excitedly cheering for the Essendon Bombers, a native Melbourne footy league team, to feeding a live, larger than me, emu a piece of lettuce. Of course, let’s not to forget the hours trying to get my research project to work, running and debugging the kinks that seem to love to pop up all the time. The amazing thing is that I actually enjoy it, surprising since it is a nine-to-five job I had told myself that I would not get into, maybe because there isn’t a stifling atmosphere that I expected there to be.
Feeding an emu at the Melbourne zoo.
Furthermore, our habits of coming in the morning at 9 a.m. haven’t changed, but it is not uncommon for us to stay past 5 p.m. for that last run of our programs because we are racing against time to get results. But there is definitely no ill-feeling associated with it, which I think is pretty awesome. The help from all the members of the lab has been absolutely appreciated, because I would just be sitting here staring at the code if not for them. My progress with the project has been going pretty well and I am hoping that everything will work as expected during this last leg of my time here.
Another really cool thing is that we probably met many of the VIP’s of Monash University, which has been great because they are very interesting people who actually want to get to know us. The best part of it is after-hour socials that we attend, where the faculty and members of the university come and hang out and it is amazing to listen to them as people rather than professors. They have so many stories and it is not unusual to come out of one of those with an “Oh my god that was crazy”.
PRIME students and their colleagues enjoy an Australian football game.
Apart from life at the university, I have done and seen so many things that I hadn’t experienced before. I went rock climbing, something I never thought I would enjoy. I went to a Salvador Dali museum and now have another favorite artist because I was thoroughly impressed by his work. I do believe I read every single blurb there was at the museum because his progress as an artist was fascinating. I went on a 25K bike ride with our host, Dr. David Abramson, and other PRIME students, and was pleasantly exhausted from a very enjoyable day.
I also watched a footy game at the stadium, a sport that I had never heard of, but now am definitely a fan of. I don’t think there was a single weekend where we stayed back to relax, which I am so glad for. We probably went to or will go to every place that says, “Melbourne something,” be it museum, stadium or zoo. It just made me realize that coming to a new country can churn some of those hidden travelling wishes, which I seemed to have been suppressed back on campus because of school
Students take a bike ride on Beach Road.
For me, the day to day of our lives has been awesome: coming to work on the weekdays and still spending those well-needed hours on lunch doing cryptic crosswords and working till our work is done. By the way, I have been teased for saying in my last dispatch that I never though crosswords and quizzes could be fun.
Spending Friday nights at my cousins’ and being a tourist on the weekends: what a perfect way to spend summer in a new country. I haven’t yet felt bored because if there was nothing for us to do during half-days when we have already done the big touristy thing of the day, we go to Victoria Market, one of my favorite places in Melbourne, an all-purpose outdoor market that sells everything from food to furniture to souvenirs—and shop.
I have learnt so much and am so thankful for having had this opportunity to come here. In a few weeks, I am going to be home and no doubt will resume life as normal. However, I can’t help feeling that there are always going to be those little things that will trigger a memory of my wonderful time here. I remember the previous PRIME students warning me that I am going to miss it here, but they hadn’t managed to convince me. I now stand corrected and admit to the fact that my summer here has been the experience of a lifetime.
|
