To be honest with you June was pretty exhausting and packed full with
work. Besides work, final organizational tasks like searching for
a room and medical check-ups had to done prior to moving to Australia.
Besides that, there was one very pleasurable weekend I can think of
in June; it's great if you still have the time to visit old friends
;)
Between the 11th and 13th
of June, I visited my good old student buddy (and friend) Luke (from
Poland). He has just moved from Warsaw to London, then on to Geneva,
Switzerland. It was a very turbulent but fun weekend. When I started
my journey on Friday in the afternoon I soon had my first unpleasurable
experience going to Switzerland - (at least if you can call it this).
As I completely forgot to take my car insurance with me I wasn't
allowed in to the country! *haha*. Well, okay I admit - it was my
mistake. So... I had to drive back 30 kilometers to Germany in order
to rent a car. To my surprise and excitement all but one car was
left (everything else had been rented): a Mercedes. As you can imagine
it was great fun to switch from a small Opel Corsa to a limousine!
;)
Illustration 1: Luke and Cecile plus some guy in
the background
After I finally met Luke beside the Genevian lake in front of our hotel, we went downtown for a couple of drinks.
Fortuna was with us and we met a nice girl, Cecile, that was so friendly
she gave a tour of the local bars and clubs. After a very nice and
pleasurable night we drove to Chamonix (France) to see the Mount Blanc
and taste some French cuisine. We took some great pictures and I want
to publish them on my webpage soon. I really loved the time spend
in Switzerland and France. Thanks to Luke!
Ilustration 2: Luke
and me
Ilustration 3: Lake Geneva
Unfortunately my internship with SAP has ended and now it's time again
to move on. I have very mixed feelings - on the one hand i would love
to keep on working for Stephan (my manager) and his team. At this
point i would like to greet my supervisor and buddy Frank who supported
me during all the time spent at SAP and the very good cooperation
in our project. On the other hand, of course, I'm looking forward
to going Down Under for the next 18 months..
On July 5th I flew to Singapore
and got to Melbourne on the 6th. Right now I'm living with some very
nice Indians, sharing a big town house. They welcomed me with their
hearts wide open. I'm glad to be living with them for the next two
months before I will move to another location. Until now my expectations
towards melbourne have been fully met and I can't imagine a better
place to study at. For these past two weeks, we have had so-called
orientation days for newcomers to the uni. A broad program of information
about the school, study programs, opportunities to work part-time
etc. is brought to us including some very nice trips outside Melbourne
to get to know the Australian animal and plant live.
Here are my first
experiences in Melbourne (summarized):
- People are very open and look to
make contact, strong eye-contact
- It's raining hard but the sun is
still shining at some part of the sky
- People are making plans to go skiing
in July (hehe)
- People strongly try to integrate you
in their activities (great!)
- Distances are tough but managable
through greatly organized public transport system
- Partying and clubbing starts at midnight,
people dance in bars and sometimes you see them dancing on the
street ;)
- Though soccer isn't much of an topic
in Australia, Greece's European Championship Title is the number
one topic (Melbourne is the biggest greek city outside of Greece)
- Living in Melbourne is FUN!
I will keep you up-to-date ;) have fun!
Live
your dreams,
Victor
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