Australia, the very first impression

Today was my first day working in Australia. I was a bit anxious this morning (and my parents called me before I left, thank you :*), but it turned out that I was worried for no reason. My supervisor is very helpful and the other colleagues are also very nice. The project also looks very interesting; I hope three months will not be too short to complete it.

The institute where I work for my internship is an institute associated with the university of Melbourne, the Howard Florey Institute. The main focus in the institute is on the neuroscience and related field; and therefore, I am also working on the brain, in the neuroimaging group.

***

I think Australia is very multicultural (or perhaps it is only the case for Melbourne). I always hear a lot of strange languages in the tram (and one of them is Greek; I got the clue because the people who were speaking was holding a Greek newspaper :D). Furthermore, it seems that the multicultural environment also gives people more understanding about other people and their culture.

As for a simple example (for me), there are a lot of restaurants (I really mean A LOT, and even in the city centre, it is very easy to find) which offer halal food. The group leader in my workplace was also aware about this, as she told me some places around the campus that sells halal food. She even asked me whether I would like to have a prayer room inside the building, to which I replied yes :). There are other prayer rooms inside the university, a very big one, which is also nice that a lot of people gather during prayer time.

The image that I got from the people in the Australian embassy still stay the same. I still find that people are very friendly (which might also be that they are used to multiculture? No idea). They still somehow greet you on the street. People still say thank you to tram driver. Younger people still give up the seat to older people in the train.

The city is (very?) big. The architecture of the buildings in the city is somewhat unique, eventhough I think the suburb area (where I live) has the same atmosphere as Cianjur :D, a place between Bandung and Jakarta in Indonesia. The university is very old; the buildings are old for sure (except a few of them including my office). The university has different atmosphere that I used to have in Indonesia, Japan, or the Netherlands, and I like it. I don't know how to explain it, but I hope I will have a chance to take some pictures and share them here. I walked around the university yesterday; students were walking from one building to another carrying thick textboox and notes, some of them were having lunch with some friends on the bench. I miss university, for sure, friends, lectures, all of them!

***

My first impression to Australia is still good until now (ouch, except that the money exchanger takes very high handling fee, and you can bargain it!). Hopefully three month stay will be meaningful and enjoyable. :).

Picture: Alan Gilbert building, my office.