I had applied for the student visa sometime around early April of 2006. My family and I had rushed through the visa application process in order to complete it before the indefinite protests by the Seven-Party Alliance brought everything to a standstill. But we did manage to get it mailed before it.

The multimedia design course at Billy Blue School of Graphic Arts was due to start at 24th July, and by 17th I didn’t have any news about the visa. None of the applications had been had been approved yet; neither were any of them denied. When inquired about the delay, the Australian High Commission in New Delhi replied it was because a high ranking officer had been sick for a couple of days. A rather poor excuse for Australian High Commission.

Finally, I got the confirmation of approval (better known as pre-Visa) on around 20th July (by which time I was given a 2 week extension to the date of enrollment at Billy Blue) , and after a few days I had got the back the passport with the visa stamped on it, thanks to Mr. Subha Bhattachan, Pac Asia. He did a huge favour, and personally flew to New Delhi with my passport and brought it back with the visa on it.

With the visa on the passport, I that was it, and it was smooth sailing from then. Boy, was I wrong! On Pac Asia’s suggestion, I went went buy the ticket from Everest Travel Service (ETS). My first shock was to learn that it is extremely difficult to get a ticket for the flight from Bangkok to Sydney. Mr. Pranil Pradhan, Manager of ETS, having studied in Austra-lia, gave me some very useful tips. I would recommend this to everyone coming Australia, because it is very important to clear any kind of preconception and get clear picture of life in Australia as an international student. He also gave me voucher for free dental checkup at Dent Inn. I knew I needed to a dentist before leaving because the overseas health cover didn’t cover dentals and it is very expensive to any sort of dental procedure; but hadn’t brought myself to doing it. When I got to Dent Inn, Dr. Prabighya Siwakoti concluded that I needed at-least one tooth extraction (I had an extra pre-molar) and a root canal treatment, besides scaling and polishing the teeth. This would atleast take 2 weeks to complete! My orientation week at Billy Blue would start in less two week’s time. I wasn’t sure at all what to do. Doing any kind of dental procedures in Australia is very expensive; a root canal treatment will cost around $1000. I didn’t have much choice other than to miss the orienta-tion week and complete the root canal treatment in Kathmandu.

The flight felt very surreal because I had never flew alone. I had arranged a homestay ac-commodation with the college before departing. Also had pre-paid the accommodation for 4 weeks, which made things a lot easier. The two flights to Sydney were very good, largely because I enjoy flying and spending time in the airport. While most people cringe at the prospect of being stuck the airport for 14 hours, I was quite looking forward to it. Since I had purchased a normal economy class ticket (without student concession), I got a free hotel room at the Louis Tavern Dayroom for 12 hours; which made the 14 hour transit seem like it was only a few hours long. I arrived at Sydney’s Kingsford International at around 8:15 PM. The airport was filled with posters and video of Steve Irwin preaching “Declare or Beware!”. That was when I really felt like I was in Australia. I had spend days researching about Australia and Sydney, and their customs policy. I had gone through their website several times and knew exactly what I should and shouldn’t bring, in order to go through the green channel (I hate going through the red channel). After completing the customs, I proceeded to the waiting area. I scanned around and immediately noticed a guy holding a paper with my name written on it. I quickly waved at him and he came over to help me lug the large trolley. He said his name was John and showed me towards a white Toyota Hiace. Soon, after a few minutes we were in the middle of the expressway with very tall skyscrapers on all sides. He motioned me to look at the Sydney Harbour Bridge on the front and the Opera House on the right. A few minutes later, we were in North Syd-ney. I remembered the building where Billy Blue was located from the photos I had seen of it before, and because of the highly visible “Hyundai” sign. John showed me the bus stop I was supposed to get off at when arriving to college next day and the stop I should catch the bus from when leaving the college. Soon we left the tall buildings and came to the suburbs. The suburbs were considerably darker than the city. Soon John pulled over in front of a house and started unloading my luggage. Jane Waddell greeted us ushered us to the room I was going to be staying at. After John left, Jane showed me around the house and announced the house rules. I was quite surprised that I wasn’t tired at all, even though I had just flew for 9 hours from Bangkok. And I didn’t have any signs of jet lag at all. The room had a bed, a desk and two large clothes drawers. Not a bad room at all. Jane explained how the buses in Sydney worked and gave me a copy of their timetables. I was quite surprised to find that buses operated in a very strict timetable. Hiroshi, a Japa-nese student living also living in the house explained that I’ll need to reach the bus stop atleast 5 and ideally 10 minutes earlier, in order to make sure that I don’t miss the bus.

The next morning I somehow managed to miss the bus that I was supposed to take for school. The next bus was an hour later, which would be too late. Fortunately, Jane’s son Tim offered to drop me off at the college in his car. I arrived in North Sydney at around 8 in the morning and went straight to the college. I went to the reception and introduced myself. After filling out a few forms, Sharon gave me the art kit (which was very heavy) and showed me around the school; complete with the secret exit.

Billy Blue school of Graphic Arts is a sort of a vocational college offering diplomas and de-grees in two major streams: Multimedia Design and Communication Design. I picked mul-timedia design. It’s different from the places more people from go to study-- it’s very small, in the middle of the city, and doesn’t have any kind of student union, clubs, or anything like that. It’s very rooted in the industry than the academics.

Homestay is a great option if you don’t have any relatives living in Sydney, like me. You’ll also get used to the Australian way of life and their culture pretty fast, so that you can fit in pretty good. However, homestay does tends to be pretty expensive and is only good for temporary stay. Four weeks is the ideal time to spend in a homestay, because by that time you will be used to the Australian way of life, language and manners.

The first thing which took me by surprise in Sydney was that the people here did not have the typical aussie accent that I was expecting to hear listening to Steve Irwin and all the Australians that we are used to seeing in TV. I almost never heard typical aussie expres-sions like “mate”, “no worries”, “sweet as” for the first week. Jane explained it was because of the growing cosmopolitan population and constance influence of the American media. The second thing was the number of people from different ethnic backgrounds. Usually, more than half of the people in the trains are people with non-English background; the Chinese, by far, are the most common. And they all speak in their own accents which makes it quite difficult to understand for the first few times but also makes it interesting.

I’d suggest everyone to do research as much as you can about Australia before coming here. Lonely Planet Guides are very good investments. They contain all the information you will need and will also has a good map. I carry my copy of Lonely Planet Guide to Sydney where ever I go. Also try looking up Australia and Sydney (or whatever city you’re going to) in Wikipedia and it’s sister site Wikitravels.

Laptops (if you are planning to buy one) are cheaper here, you’ll get a student discount on it and you won’t even need any adaptors for it.

Talking about adaptors, Australia also has a very different plug style, only found in Austra-lia and New Zealand. If you have equipments with a different plug standard.you’ll need an adaptor to use plugs from other parts of the world. The best place to buy is from the duty free shop in Bangkok Airport. You might even get it in Australia but it will be more expen-sive.

After the 4 weeks of homestay accommodation was over, I had to go look around for an apartment to stay. Finding an apartment in Sydney is never a easy thing to do, especially if you haven’t yet got a job yet. An average price for a 2 bedroom apartment is around $250 to $300. It’s easier if you look for it with other people than just looking one alone.

Among the people who come to Sydney for education, not all of them like the experience of living and studying in Australia. Whether you will like or dislike the the experience en-tirely depends upon your outlook. If you like change (I personally, love any kind of change.), you don’t mind venturing into new territories, and you don’t have overly exag-gerated expectations, believe me, you will have a fun. I am having a blast here in Sydney, I hope you will too.

Parag Satyal
paragsatyal@bbsga.com.au
www.paragsatyal.com
Sydney, Australia