Australia is a “Neverland” where you can enjoy playing with various cute animals. Human beings and animals are never alienated there. The biodiversity is well protected, and I have had a class about learning Australian indigenous animals. There were kookaburras, platypus and emus. I didn’t know that sharks can live in the river of Brisbane. It was amazing. We went to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary where you can cuddle koalas and feed kangaroos. I had been dreaming of touching a koala for a long time. In fact, I cuddled them.

I lived with a Singaporean-Australian single mother. Although her father came from China and her siblings were living in Shanghai, she was not strongly influenced by Chinese culture. She left Singapore at a young age. Given the reality that she preferred talking to me in English, I was glad. The transport was good, and it took me less than an hour to go to the university. There were only several big shopping malls in Brisbane, and Indoorpily was one of them. I was so lucky to catch the bus from Indoorpily to UQ in time every day. However, I felt homesick sometimes. East or west, home is the best.

The tempo of life is accelerating in Macau, but it is much more slowly in Australia. I found inner peace in Brisbane. I got up about half past seven and went to bed at 9 o’clock. Everyday seemed to be so short in Australia. The University of Queensland was a place of serenity and amazing scene. Asian students could be easily seen in almost every corner of Brisbane, and thus I got a basic idea about how popular Brisbane was to foreign students. Honestly, I practiced my Japanese a lot, because students from Japan spoke around me on the local buses every day. Although life in Australia was simple, it did not mean that it was monotonous. In University of Queensland, I met an extremely excellent multi-lingual professor named Riz. He was born in Brazil and later studies in London. Our classes were so cool, for he really had a sense of humor. We saw some movies with him and learned Aboriginal culture. Aboriginals were quite unfamiliar to me before, so I felt quite excited to have that class. In Brisbane, numerous places, shopping malls were named in lesser- known language, which I suppose to be Aboriginal’s. Aboriginal flag, hung with Australia’s national flag and Brisbane’s local flag, consisted of three different colors. The communication skills I learned in UQ were quite useful.

I usually went to art galleries and museums on the weekends. From Monday to Friday, we had classes or activities all the day. Inside the university, there were two canteens. I found the pizza and sushi to be extremely good. I did not expect to have sushi there. I was crazily obsessed with the tasty food in UQ. Another thing I have to mention is that I tried sand-boarding and kayaking in Moreton Island. The sands were so soft, the sea so blue.

To sum up, I am really grateful to MPI for holding this great activity, and I will remember this wonderful experience for sure.