Knowing, feeling and understanding the lifestyles and cultures of various countries (or places) have been one of my interests in my life. In order to achieve this goal, I have been working hard to learn different languages since I was a child, which include English, Mandarin and Portuguese, hoping that I can make good use of these languages in communicating with people of different origins someday in the future when I am travelling around the world.

Travelling to Australia to experience life was originally one of my plans for this year. I felt so grateful when I knew that I was selected to join the Overseas Study Programme to Australia for a two weeks’ time. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Macao Polytechnic Institute for providing me a precious opportunity to broaden my scope, making my life more meaningful and fruitful.

What I Love: My Homestay

Living and sharing life with Judy and Greg Wunsch is a warm and memorable experience.

Before setting off for Brisbane, I carefully read through every word in the Homestay Guide, trying to better prepare myself for the coming two weeks’ time living with the Wunsch family and leave a decent impression.

My host family lives in Jindalee, a nice and tranquil area bordered by the Brisbane River to the north. It took about 15 minutes walking from home to the bus stop. I enjoyed a lot this walking journey since I could indulge myself in embracing the bright sunshine and greeting the numerous stars all the way, which were gifts of nature.

Every day when I was home, Judy, Greg and I would have a conversation of the day, sharing how the day had been, which encouraged me to speak more English outside of school. During dinner time, Judy always prepared diversified meals for me, sometimes of Italian style and sometimes of Indian style. They were all unimaginably delicious, for which I was so thankful and appreciated. I did have a great time with the Wunsch family.

What I Enjoy: Wandering around Brisbane 

Grasping time to wander around Brisbane is an amazing and unforgettable experience.

Although there was only two weeks’ time at Brisbane, which limited the possibility to visit every corner of the place, we could still make the best arrangement of the time to take the steps to know more about the history and development of Brisbane through visiting its distinctive sites and joining its festival.

The Ekka is the annual agricultural show of Queensland. Its formal title is the Royal Queensland Show and is held at the Brisbane Exhibition Ground. Since the Ekka was held during August, the time when we were at Brisbane, the teachers and staffs of ICTE-UQ specially arranged a tour for us to participate into this iconic event. It was my first time to have such an intimate interaction with various kinds of animals, including sheep, llama, cattle, etc, which was so fun and exciting! The firework at night ended the day wonderfully.

Aside from Ekka, I also visited a series of distinctive sites, such as Roma Street Parkland, The Story Bridge, Art Galleries and Museum, The Valley, South Bank Parklands, Mount Coot-tha, Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, The Queen Street Mall, Gold Coast, etc, which amused me immensely.

Although Brisbane is not an aged city, it possesses a number of cultural sites and tourist spots which are definitely worth your time to leave footprints there.

What I Learn: English in a Fun Way

Making friend with English in a creative way is an interesting and enjoyable experience.

During the two weeks’ time, we had a series of English lessons related to communication, pronunciation, writing, speaking, etc. The teachers of ICTE-UQ were more like facilitators of a team. They shared their knowledge with students through an innovative and interactive way, which greatly aroused our interests in learning the language. Some of the lessons were even shared with students from other universities, which motivated us to practice our oral English in socializing with people from all around the world. Aside from having lessons in classroom, the teachers also arranged some city walking tours for us to explore Brisbane, which made our study programme more diversified and fun. I wish I could study there for a longer time.

In my point of view, visiting other countries or places by joining exchange tour or study programme always makes the journey more meaningful and fruitful, since it allows the participants to know, feel and understand the life and culture of the destination location more deeply through actually experiencing the daily life, study life or work life there, and frequently interacting with the habitants. Thanks MPI again for providing me a precious opportunity to be a part of this Overseas Study Programme.