My journey to Melbourne was the quickest three weeks I’ve ever spent, I had so much fun and experienced lots of different things then. I appreciated that I could join this program, this was an unforgettable experience of my life.

Our destination was Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Melbourne is the world's most livable city; it is also famous for its unpredictable weather. I experienced four seasons in one day there, and it was impressive. Melbourne is a beautiful city; you can see different kind of artwork not only in galleries and exhibitions, but also in the streets and shopping malls. Moreover, the people in Melbourne are very friendly and kind. They like to chat with different people even if you are a stranger. Melbourne is a lovely place because of its comfortable environment and friendly people.

When I was in Melbourne, I lived with my host family. They were a middle-age couple, Sonya and Alex. I still remember on the first day I was waiting for my host family to pick me up, I was so nervous because I had no idea whether they are nice people. Fortunately, they were very kind and patient to me, they treated me like their own daughter. Also, there was a Japanese girl who stayed in this house, her name was Kanako. Every evening, we had dinner together and shared how the day was. We discussed lots of topics during these three weeks. For example, we shared our own family stories, we shared our opinions about the culture difference between Australian and Chinese, etc. We got to know each other better through conversations. Besides, I improved my English speaking and listening skills when I was chatting with them. It was very joyful to spend time with them. One of the greatest parts of my journey was living with my host family.

Studying in Monash University was fantastic. Mark and Kerina, who were our teachers, were very gentle and caring. I gained a lot of knowledge about business skills from them, such as business culture, business writing and business conversations. I found out that the teaching method in Macau and Australia are very different. In Australia, there are many activities in class instead of just listening to the teacher. We did plenty of class discussions, debates, presentations, role playing and case studies when we were studying in Monash. Furthermore, we visited two local companies in Melbourne, one was the National Australia Bank, and the other one was the Dairy Innovation Australia. It was a precious opportunity that we could visit the companies and learn from the staff directly. I love those activities because it made me more creative and made the class interesting.

In leisure time, I went to visit some famous places in Melbourne with my friends. We visited Federation Square, St. Paul Cathedral, State Library, Queen Victoria Market, Melbourne Zoo, Brighton Beach and Melbourne Museum. I am glad that I had time to visit those pretty places; I came to know Australia better by visiting. By the way, it also was my first time to see kangaroos and koalas, they were very cute, and I wanted to hold them and touch them but I couldn’t, because it is forbidden in Melbourne.

Last but not least, I want to thank MPI for giving us an opportunity to study abroad and experience a different lifestyle for three weeks. Although three weeks is not enough time for me to enhance my English ability to the highest level, I have more confidence to speak in English now. It is a big improvement for me. This program also widened my horizons, made me become more independent and confident, I cannot learn those things in my textbooks, so I am glad that I did it!