It was really hard for me to conceal my inner excitement when I found out that I became a member of the International Exchange Student. There are two reasons for this. First, I had known that Melbourne was often noted as a great place to live, so I really wanted to explore this charming city to experience the local culture and scenery. The other reason is that as a college student, this opportunity would allow me to put what I learned into practice.

After the trip, I had improved not only my oral English but also expanded my horizons. In the first week, I went around Melbourne and bought some souvenirs. Also, I could see many buskers in streets all over the place. However, there were also plenty of beggars, while in Macau there are not. All of this was new for me. What’s more, the local people are very splendid in art. Finally, I went to the Melbourne zoo. The Melbourne zoo was very beautiful. There were many kinds of animals in it and it was the first time that I had seen a kangaroo, koala and common wombat .But the highlight was going to the Queen Victoria Market which was one of the biggest markets I had ever seen. In it, goods of every conceivable kind were sold and I bought some fresh oysters which were extremely delicious.

Although there were many interesting things happened in this week there were also many challenges I had to face. For example, I cooked for my homestay, because I wanted to eat some Chinese food and my homestay did not know how to cook. I asked them I could use the kitchen to cook a dinner. They agreed, but unfortunately there were not enough ingredients and materials. Thus I had bought some in supermarket. Finally, I tried my best to cook and I made some lettuce, potato and chicken wings but it did not taste good. My motto was to never give up, which allowed me to overcome whatever challenges I encounter. After a week’s observation, I found that Melbourne people like sports very much. I could see many people running in the street, in the park and some young people played ball with besom, like Harry Potter. Some people play rugby in the park.

There was also a part I remember deeply. We went to CPA Australia. We listened to Paul Comeskey speak, who is a CPA-business development manager and Rahul Mehra, who is a web alive-web strategist.  We learned from them more things which we could not learn in class. Another activity was the table meeting. There were some successful people like Irwin Hau, Daniel Simons, Mandy Liu and Tarun Rabari. They shared their experiences with us. Form their words, I caught some new ideas. All of this was really different from my classes in Macau.

In the second week, I also went to some places like Eureka tower where we could saw all of the Melbourne. The interesting thing was to try to stand in “The EDGE”. It was a little bit exciting but very worthy to do. My friend said, “This is a view you should keep in your mind which will be different from photo in your phone,” and she was very right. Since we could not bring the view with us on our phone we learned to cherish the moment.

During this short trip, I learned things which I could not in my country. I am excited for the next trip.