My life in Australia, how the love began :) #1

So last week I wrote a post about what I'm going to do after my Au Pair year is over and I talked a bit about that I lived in Australia for a year. I said I was/am confused about if I should go back to Holland or back to Australia, this post is going to be about my move to Australia over 2 years ago. Have a seat, because it will be long story. While writing this I realised it was going to be way too long, so I decided to split it up. For the next few weeks on Tuesdays I will place an article about my life in Australia.

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Let's start at the beginning, when I was about 14/15 I decided I wanted to move overseas and at first I wasn't sure how. I looked into different options, like a multi-language year, where you could go to different countries and learn the language. The problem was that it was really expensive, you had to pay for it all yourself as in the government wouldn't help me with that, and in the end it didn't really do anything for me. I mean you would have the experience and all that, but afterwards I would still have to study. So decided it would be a better plan, to study overseas and not for a semester but for the whole degree.

At first I wanted to study midwifery but in Holland they told me I couldn't because I didn't have biology or chemistry in high school, so I looked into other options and eventually decided I wanted to be a Social Worker. Now I knew what I wanted to do, the only other question was where? I was thinking about either the USA or Australia and then I found an organisation that could help me. I looked on their website and they work with different universities in the world. So I had a look at what the options where for social work in the USA and Australia and found out that at the time there was only one option in the USA and I didn't want to go there, so that's how I made the decision.

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Then I had to decide where I wanted to go and after a lot of research I decided to go to Perth. Then I had to start all the paperwork, the organisation would send me forms to fill in and I would send it back. They also translated all my diploma's and certificate's and they also had presentations about life down under. Then I had to apply for 'Studiefinanciering'. That is a little bit hard to explain in English, but is basically a loan you can get from the Dutch government, and the amount is based on the income of your parents. That was a lot of work and waiting. I send everything in during the summer break, in July, and I would start February the next year. After three months I still didn't hear back from then so I contacted them and they told me that they couldn't check it out till October so I had to wait.

After a few weeks I got some bad news from the university I wanted to go to. They had changed the program and I could no longer be accepted. There where two solutions, 1) choose a different degree, 2) go to a different school. This all happend in October, so I basically had to start all over again. The organisation was a great help to me and they recommended me James Cook University, so I decided to go there. Which meant we had to do all the paperwork again and I had to apply for 'studiefinanciering' for a second time.

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The university had two locations one in Townsville and one in Cairns, I decided to go to the first one, because I really wanted to live on-campus and that wasn't possible in Cairns. So I arranged everything and I even bought my ticket, but I still had no new from the 'studiefinanciering'. Eventually 2 weeks before my departure date I got the letter that it was approved and the amount of money I would get. I applied for my visa and the countdown began...

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The week before I was supposed to leave there was a huge cyclone in that area, and I still hadn't heard if I got a room on campus, so I was emailing them but got no answer, all the internet over there was down. I was on a forum online and got a message from a Dutch girl saying she lived in Cairns and was going to Study in Townsville as well. She asked me where I was going to stay when I got there and I told her I was planning to stay in a hostel. Then she and her family offered me to stay with them and drive to Townsville from their place. They changed the flights for and it was arranged, they said there was  a lot of flooding and everything was destroyed in Townsville, so it wouldn't be the best idea to go and stay in a hostel there. The girls was going to move to Townsville with her boyfriend and they were renting an apartment there, I could stay with them until I found a place to live.

I lived with them for about 3 weeks and that's when I met Danni. One day I went to the international office to see if they could help find accomodation. Danni was on the phone and I asked her if she was looking for a place to live as well. It turned out she did and she was going to look at a place that morning. But she agreed on coming with me the next day to look at different places where we maybe even could live together. We met up the next morning and someone from the international office drove us to the different locations, but none of them felt like a good fit. Then Danni told me she really liked the place she saw the previous day and they had another room free, so she gave me the number and I contacted the people that were renting out the room.

It turned out they already had three other people to come and watch it and after they showed me around the girl told me she just got a message from someone that he wanted it. But she said if I wanted it too, she would give it to me because I knew Danni, so I took the room and that is how Danni and I became room mates and the 'Indi family' started.

Read #2 next week... The reason I didn't use a lot of my own pictures is because I didn't really have to many of this part, but I promise I will make up for it with the next parts.

What is the most exciting thing you ever done in your life?