Your Story Nominee
By Gosego Maeze
My story is full of ups and downs. It begins when I first arrived in Adelaide in February, 2008, from my home country, Botswana. Having come from a third-world country, Adelaide was the most beautiful city I had ever been to. But 2008 was also the most challenging year I had ever encountered in my life. You see, I found the lifestyle of a first world country to be completely different to that of a third world country.
I have a few examples to backup my claim. In Adelaide, being a city from a first word country, people tended to be more responsible; for example, you never saw vandalism and people deliberately littering every day, whereas they happened a lot in my country. This was one of the first things I noticed in Adelaide, and I thought, ‘’wow’, I love this place!’
Secondly, police cars had computers in them that could just run a vehicle registration status while they were driving behind you, which was fantastic. I had never seen such a thing before in my life, and it really made me even more curious to live in Adelaide. The presence of speed and red light cameras, bicycle lanes and high standard road conditions impressed me even more. In my country, everyone knew everyone living in their suburb, but in Adelaide, you hardly even knew who your neighbour was, though.
When I first came to Adelaide, it was in the evening, and as the airbus landed, I was amazed by the beautiful twinkling lights in the atmosphere. However, I struggled to get to UniSA’s City East campus to enrol myself. I walked up and down the city for a while, hoping to find it, until I thought of asking for assistance.
Through time, I have come to learn that Adelaide has a very multicultural society, which makes it easier to socialise and interact with people. Despite this, it was hard to make friends in the first few months I was here, which made it difficult for me to enjoy this place; but as soon as I made more friends, I began to enjoy living in this city.
The nightlife is fantastic in Adelaide, totally different from my home country – it is the safest place to be. Adelaide also has some interesting places to visit; there is, for example, going wine tasting in Barossa valley, the beaches here, Victor harbour, Mt Lofty and its scenic drives and parks, the resorts around the place, and many others still.
Festivals in Adelaide keep the city packed with people from different parts of the world; there is the The Fringe Festival, WOMADelaide, Schutzenfest, and many more. The food and drinks are very different from my country’s, and this has given me a new culinary experience.
The architecture and lifestyle here are very different from those in my country, and living here has given me a great opportunity to explore these differences; I must admit that Adelaide is now my new favourite place to be, I enjoy Adelaide.
My life as an international student has been amazing here in Adelaide; sometimes I feel homesick, but that’s normal for everyone who is away from their motherland. Like in any other society, there are always going to be some mean people, but as far as my experience here is concerned, there are very few of them.
My advice to other international students is to look more at the positive things about Adelaide than in the negatives, and to be able to enjoy the city. I now feel part of Adelaide’s society.
Image courtesy of Frank Starmer
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