Today marked the end of week 8, week 8 out of 12 at the University of Melbourne. I think I can therefore say that I have some idea of how life is like when studying at this university, and I would like to share some insights with you today :)

First, let me give you some insights into what my schedule looks like at this uni: on Monday I start class at 15:15 and finish at 18:15, Tuesday consists of class from 10:00-11:30 and 14:15-16:15 and on Wednesday I am in class from 10:00-12:00 and 15:15-17:15 after which my weekend starts! Yes, I have a FOUR day weekend!!

How is that possible when taking four subjects at the same time, compared to the average of three subjects in Leiden? Well, compared to back home, classes here are really short. Where a lecture or tutorial would take 2 hours in Leiden, here they average around 1-1,5 hours, making it easier to plan multiple classes on the same day.


So what subjects am I enrolled in?
- Punishment and Social Control analyses life in prison with a focus on vulnerable groups like women or Aboriginals, discusses theoretical perspectives on why we have prisons and how life is like after prison. This is my favorite class and sparks very interesting discussions that make you look at imprisonment and support in prison with a very new view (For more information: click link)
- Order, Disorder, Crime and Deviance focuses on the many theoretical accounts on whether we are deviant or criminal based on our own decision, on our own free will, or whether society shapes us in such a way that we are bound to commit a crime. Though I expected a bigger focus on crime, I think this course is very interesting as it shows how people can have very different ideas of what deviance is and how deviance comes about (Want to read more: click here)
- Law, Justice and Social Change tries to highlight the interactions between law and justice and law and social change by analysing how changing law is not enough to achieve justice of any kind, but that society must be changed as well in order to really achieve something. Topics that are discussed include homosexual marriage, homelessness, women in poverty and refugees; contemporary topics that are really interesting to compare with the Netherlands (More info: see here)
- Public Trials analyses how the public influences famous trials, like the OJ Simpson trial or the famous Australian trial surrounding the death of Azaria Chamberlain. It discusses how the time and place of a trial influence its outcomes and how it is presented to the public. Learning about Australian trials and how they affect and are affected by society really gives me more insight into the Australian history (Read further: click this)

In comparison to Leiden, students have quite a chill life here. Next week is our mid-semester break; in total Melbourne students have 2 mid-semester breaks, a 4-week winter break and a 2-month summer break. My psychology program back home gives us a 1-week Christmas break and 2,5 months of summer holiday. Also, before exam week starts, students get a 'reading' week, a week without classes in which you can catch up with your readings, something unimaginable back in Leiden. Exam week is three weeks long for four courses (one semester), in Leiden I have six exams in one semester, spread out over just two weeks. Furthermore, while in Leiden every course has an exam, here a lot of courses have final essays or take-home exams.

Consequently, a lot of students do not do their readings, because they will not be tested on it anyway. Also, there are hardly any participation grades, so discussions are mostly limited to a few interested and engaging students.   Due to the short time we have in tutorials, discussions remain rather superficial as every time we want to discuss something a little more into-depth, the hour has already passed and it is time to go home. I do really miss the discussions we have at Leiden University, as it makes it so much more interesting to engage with the materials and to think about the information when you also hear someone else's perspectives next to your own. However, due to this, studying here is way less stressful for students, and it encourages students to think on their own rather than just memorizing facts from books to pass a test. And I really don't mind a four-day weekend of course!

The University of Melbourne Campus is quite big, and there is even a 'Lost on Campus' app to help students find their way in a maze of buildings. This, however, provides a lot of flexibility on where you can study. My favorite study spots are currently the Law Building (which has a very comfortable couch to crash on) and the Victoria State Library, which is intimidatingly pretty (see picture). As coffee capital of the world, one cannot ignore the amazing cafés as well, and those are really fun if you do not have too much pressure to actually write an essay!


I hope this gave you some insights into my life here on campus. Though I am a little critical, I am very happy with my choice and am really enjoying my time here are UniMelb!
 

07:00 am, alarm sounds in both bedrooms, but all four of us keep on snoring. Luckily there is a snoozer to wake us up ten minutes later so that with a little bit of hurrying we are still on time to catch our tram down to Flinders station. It was time for a three-hour bus drive to Grampians National Park with the four roommates of Swanston Street!

After catching a little more sleep on the bus, our first stop was at Boroka Lookout, which supposedly has a very beautiful view. The only thing we saw, however, were clouds and rain. But with some sarcasm about the different shades of fog we took some pictures and with good optimism got back on the bus to explore more of this famous national park.

The next stop was Mackenzie Falls, where we would also have lunch. These beautiful waterfalls were stunning to see, and the sounds of the water falling down was really relaxing. We hiked down the fall and after some more pictures had our lunch on some rocks near the stream. Though there was some rain, our coats, umbrellas and TimTams (famous Aussie cookies) kept the spirit high. I wish we had more time to walk down the stream, because it was such a beautiful walk, but we had to hike up all the way again to take the bus to the next stop, the Reeds Lookout and the Balconies.




Though at first we were a little disappointed by another foggy, cloudy and rainy lookout, the Balconies surprised us when the winds took away all the clouds and cleared the air to reveal a stunning view over the Grampians. This part of the Grampians is especially known for the rocks sticking out, providing the perfect opportunity for some dangerous pictures of people hanging on the cliffs (don't worry, we did not want to kill ourselves).



Last stop was Halls Gap, a local town with lots of kangaroos hopping around. Some banana peels later (these roo's love fruits) it was time to head home. Tired, cold and wet, but very happy with our new experiences, We had loads of fun and will definitely go back to this amazing park!
 

Today was an awesome day, at 11:15 we took the train to Middle Brighton, a suburb around 40 minutes away from the CBD. With the highest number of cafes and restaurants per number of people in the world, we could not resist an amazing brunch in Brighton and thus we set off to Brighton Soul Espresso café. The options were endless and it took us about half an hour to decide what to order. In the end, I decided to go for a hot chocolate with chocolate waffles; a perfect decision. The food looked and tasted delicious, and also the atmosphere of the place was really nice!

Being fueled up with enough energy and sugar, we walked to the Brighton Bath Boxes, the attraction Brighton Beach is known for. The colorful boxes in combination with the beautiful beach was definitely worth it, and we took some time for a photoshoot with the prettiest boxes on the beach.

Along the coastline is a very beautiful pathway that brings you all the way to St. Kilda, another suburb known for its beaches, esplanade and luna park. The walk is about 7 kilometers, and takes around 2 hours if you just walk, however, we took some detours and photos, so it took us all afternoon to get from Brighton to St. Kilda. The view is definitely worth it though, with the CBD skyline in the far distance, the sea breeze through your hair and your face in the sun, you really do not mind walking that far.



In St. Kilda we got some ice cream and cake, and went to the St. Kilda pier to watch the penguins come in at sunset. There is a colony of about 1500 penguins on the breakwater since the 1970s. They are Eudyptula minor penguins, the smallest species of penguin with an average of 33 cm in height. They are also known as fairy penguins because they are so small. It was so cute to see them come into the harbour and find their spots in between the rocks, definitely a very good ending to a great day!
 

Another item off my bucket list: a footie! A what?! Well, last Sunday me and two of my roommates went to an Australian Football game in the biggest stadium of Australia: the Melbourne Cricket Ground. With our free international tickets in our hands we went inside and were immediately amazed by the cheering crowds; around 53,000 others were with us that day (about half of the stadium's capacity). We found a seat in the upper rings and were ready to learn some more about Australia's culture.

Australian Football is not very complicated to understand; there are four poles on each side of the field, and a score in between the inner poles is worth 6 points, and between the outer poles 1 point. And then there is a bunch of huge, muscly, hot guys running and kicking around the field, tackling each other on their way. I can tell you: it is a lot of fun to watch!

With four quaters in the game there are also 3 breaks, a great time to eat some fries and for the non-vegeterians and non-vegans amongst us a hotdog or hot pie. You need the energy to cheer for your team! And that's what we did!

The match was the Melbourne Demons against the St. Kilda Saints, and because St. Kilda is a suburb of Melbourne, there was enough rivalry amongst the spectators. Flags, caps, shirts, pom poms, music, chants; everything was there to impress the opponent. We had prepared beforehand and knew which colors to wear, and which to avoid, in order to survive the game in one piece. And luckily for us, the Melbourne Demons won the match with a stunning 96 against 72, making it very very very hard for the St. Kilda Saints to be able to make it to the finals. Beat them!



 

On Friday the 4th of August, me and two friends set off to the bus that would bring us and about 70 others to Phillip Island, a two-hour drive from Melbourne, for our surf camp! After the bus drive we unpacked our bags and were divided in groups with whom we would do the activities with during the weekend. The first one being a real student activity, namely chucking goon (the Australian slang word for boxed wine) as fast as possible with your group. A delicious dinner, including dessert, was served and we got ready for the party of that night: Christmas in August! Though Christmas songs were missing in the dj's playlist we had loads of fun and enjoyed ourselves with punch and wine.

The next day was the BIG day: surf day! A quote from Wikipedia: "Phillip Island is recognized as having one of the most consistently reliable and varied surf conditions in the country" (2014). Nothing to worry about, right?

Unfortunately for us, our professors are right. Never trust Wikipedia as a source. Due to high waves we were not allowed to surf, so we went bodyboarding instead. And I have to say, it was a very fun substitute! Because the waves were so high, several times we were able to catch a wave that would take us all the way back to the beach, an amaizng feeling! As you might know, it is winter on this side of the world, so we had to wear wetsuits. The water temperature was not as cold as we had expected (luckily), and the only time we were really cold was when we had to take off the wetsuits.
After body boarding, we had a short Australian slang class from one of our group leaders, so if someone now asks for some dead horse (ketchup) or wants directions to the nearest bottle-o (liquor store), I know exactly what they need. We had another really good dinner, I don't think any other camp I have been on before had such good food, and changed to our pyjamas for the final drinking games and party of the weekend! Pyjama parties are awesome, as you don't need to change when you want to go to bed ;)

On Sunday we were all just very happy we did not have to do much, everyone was really tired and ready to go home. Despite not being able to actually surf, the surf camp was much fun and I really enjoyed my time on Phillip Island! Definitely going back, because there is also a penguin park there and I cannot skip the opportunity to see penguins, right?

The teenage years are over! I have turned 20 some 8 hours earlier than I would normally have and enjoyed every minute of the day here in Australia.

I was already told by my three lovely flatmates, Loïs, Ana and Victoria, that I was not allowed to get out of bed before they told me to, so I stayed in bed waiting for them to 'wake me up'. When they eventually did, I was greeted with an amazing pancake breakfast and gifts that are both very cute and very useful! An awesome start of the day!

In the afternoon, I experienced something completely new to me: I had to go to class on my birthday...! The first and probably also the last opportunity for me to really experience how it is to treat your fellow classmates in school. As my birthday is always in the midst of summer, in primary school my 'uitdeeldag' (treatday) would be weeks before my actual birthday, so this was the perfect moment to give myself the actual experience. Coincidentally, the Aldi that is located in our apartment building had Dutch food week and sold stroopwafels (together with some random other stuff like Wilhelmina peppermint, red cabbage, Honig, and krakelingen) and thus I brought stroopwafels to my tutorial. Not only was it much fun to hand out the stroopwafels and get birthday wishes and songs, but it also provided a good opportunity afterwards for some conversation with my fellow Australian classmates!

Immediately after class I went out for dinner with Ana and Victoria, and I had another first experience: dumplings. Though I have eaten quite a lot of Chinese food, somehow I had never tried dumplings before, but I must admit that I missed something in the first 20 years of my life. They are DELICIOUS! It was around that time as well that Holland woke up and messages started pouring in, which was so much fun to read! We headed back, watched an amazing episode of Game of Thrones (no, we could not skip that) before friends arrived for a fun night in our apartment with donuts, cake and wine. It I am very thankful for all the effort (Loïs, Victoria and Ana, you guys are the best version of crazy) and birthday wishes: it was a great day!

Today marked the start of Melbourne University's second semester. Winter break is officially over and all students are back in class and the library, including me! As many of you already know, I did not just pick Melbourne as my destination because it is an awesome city, but also because of the specific subjects offered at the best university of Australia. As I want to follow up my Bachelor's degree in psychology with a Master's degree in forensic psychology, I really wanted to take criminology-related courses that also touch upon psychological theories and ideas, and Melbourne University offered me just that! Currently I am enrolled in 4 subjects, the maximum amount, two of which are criminology subject (Order, Disorder, Crime and Deviance, and Punishment and Social Control), one sociology subject (Law, Justice and Social Change) and one law subject (Public Trials). And despite the short summer (or in Australian weather terms, winter) break, I can't wait for all the interesting information!

Yesterday Ana, Victoria and me already did a tour around campus so we would know where to go, because the campus is huge and there are so many different buildings that it is easy to get lost. There is even a 'Lost on Campus' app available for students who can't find their way out of the maze called Melbourne Uni.

Luckily though, I did not have to use the app today, as I could quite easily find both classrooms. Today consisted of both the lecture and tutorial (or workgroup) for the class Punishment and Social Control, and eventhough it had some overlap with a summer course I took at home, it was also evident that this was just a general introduction and that the coming weeks will definitely bring a lot of new information, for example on indigenous people in prisons. The tutorial was interesting with a lot of debates around the legitimacy of imprisonment, but I will not bore you all too much with the specifics. All in all, it actually quite resembles Leiden University, which makes me feel quite at home and at ease with the system, so hopefully everything goes smoothly!

So that was my first student-experience of Melbourne and to stay in real student mode, I am now off to watch the second episode of Game of Thrones to avoid having to read for tomorrow...
(And on a totally different note: it is just 7 days until my birthday, and exactly 6 months until I am flying back to Amsterdam: I am so excited to explore so much more of this beautiful country and to meet many more interesting and friendly people!)