First Four Months Recap

Well, it has been so very long since the last time I write anything about my life. But I'd like to put some notes here just to recap my first three months here in Australia as a PhD student. There will be some details missing for sure. I'm not even sure whether my memory still serves me right.

Mid-March

I arrived in this Koala land on May 20th, somewhere around 15.15. The flight was delayed a little bit. I have a feeling that I've written about this in the previous post. The first two weeks was filled with administrative things. Opening bank account, creating student and staff ID card (yes, PhD students are regarded as staff here), registering for concession fare for the GoCard (similar to Suica/Pasmo/Icoca in Jp), finishing some mandatory parts of the enrollment.

A little story when I went to the nearby branch of a bank to create a student account. The officer asked several questions but there are questions that feels so much like an interrogation rather than opening an account. I told him that I hadn't even been there for 24 hours, so I don't know how much I will spend a month or whatever. He kept asking for things like that, whether I will get a job or some sort. But when I told him that I am coming as a PhD student, he softened. He told me that his parents also have PhD. I don't care. I don't like how he treated me like that.

After opening the bank account, I went to campus to meet my supervisor in person for the first time. He took me around and we had a chat for an hour or so. He briefed me about the overall PhD program and what I will be doing, and he took the chance to offer me a tutoring job. But I told him at that moment to wait until the next several months (preferably 6 months) so that I will have some time to build a strong foundation to my research first before I do something else. 

April

The first month. Most of the time I spent preparing the documents for stage-2 proposal. Something that precedes the confirmation seminar. Stage-2 just show how much we know or at least able to plan a research project. But by the end of April, a course began which mainly consisted of two assignments. The assignments are basic, it is not hard, but I cannot say it is easy because the meticulous detail regarding the scoring rubric. Oh, I also made a bike shelter access card. It is a secured bike parking at a few points so that I can store my bike and continue my journey by bus. It will be rarely used, but it is really a nice thing to have.

May

I am enrolled into a mandatory course which designed for PhD and master by research students. It is basically a course where we are all expected to have a certain standard of creating research question, finding sources of literature using databases, and evaluating the papers to find if that paper has any contribution to the research question(s). Sounds easy? Not really. I spent a lot of time making sure that I miss nothing on the assessment rubric.

June

I finished a book, Sophie's World, a book about philosophy by Jostein Gaarder. The content itself is engaging and served in a linear timeline. It mainly focuses on Western philosophies from ancient Greek to modern era. It sadly doesn't cover about the Eastern philosophers. For the sake of simplicity, the book only talks about several key people for each era. As the result, alternative philosophers like Diogenes are only briefly covered. It is a nice book to read if the reader has no background about philosophy, or people who just want to know the development of Western philosophy throughout the history.

This month I received my first assignment result, which is unfortunately got an unsatisfactory score. But that was fine. They gave us (failures) the second chance. After I revised the assignment, I got satisfactory score. But there is still one more assignment that I had just submitted. Hopefully the result is satisfactory so that I can focus on my research more.

I went to Mt.Gravatt alone with my bike. The trail is not long, the mountain (or I just want to say that it is just a hill) is not that high. That makes the trail is not long, but steep. I arrived at the top around 4pm waited until 5.30pm to see the sunset. It was a nice, small place, and we could see the city from there. But since it was my first time, I was so afraid to go down as I am not really familiar to the place yet. Lucky for me there was this one cyclist up there and he was kind enough to let me follow him to the base. The route he took was the opposite from where I supposed to be heading, but for safety reason I believe a little detour is acceptable at that point.

July 

I got lucky. Both of my assignments got satisfactory mark (it is not a full score though) but fuck it. I just want to get rid of it. The main tenant (the one who rent the whole house) decided to raise my rent fee per August. Sounds so disrespectful. I mean, the current price 220pw for what I got and where it's located is already ok. I cannot complain too much. But if they decided to raise it to 250pw, it loses its value. Hence, I looked around and realized one thing:

"Being closer to campus does not make your trip any faster"

There are four main points when I look for an accommodation:

1. Access to public transport. Especially from and to the campus.
2. The place itself. Does the rent fee include all the bills? Is it clean? Does anyone smoke? Any place to hang my laundry safely? How big is the room? How much storage does it have? How good is the ventilation?
3. Is it located too close to big road or train tracks? Noise pollution is not something I desire at any price point.
4. The people inside. This cannot be controlled. Only God knows.

I got a place 15-minute cycling from my current place. It is owned by a mid-aged Taiwanese man. The price is 40 AUD cheaper than my current weekly rent. It is an old house, but for that price, I cannot complain. The room comes with window AC, it is spacious. The kitchen in old houses still uses the electric stove top with exposed heating elements unlike the modern ones which usually offer flat tops. There is no place to hang my laundry safely when it is raining. Thus, I can only wash my laundry when the weather is nice, which I usually do. The best thing is that the place is only 10 minutes walking to the bus stop which can take me directly to the campus. It is also the same road that crosses the cheap Asian shopping center and ultimately, the church and train station for bonus. Pretty strategic I should say. I hope nobody is smoking.

But why do I decide to move out? The price hike is not really the main issue here. The main tenant in my current place are siblings. They are both working and only home less than 12 hours a day. I almost own the whole place by myself. The house itself is pretty convenient, well lit, quiet, and well ventilated. The problem? My neighbor is noisy and rarely takes bath. He plays game at night and make loud noises. The siblings are the real pain in the ass when it comes to cleaning. They don't open the windows when cooking, they never clean after cooking, and worst of all, whenever they cook, the stovetops are full of oil splatters and whatever. Oh, I almost forgot that no one in this house put their dishes nicely after washing it. The result? The drying rack is a mess as it is hard to find empty space. The younger sibling is not a considerate person. He bangs the door at night. He takes bath for an hour at least and the water is running all that time. 

But the real main reason is the way they treated me after all the things I do. I cleaned the house once a week. I clean the stove tops only for them to mess it again the next day. I even cleaned the bottom of the pans and pots that are full of hardened oil. But when they decided to raise the price, they make it as if it is all my fault. Do they even look after the house? Do they know if anything is leaking? Nope. They don't care. And they one-sidedly put all the blame on me? It is true that I and my neighbor are the ones who stay in this house longer than them, but it is not a valid reason to raise the rent price just because they think they are not in this house as long as we do. I've been here for just 4 months and in general people raise rent only after one year. And 30AUD pw raise? Even a seasoned landlord would not do that. So, fuck it. I took it as their way of kicking me out. 

One last good deed that I do is that I tell them that the water-heater unit is leaking, which I believe is the main culprit of their crazy electricity + water bills. However, it is what it is. I love the house, really. But I cannot stay with someone disrespectful as them.