MY MELBOURNE EXPERIENCE

BY GARY HATIGEVA

Melbourne a more far-reaching change from my city in my home country: Solomon Islands.

Gary @ Mel Museum

Me loving my experience here in Melbourne, Australia

Gary @ the Kitchen

The weirdest part of my trip to Australia is that I get to cook my own breakfast and dinner 🙂

Although it did feel like an adventure, coming from Solomon Islands to Australia was quite overwhelming and scary. I did feel homesick but with my busy schedule in training under the program I came, I come to fall in love with the culture and I’ve been enjoying all the differences. Although the sun is bright but not hot as it is in my home country, the clean air, reliable and efficient transportation system, friendly people, no rubbish and no holes on the streets, four seasons and cheap coffee everywhere, what more could I ask for? However, living without immediate family support could be hard at times, especially when laundry is mounting up, when its breakfast or dinner time because the very people whom we’d share cooking together or in most case cook and prepare meals are all back home in Solomon Islands.

With new friends

Coming from very different backgrounds and cultures, but as a media family, with one goal, to learn…

Despite the tough though cold weather, I still think it is a great opportunity and privilege to come and do training in Australia, which is all thanks to the Asia Pacific Journalism Centre Fellowship where I get to learn a lot of new things in such a small period. As someone who has been accepted to train in a lot of media trainings, multimedia for that matter, but with the APJC Fellowship training, I also like the fact that they it equips me with more tools that I know for sure will help and enhance my knowledge of how I work around issues, using social media. It is also great making new friends with people from different backgrounds and trying my best to learn different languages.

At training

One of our very helpful and active instructors on Social Media at the APJC Fellowship, Renee Barnes

I also love the fact that I’m in a place where different opinions are all heard and respected, where physical and verbal violence is not a way of disagreeing, and it’s awesome how all the possibilities and opportunities are just on the plate.  The funny thing is, I am not using all of the multimedia tools and social network avenues back in the Solomon Islands, particularly for the News Agency that I currently am working for, but I am hoping that I can go back and push to have all of what I have learnt put in to practice J

After all, I think we should really enjoy the experience of studying and training here in Melbourne, even though most of us are facing difficult times with the weather. As tough as they may be (parts of the fellowship training), ahead of us is knowledge and skills obtained, but all in all, being here in Melbourne has been a terrific experience for me 😉

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A spectacular view of the Melbourne City from my room. Melbourne in my experience is a city that never sleeps…

And If I’m given an opportunity to come back and work in Australia, I will choose Melbourne City or at least somewhere closer to Melbourne City… 😀

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