Five days ago I had my last exam. This week will be my last week in Melbourne. How great is that?In the same time it is so sad and I can’t really believe that all these are happening right now. I met a lot of wonderful people from around the world – or more from the States and Europe 😉 Some of them have a few exams left and are studying the whole time, while others are already on their trip through Australia, New Zealand, Asia or straight back home. On the other hand a lot of people are planning farewell partys and barbies (Aussie slang for BBQ). Like myself. Last saturday some friends came over for a barbie and we also celebrated philipp’s birthday, a good german friend. A lot of goon (not so good wine in 2-4l boxes and really really cheap…), beer, sausages, steaks and salads (also a swabian potato salad) made it perfect. I have so much meat left for an other barbie! Somehow it didn’t really feel like a goodbye party. I guess we all try not to think about it so much…
Car
Finding a perfect car is not a easy job here in Australia. Especially when you don’t know a thing about cars and on which data you need a closer look. Over time you get the feeling for it, but it takes a while. Boards in hostels, websites like melbourne.gumtree.com.au, carsales.com.au, tradingpost.com.au and Philipp are my companions since then. Philipp knows everything about cars, so he comes at some appointments with me to check the technique for obvious issues.
I’m looking now for a functionally and clean wagon, with less than 300.000km, with reg(istration) and RWC (road worthy certificate). All those criteria makes my choices rare. I had contact to over 25 car offerer and a few at only 3 cars. Some don’t answer to your messages or calls, others are already sold and the last group cancel the appointment for an inspection an hour before. Buying a car without registrations would cost me more than $600 to re-register and without a RWC I have the risk of some general issues of which the seller keeps secret or just doesn’t know at all.
But: Maybe I found one! The second car I had a look at was kind of alright. It only has nearly 300.000km and I’m not sure if I can sell the car for about the same price in three months. It also hadn’t a RWC before, but the seller is doing it today. So I just hope everything will be alright and I can have a second look with Philipp at it and take it “home” right away. This would be wonderful!
last days in Melbourne
You may ask yourself: what is she doing the last couple of days in Melbourne? Something special? I can say: oh yea! No, not really. But my life won’t be boring this week (also not the weeks and months afterwards). My plans for today are: checking for more car offers (there is not really more/ a lot of new cars.. but…), tomorrow we are going to Dandenong Ranges, in the evening we will celebrating, at 4am in the morning I have a skype conference to the Foreigndesk Evening at my home university (a speak about my study abroad and my experience over here), on Wednesday Lesar and me will do a photo safari through Melbourne and in the evening hopefully getting the car, on Thursday and Friday I will prepare myself and the car for the trip and work on my assignment for my home university as well as going in the evening to the Comedy night. So I can celebrate at the weekend and go shopping with friends. If everything is working out well, I will leave Melbourne on Sunday and drive to my first destination: Wilsons National Park. I’m excited!