This is my flat—kitchen, living room, and desk in my bedroom. (Click on photos for larger images.)
Living Arrangements
 I realize that I only have a month left down here in Australia, so I thought I should write a little about the type of flat (or apartment) I’m living in. I live in on-campus housing at Curtin University in a village called Kurrajong Village. Kurrajong Village (also known as KV or the village) has roughly 300 students living in it from countries all across the world. There are some Australian students living in the village, but the majority of Australian students who attend Curtin still live at home with their parents. That said, the diversity throughout the village is incredible and gives everyone a chance to learn about a variety of cultures. Similarly, this is also enhanced as all of the flats are also made up of people from a great number of different countries. In my flat are two Malaysians, one Singaporean, our Scottish RA, a guy from the Netherlands, and myself. It has been very interesting to see the different living styles that each one of us brings from our home country.
The arrangement of the flat is the six of us sharing a living room, kitchen and dining room. In the kitchen are two refrigerators so there is adequate storage for all of our food. The living room has two couches, two armchairs and a coffee table. The bedrooms in the flats are all housed in a long hallway, and there are six bedrooms and three bathrooms. Two people share a bathroom, which is located between the bedrooms. All of the bedrooms come with a desk, wardrobe, bed and a set of shelves, so there is a lot of storage. My room looks pretty empty since I’m only here for one semester, but it’s become a good comfortable home for me for the past three months.
My flatmates and I have become pretty good friends over the past three months. It took everyone awhile to get used to sharing a kitchen with five other people, but there were no real problems. When I moved in, there was only one other person living in the flat, a Scottish guy named John who also works as an RA for five flats. He’s incredibly busy studying biology and will eventually become a doctor. Not long after I moved in, my bathroom mate, Juwita, moved in. Juwita is from Singapore and is lots of fun to hang around with! She is studying communications and always seems to be busy studying. Roel is from Holland and is nearly seven feet tall! He lives next to Juwita, and since she’s incredibly short, it makes for some great pictures. Roel is also only studying in Australia for one semester, so he will be leaving in early July. Michael and Carriene are my other two flatmates. Both are from Malaysia, and they have been dating for five years!
 Photos: (above) Juwita and Roel are the shortest and tallest, respectively, in our flat; (l to r) Carriene and Michael are dating; John is our RA and Juwita is a serious student and lots of fun.
My flatmates and I have gone out to dinner together and plan on doing a couple more activities as a group before two of us (Roel and I) leave. It’s been a great experience living with five other people who all come from different parts of the world than I do, and I know I’m going to miss them when I go back to having an apartment all to myself!
Until next week,
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