My week in Perth

It was actually five days. Just 5 days.

Such an intense five days though, that three days in I was telling Diksha it felt like we'd been there ages.

Guess that comes from each day bringing in its wake new experiences and new challenges, pushing us to our limits on finding solutions and work arounds. New experiences as in, not just difficult ones (which also we had our fair share of), but even just in terms of different.

For instance.....we once came out of a store after three hours, with so many shopping bags (only later realizing we don't have our own car) and we find it's already dark out, the parking lots are empty, it's windy and chilly..... and there's not a single soul around. Almost eerie. The city kind of shuts down at 7. 

And there's a quiet and stillness in the air which we don't ever experience here. Except for birds and the occasional distant car you hear nothing. (diksha's like "and we thought our place back home was quiet !")

It takes getting used to.

Perth is a beautiful city in western Australia, and said to be the most isolated capital city of the world.  (not sure why it's called that though, and no energy for research :) 

It's as modern and developed as any western city, yet seems to so beautifully blend in a natural and rustic rawness. So spread out, that it feels like it's yet nature and forests interspersed with houses and buildings, and almost all buildings are ground level, so from any vantage point all you see is trees and roads and roof tops.

Downtown ofcourse has a few high rises, but that we saw as we passed by on our way from the airport.

Rest of stay was at Joondalup.

Joondalup is a suburb in the north of Perth, and that's where Diksha's Univ is. Like a small city unto itself. Atleast for us it seemed so. 

A city that has a small town feel. The people are really really friendly, and seem to go out of their way to be nice.  It's not once, but thrice that I'm standing on the road or cross road and someone will come by to ask "are you lost... can I help?".  

Or this time when I got on a bus without the needed change....everyone had warned me not to, so I thought I'd walk, but I quickly got lost... so went back to the bus stop and decided to chance it. As soon as I got in, I told him I was new and had only a twenty dollar bill, and as expected, he said he had no change. To my question of whether I should then get off, the driver says "ain't your fault darling that I have no change, stay on board". It was so heart warming.

While I could get carried away writing about the experiences, I think it's best to start at the beginning.

We landed at Perth on a sunny sunday afternoon. Last Sunday in fact. We had close friends of close friends pick us up. Our wonderful people experience started there.

Jaya, Vijayan and their daughter Radhika were at the airport to receive us. We were meeting them for the first time, and were so absolutely surprised when they first took us to their place for a lovely biryani and chicken stew lunch. That felt so so welcoming.

To get to some pictures....an Aussie welcome at the airport.

Jaya, Radhika and Diksha

There was a 'student welcome kiosk' at the airport and they welcomed Diksha with a cute little kit, most critical of which was a one week free sim card. 

Vijayan, loading the car

Digging into the yummy biryani and chicken curry at their place

Vijayan giving Diksha a geographical perspective of Perth on his tablet, showing her their house and her campus kinds

Heading out after that lovely lunch. Next to Vijayan is Krittika, their younger daughter who not only did the driving to campus, an hour long drive, but also became our conduit to Ola (yes, Ola's in Australia) for the duration of stay, as try as we might, neither of us could get our ola or uber accounts going there. 

Swan river which runs through Perth.... the city is pretty much like north and south of Swan. We saw some beautiful wild black swans on the river, and when I got all excited seeing them, they said "the river is named after the swans" :)

Entering the Edith Cowan Campus

That's Toby their dog, who also came on the ride. Dogs aren't allowed into the living areas of the ECU village (as their hostel is called), so Vijayan (on the deck chair) and Toby, waiting outside patiently as the rest of us went on an ECU village tour.

University accommodation checked in, we headed to my AirBnB which was another fifteen minute drive from campus. 

This is from front of the house.....and that's the ocean at the distance. Pretty much the view from my room.

We did all this afternoon to evening, and the weather felt great. Temperature does a sudden drop as the sun sets, and that's when the cold hit us. While Diksha seemed to have adapted better, I've never layered up as much as I did at Perth.