Boris Laffineur

Here is his account of his first few weeks settling in to life in Brisbane where he's studying for his SKEMA BBA fourth year at a SKEMA partner university, the University of Queensland. " It’s now 15 days since I arrived here in Australia. After a short night’s sleep on the plane, we discovered the beautiful city that is Brisbane. "It’s a cold summer" as my Australian friends say. Temperatures are around 30 °C! The city is nice, green, and I’ve even met funny little animals... or sometimes large ones, like the Flying Fox bats for with wingspans of 1m50 gliding all night over the city! Life is really different here. The Australians are very friendly and helpful. While finding somewhere to live and a job, we moved to Backpacker, a sort of hostel where we met an Australian of Scottish descent, who gave us lots of advice. Boring administrative procedures have been made much easier, thanks to all the helpful info he gave us. He gave us advice in our search for apartments. We found a place to live at Kangaroo Point, a neighbourhood located just outside of the city and it’s got great access to go wherever you want on public transport. We’re sharing with two roommates: an Italian and an Australian. Music is everywhere in the city: jazz in the cafes, rock in the street and electronic music in restaurants. It's very nice, I feel totally at home. The only downside here is the cost for an internet connection and free wireless is not that easy to find. We went to the sea: the Gold Coast. We were able to surf nice waves, in water at a pleasant 27 ° C, under a blazing sun. Brisbane and Moreton Island: paradise! Stunning scenery, rays and a huge variety of fish… we even saw some dolphins playing just a few metres from the shore!" (Environmental Management specialisation)