Journal 1 

 

    Since I was in senior high school, traveling to Australia for working holiday has always been one of the things I longed to do. That was when “Gap year” was quite a hot topic around the world. Many says that by doing that, we would be able to step out of our comfort zone, broaden our horizons and embrace our new self. 

 

    However, not until I turned 20 that I actually did that. In fact, before that, I was merely thought of it as a dream which would probably never come true. As traveling to a country that I’ve never been to on my own can be extremely challenging. Especially under the circumstances that I literally knew no one in there. But stepping out of my comfort zone has consistently being my habitual tendency. Since I believe that only by doing things that I’m not familiar with can I make significant changes. And this one is clearly on the list. “Then why not give it a try and see how much more I am capable of ?” I thought to myself. Thus, I finally determined to go to Australia on my early 20s. 

 

   Despite the fact that I’ve already made up my mind to throw myself out of the comfort zone, it was still tough to sort all things out. Since I was going to stay there for a year, I really need to get everything ready beforehand. And the list was kind of beyond my imagination. I’ve never thought that going abroad can be such a hard mission to accomplish. In particular, something in priority is that I need to apply for working holiday application online, the wealth certificate, international student card, the bank account in Australia, and so forth. Besides, I also need to look for jobs and accommodations in advance, transfer NT dollars to AU dollars, and purchase plane tickets. Apart from that, I also have to pack my stuff and watch loads of videos about working holiday to gain experiences form them. It eventually took me 3 months to do those troublesome things. At the same time, I worked as a dentist assistance to cover my living expense and also save up some money for the future use. To prevent me from getting broke abroad, I had to bring enough money for me to live in AU without working at least for a month or so. Because who knows how much time it would take me to find a job in a completely unfamiliar country? But the living expense in AU is super high, so I worked hard to save up that money. Despite all the hardships, I didn’t seek help from the agent, which saved me at least 1500NT. Also, I managed to apply for everything myself and even purchased a plane ticket that’s in an insanely low price. (which was 8000NT dollars to Sydney). 

 

   

   For the next 2 journals, I would be talking more about the different jobs I got in AU, the intriguing things happened in there or my church life. So...stay tuned!