I thought I'd write a bit about some of the people I've met here and the experiences we are sharing as exchange students! There's about 180 exchange students here at UM this semester so I've been meeting people as I go! A local student Jasper helped put together a welcome dinner and about 80 of us were at that so I met some really cool people from all over - Germany, France, Korea, China, Japan and pretty much all South East Asian countries!!!

In my classes I have made friends with mostly exchange students. In my gender class there is Anjani (Indonesia) and Suzie (Brunei). In nutrition I have Hooran (Pakistan) and Suzie also. In Chinese religion is Park (Korea). In Korean culture there's quite a few from China but namely Summer, also a full time International from Palestine named Rami.

Outside of class I see a lot of Hooran who is Pakistani and amazing! We chat a lot about Islam and world politics haha often over carb-based foods at the mall! We also did a trip last week with my friend Samia (Morocco), Hooran, Suzie, Suzies roomie Lee and one of Samias friends Anel! We visited Batu Caves and it was a really great arvo out exploring! I also went to a Holi celebration with 2 girls from France and a guy from Korea which was really cool!

Locals wise I had some really good chats with people in my classes. My student buddy Eva who takes care of me and Samia is lovely and we've been out a couple of times with 2 of her friends as well! I also met Mike on the ISC trip to Ipoh who is from the other side of Malaysia and is super friendly!

In terms of Aussies, Tristan who's from Adelaide is at uni with me and I've also met Georgie, Tom and Rachel who are some other NCP Scholars here studying/interning. I went to an event at the High Commission and got to know them all - really good to have a beer and use my extensive collection of Aussie slang hahaha

Last week a group of us from uni went to Sunday Lagoon which is a big waterpark/theme park so I've also made some good friends with some Thai students (June, Mariam, Captain, Nadzri) and some Chinese friends (Aaron, Wei, Mary, Becky) as well as Quique who is from Mexico and real awesome! Myself, Quique, and the 4 from China have started planning a trip to Bali together which will be wicked!!