Officially accepted
I received my official Confirmation of Enrolment today from the University of Melbourne. With that, I was able to apply for my student visa at the Immigration Department of the Australian Government. Luckily this can be done online, saves a lot of hassle.
This basically means that it’s now absolutely certain that I’ll be studying in Australia for a semester. The visa should be processed within a few weeks. I’m about to pay for my plane ticket. I’ll be flying out of The Netherlands in the early morning of Monday the 13th of February, and I’ll arrive in Melbourne in the afternoon of the 14th, local time (probably in a state of complete and utter jetlaggedness because of the +10 hour time difference).
I found a relatively cheap (i.e. EUR 1250 inc.) flexible open-year ticket at Australian Backpackers, which allows a stop-over in Malaysia on the way back. That stop over option is pretty cool I must say. Right now the plan is to let the stopover last over two weeks, so I’ll have the chance to see a bit of Malaysia (and possibly Thailand too since it’s just around the corner). And I can change my flight dates for free, so that should leave me plenty of possibilities to do some world exploration. The one restriction will be my budget… I have no idea how long it’ll last!
