All the places I’ve lived (in Brisbane)

#debx3inAUS is a blog series detailing my international student life in Brisbane, Australia.

What was supposed to be a 2 year program fully taken in Brisbane over 4 semesters turned into 3 full semesters, one part-time semester and a Summer semester in Brisbane, a semester in Japan, and an internship with Brisbane City Council. This brought my total program up to 2.5 years but it was jam packed with experiences.

I’ll write more about my student life in the following few posts. Here, I want to focus on where I lived during my time in Brisbane.

Since student accommodation is so high in demand in Brisbane, you really can’t plan more than ½ a year ahead unless you live on campus. Which was what I did for the first year.

Nathan Campus

It made sense to be close to the uni in my first semester since I didn’t know Brisbane well. I would say it was one of the smarter decisions I made. Sure, rent could have been cheaper in the suburbs, but nothing could beat rolling out of bed at 7:30am for an 8am lecture and saving on transport costs.

Being a new student, it also made it so much easier to be engaged in all that was happening in Uni. One of the biggest contributing factor of me being so involved in uni overall was because I lived on campus that first year. Also, late nights in the Unibar chugging cheap jugs of margaritas were more appealing when you are a poor student living on campus. This accommodation option is also a popular choice for many new international students. I was lucky to befriend many international friends that way.

My first room was in a 7-room apartment in Block C, level 6. I've shared my experience and pictures in this post.

Between my first and summer semester, I had to move to another flat in the same building complex and that brought me to an 8-room apartment on the ground floor of Campus block B of Barakula.

Looking back, I was so busy with uni, my part-time work waitressing and all other extra-curricular activities that I don’t have much memory of my stay in B1, apart from the fact that I shared a flat with an aspiring pilot, an aspiring dancer, and a particular flatmate that annoyed me to no end due to the lack of courtesy for others.

Tokyo

I spent the following semester in Tokyo, Japan and lived in an International Students’ dormitory. I’ll detail my time in Japan in later posts.

Sunnybank

Upon my return to Brisbane in Feb 2013, I rented a room with a lovely young Japanese family who already had another room rented to a lady working in Brisbane. I never really got to know her since we were often running on opposite time schedules. The house was a stroll away from Sunnybank Centre where I could get my asian fix, including a Singaporean-Malaysian restaurant and a Bubbletea store. What more could a Singaporean ask for?

It was a 2-story house where the top floor was the kitchen and 4 bedrooms while the ground floor made up a home office, laundry room and other parts of the house I’ve not explored. The owners had recently started their family by welcoming little baby Mei-chan into the world and I could remember occasions when their parents would visit from Japan. Thanks to my time spent in Japan, I was able to communicate with Obachan and Ojisan in Japanese, talking about our respective lives, sharing movie recommendations and making sushi together.

I was originally scheduled to leave Australia in June 2013, but in order to turn my Japanese minor of 60 Credit Points (CP) of an International Business Degree into a Japanese major, I needed to complete another module of Japanese courses worth 20 CP. I managed to convince my parents of this extension and while I pursued this double major, I was also appointed Brisbane International Student Ambassador representing Singapore for the Brisbane Council. With the reduced university involvement, I decided to move into the city to be closer to the activities with the council and my new Ambassador friends who were studying in other universities in Brisbane city

South Brisbane

Of all the places I’ve stayed, this next room I rented in South Brisbane for half a year was probably the smallest of them all. I believe I only paid between AU$ 80-90 a week, which was a steal considering it was walking distance to Mater Hill Bus station where all busses going into Queen Street and to the Uni passed.

The property itself was split into two parts where the front area was occupied by the owner and his family and the back part was rented out. Where I stayed in the back, there were a total of 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a spacious kitchen, dining and living area. My room was on the 2nd floor, next to the master bedroom and the smallest of all the rooms.

By small, I meant it was nothing more than a 2x3m shoe box. Yes. you read that right. The room only contained a single bed and a tiny desk, barely fitting a chair and a fan at the same time. I had to hang my clothes out on a clothes rack outside the room where there was a little lounge area, I then stuffed whatever leftover crap I had under the bed. When I moved out from Sunnybank, I also started to ship things home, only keeping the essentials for the rest of my time in Brisbane. The size of the room sounds horrible but at the time, I was more concerned about maximising the money I had left and did not want to waste it on a place where I knew I was going to spend very little time at.

I officially completed my degree with a double major in November 2013 but because I wanted to finish serving the term of my ambassador appointment, and at the meantime got the opportunity to do an internship for the International Relations and Multicultural Affairs Unit of the Lord Mayor’s Administration Office in Brisbane City Council, I hung around for 4 more months. This meant I had to look for a new, and hopefully final, place to stay for the duration.

Kangaroo Point

I found a flat share with a young family in Kangaroo Point. My room was a spacious ensuite with a massive closet and a balcony. Quite the upgrade from my last room! The only downside was that there was no bed and I had only a mattress on the floor. It was not that big of a deal, I just pretended to live in a traditional Japanese way by putting out my ‘futon’ daily.

Apart from the ensuite, which was such a luxury, my bathroom window also faced a dog park, so there were many mornings where I creepily admired dogs while brushing my teeth.

I don’t know how other international students handle accommodation but this was my experience. I never had that much trouble looking for a place to stay. As long as you can provide a couple weeks’ deposit and bring along a good attitude, there should be no issues.

Featured photo by Eduard Militaru on Unsplash