Arriving to a new city can be suuuuper stressfull, I’m sure you’re very nervous! This post should help you survive your first day, I’m sure it will help a lot!
Step 1, “The airport”
As soon as you arrive to the airport connect to the free WIFI so you can search for your address and contact Family and friends, I bet they want to know how you arrived!, I wouldn’t recommend using your overseas cell phone data, the fees are soooo expensive!
Step 2, “Transport”
You may be wondering how you’re going to get to your new home, There are many options available.
Go get an OPAL card, Opal cards are smartcard tickets that you keep, reload and reuse to pay for travel on public transport. Simply add value to your Opal card then tap on and tap off to pay your fares on trains, buses, ferries and light rail – anywhere within the Opal network.*
It’s so easy to find a store to buy it, simply look around for any convenience store and you’ll see them, charge around $20AUS and it should be enough to get you to your new home.
-The cheapest way to transport is to take the train to central station for around $16AUS and then take a bus to get as close as possible to the desired address.
-If you want a private ride it’s cheaper to get an uber instead of a taxi.
Step 3, “Get a phone”
As soon as you establish yourself go walk around the city and look for a Vodafone or Optus store, they have similar prices, look for promotions and buy the one that works best for you.
Just make sure you bring your passport with you, you’re going to need it!
Step 4, “Bank account”
It’s very usefull to get a local bank account here in Australia, its going to be so much easier for you to manage your money plus it’s free if you’re a student, the most popular banks are Commonwealth and ANZ.
Step 5, “Live!”
You may be wondering where you should shop for groceries, there are way many options all with pros and cons, here’s a list a few of those:
Coles (Cheap and you’re very likely to find everything you need), Woolworths (It has everything but not as cheap as Coles and Aldi), Aldi (super cheap but not very complete), Metro (Small supermarket, it’s great for when you only need a few things and don’t want to get inside a huge store, not very cheap.)
You may need a few extra things to fill your home, towels, kitchenware, maybe a lamp, who knows!, then you should definitely go to K-mart or IKEA, They sure will have what you’re looking for.
If you’re not in the mood to go out and don’t want to cook, use Deliveroo or UberEATS on your phone to get some great food at home!
If you´re a newly arriveed student, are there any other Day 1 survival tips to add?
And there you go! Make the most of your semester abroad and have as much fun as you can!
Bernardo Chavez Peon (Study Abroad Communications Ambassador, Autumn 2017)
Architecture
Universidad Iberoamericana Ciudad de México
I´ll post more tips soon on the hot topic of housing options, stay tuned
Let me know in the comments below if there are any other Day 1 survival tips you can share!