Journal no. 3

 went to buy some groceries and met my ex-classmate by chance. she had dropped out of the course 3/4 through the semester. i said goodbye to her after a short chat, left, went back to the shop and met her there again, and she asked if i wanted to hang out for a while, so we went to Vic Park in her car.

 went to this Taiwanese bubble tea/food place.
 had sesame paste dessert. was runny and therefore fail. $7.50.
she recommended this beef teriyaki ($9) at the Japanese restaurant nearby. the rice was perfect and the sauce flavorful.

we talked about visas & stuff - she wanted to stay and live in Perth instead of going back to Malaysia.

here is what i learnt:

1. two years ago, hairdressers were on the list of occupations who would get granted a visa to work here. wtf. (right now, engineers are in demand on the list.)
2. doing the health check for the visa here will cost $500+. and the visa itself will also cost $500+. omg that is five times more expensive than doing the same health checkup in Singapore. christ.
3. doing a tattoo here (a simple one, just three words on her back) will cost about $270. 
4. a new-ish second-hand 2.2 cc big car cost about $18000.
5. the coffee at the casino cost $5 (i.e. not expensive) and the atmosphere at the cafe is very good. and if you work at the MacDonalds at the casino, you get paid more than at other places.
6. universities don't offer courses for software that industry designers actually use. they don't use Rhino or Solid Works or the one she learnt at Edith Cowan University. i think she said they use Altera, which is what they teach at TAFE (polytechnic), so studying at TAFE is more relevant for getting a job than studying at uni.
7. the international car license needed to be able to drive in Australia requires a theory and driving test and costs about $70.
8. the English test needed to get a permanent resident visa is quite difficult to pass.