My
experience of living in Adelaide has somewhat flawed the premise that ‘bigger
is always better’. I’ll tell you why -
Imagine travelling thousands of miles away from home to study in a
foreign land and ending up on a campus in the middle of nowhere? Now that’s
what I’m talking about. It’s funny that Adelaide is small enough to take a walk
around the CBD perimeter in 3 hours (roughly) but so well planned that it
accommodates almost anything and everything you’ll find in a modern city. The
best part is that it boasts of no less than six education institutions within
the CBD bursting with international students from all over the world.
No wonder 7
students who went paintballing on a bright Sunday morning of May the 15th
turned out to be from 5 different continents. Funny enough none of us realized
that until one of the paintball organisers pointed it out after registering the
group...a small world after all! And then down business, we starting with the
euphoria of getting into the field with each person’s firearm followed by the
need to strategize after the warming-up (what I would call the initial stain/sting)
exercise reminded everyone of the somewhat ‘tricky’ experience we were up for.
As one of my visiting professors would say: (“where I come from...”) we were
supposed to take it easy on the girls BUT I guess the guys were given a run for
their money...hence the rules of engagement were re-drawn on the battlefield!!
Here is what some of them thought:
“...it was fun and worth the bruises...” Carina from Sweden
“The rules of engagement didn't protect you (Charles). Too bad,
you were a target..! I had fun. Excellent...” Guma from PNG
“Awesome!!...”
Tasneem from Canada
Talking
about the friendly atmosphere here would be incomplete without mentioning the unflinching
support from the institutions as well as StudyAdelaide
who put everything in place to make learning more than just from and around the
classroom. The UCL
partly-sponsored paintball event is just one of the many ways students enjoy
their stay here. And as one of the students here...oh what the heck? Free is
good!!
Yes O, noring do me!!