My experience in Sydney

I had applied for the student visa sometime around early April of 2006. My family and I had rushed through the visa application process in order to complete it before the indefinite protests by the Seven-Party Alliance brought everything to a standstill. But we did manage to get it mailed before it.
The multimedia design course at Billy Blue School of Graphic Arts was due to start at 24th July, and by 17th I didn’t have any news about the visa. None of the applications had been had been approved yet; neither were any of them denied. When inquired about the delay, the Australian High Commission in New Delhi replied it was because a high ranking officer had been sick for a couple of days. A rather poor excuse for Australian High Commission.
Finally, I got the confirmation of approval (better known as pre-Visa) on around 20th July (by which time I was given a 2 week extension to the date of enrollment at Billy Blue) , and after a few days I had got the back the passport with the visa stamped on it, thanks to Mr. Subha Bhattachan, Pac Asia. He did a huge favour, and personally flew to New Delhi with my passport and brought it back with the visa on it.
With the visa on the passport, I that was it, and it was smooth sailing from then. Boy, was I wrong! On Pac Asia’s suggestion, I went went buy the ticket from Everest Travel Service (ETS). My first shock was to learn that it is extremely difficult to get a ticket for the flight from Bangkok to Sydney. Mr. Pranil Pradhan, Manager of ETS, having studied in Austra-lia, gave me some very useful tips. I would recommend this to everyone coming Australia, because it is very important to clear any kind of preconception and get clear picture of life in Australia as an international student. He also gave me voucher for free dental checkup at Dent Inn. I knew I needed to a dentist before leaving because the overseas health cover didn’t cover dentals and it is very expensive to any sort of dental procedure; but hadn’t brought myself to doing it. When I got to Dent Inn, Dr. Prabighya Siwakoti concluded that I needed at-least one tooth extraction (I had an extra pre-molar) and a root canal treatment, besides scaling and polishing the teeth. This would atleast take 2 weeks to complete! My orientation week at Billy Blue would start in less two week’s time. I wasn’t sure at all what to do.....click here to read more ( http://yakmandoo.com/experiences.php?country=2&page=7 )
Parag Satyal paragsatyal@bbsga.com.au http://www.paragsatyal.com/ Sydney, Australia