LIM College

by Alyxis Flaggs

How exactly does one pack for six months and make it fit in two suitcase? Oh, yeah…Melbourne is known for having four seasons in a day as well. So now I need clothes and shoes for all seasons to fit into two suitcases that aren’t very big.  Being a fashion student I have way too many clothes and think that I need to pack them all, but that was clearly impossible to do.

I started preparing for Australia about two weeks before my flight, just to make sure I had anything and everything I needed. Clothes were the first task especially since that was going to be the hardest. I literally went drawer-by-drawer and picked out everything I “needed”, and then I went to my closet and just started grabbing everything I thought I “had to have.”

After I realized that I would need room for shoes and other things such as toiletries I then had to make the final cuts of clothes and shoes. I literally laid everything out in my bedroom and chose what I really needed. I did this process about five times until I could actually fit everything I needed into my suitcases.  

Once I was all packed, I was ready for take off. My total travel time was 27 hours including layovers. The first stop was Los Angeles from Detroit. After LAX I was off to Sydney then finally Melbourne.

Surprisingly my flight wasn’t too bad especially since I flew alone. I wasn’t emotional at all. I was actually pretty calm the whole time. This changed immediately once I got to my temporary accommodation.

For some reason my emotions took over and I just started crying. I was overwhelmed and it finally set in that I was literally across the world all by myself. The other LIM students would arrive two weeks after to me so I was forced to make friends.

Although I was emotionally overwhelmed I forced myself to be adventurous and explore the city. I decided to do a hop-off, hop-on sightseeing tour through Melbourne. Which was a great decision, because not only was I able to see Melbourne, but it also forced me to stay awake and help me adjust to the 16-hour time difference.

Below are some images from the tour.

Flinders Street Station: An historic and still functioning railway station.	Luna Park: An amusement park in St. Kilda, similar to Coney Island in Brooklyn.