We’ve eaten Algerian Dinner, a bbq by a Norwegian… this time it’s a French lunch.
Mat’s colleague, Julien, from France invited us for lunch at his graduate house (considered as Melbourne Uni’s hostel).
Look like interior of a hotel
The Graduate house really looked like a hotel I tell you. It’s like a million times better than MMU’s hostel. Just look at their dining area.
Have you ever seen a university hostel in Malaysia dining area look like this?
Unfortunately I forgotten to take a picture of their library. It has a piano and chandeliers and all ok? Super impressive!!! Even Julien’s room, according to Mathias, has attached bathroom, and the total area of his room is bigger than the apartment we’re staying in at the moment. It’s pretty expensive to stay here, around AUS$369 to AUS$518 per week. All rooms are fully furnished. Just pack your clothes and study.
Have you ever seen such a nice backyard of a uni’s hostel?
Even the backyard was impressive ok! It even has a water feature, and flowers and lawn chairs and all. Wow ser! The picture above shows the old wing of the graduate house. Picture below is the new wing.
The new wing
Ok, enough about envying other university’s hostels. You get what you pay ei? Back to our lunch.
Our host, Julien, is from France. So of course, he’s french. He’s an undergraduate student, here for 6 months on something like an exchange student programme. His english sounds like any other french guy, but he speaks extremely softly, you have to listen like really really intensely to catch what he’s trying to say. But a very nice guy 
Our host, Julien
Since the kitchen is a common area, I don’t think he could cook anything elaborate. So we had a simple French lunch. He served us rice (which surprised me), something like a quiche, and chicken cooked in some coconut mixture (which looked like curry, but tastes nothing like curry), and the other pot, fish cooked in the same curry like sauce.
The food
I’ve come to a conclusion… europeans are terrible rice cookers! Even Jamie Oliver doesn’t know how to cook rice the right way. The rice cooked by Julien, looks like a failed porridge 
But, to be a nice and polite guest, I just kept quiet about the rice.
But the “quiche” was good. Using filo pastry as the base, he mixed egg and cream, and leeks and onions and pour on top, then bake. Not bad. As for the coconut chicken and fish… well… ok lah… I wouldn’t know how french food really tastes like right?
Mathias, Eli, Nicola, Nadia and Julien
Made a couple of new friends. Eli, Russian descendant, from Wellington, New Zealand. And Nicola, South African descendant from Queensland (which is the state where Brisbane is in). I’ve realized that most Australians that we met, are not really from Australia, but from another country. So all of us are imigrants! I’ve yet to make friends with an aborigine. I’ve met one Maori I think, at my work place.
So many types of food to eat, so many places to visit, so many people to meet! Praise God for creating each and everyone of us so different and interesting and special!
