Saturday, August 4, 2007

Pursuit of a suitable home

I finished my enrollment at the Uni, now our task is to find a house and subsequently a school for Nique and Nira.

We are living with my friend and kumare, Elaine. It was good she and her good friend Stephii allowed us to stay in their house while Stephii's away on data gathering. But she's returning by November. We learned that we must declare to have a permanent place so that Murdoch International could forward my children's placement application with the Department of Education and Training.

Finding a home at this time of the year in Perth was hard as finding a needle in a haystack as rental prices could go high as Aus$550 per week. So, with the prospect that it might take a while for us to find a permanent place, we decided to forward our children's application with the school and see how it would go.

Nique is required by law to go to school while Nira could skip school we submitted her name just in case the Uni will be able to find a vacancy for her. As a full time Uni student, my dependents are entitled to free education in public schools in Australia. The cost of their education comes from a part of the visa application charge. So, whether you're single or not, part of your visa application charge goes to the Department of Education and Training (reason that Elaine was "bragging" that she's contributing to our children's education--eheheh!).

We're glad that it was alright with the Uni to submit my children's application. The second school term has already started late July and will finish by end of November, so barely just in time when Stephii returns. Now, we'll wait for the DETs response to our application. The process is for them to find a vacancy at the nearest public school from our place, otherwise they will forward the application to the next nearest and so on.

I'm quite excited for Nique going to school,a more formal one compared to the one she attended in Bangkok, which has a home-school-based curriculum. God willing we'll be able to find a house nearby with a reasonable price. For now, I'm trying to cope up with the winter weather and find my way around the Uni. :)

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