Angelina: My name is Angelina, and I grew up in the coldest part of Russia, Siberia. 
My new home is a more sunnier place - welcome to the Gold Coast, Queensland. 
When I moved to Australia with my family 
It was a complete shock because the people lovely and everyone is smiling. 
It was our first time when we saw the beach. 
I just can’t explain, there's like so many emotions. We all cried and shared that moment. 
So my favorite thing about living on the Gold Coast is that I don't have to dress up like so many clothes, like layers of clothes compared to Russia.
Here, you just put shorts and t-shirt and you will be fine.
And you have so like easy access to the beach at any time of the day which is just amazing.
So I went to Keebra Park State High school, which is an international school. 
We had a teacher named Mrs Murray. She was our English teacher and she came from Germany. 
That's why it was a bit easier for me to understand her because I couldn't speak English at all when I came to Australia.
So she was really helping me just everything, like whenever I asked help or whenever I didn't understand and I didn’t understand for about a year.

Mrs Murrary: From your lovely students Nan, Anna, June, May, Sharhar and Angelina. 

Angelina: Oh, great! Thank you for keeping this. 

Mrs Murrary: Yes, I loved it. It means a lot.
I clearly remember when Angelina first started, so she had just arrived from Siberia and it was a massive culture shock. 
It was so hot, it was incredibly hot compared to where she came from and everything was different.
And she just took it up. She was so open minded, motivated, enthusiastic, and I remember how gifted she was with her music as well.
It's not just about the language, it's about the culture, it's meeting people, real people just dive in.
Yes, you will make mistakes, but that's fine. If we don't make mistakes, we can't learn.
So it's nothing to be scared of. It's just a big adventure, really. 

Angelina: Finishing grade twelve was probably my biggest achievement in my whole life, so I was really proud of myself by that time.
It was easy for me to enrol in university because I had so much support from everywhere, from all the teachers.
Compared to Russia, where we had everything in one building, so literally four, five floors.
But in Australia they have everything like, you know, cafes, little parks, swimming pool, tennis courts.
It is like a little town. At Griffith University, I studied Bachelor of Criminology and Criminal Justice. 

Ms Connell: Griffith University's School of Criminology and Criminal Justice is routinely ranked in the top three criminology programs in the world. 
You learn from the best you get to work with the best, and I don't think anybody else in Australia can say that they have the same breadth of knowledge that we do or the depth of knowledge that we do.
One of the things about Griffith that really, I think makes us stand apart is the partnerships that we have in the criminal justice industries. 

Angelina: They told me about that group, which is Criminology  Association, and I always  enjoyed  so many  excursions, such as water police.

Police: We can tap on any of those boats and we can see their details. 

Angelina: So the I went down on the boat and we explored like what they have inside, technologies and all the displays.

Police: This is called a black ship. What that means is if we need to be covert, we need to. So no one can see us. We can hit that and it'll turn all our running lights off.
So that we're just in darkness and we're invisible. Almost! 


Angelina: The University really helped me to be prepared after graduation. And it has really raised my interest in joining the police in the future or become a police liaison officer. that is probably my dream job. For example, I can speak Russian.
So say someone in the Russian community needs some help with legal or domestic abuse or something else. They can ask me to help them and solve their problem.


If you are planning to come to Australia and study as an international student, I would definitely recommend to do it.
Don't be afraid. Take all the opportunities that comes to you. When I literally go to Australia. I fell in love and no regrets.