Shine Bright, Crystal

September 25, 2022 – Melbourne, Victoria, Australia: Crystal lives alone in a standard studio apartment at Student Village Melbourne. It is approximately 20 square metres, fully furnished, with a kitchen and bathroom. She said she chose to live here because of its proximity to the University of Melbourne's campus. (Qiyun Liu)

September 14, 2022 – Melbourne, Victoria, Australia: Crystal has lived at Student Village Melbourne since she arrived in Australia seven months ago. She said although the room was not big, it was enough for her to live and study there. She said she normally cleaned the room once a week when the studying was not intensive. (Qiyun Liu)

September 14, 2022 – Melbourne, Victoria, Australia: A trolley is filled with food, snacks, and spices. Crystal said she bought it from the Kmart in Melbourne CBD, about one kilometre from her apartment. She said she put the trolley in her 28-inch suitcase and pushed the suitcase all the way home. (Qiyun Liu)

September 14, 2022 – Melbourne, Victoria, Australia: Crystal eats her last banana, staring at her almost empty refrigerator and filled freezer. She said she had no time to go grocery shopping this week because of the assignments. According to Crystal, she goes to Victoria Market for grocery shopping. (Qiyun Liu)

September 14, 2022 – Melbourne, Victoria, Australia: The cookers hang neatly on the wall. Crystal said she cooks a lot, and some of the cookers were gifted by her friends who had graduated and returned to China. According to Crystal, such gifts are common among Chinese international students, especially during graduation. (Qiyun Liu)

September 14, 2022 – Melbourne, Victoria, Australia: A piece of paper is filled with calculating notes. Crystal said the paper was the used report sheet from her chemistry practice class because she wanted to save paper. She said the calculator had been with her for over three years since high school. (Qiyun Liu)

September 14, 2022 – Melbourne, Victoria, Australia: The only window of Crystal's room faces the graffitied image of Einstein. Crystal said that as a science student, she felt that Einstein's portrait could give her motivation to study. She said she became very fond of her apartment the first time she saw the view from the window. (Qiyun Liu)

September 14, 2022 – Melbourne, Victoria, Australia: Crystal is doing her first programming assignment of Foundations of Algorithms. She said she had been doing her assignment for two days. According to the handbook of the University of Melbourne, students of the subject will learn how to read, write and debug typical small-scale programs in a system programming language such as C. (Qiyun Liu)

September 14, 2022 – Melbourne, Victoria, Australia: Crystal is working on the last stage of the programming assignment at 1:27 pm on September 14. She said the assignment had three coding stages, and the first two were very easy. However, she said the third stage had trapped her for hours, and the deadline was at 6 pm on September 16. (Qiyun Liu)

September 15, 2022 – Melbourne, Victoria, Australia: Crystal lies on the sofa, hugging a piggy doll and struggling with the unsolved assignment at 1:13 am on September 15. It had been over 12 hours, but Crystal had no progress with the third stage. She said maybe she was not cut out to learn to program. (Qiyun Liu) 

September 15, 2022 – Melbourne, Victoria, Australia: Crystal finishes the final stage at 2:50 pm on September 15. She said she almost wanted to give up coding the final stage this morning. She said the next thing to do was to comment on the codes, which were simple and fast. (Qiyun Liu) 

September 23, 2022 – Melbourne, Victoria, Australia: Qiongyun Zhang is Crystal's friend. Qiongyun is a 24-year-old international student from China studying for a master of Accounting at the University of Melbourne. Crystal and Qiongyun lived on the same floor of the same building. (Qiyun Liu)

October 1, 2022 – Melbourne, Victoria, Australia: Crystal and Qiongyun take the bus to Yarra Bend Park for a hiking trip after submitting all their assignments during the mid-term break. Crystal said it was her first time taking a bus in Australia. They said they had planned the trip a few weeks ago. (Qiyun Liu)

October 1, 2022 – Melbourne, Victoria, Australia: Crystal and Qiongyun look at the map and find their location in Yarra Bend Park. It was their first hiking trip. According to the Victorian Government, Yarra Bend Park is the largest natural bushland park in Melbourne. (Qiyun Liu)

October 1, 2022 – Melbourne, Victoria, Australia: Crystal and Qiongyun saw people rowing in the Yarra River. Crystal said she wanted to have a try one day. Qiongyun said she couldn't swim, so she thought they were very brave. (Qiyun Liu)

October 1, 2022 – Melbourne, Victoria, Australia: Crystal fills her bottle with water from a public drinking fountain. She said she didn't expect the water to come out this way. She said she hadn't seen this kind of public drinking fountain in China before. (Qiyun Liu)

October 1, 2022 – Melbourne, Victoria, Australia: Crystal is in the Yarra Bend Park. It was her first spring in Melbourne. She said she was surprised that all the flowers seemed to bloom overnight. (Qiyun Liu)