Script:
Knock on door
Gupta: Come in.
Amitha: Mr Gupta?
Gupta: Yes, that’s right.
Amitha: Good morning, I’m Amitha. I have an appointment with you.
Gupta: Yes, please come in, take a seat. Now, I believe you have recently received a scholarship to study in Perth, Western Australia. Is that right?
Amitha: Yes, that’s right. I’m leaving in 3 weeks and the university semester begins in 5 weeks so I’ll have a couple of weeks to settle in. Mark Chapman told me that you did your Masters degree in Perth and so you might be able to tell me a little about what to expect living and studying there.
Gupta: Yes, certainly. Have you already organised any accommodation or anything at all?
Amitha: No, I haven’t. There is accommodation available at the university...
Gupta: Which university are you going to?
Amitha: UWA - University of Western Australia.
Gupta: Oh, right-I studied there too, but I didn’t live on campus-at least not for long. I only took a room for a couple of weeks-until I found some other students to share with. I thought that would be better than just having a room on campus to return to at the end of each day. Houses and flats are reasonably cheap in Perth-compared to here anyway. You can get a three bedroom house for about $150.00 a week so if there’s three of you sharing that’s only $50 a week. Of course you then have to add on electricity, gas and telephone bills as well. You could expect to pay about $8 a week to cover gas and/or electricity, probably $25 a week for food if you’re all sharing and then maybe $10 a week for telephone bills and about the same for transport costs-bus fares, etc. I found all up I could manage on about $200 a week if I was really careful with my money.