Week 3- Marysville to Walhalla

I bet they said oops.

I went camping this weekend! My friend has a land rover so we went off on a grand adventure. I got to learn how to drive a manual (an Australian one no less). We found a bar on the top of a mountain after getting lost and having some friendly Aussies give us directions to our camp site and to the bar (although they had accents so thick we could barely understand them), met a bunch of drunk aussies at a camp site who were hilarious (and got invited to a 21st birthday party next weekend. It’s a huge deal here), we got utterly lost on a trail in the mountains, found a flipped over trailer on the bottom of a steep hill we were about to go down and decided to turn around, helped tow the truck of two guys who gave us directions off the side of the road, camped out at this weird place to discover one that the shoe of one of the kids disappeared, searched every where for it to no avail (I was blamed), and finally made our way home. It was a super fun weekend. Since I don’t have class on Mondays I think there will be more like it soon!

Week 2- Melbourne Central

Aussie Rules Football- The field is larger than that off a US football field.

I’ve now been in Melbourne proper for a week. It’s a really terrific city. We had a welcome week for international students hosted by the college. I met so many people from all over the world, although there were probably more Californian's than there were Europeans. It was crazy, tours by day and night life by night. We went to the tallest residential building in the southern hemisphere, federation square, the melbourne zoo, had a formal dinner, and went to a footie game. Footie is the best thing ever. It is technically called Australia Rules Football but its usually just called footie or aussie rules. It seems to be a combination of football, rugby, soccer, basketball, and ultimate frisbee. It was so crazy. My team, the Bulldogs, won. It was awesome and incredibly exciting. Australians love to bet so in the spirit of things my friend and I made a wager, which I of course won. Nonstop action. It was really nice to finally move into my apartment for real. My roommate is proving to be really sweet although we haven’t really hung out at all. We just talk when we’re around but usually not for long. 

Saturday was my friends birthday so we went to see Harry Potter (they made things up, I am so mad!), then had an italian dinner, and then went out dancing. It was a fun night. Yesterday I had fun wandering around. My friends and I went on a group shopping trip (the best buy was 100 delicious apples for $10) and then cooked dinner. I cooked pasta sauce from scratch and three of my friends had to use their apartments to cook the pasta (each stove has 2 burners and we had 12 people). Another friend made Chinese pancakes with green onion in them. I told her that she has to teach me they were amazing.

Today a bay area friend of mine and I went to Saint Kilda’s beach. It’s really cute. I’d love to go back when its warmer. I’m not entirely sure you should really swim there but I think I’ll probably try. It wasn’t a far drive. I was navigator and it was a little problematic. They’re road system is really trippy. Major streets which have trams run through them often work as a round about when it comes to right hand turns. You have to pull over to the far left and wait until the light turns red to fully drive through the traffic and complete your right turn. Tonight I’m having what I call my, “My First Apartment” dinner. I was too lazy to cook for myself so I heated up soup, made toast, and had english muffins with cream cheese and jam for dessert (except I did it in reverse order). If anyone has any stove top recipes they’d like to share, please do! I don’t have an oven and its annoying. I can only survive on PB&J for so long. 

Tomorrow starts the real University Orientation. I get to pick classes and all that fun stuff. I’m a little nervous, partly because I have to actually navigate the campus for the first time. I can get through it but I’ve never had to go into the buildings before. Wish me luck!

Week 1- The Grampians

What's that you say? There's a kangaroo behind me?!

My program went to the Grampian National Park this weekend. It was amazing. Kangaroos every where. You turned the corner of a building and there was one three feet away. Apparently they’re about as dumb as deer. Aussies don’t really like them. We went on a night walk and saw a lot of night animals. We also got a short lesson in the constellations. There is the Southern Cross (depicted on the Australian and New Zeland flags) which when used in conjunction with the “Pair” you can tell where south is. There is also the Emu which is a black out of the stars. The stars were so bright and plentiful. The next day we did some team building exercises which were a lot of fun, surprisingly. Part of it was  a ropes course, which I had never done before. I ended up bruised all over but I did pretty well on it. I want to do another one! We also went abseiling (repelling) in the park. The next day we had Aussie Rules Footie Practice. We were rolling in kangaroo poo and it was absolutely hilarious. We created the term “waller” for when someone does something spectacular. Its a combination of baller and wallaby. I’ll see my first real footie game on Thursday. I’ve been told that I need to pick a team to cheer for and follow them. Its a hot topic. We learned how to play the digeriedoo. I learned how to do the kookaburra call and got one to answer me! I then was able to track where they were coming from and I got to see about five! They are so funny looking! The trip really got my group to get to know each other and surprisingly we get along really well. On the bus ride back we saw about 12 rainbows, at least three of which were double rainbows. The sky here is really amazing.

I’ve been slowly getting to know Melbourne. There is an open air market close to my apartment which is probably where I’ll end up shopping for food. Thats the Queen Victoria Market, shortened Queen Vic. When walking through there was a guy who was really loud. You could hear him half way across the market yelling, “Woah, what a banana!” It was a good sales tactic! Whenever someone in my group gets super excited someone else yells it at them. Confusingly there's also the Queen Victoria Center, abbreviated to the QV. It’s a good collection of stores. I’m looking forward to trying the chocolate store. 

I’m now at the Melbourne Welcome, a program for exchange students. We’re in the residential colleges. I’m living in Trinity College. It’s very Harry Potter esque. I have a single with such a high ceiling. I love it! I’m enjoying getting to know other international students. There is a huge collection of people here. I got a campus tour. I have no idea how I’m going to navigate my classes. I’ll need to do a practice run before classes start. The campus is ginormous. My guide is going on an exchange in a month to Penn and so I was trading advice with her. We then went to the QV before going to dinner. They feed us really well. Today we’re going to the zoo!

I met my roommate! Her name is Monica and she is from Mexico City. She’s going to RMIT which is another college. She is a third year food science and engineering major. She seems really nice although we only met briefly. I had just gotten home from the Grampians and she was about to go to bed because here classes started yesterday. I’m now living in the res halls and so I won’t see her again till Saturday. I did meet her father, Jesus (which obviously made me excited), in the early morning. He had a good sense of humor which made me hope that she will too.

Day 2- First Night

The tiniest apartment ever.

Last night we had a meeting with the guys who are in charge of us. It wasn’t too exciting; most of the information we’ll need we’ll be learning over the next few days on our trip to the Grampians, a national park and mountain range that lies in the west of Victoria.  

We decided to go get dinner after the meeting, at about 5:30. The sun had already set. We wandered around for a while until we found this cute little neighborhood. We decided to go to a burger place that was distinctly australian. One guy had an egg on his burger. I also purchased my first legal beer, James Boag’s Premium Lager- Tasmania’s Finest. After dinner we roamed the streets for a while before ending up in another girls apartment. I haven’t learned anyones names yet. I went to bed around 9 o’clock after watching rugby or aussie rules (I can’t tell which is which yet). My room is so freezing I ended up sleeping in my sleeping bag under the blankets. I’ll be getting a heater soon.

It’s now 9 am. It’s starting to get truly light out. It’s overcast and I think it rained last night. I’m going to go out and try to find some breakfast and get a cell phone. 

School starts on July 27th so the city seems kind of empty (as does the apartment complex). I have no idea when my roommate will get here. I really want to meet her. I don’t like waiting around....

Day 1-Oh my god, I'm in Australia!

My first glimpse of Melbourne!

I left SFO at 11 pm (west coast time) on July 8th. I arrived at Sydney International at 6 am on July 10th. At 8 am I left Sydney and reached Melbourne at 9:30 am. It was a long trip. For the first leg I was sitting next to a really cute, although slightly cranky, three year old girl and her mother. Her mom was really involved in emergency situation preparation and set up once it happens. I’ve been working on gaining more self confidence and I feel like talking to this woman really helped me out. 

While waiting for my flight to Sydney I met two guys who are also with my program. They were both nice. Neither are living in the same apartment complex I am, which is unfortunate because right now I don’t know anyone who lives here. My bag was one of the last few off the plane which made me go crazy with waiting. It was nice to go through customs with them. Of course I was the person who forgot to declare the chocolate I brought with me and so I was scolded. I got to keep the chocolate though!

Arriving at the apartments was really fun. The building is really pretty. There is a small pool on the courtyard, a gym, cafe, study room, computer lab, and info desk. My apartment is pretty small. We have a simply stocked stove, a kettle, toaster, microwave, and refrigerator. Our bathroom is nice, the water is hot. My room is small but spacious enough. There is a lot of shelving, a bed, a desk, and a tv. I’ve been watching The View. It’s so bad. As of writing this I don’t have internet yet, but I will soon, I have to sign up for it first. I have a closet outside of my room, again with lots of shelving. I need hangers. My roommate has a similar closet but there isn’t anything in it yet. I think she moved her stuff in a while ago but she hasn’t actually moved in (which means she’s probably australian!). Her room is locked. I don’t want to spend my first night without a roommate! Oh well. It feels really good to be here. Every time I go in the elevator I’m surrounded  by international students. The guy who lives across the hall from me is from Thailand. I should probably get some lunch (It’s 2 pm here).

I forgot an alarm clock which is bad news bears. It means that I can’t take a nap until after my meeting at 4 pm. I don’t want to go out on my own so I just have to stay up.

I can’t believe what a relief it finally is to be here. I’m so excited!

Still in california

I’m so ready to go! I’ve begun to pack and I’ve broken in my shoes. The packing list I was given by my program is 5 pages long... oy. I’m trying not to bring a lot because I’m sure I’ll go shopping while I’m there. I’ve been told that Aussies and especially people from Melbourne are better dressed than Americans. I’ll try not to bring my sweat pants. There really isn’t much more for me to do. I just have to sit back and turn 20. Then I’ll hop on a plane and be gone! I’m so excited.

Roger and Bryne play Twister!