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!