...There's no place I'd wallaby.: Summing Up the First 3 Weeks!

Hello everyone! Sorry for keeping you in the dark these past 3 weeks (wow does time fly!), but with all the hectic schedules and lack of good Internet, I haven’t been able to update! Things are finally calming down, but so much has happened in these last few weeks that I’ll try to sum it up as best as possible without too much overload. But if you want to hear more don’t be afraid to email me, or better yet write me a letter! My address is:

746 Swanston Street

Unit 812

Carlton, VIC 3053

Australia

Anyways, on to better things…

I arrived here on Friday, 3 Feb. The plane ride was pretty smooth coming over. Virgin Australia canceled my first flight, so I had to wait a day and a half for another, but at least they bumped me up to premium!

One of the first things I noticed was how nice Australians are. It’s definitely been stated before, but it was a pretty big culture shock to me when I first started interacting with them. While waiting in line, I met a guy who offered to take me around Melbourne and show me the sites; on the plane I received phone numbers and business cards from people who offered to show me around their cities if I ever traveled. I was rather taken aback by their willingness to help, and the over-cautious side of me is preventing me from taking up any of those offers. But on the other hand, I think it’s sad that we live in a world where people can’t be trusted. That’s not the way the world was created to be.

The first few days

The first few days here were pretty hard to adjust to. Figuring out housing, phones, and banking was a stress overload! Finding my way around the second biggest city in Australia by myself two weeks before any other exchange students were to arrive made life a bit lonely too. But the city was incredible; it has everything! The CBD, as it's called, basically works like a grid, and you have trams, trains, and buses that can take you anywhere, and if you buy a ticket for one you can ride any transportation system. The trams and trains are pretty similar to the metro, so it didn't take long to get used to. The feel isn't anything like NY; it has a very laid-back feel with an enormously diverse life. There's a Vietnamese pho place right next to an Indian restaurant that's across from an Italian one. Melbourne definitely has the best food culture and the most amazing coffee, too. And the people dress so well here...my usual white Target V-neck and jeans pin me as an outsider. All in all, getting lost in the city for a day was a great experience to have.

Australia in the Wine World

Two days after arriving, I took the V-line train two and a half hours away to the countryside for my Australia in the Wine World course. Along the way, I saw a lot of sheep and beautiful scenery, but the most exciting thing was the kangaroo I saw hopping around! The course was extremely intensive: lectures started at 8:30 until lunch around 12, then from 1 PM till dinner we had practicals and more class, and after dinner another practical that would end around 9 PM, then we studied until lights out. In the lectures, we learned about the history of wine, wine regions of the world, which places grow the best variety, winemaking practices, and all that kinds of stuff. During practicals, we tried 10-14 different types of wines and assessed them for appearance, smell and taste. Kinda like this:

7 glasses of wine, each refilled about two-three times in each practical. The gray, ugly cup in the back was for spitting out the wine after tasting it, just so we don’t get too drunk.

We also took a tour of different wineries throughout the countryside. My goodness they were beautiful!

The final at the end of the week consisted of trying 5 different kinds of wine and naming their variety, age, and characteristics. For never having alcohol, this was quite an adventure!

Melbourne Welcome Week

After the Wine course, I went straight to the Melbourne Welcome week for Study Abroad/Exchange students. I stayed at Queen’s College, which is a residential living arrangement that’s a cross between dorms and frats/sororities.

One the first full day, we went surfing. First time ever! It was hard, and I could barely stand up on the board, but I still loved trying it all out! At night we hit the city on a bar crawl, where we went to 3-4 different bars around town. For a person who doesn’t drink or go out, I must say that the nightlife in Melbourne’s still incredible!

My first drink ever! A glass of wine bought by this here Akin.

The next day, we took a tour of the university. It reminds me a lot of Berkeley, what with all the foliage and greenery everywhere, and the old buildings mixed with more modern ones. Afterwards, we went to the Queen Victoria Market, which as pretty much everything you want to eat, and it also sells clothes and souvenir-type stuff. It basically is an extremely helpful flea market! We also went to the Eureka Skydeck, which is the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere and has 360-degree views of Melbourne and everything around it. A few of us went into “The Edge,” a cube typed room that moves itself 3 meters out from the building and over 250 meters up. The walls and floor are clear glass so it looks like you’re standing in mid-air in the middle of the city! One of the scariest things I’ve ever done. We also took a tour around the side streets the city offered, exploring their plethora of hipster cafes, chocolate and dessert stores, souvenir shops, hundreds of cheap boutiques mixed with upper-class boogie department stores, and graffiti-ridden laneways. Like I said, the city life is amazing!

On the last day, we went to the Melbourne Zoo! We saw a whole bunch of kangaroos, koalas, penguins, etc. in their “natural” as can be habitats. If anyone knows me, I love animals! They are just so interesting and such a testament to God’s creativity and beauty.

A group of us also went on the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) tour and explored Australia’s most famous sports stadium, where they’ve hosted the Summer Olympics. The ground is being constantly used, either for Australian Football or Cricket. They have a library that has information on every sport, including Quidditch, and an entire section on the Olympics. They even have some of the torches! The MCG also has a “Game On!” section, where I sprained my finger playing interactive Australian football. The wait to become an MCG member is about 20 years. I’m not too into sports, but this place was so cool!

The St. Kilda Fest. It's an annual music festival that lasts about a week, with free live music from local and [famous Australian] bands, a carnival, film screenings, exhibitions, dancing. It's by the beautiful St. Kilda beach, and best of all it's home to a colony of wild penguins! They're apparently the world's smallest penguins and live in the rocks by the harbor. Shoshosho cute =]

Here’s a few more pictures from the first two weeks: