When in Oz..

I had told myself I'd keep this blog updated consistently through my stay here. I lied. Not that I don't have the time to, just I think I've ran out of things to say. I guess I could update it daily with what I actually did each day, but that'd be too much of a Dear Diary entry, n'est pas moi.

Just a couple of random things I've noticed here a month and a half into my exchange:

• It's very hard driving on the other side of the road especially when the wheel is on the other side too. I kept swerving left, I actually had to use my side mirrors for once
• House music is very big here.. I sorta miss the mainstream top 40 stuff
• Everyone loves a Canadian
• I've spoken more French here than I have in the past 5 years, it all comes back to me with the help of bzzr
  
• I actually say "about" differently
• You can definitely burn on an overcast day, they weren't kidding about the nonexistent ozone
• Pop here is beyond expensive.. $15 for a 12 pack
• Toilet paper is also expensive
• Wine is not expensive
• No one uses the word "washroom"...
• "G'day mate" is not used that commonly actually
• Female tactics to get into clubs back home do not work that well here
• I hate the bouncers at Billboard, enough said.
• Beer is way too expensive here. $8-9/pint at clubs and bars
• I'm never going to drink wine again after this
• People don't chug, they skull
• Vancouver's weather is nothing compared to the crazy shit that can go on here
• What you pay for internet access here is a joke. I miss my fast cable..
  
• Melbourne has extremely fit people, moreso than Vancouver it seems
• Short shorts are in fact fashionable and widely accepted..even if you're fat and it causes a wedgy, or maybe not.
• There are so many smokers here. Women smokers are still a turn off
• American Idol is actually shown here, up to date too
• I'm surprisingly not homesick at all
• I HATE ECOLOGY, EVEN IN AUSTRALIA. HATE HATE HATE.
• My goal is to kill a cane toad, it's illegal to NOT kill it if you're in possession of one :) I've learned so much about the Bufo marinus.
  

I guess I'll be adding more to this list as time goes on. Until then, off to the beach I go before it gets too cold here.

This is one of the reasons why I came to Australia, you just can't see anything like this anywhere else. The picture does it no justice, the colours of the water were simply amazing, it was a breathtaking view, believe me:

Phillip Island

Livers need loving too

Currently: suffering from bout of food poisoning. Cooking congee. Blog called, update ensues.

I guess I should briefly recap Melbourne Welcome (the orientation 'camp' for incoming international students) since I probably won't remember much of it in the future.

Day 1: Woke up to rainy weather. Esther and I decided to try and wait out the storm.. we were supposed to check in at Newman College between 9-12. A lot of sitting around waiting for the rain to go away, but it didn't. So we went out in the pissing rain sans parapluie (I'm in a Français mood these days, bear with me) and checked in at the College. People here do not call them 'dorms' and instead it's a College. BBQ Lunch was interesting. There seemed to be a huge abundance of Americans, many of which seemed to know eachother. Awkward because little groups formed everywhere, but regardless, met some cool people including a guy from Lithuania.

Met our group that we'd be travelling around with for the next couple of days. Host: Kirsty. Nationality: Scottish. That was a surprise. Let's have an international student lead around more international students. Not that I minded, ha. She was cool, had a lot of energy albeit a bit.. dare I say it, confused? at certain times but in a funny way. (if you're reading this, it's not a bad thing, I swear). Went up to the Eureka Tower, this tall building in Southbank. My fear of heights were sort of conquered. Took me a while to be able to stare down at the view. Stomach was doing 2323 flips/minute. Dinner was the first of three 'formal' ones we'd be having there. I hate dressing up. That's all I have to say about it.


Wine and cheese tasting followed apres dinner. It was supposed to be classy as one would expect. It turned out to be an open bar of wine and beer with hosts running around forcing us to taste cheese. It was here that I met Taylor and Sarah, two friends I've been hanging out with quite a bit since. Effects of alcohol were .. well expected. Went out to another pub afterwards. Drank, talked, walked back, slept.

Day 2: Thankfully brunch was a bit later.. The 'rest' was much needed. We headed off to the Queen Victoria Markets. Didn't really buy anything other than food. I keep telling myself I still have a good 5 months here, I'll have plenty of time to go. Sadly, the weeks are flying by. Went to the zoo afterwards. Saw a variety of animals. Butterfly house was breath taking. Never seen anything quite like it. You go in and there are literally hundreds..thousands of butterflies just flying around. If you're lucky, they'll land on you. So many different colours and varieties. Downside was that it was in a greenhouse type place and considering the weather was in the upper 20s/30s, it was uncomfortable.

Got my first sunburn on my neck. It's still not healed. Met Mark here, Dutch guy. Along with him, T & S we went bothering the animals. Taylor's American, so she enjoys disturbing animals by yelling and clapping loudly at them. I'd attack her if I were one of those animals, like the kangaroos that almost did. Ha.
I'm still Chinese.
Cute eh?

A couple people went off to the St. Kilda Festival (district just south of Melbourne city) but I decided to stay behind for Trivia Night. Our group almost won even though another host, Jack, was giving us not so subtle hints. I hate ties, especially in summer. What else... We went to a bowling place but they were being the biggest pricks and wouldn't let us in unless we showed them our passports. Of course, barely anyone had it as it's just stupid to bring it out at night. Most of the group bailed and went to some expensive bar in Melbourne Central. I met my American drinking buddy here. (I really shouldn't be putting all of this up, whatever) We shared a jug..or two. They don't call them pitchers here. Stubbies, schooners, pints and jugs. I'm still not used to calling it that. And their jugs are way smaller. The cheapest one I've come across was $9.. most are about $11-15. Expensive.

Day 3: SURFING! Woke up at 7am. Suffice to say, I was severely sleep deprived during this whole thing. Barely ate anything. Ocean Grove. Cold, windy, bad sand, lame. Sun finally came out at noon, it made up for the initial 2 hours. Surfing is harder that I imagined. I almost, almost, got up on my feet on it. Our group's instructor was too busy flirting with a certain someone. Damn girls, they get it so easy in life. It was a good experience, and I definitely plan on giving it another go in the near future. I think I'm just too tall and heavy to get up on it. I swear. The board sinks everytime I get my knees on it. The waves were also pretty small, so it was slim pickings all afternoon.

Weather really cleared up nicely later in the day..

Turf (I think) at night. I really don't remember what exactly went on here, not because of intoxication, (I had good control this entire weekend) but because my memory's failing me. Oh wait, I went on a mission. Mission: failed. OH, right, and we went to a park. T, S, M and I met possums and Alanah. Alanah is a psycho. "TEXT ME. CALL ME BACK PLEASE" Freak show. We didn't recycle the bottles though. Whoops.

Day 4: Went on the Yarra Boat Cruise. The Yarra River runs through the city of Melbourne, really nice actually. Was a hot day, got tired. Took many pictures like the tourist I am. No shame at all. Lunch at the Crown Casino Buffet. They were still in the Chinese New Year mode, so there was a fair number of Chinese-inspired dishes. The siu mais were disgusting. Chocolate pudding cake was incredible. Never had anything quite like it. I'm already drooling for it. I also learned from a certain someone people in Australia are like us back home with Sharpies and sleeping individuals after a night out. I had a good laugh. Headed back to the College early (missed the afternoon tours..couldn't be bothered) and tried to just relax and prepare for the last dinner. A formal one complete with a white shirt and black tie.

This was painful to watch. We were at Federation Square waiting around for the cruise in the morning. I was the only loud obnoxious Canadian around I think cheering on Mike Robertson.. I could not believe the American overtook him in the final couple of turns. What the hell. I was so sure he'd win too with his lead.. Doesn't matter though, 14 golds this Olympics, straight into the record books.

Arrived late for the pre-dinner drinks at the pond for other reasons. Dinner was pretty good. I tried so hard not to laugh during Grace. Newman is a Catholic college, sorry, but I'm anything but religious.


Puggs + Bimbos at night. That echo room was neat. Compared the different vegetation BC and Tasmania has with these guys. I think BC wins.

Day 5: Good bye Newman. Packed, ate half a banana and left.

Even though the program cost quite a bit the friends and experiences I had there made up for it. I couldn't imagine how my life in Melbourne would be like without this. Even though one of my main goals was to try and befriend some locals, making new international friends is just as worth it. If anyone is going to go on exchange and such an orientation program exists, I'd highly recommend that they do it..even if it means living like you're in first year again.

This post got long very quick. I'll leave it at here for now. The other events of the week and weeks following are not meant to be publicly talked about at this moment.

After Melbourne Welcome Priscilla came and visited. Elaborate on that another time. I still need to find some way to properly celebrate Canada's gold medal in hockey.. Je veux des Canadiens maintenant s'il vous plaît.

Alas, the fun's started.

Lack of updates due to lack of sleep, mental brain power, and coherency to make a post.

In fact, sort of tired right now to update with anything substantial. My second week in Melbourne has been unforgettable thus far due to the inclusion of Melbourne Welcome. In order to divulge into the full details of this I'd have to kill this blog. Therefore, the PG version will instead be described.

Met lots of people, learned about the city, partied quite a bit (with wine because I'm classy, cough) and got sunburnt in the process. Worth the $540? Um, yes. I can't imagine how it'd be here if I didn't do this program and met some amazing people..even though most are Americans who think I say "about" differently. Deal with it, Canadians speak proper English.

I'll give a proper update soon enough when things die down. I still need to find professors and advisers on my courses here, problems are arising quickly.. Everything has to be manually done here for Exchange students so it's a bit of a hassle. I'm taking this upper level Ecology course (or trying to) without any real prior knowledge in it. I think I'm way out of my league here. Good thing it's on a pass/fail basis.

Domesticated = Me

Due to Esther's arm still being in cast, I've taken on the role of homemaker in the apartment.. That means all cooking, cleaning, washing, and grocery shopping is done by yours one and only, me. Not that I mind too much, but one night as I was scrubbing the pan at the sink I felt an odd sense of WTF. It was weird. The situation just became a little bit too..surreal, ha. I'm not meant for this. Once that cast gets off, I am not doing dishes for another month..minimum :)

Anyways.. My first and second weekends here were spent at Box Hill South. Just a couple of snapshots of the area and weird animals you definitely do not see back home.



(side note: I'm really stingy on internet/updates because I'm paying $50 for 3gb of bandwidth over 2 months, it's way too expensive over here)

On Sunday, we went off to the Caribbean Market, why it's called the Caribbean Market when most of the vendors are either Asian or Caucasian is beyond me. There are lots of things to buy here, sort of like the Richmond Night Market. Fresh produce, expired chips, knock offs, souvenirs, etc.. It was in the mid 30s this day though. We left around noon and the place was only getting busier and busier. If you don't go early enough, the produce is all gone.

We headed back to the city for lunch at some upscale-ish cafe. There are many many cafes here in Melbourne. I'll be trying many of them out during my stay here. I mean this literally, there are honestly countless hole in the wall cafes scattered around the downtown core. You go into random alleys that an obese person wouldn't be able to fit in, and you could find the best Moroccan, Chinese, Indian, French etc.. food.

Just a couple of snaps of the city including Chinatown, the area where I'm a block away from.



I like taking pictures from the view we get. I should do a day by day of the same view..the weather here is crazy. But, too lazy :)
Our first cooked dinner. Food bills are going to run me to the ground, I can already tell. At the moment I'm following the Canucks game online. I miss me hockey and Olympics. I don't care how much it costs me internet-wise, I'm going to be streaming the hockey.

Okay, I have Melbourne Welcome, this orientation program for International students, coming up tomorrow till Wednesday. Hopefully I'll meet some more people my age and get myself even more acquainted with Melbourne. School starts on March 1st.. only a couple of weeks left! I'm slowly welcoming the idea of school, it's been a while since I studied or took any notes.

First days

I'm alive and in one piece. Stepping off the plane in Melbourne I immediately felt the heat. It wasn't overly humid, but definitely a huge change from Vancouver. I was in jeans and a teeshirt.. already I was sweating from just moving my luggage out of the terminal.

Here's the first picture I snapped of Melbourne. Gorgeous eh?

I traveled to a suburb called Box Hill South where it's basically Richmond in a nutshell. Extremely Asian (Chinese) here and .. yea, pretty much all Chinese everywhere. One of Esther's relatives kindly welcomed me into their homes (HUGE HOUSE..) and took me to the mall to shop for some initial necessities. This shopping cart consisted of ~$350 worth of stuff. Things here are not cheap..

The second day we moved into our apartment. APT 1710/39 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne 3000, Victoria, Australia for those who want to mail me anything good :) Apartment size is pretty decent. I will say though.. the area I'm in is extremely Asian as well.. Thai, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese and Indian cuisines were abundant everywhere. I've had more Asian food these past couple of days than I have in Vancouver. I tried desperately to look for white man food today for lunch. I failed. Apparently, there aren't many in the Downtown core. :'( I want a burger damn it.

Living room+Kitchen

My room

View from our apartment. After the first day, it's been raining *lightly* here. The weather does change constantly throughout the day. It was extremely windy .. The weather was about 20ish degrees today, a nice change. I went out in tees and shorts whereas everyone else was in jackets..

Oyaku Don for dinnarr last night, too lazy to cook just yet.


We went to Sofie's today for dinner. It's like Antons, but the Australian version. Holy hell, their portions were HUGE. A small pasta was more than enough.. I can't imagine how a large pasta would be. The weird thing is, the prices were dirt cheap. $12 for a meal that two can share. We all had the Gelato to share. I'm not sure if this picture does it justice, but it was a good 8 inches high..packed full of chocolate, hazelnut, pistacio, orange, strawberry, chocolate mint and.. something else. $6.50 only... Now this place, I can afford.

Now in Box Hill South again, went around to the surrounding suburbs like Glen Waverley and.. something else I forget. Was a bit awkward to take pictures of people's houses since I didn't know them (they're Esther's relatives'). But all of them are mansions..and under 1 million each. I want I want.

First leg: Brutal-ish

So I'm currently awaiting my flight to San Francisco.

Check in was brutal. Brutal. Brutal. The initial parts were okay..nothing too bad. Luggage put through, tickets/boarding passes printed. Fine. Then came the first security check point. I've brought along a duffel bag as my carry on and a small little shoulder bag as my second "personal item".. The guy at the security check point looked at my duffel and told me to put it in the cage, ensuring it would fit in there. It sort of didn't, so I tried explaining to him how I've never had trouble with it. He wouldn't take any of it. I was getting a little nervous because I have a lot of important stuff in there. So I flattened it and mushed it and put it in finally, tearing off the sign in the process..shh.

He glares at it, and says it's fine but my shoulder bag HAD to go into my duffel in order for it to go through AND I had to put it in the cage again. I was pissed. There are signs up all around the counter saying we're allowed one carry on bag and one "personal item" such as a laptop bag, purse, stroller..etc. This douche bag at the gate says "you have two BACKPACKS, you can't go through"

This other guy with me was in the same situation, he had a small backpack and a regular sized one, and he wouldn't let him through either. So we started bitching this security guy out, and some other agent comes out. We argue with her, and I'm livid because the guy now says my duffel is going to be too big anyways and I can't go through. So once again, I shove the bag into the damn cage to show them it fits and then he says "but your other backpack isn't in there"..

I proceed to tell him off, "look, we are allowed a purse on the plane. I don't care if you want to call me gay or whatever, go for it. This is my purse and unless you're saying all those signs out there are wrong, I'm taking it on. Now let me through." By now he was going a bit red in the face and threatened to call security. I called him on his bluff, he never did.

The other woman finally lets me through. This entire process took about 30 minutes to deal with. They blamed the Americans in the end, "this is their policy, not ours." Uh, more like, "we are incompetent, illiterate, uninformed, ignorant idiots that don't know how to flipping run a security check point."

Then there was some crazy man in the holding area who had to deal with some medical insurance/visa bill issue last minute with his dad on the phone. The guy was in his 30s.. and kept going, "Daddy, I'm scared. Daddy, tell me you love me. No, you have to say it. Say it again please, I don't want to fly away now."........ HOLY HELL. That was very disturbing. Everyone around me was snickering.. can you blame us? Thankfully there's no cell phone service on the plane because he was on that phone for a good 20 minutes.

Anyways, United flight to Sydney was a pretty tight squeeze.. not the most comfortable. Not gonna lie. Didn't want to take pictures of the food.. it was THAT cramped. Funny though, on both flights (to SF and Sydney) a medical emergency arose.. I wish I had my First Aid certification, then I could put on my light and be like, "yes, I have medical training" :)

Errrrrr... okay. In Melbourne now.. shopped all day for food and necessities with Esther's Aunt and then housing at her cousin's for the time being. Will update tomorrow when I move in to our apartment.

Is it weird that the jet lag hasn't hit me yet?

Au revoir

It's starting to hit right now that I'm actually going to be gone in about 24 hours. I'm not ready. Nothing's packed..literally, just t-shirts. I have lists made, I have stuff I keep trying to remind myself to bring.. It's all a bit too much. Throw in my mother's nagging and it gets even more chaotic. This excitement is starting to wear off.

Now I just want tomorrow, 4:20pm, to come. I'll be at the airport, with all my bags stuffed full, hopefully under 50 pounds each.. and then it's bye bye rainy Vancouver, hello sunny Melbourne. Many have asked me just why I'm choosing Australia of all places to go on exchange to. My answer is simply, because of grade 4. Those who went to elementary school with me may realise the significance of this year. This country's enthralled me for over 10 years and despite the cost of living being so much more than Vancouver ($1100/month rent!!), I'm going to take it all in. I might be down there for grad school, who knows? The accents are also a bonus.

Thanks guys for showing up, last minute and all. I won't make it all sappy, but it's nice to still see all of us DT kids (most of us anyways..) can have a 2+ hour dinner with no awkwardness. Perhaps in 5 years this won't be the case, but until then, it's always a good feeling to have such a core group of friends there despite all of us being in such different post-secondary paths. Graduation's coming up in a little under a year, but I won't think about that just yet. We'll always have Facebook if I start missing any of you ;) Here's to me hopefully coming back with a faux-Aussie accent.. I'm going to try my best (and most likely fail). Like I've been saying to some people recently: stay safe and don't make babies.