A Long Overdue Update

It's been awhile since I posted but I've been busy so this is long overdue and I don' t even know where to start. But first off the shot above is of Port Melbourne and the pier is absolutely awesome to go to on a clear day. Unfortunately, I don't live that close to the port but can't wait to head there in the summer.

Oh yeah, I finally found a place to live. It took a bit of searching but I found a place 4 blocks from the Uni so like 10 minute walk maybe and 10 minutes to brunswick st and Lygon st. Brunswick is a popular area to go out and has tons of bars / live music venues. Lygon st. is the Italian district and has just heaps of cafes where they haggle you on week days to come in with free desserts or glasses of wine for free with dinner. Then like a 10 minute tram to the city so a real good location. The only downside is the landlord. The other girl living there currently already told me that she's crazy. I had that feeling so for those that knew Mrs. Yang. It could be round 2. I can only hope she walks in to one of our rooms with the background set as tub girl because one of the funnier things I've ever seen.

Once I had found an apartment I decided I needed to get a bed and some furniture so I used there
version of craigslist which is called gumtree to look for moving sales. Basically where people are moving abroad and just dumping everything for cheap. I ended up getting there really late in the day when it was starting to rain. The girl said she was about to take it to St. Vincent's down the street which is a charity shop so I could take whatever I wanted. So I got a Queen bed and rollable bases. They supposedly were really nice because her boyfriend delivered beds and worked at a bed company. Also a desk, side table, and other misc. furniture. She had heaps of womens clothes / shoes but left them behind as I had no use but she was sad to let them go. So loaded the stuff in a mates van and was off with all the furniture I needed for my room as it already has built in cupboards.

Two weeks ago orientation started at the university. As a postgrad student there are hardly any Caucasians, and oddly enough even less Australians. I really wasn't that shocked by it and kind of expected it but some of the others were kind of surprised. There are literally people from all over the world that come for postgrad studies at the Uni and even a large amount of undergrads too which is cool.

This last week I started school which has been a very disorganized process so far. First off, I had met with my professor the week before this week and he had no idea I was even coming. He said my e-mail was the first he'd heard of it and he was like I assume you have funding. So I was kind of shocked to hear that at first but other than that I seemed to get along great, but the disorganized nature of the school didn't end there. On Monday I started my research and it took over half the day to get a place to call home for awhile. Basically, I learned there system is centralized with more decisions made by the school/government than individual professors so a lot of times until you start enrollment the University handles most the decisions because their the ones that hand out the funding. Graduate research students can start on any day of the year so also makes it difficult for professors because you can accept the offer and not start for 9 months. Anyway, all is well now and I'm settled in at the Uni although getting back to the real world from over a year of traveling kind of sucks.

I am looking forward to moving into my place on Saturday/Sunday of this week. Then towards the end of August they have a week called Prosh Week (once a year) at the Uni which is basically a week of drunken debauchery and games that I wish we had during undergrad. From some of the activities I heard that go on it would never be allowed in the states but sounds like a blast. Don't know that'll participate as literally it's like Tuesday to Saturday full of activities everyday into the wee of the night but maybe one or two. The 24 hour scavenger hunt extravaganza sounds pretty legit. Extra points are awarded at all times for being the most ridic. so heard it gets crazy so will at least be funny to watch some of it. Also there is a postgrad booze cruise soon down the river where the theme is heroes and villains. The first thing that came to mind is the ambiguously gay duo and already have a mate that's down so as long as the tickets don't sell out to fast I'll post some pics.

P.S. I've brought 3 man to Australia for those that were concerned. I feel no matter where I play that game I laugh to the extreme:

Until Next Time,

Stay Classy

I LOST THE GAME

Settling Down

So I've been here for a little over a week now and am starting to get settled down although still trying to see as much of the city as possible. With that, I've figured out the areas I want to live and have begun house hunting or I should say interviewing. As I want to live in a shared house for reasonable living costs and not knowing many people you have to go on inspections as they call them. Really most places interview people for  like a week and then pick one they want to live with. As I've just started I haven't heard back but I've met some that were really nice places with cool people so I'm hoping to move in this week. Also, most people here want or are looking for split male/female houses or at least the ones I have looked at so far which was different.

Other than house hunting I've been spending my time hanging out with other couch surfers / the house mates. There has been people from Sweden to Madagascar (yes, a guy slept here from Madagascar) with some girls coming from Taiwan in couple days. I've been here the longest and nearly feel as a flatmate as I've set up a shelf with all my clothes on it and usually end up introducing new people to the house if they show up on weekdays. With superiority comes the choice of your sleeping spot which closest to the heater on the best mat obvi reigns supreme. To get an idea of the sleeping arrangements here is a pic (with me on the far end right next to the fireplace in addition to all the other people):

Also, here is a pic of two of the mates that live in the house on the right and then below it the other one taking on some goon (somehow for once in my life I wasn't making a face, weird):

Also I made it down to St. Kilda which is the closest beach to the city like 15 minutes from the CBD, also to the Tim Burton exhibit currently being held in Melbourne which had this really cool light room, down Brunswick St. which is one of the main fashion streets here where two of the girls I was with managed to find some great outfits, and lastly grabbed a drink at pump house (an ode to all the time I spent at pump haus in College):

Also just realized I should share my first driving experience in Aussie. I would have never volunteered in the states to drive but I was rather overly excited to get to try out driving in Australia. Although it was a manual 15 passenger van that didn't have power steering, all went smoothly besides the first 30 seconds where I was driving on the wrong side of the road with everyone screaming at my profusely as I was writing there death warrants. After the median split I cut back over and all was well as I only had to make one turn and it was a left. When your driving on the left side of the road it's rather easy to do that. A pick of the parked van and my first successful driving trip:

Cheers from Aussie Land