Melbourne Sundays

Melbourne, Victoria

Australia

How ya goin’ mates? (ya, it’s better with the accent). So first of all, the rush of posts – it’s my new favorite procrastination tactic. I used to do this in college all the time; whenever I needed to be studying or writing a paper (oh, how very much I don’t miss that) I would be up all night cleaning and like disinfecting my earrings or something; ya know, prioritizing, as I should be. Seriously though, my roommate came home one time and I was up on a chair cleaning a light fixture, and she was like, “Midterm?” and I was like, “Yep.” But that was the most pristine light fixture that apartment has ever seen.

This week I’m fighting off a sore throat. But it’s ok, because my roommates have the same thing, so at least I have people to hang out with while I’m sick. We banned together and saw a movie the other day: at ten o’clock on a Friday night. Kind of humiliating walking around in what was practically pajamas on a Friday night in hoppin Melbourne central. Plus the nearest movie theater is in the middle of a Casino, which also houses multiple clubs that were raging last night.

The only thing more shameful than attending the Friday ten o’clock showing of “Valentine’s Day” was leaving the show at midnight; still clad in pajamas while the drunk and fabulous spilled out of the clubs.

By the way, such a good movie! Ladies, if you’ve ever seen “Love Actually,” it’s just like that but about Valentine’s Day and set in America. If you haven’t, you desperately need to see “Love Actually,” first actually. Anyways, Valentine’s Day was the one holiday I didn’t mind being away from home for this year. Usually, it’s super depressing when you have no valentine, but because Australia doesn’t do holiday’s that big I kind of forgot that it was even coming. And, as per usual, everything was closed for the holiday – on a Sunday. Australia: backwards ass country.

In the spirit of the holiday, our hostel did put on Speed Dating night, which was weird. I already knew most of the people that I was “speed dating,” so really it turned into taking shots and shotgunning beers with your best buddies of the opposite sex. As I’m sure you can imagine, I didn’t last long with the “dates” at three-minute intervals. But it was a laugh, probably the only time we’ll be able to shamelessly speed date.

And the other morning the mood struck to go to 7:30 AM Tai Chi in Federation Square. Haven’t we all been overcome by such an urge…. No, but really we’d been hearing that Tai Chi takes places in different locations in Melbourne throughout the week, so one perky Tuesday morning we all got out tired little backpacker butts up together and headed out for a round of public shaming.

It was actually really fun and pretty easy to go along with, it was just that none of us had ever done it before so we were prone to feeling mildly ridiculous at the least. At one point, I gracefully rotated to my right, only to be staring my roommate in the face. I had a good chuckle at my backwards roommate, only to realize that I was facing the entire class. Ya, she had a good hardy laugh during and after class over that one. I shouldn’t be surprised… I’ve always been terrible at navigation, ask my dad; the man’s got stories for days.

Aside from my inherent gift to mirror the class, the class IS sweet. It’s FREE and held in three different locations around Melbourne and any and everyone is welcome. And I mean everyone. There were old women and men, business professionals in suits and heels, other backpackers; I mean, it’s impressive. And I forgot the best part - on Friday we get to use swords. I like swords. And there’s this super enthusiastic instructor who demonstrates every move (secretly judging the backpackers I’m sure). And lit up in the background is this big screen with nature imagery in sync with music that sounds like it’s straight off the Mulan soundtrack. It’s an experience, albeit one I didn’t anticipate to have in Australia, but we’re embracing these things.

So far my favorite is the “Lotus Pose” (one of the easier exercises). But "Holy Concentration Batman!" I mean, you really have to pay attention. It’s very doable, but it’s fluid and constant so you’re always in motion striving to reach the next position. Overall I’m a BIG fan.

My roommates and I also recently ventured out to see the Melbourne’s mighty Eureka Skydeck 88 (crowd roars in background), “the highest public vantage point in the Southern Hemisphere.” Ok, it’s not really THAT thrilling, but the view is. A friend had mentioned that it was fantastic at night and I mean, Spectacular. We went up for sunset which was beautiful, but when night falls and the city lights up, it is really something. Something to write home about, one might say.

And as breathtaking as it was, it also made me realize that I need to get out and see Melbourne. I was so consumed with getting a job and staying abroad that I’ve been in Melbourne for nearly two months and I still haven’t really experienced all there is to do in Melbourne. It’s an aesthetically beautiful city, the people are some of the friendliest I’ve met and the more I venture out of my hostel the more I need to see. I just hate to be somewhere so vibrant, and doing something I could be doing from my parent’s couch. But I guess it was a necessary evil.

In the name of being a true “Melbournite,” pronounced “Melbin”ites (yes, they really call themselves that), my friend Brona and I went and had a true Melbourne Sunday. After a mischievous night of drinking and dancing, we pulled ourselves out of bed and onto the St. Kilda beach. A beach that I had yet to enjoy, even with the end of summer nearing! After the sun dried us out, we walked along the shore and found this sweet little pub where we made some friends and had a couple more rounds. When it finally grew dark and my cheeks were sore from laughing we called it a night and went and had an Irish coffee at the PJ O’Brien’s, which so fortunately is on my route home. It was such a lovely day in the sun.

While job hunting, or frantically dispersing my resume in the Melbourne work force, around five I

always found myself passing these fabulous people out on the decks in the sun having cocktails and beers and just generally a good time. On Sunday, I finally got to be one of the fabulous, and I gotta say, I don’t hate it! People really know how to relax and enjoy each other’s company. Everywhere we went that day, whether they be travelers or Australians, young or old, everyone was down for a chat and a laugh. I think that experience is a huge contributor to the vibe of Melbourne. Very laid back and “enjoy the sun while it’s still here” kind of attitude.

Yes it is still summer here, and notoriously the best season for weather Melbourne sees. At the same time, Melbourne is known for crazy weather, even in the summer fun. But really, it hasn’t been THAT bad, inconvenient at times, but in general you see many more pleasant days than anything else; they’re merely punctuated by thunderstorms and windy days.

Love you guys so much and talk to ya soon!!!

XOXO

The Great Australian Open

Melbourne, Victoria

Australia

As you may have heard, the Australian Open finishes in Melbourne, so there were trial matches, and the semi-finals and the FINALS going on here for two weeks. Of coarse I put off going, having trouble rallying the troops to go with me. Then my “friend” gave away what was supposed to be my ticket for the Women’s Finals – which of coarse Serena Williams won. Not a great friend.

But I found a tennis enthusiast buddy and we made a pact to go to the Men’s Finals together no matter what. Now the Men’s Finals is really “the big show” for the Australian Open, and it’s biggest day. But now having gone I was kind of surprised that there weren’t more people. Not to say there weren’t a lot, but if something like that were happening at home with that much DRINKING, it would have been chaos. Fortunately, it was not.

Unfortunately while is was sunny and hot when we left at 4 PM, it was rainy and cold by the time we arrived at the finals. This is such typical Melbourne weather, everyone always says, “You know Melbourne, four seasons in one day.” So true. However, since the Phillip Island Penguin Parade and other outings where I’ve had to learn this lesson the hard way, NOW I come prepared. Only problem being that I don’t really have pants. It was so hot when I was traveling before that I sent my pants home and have yet to buy new ones, so when it rains I’m walking around in capris and flip flops – looking the fool. I also don’t have a scarf or gloves or any kind of hooded jacket to protect me from the elements. And my umbrella is broken. Not so much that I can’t use it, but enough so that when it does break I’ll probably be in the middle of a hail storm waiting for a bus that never comes, or something equally if not more dramatic. Bottom line being that even when I’m prepared, I’m only so prepared.

Anyways, we left the hostel around 4 PM, but we started drinking around 2 PM and didn’t finish until 2 AM. Wild. The actual tournament didn’t start until 7:30 PM, but we wanted to go early to score all the free swag. So we arrived at the Open, pretty toasted, and ran around taking pictures and ya know general debauchery. We got a cucumber facial, and a free fold out chair, and a free hat and about eight free handheld fans, which of coarse were completely useless given the rain. And we got our faces painted; I was Scottish for the night in support of Andy Murray.

By the time the tournament was about to start, our “drunk” was almost just a buzz, so we went and bought more rounds for the game. At the Open, there’s the stadium seating and there are ground tickets. Stadium seating is in the actual arena but quite can be a few hundred dollars, while ground tickets are only $30 but outside. Saving our money for the for that day’s “beer fund,” we went for the ground tickets and still had a great time. We all pulled out our little lawn chairs and sat in a big crowd watching the game on a big screen.

Now I’m no tennis buff, but the atmosphere was great. The match was Roger Federer versus Andy Murray, and the Scotts were definitely the more vocal fans. Fun just being rowdy and chanting and stuff. And while we were in the crowd, my friend and I were up on the big screen like four times! I was glad I got a manicure, because that was a BIG screen and you could totally see all. Granted this was all in the beginning of the game while it was still light out, no one was featured once night fell. It was pretty sweet though.

And as fun as the match was, even with my great Scots – I still fell asleep. Like a few times. Between the drinking and the shenanigans and the not THAT thrilling sport of tennis I dozed off in my little lawn chair, beer in hand – cause I’m a lady…. Plus it was dark. And I’m like a parakeet, the second you throw a sheet over my cage I’m out. In the end, Roger Federer won, and Murray cried which was touching.

Then we headed back to the hostel, which was still in celebration over the match, but once it was about 2 AM I was so done. The most fun I’ve ever had watching tennis, but EXHAUSTING.

A few days later it was Australia Day, which I thought would be a big to do but their holidays are so disappointing here. I mean just to walk around you would never know when it’s a holiday. That was true of Christmas and New Years too, stores are closed and that’s about the only difference. At home, we decorate our houses, and cities decorate the streets, there are mass sales and stores stay open late. I mean you would not be able to miss Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years or the Fourth of July. But I’m telling you, to be here, you could easily miss it. Australia Day had fireworks, and drink specials, so I guess there’s that. I went out for a few drinks and fireworks and called it a night.

In other news, the job hunt is not gong well. Unfortunately, I may be coming home in a couple of weeks. I spent this past week making my CV (which is the equivalent of our resume), getting “Responsible Service of Alcohol” Certified, handing out my CV, immersing myself in job websites and holding painfully few interviews. I’ve mainly been applying to restaurants, bars and cafés because I thought these would be the most likely venues to hire me. However, while I’ve been a hostess for a restaurant I’ve never been a waitress – they don’t like that. And for all my drinking, I’ve never actually tended bar – also not appreciated. And as much as my caffeine addiction controls my life, I’m not a barista so café’s have little to no interest in me as well. It’s very disappointing because these are jobs that I could so be pro at in a week, but no one can spare a week of an “unskilled” employee.

And all my hostel mates tell me just to lie; apparently it’s how everyone got their job. But then I hear such horror stories of first days as a bartender or barista working alone and I just can’t imagine. I mean even if they didn’t fire me they’d still know I was a huge liar. Plus I’m not even a good liar. So I’m spending today replying to more websites and tomorrow I’ll be out on foot again.

It’s heartbreaking. I have literally never been turned down for anything I’ve interviewed for. Whether my interviews were for positions, like Secretary or Representative, or for my actual jobs I’ve never not gotten the gig. And after another devastating interview, you tell yourself well it’s not personal, it’s the fact that I’m unskilled. But then you’re like, oh my god – I’M UNSKILLED, and no one will train me!!! I’m a college graduate, right? They must not have heard.

And, here’s the best part; and by best I mean horrifyingly worst. I created a post with my picture, kind of advertising my skills and what I was looking for in terms of work, on a Monster.com kind of website. My first response was for sex. He wanted to pay me for sex and then inquired if $150 was a “reasonable offer.” No. NO ON EVERY POSSIBLE LEVEL. So I so reported his ass. My wild adventures are kind of on hold for a while, but hopefully things will turn around for me, soon. Like, yesterday. Love you guys lots!!! Hope you’re all well!!

XOXO

February Of The Penguins

Melbourne, Victoria

Australia

Currently going on a month in Urban Central, a fantastic hostel. I give it five stars, and a heartyrecommendation to anyone visiting Melbourne. Free pasta, rice, seasonings, milk, tea, coffee and breakfast (if you manage to get up in the AM). And free towels -- love the fluffy. Not to mention rooms of only four, and the bar. There's a bar. Where they hold daily happy hour and themed nights: karaoke, ladies night, competitions. All forms of mayhem.

And a personal victory: I scored a bottom bunk. No but seriously, my bunk is prime. It’s ridiculous the things that make you happy when you’re backpacking. For example: I got to the room first so I got the bottom bunk – so I don’t have to climb the ladder to get into bed every night AND I can hang my clothes from the top bunk AND I can keep my suitcase under my bed. PRIME. AND my night light works AND I got the locker closest to my bed AND my bunkmate is super cool. Livin' the dream, right?

Melbourne is great. Now THIS is my favorite city. The main thing I love is the good vibe. It’s busy and there are tons of young people, everybody’s super friendly, lot’s to do, CRAZY nightlife.Although I still have a lot of exploring to do because I have been staying near the hostel (but there’s so much even here!)

Since I got to Melbourne I have become penguin obsessed. That’s right, penguins. Now you may be saying to yourself, “I didn’t know there were penguins in Australia,” and you see, this is where the obsession begins.

In Melbourne, you can go down the pier in an area suburb called St. Kilda, and watch the penguins waddle out of the water and climb into the rocks on shore. This is such a thing to do, even the Australia’s go to see it. So me and Garrett, went to go see the penguins in St. Kilda and had been warned that it get’s really cold out on the pier at night. Heading the warning and clad in pants and sweaters and a bag of wine in our backpacks we set out on our adventure. That was one of the hottest days Melbourne has seen this year. It was literally about 110* F out, even after the sun was down it was still hot. We’re out on the pier just sweating and drinking hot wine and watching penguins waddle up the shore.

They were adorable! About a foot tall and roughly 2 pounds each, I wanted to steal one!!! Even more than I wanted to steal a koala, I had plans to case the zoo and steal a koala. They’d waddle up sometimes two at a time, into their little nests where they feed their even tinier and fluffy baby penguins.

That was round one of Mission “See more penguins than you even cared to.” Round two was about a week later. We decided to go again because last time we didn’t get there until 9:30 PM so we thought we might have missed something. We didn’t. This time we got there an hour and a half before the penguins did and it was freezing and I had to pee and I was with a big group of guys who thought this was hilarious. Fun.

But that’s not all! Oh no, there’s a round three! Round three was going to Phillip Island where

they have the Penguin Parade – this was truly impressive. But first it should be explained that we were on a tour so did a couple of other activities before the Penguin Parade. For one, we went to this look out because there are usually penguins in that area even during the day. However, there were not because it was so heinously windy that day. Now I had been cold that whole day so I went and bought another sweater to put on top of the one I was already wearing and pants to wear underneath my dress. I know, sexy. Actually, I kinda looked like a penguin, like, a cold penguin.

Not the point, so now I’m finally warm and kind of cocky about it, teasing my friends about how cold they are, like I do. We take this long trail up to the lookout and even though there were no penguins, it’s just breathtaking. We do the tourist thing and take a bunch of pictures, when out of nowhere it’s just starts pouring. And remember, it’s already crazy windy, so when it begins pouring it’s rough and it hurts. My ear was giving me trouble the rest of the night because the rain had been assaulting it in what we so euphemistically call a “shower.” Everyone totally freaked out and went running for the bus and people are slipping and falling all over the place like we were racing down a Slip’n’Slide, the rain just pummeling us the whole way. We finally get back to the bus, only to realize that now we’re going to wait for the penguins outside, in the cold, in soaked clothes. Can I just say, less than ideal.

Frozen to the core, the 700 penguins marching out of the water and up into the hills made it worth it. And they walk beside this boardwalk that we walk on, so you’re literally a foot away from them.At this point it’s cliché and kind of redundant, but I can’t help it: They’re soooooooooooooo cute!!!!! They run like in little packs together, and even when they pooped midrun it was adorable – sounded like squirting ketchup on a hot dog.

It was just really really cool. That day we were we also went to a beach (which was a frigid kind of cold), a chocolate factory and the “Australian Garden.” The Australian Garden was really beautifully groomed and there were like themes and modern architecture throughout . One of the coolest gardens I’ve been to here. Keep in mind they have gardens here like Foster City has parks -- we’re talkin EVERYWHERE.

And the chocolate factory. Oh the chocolate factory. Chocolate everything, including chocolate penguins (seriously, I never need to see another penguin for the rest of my life). Chocolate shoes, chocolate village, chocolate mural - impressive. And they give you all these free samples while you tour the place, and you get to make your own chocolate bar – including the option of wasabi chocolate. I passed on that one. Mmmmm.. I need to go buy some more chocolate. And penguins.

I also went on another tour where I went swimming with seals and dolphins. It was really sweet because they’re wild animals totally in their natural habitat, and then we're just there, swimming in the ocean.

That was a hell of a day. We got out there and first we went snorkeling. Now I love snorkeling, but I truly wish we hadn’t gone snorkeling that day. It was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo cold. Oh. My. God. Now we got in the water three times: to snorkel, to swim with seals, and to swim with dolphins. And I wish we hadn’t gone snorkeling because I had no idea how ferociously cold it was until we hopped in, then I had to get out and KNOWINGLY subject myself to the shock another two times. I mean we had wet suits, but even once I was in I wasn’t willing to put my head under because I was already so cold. It wasn’t snorkeling so much as it was just swimming around in circles whimpering.

But then we went swimming with the seals and that was really cool. They’re so adorable and funny. What it is, is there’s this platform that a bunch of seals gather and sit on, and then we just swim around it and them. They’d swim around you and dive under you. Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to touch them because it promotes the spreading of disease, but they were still cute. But oh baby do they stink. And their breath is, well, there’s no way to describe it without being profane. So take my word for it: it stinks.

And then we went swimming with dolphins. At this point I was so borderline hypothermia that I did not even want to go in, but then they get you all ready and you have to jump in on their cue, so there was no time to think about backing out. So I went for it, and it was pretty similar to the seals, they play and swim around you and dive under you. They are one of THE most graceful animals I’ve ever seen. But what I really enjoyed about that part was sitting on the boat and spotting dolphins because they’re everywhere. Even though there was this big huge sailboats race, they just swim alongside the boats and they love playing in the wake of the boats. That part may have even been better because I got to take off my wetsuit and put on my sweater.

And the sail boat race was really cool, too. As we were coming back from the dolphins I’m looking out on the water and I see a white flag. And I don’t think anything of a huge white flag in the middle of the ocean until I look back and it’s suddenly smaller. It was a sailboat sinking.

Take it in, reread it. It was a sailboat sinking.

The “flag” was the sail. It was crazy how quickly that thing went down, too. I mean kind of frightening. So our boat high tailed it back and picked them up until the coast guard came and took the stranded back to shore.

And the people didn’t even seem that freaked out, although they might have been in shock.There was one guy was all freaking out about where it went down, because he wanted to try and get it back. I guess these boats run about seventy grand, and if you can get it back you can restore them and race them again. Crazy.

In other news: I am currently, reluctantly, looking for a job and an apartment. Very reluctantly.Honestly, I’ll be a little more enthusiastic when something turns up, but for now the hunt is on! (because the money is low!)

Love you guys, and miss you a boatload!!!!!

XOXO