My First Week in Melbourne

So folks, I’ve survived my first week in what has been called the second best city in the world to live in (next to Vancouver, of course). Having three times the population of Vancouver, Melbourne is a city full of trams, jay-walking, and crazy fashion. It’s also a place where the weather has even a harder time making up its mind than I do.

This place is somehow magical to me. It sparkles with life and culture. In the last week alone I have hopped from tram to tram within the bustle of every day chaos… I’ve sipped on a flat white outside a café along the Eupoean style cobbled street of Hardware Lane… relaxed along the white sands of St. Kilda beach… strolled past the many fruit, vegetable, art and clothing stalls of Victoria Market… chatted with people in an open air bar down a sketchy back alley… explored the Picasso Art Exhibit… shared a $5.50 half litre of red wine outside an Italian restaurant along Lygon Street…and I have worn a dress for no particular reason and not felt completely out of place (although I do feel like the only person here who doesn’t own a pair of skinny leg jeans)!

My flight over here was probably the longest ever. I arrived in LA at about 6:30pm to find out that my plane was delayed, and was now leaving at 1:45am. Lucky for me I ended up meeting two handsome guys from Sydney and we all hung out together. We got some pizza (they gave us food vouchers) and when we got back we decided to chill by another gate because the area beside ours was so full. Anyway, the two guys Jamie and Jonathan end up falling asleep and finally I wonder why they haven’t called us to board yet, so I wander over to our gate to find it completely empty and they are paging our names over the loudspeaker. The girl was like “hurry! You’re the last to board!” So I ran over and woke the guys up and thankfully we made the flight!

Luckily I ended up sleeping a full 9 hours to Auckland (Aud- it was like the Thai flight, I just slept and ate) So I arrive in Auckland to find that now because of the previous delay I have actually missed my flight to Melbourne. So… I now have to wait another 7 hours. This time I met a Rochelle, a girl from Melbourne who was on the same flight so we hung out together. You really get to know someone after 7 hours straight… and she was a lot of fun, so hopefully we will meet up again sometime here.

Finally, after 32 hours of travelling, or just waiting, I arrived in Melbourne. I was greeted by Grant and an armful of flowers… For the first two weeks here he arranged accommodation at the Graduate house at his school Melbourne Uni. It’s in a nice area and we have a big balcony that overlooks a park.

On Saturday Grant organized a dinner at Federation Square where I was able to meet all his friends (including one of mine – Jeremy who I went to highschool with). Everyone was really friendly and dinner was great. I’ve also been able to catch up with my friend Hamish (aka Hammy). He is a Kiwi that lives here… I met him while in Venice and last year he showed Christin, Audrey and I a great time! I went out with him and his friends the other night to play Trivia (apparently the thing to do around here on a Tuesday night). Our team won, and his friends made fun of my accent. I have an accent?

Anyway, most of the week has been spent looking for apartments.Something I’ve never had to do before. Very exciting and very stressful. But yesterday we found a place, applied and while we were browsing the food section in Myer, they called and said we were approved. Good ol’ L.J. Hooker. It’s a one bedroom, but it’s very roomy and the apartment is quite new. It’s on the 6^th floor. It has a sketchy little balcony, but a balcony nonetheless, and right across the street is Victoria Market (where we can do all our shopping) and at night it has a great view of all the city lights. We are right between downtown and the Uni (about 10 min walking either direction) so it is perfect!

We did some shopping today at Ikea, The Big W, and The Reject Store. Haha. I’m not gonna lie, we’re trying to be as cheap as possible! It was difficult, but I was able to deter Grant away from the Jim Beam Dunna. (although I did consider buying it for Audrey!) We move in on Tuesday so we are trying to gather up some stuff before than.

Tomorrow a bunch of us are going to see Talladaga Nights, and then heading back to our friend Tyler’s for a BBQ… then for the weekend we are going down to another friends cabin on the beach which should be a lot of fun!

Thanks for reading this far! I enjoy hearing from everyone so please email me! Also if anyone is planning on visiting Melbourne give us a ring and I’m sure you will be able to crash on our floor! I have a mobile now (thanks Hammy & Sam) so email me for the number!

Love, Jen