NOT bored and NOT procrastinating.

A friend recently told me he noticed that I was blogging more frequently. He said that I must either be bored or procrastinating. What an annoying assumption! I don't have to be bored or procrastinating to want to share my Australian life with the internet!!!

But actually yea, haha that's exactly what it is.

Let's compare my Google calendars from March & April to May:

March!

April!

May...

Please ignore the writing in the blue. No, I did not religiously attend the Turf Club and the Perseverance 90's Night every Monday and Friday night. My actual schedule is written in in red. The blue is just MUSEX's (Melbourne Uni Students on Exchange. Their motto is "go hard before you go home") way of reminding me of just how anti-social I am :(

There were only 3 places I wanted to travel to before I got to Australia: Sydney, Carins (Great Barrier Reef), and New Zealand. Now that I've had my fill of traveling, I am ready to settle down in Melbourne, ace my exams (alert: false confidence! false confidence!), and write blog posts about my adventures :)

I have a new resolution. It is to be extremely stingy with my promises because being a flaky, promise-breaker is not an aspiration of mine. So here are some totally realistic and doable goals for my last month here:

• For the love of Timtams, upload your pictures onto facebook.
• Get pictures from Iana on a flashdrive.
• Do a post on the following trips:
• Sydney
• New Zealand
• Great Barrier Reef 
• Mountaineering club intro trip
• The Great Ocean Road
• Melbourne Night Markets
• Moomba Festival
• Go to a Footy (Australian Rules Football) game.
• Go to the Victoria market at least one more time.
• Study in the state library.

They're not promises, but I hope I accomplish these goals. I write in this blog so that I can read back on my adventures 10 years from now as a grumpy 30-year-old teacher, and say to myself: See? Life was good once.

haha jk. God-willing life will be good then too :) (Don't shake my head at me, 30-year-old Linda. I'm not naive!)

Did I just have a conversation with my future self?

yes.

And that is why I don't publicize certain entries.

Buhbye! :)

All Aboard

Lately, I find myself frequenting this blog just wanting to jot things down, even the most mundane aspects of my life here in Australia :)

On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays I have my Graph Theory class at 9am.  I live out in a northwestern suburb of Melbourne called Strathmore so that means I should be on the train by 8am-ish. Give or take 15 minutes depending on how sleepy I am. So yea, basically 8:15 haha.

8am is peak rush hour here so by the time I get on the train there are no seats left for me, which is fine. I'm always thankful for even being able to get on the train. As the train moves from one station to the next, my fellow standing commuters and I, we begin to play our silent game of human Tetris. It's not a very fun game, but everyone always participates!

I thought packing people into trains/buses like sardines was an Asian thing. But I was wrong. It's more of a overpopulated metropolis thing haha. One time, one very sleepy morning, I fell asleep standing up on the train because it gets to that point where you can't even fall over. That is, if you had such a talent like mine where you can fall asleep at any place, any time, anywhere. (yes, by talent I do mean sleeping disorder : /)

As we get closer and closer to the CBD (stands for Central Business District or what would be known as center city in the states), we pull up to stations full of people who peer hopefully into the train windows only to find us sardines packed to the max. The effect that the train pulling into these latter stations has is kinda funny. Smiles are wiped off people's faces instantly and they all begin to simultaneously roll their eyes or frown. I feel for them. My condolences to the people of Kensington and Newmarket station!

Tomorrow is my last day of class so it'll also be my last morning peak hour commute! Despite all of the unpleasantness described above, I will miss commuting. I'll miss playing tetris with the business men and women, the high school students, and fellow Uni students of Melbourne.

I think it's one of the most interesting places to be in any city, on trains.

Flinder's Street Station

More peaceful evening commutes :)

Upside Down Inside Out

I have discovered, via facebook stalking, that a lot of my friends here have travel blogs. As I was browsing through them, I found a quote in my friend Christine's blog from this book:

"I wouldn't want anybody here in Sydney to hear me say this, for fear of execution, but I think Melbourne's better than Sydney. Streets ahead of it. Sydney's all flash and glamour, like the beautiful younger sister. She catches your attention first and you're beguiled, seduced in a moment. But then your attention slowly starts to wane and suddenly you notice Melbourne. The quieter, more demure sister, on the surface. Until you discover that still waters run deep and Melbourne's the one you really fall in love with"

Now, I'm not saying that this quote reflects how I feel about Melbourne vs. Sydney for fear of execution by Christine Yi or Amy Chang (the only "Sydney people" I know). But here I am posting it, because all unrealistic fears aside, I think the author summed it up perfectly =]

Maybe I'll read the whole book. The annoying thing is, I lost my student ID so I can't check out any more books from my favorite library on campus for a while. So sad, I just twiddle my thumbs all the way home on the train now. 

Life is Downton Abbey

Every Sunday night, I join my host family for dinner and we watch Australia's Dancing with the Stars together. Guess what Scary Spice from the Spice Girls is up to nowadays? Yup, she is now hosting Australia's Dancing with the Stars. Haha so random. 

I've noticed that all the shows on Australian TV are either American shows, Australian versions of American shows, or Downton Abbey.

Dancing with the Stars is an interesting one. I've never really watched it before, and I can't say that I'm too into it now. My reality dance show of choice is So You Think You Can Dance. 

But I saw something amazing on Dancing with the Stars this past Sunday Night-- a Viennese Waltz to celebrate the return of Downton Abbey. And as I have many friends who are Downton Abbey fans I thought I would share:

While I was traveling in New Zealand, I met an English police lady who I happened to be sitting next to on our tour bus, the "Kiwi Experience".  She was telling me about how she had been an extra in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Bridget Jones Diary 2 in her college years. "I'm the woman behind the mother when Charlie comes back to say goodbye to his family," she said. I'll let you know if it's true once I get around to watching it haha. Anyways, I asked her about Downton Abbey and according to her, it's a guilty pleasure show that everyone watches back in England.

A guilty pleasure?  My standards for a guilty pleasure are apparently much much lower than the average English person.  Who can resist Mary and Math-yew? Haha I can't wait for the newest season. Does anybody know when it comes out?

I love the soundtrack to this show as well, so it goes without saying I very much enjoyed this performance =)

My Life is a Cliche

"No, that was wonderful. I love being reduced to a cultural stereotype."
-Allison

It's a quote from one of my favorite movies. Woody Allen's Annie Hall.

My friend showed me this article titled "5 Most Cliche Study Abroad Pictures (Australia Version)". I read it, and I agreed. I had four out of the five mentioned pictures on my computer already, and I only needed one more to make my collection complete: a picture at Brighton beach.

So today was a very important day. Today, 20/05/2012 or 05/20/2012, is the day I have made my life here into a complete and total cliche. That's right, I went to Brighton Beach and I proudly took that picture in front of the adorable, and might I add colorful, beach huts :)

Cliche #1: Picture in front of a (Geelong) Beach

Cliche #2: Picture in front of the beach huts @ Brighton Beach

Cliche #3: Feeding Kangaroos

Cliche #4: Picture in front of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. (Thought it would be the Opera House)

Cliche #5: Picture holding a Koala.

I met up with some of my friends who I've been traveling with and we made a short trip down to the beach on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. I often feel isolated out here in the burbs because everyone else lives in the city, and so it was so fun to meet up with these girls again :) (Sara and Iana, we missed you guys!)

Anyways. Yes, we are the traveling cliche Australian tourists! And yes, I have just reduced myself to a (cultural?) stereotype.

But I am ok with that because frankly put, people study abroad/visit other countries to do the cliche things.  We try things that other people come back and talk about, and look for the famous landmarks we know. People don't fly halfway around the world to "stick it to the man", "fight against the system", "hang out in dark alleyways that nobody knows about", yaddayaddayadda.

So here's to being cliche.

I am so very content with being your run-of-the-mill Australian study abroad student :)

The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra

On a hot summer Saturday in Melbourne, I spent basically all day in the seats of the Sidney Myer Bowl with my friend Victoria to secure good seats for a free concert.  As we sat in the sticky afternoon sun, a concert band made up of all public transportation workers came on stage to open for the main act. As a former band geek, I fully appreciated this and can only hope that there's a band made up of all teachers in the future for me .\\//

I didn't know what to expect. I honestly just came along because I had nothing better to do. But this, this was amazing! Far beyond what I could have hoped to just randomly stumble upon. Melbourne really is where the culture is. Did I mention that this was free??

The sun was still shining when the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra took the stage in the evening. But as the orchestra captivated me for hours I didn't even realize that the sun had set and the day had cooled down by the time everyone in the crowd was standing for a standing ovation.

It was a wonderful day spent outdoors in the sun, in good company :)

Where the Wild Things Are

Needless to say, I am a promise breaker :(

But let's not dwell on that.

Let's talk about Australia, where the wild things are (in zoos mostly)!

I have got to admit, I am not a huge fan of zoos. It's not that I dislike animals or anything. It's just that I'd much rather see them in their natural environment, or have some type of interaction with them. It gets reallll boring looking at caged animal #25 ignoring me, sleeping in a corner. Who's with me?!

There are, however, some animals that I was definitely excited to see in Australia: a wombat, a kangaroo, and a koala. I know, typical. But, I have good reason for having wanted to see wombats. After having read this random blog post titled "Why You Should Give a Square Shit About Wombats," I really did. I did give a square poop about wombats! (I google a lot of things.)

Anyway, I have had two zoo experiences here. One was at the Melbourne Zoo which I visited during my first week here through my welcome program.  Despite my apathy towards zoos, I didn't have a bad time because one: my friend Christine used to intern at the Philadelphia Zoo so she knew all sorts of things about the animals; and two: I saw a wombat! (or more importantly, its square poop)

Melbourne Zoo

Sunflowers :)

Creepy Crawlies

Elephants, Giraffes, and Zebras! My favorites at your typical zoo.

Mayyy have been more interested in the landscaping/sculptures in this zoo.

"An opal-hearted country, a wilful lavish land"

Very inactive kangaroos.

 And now, for the highlight:

 Wouldn't have known that was a wombat until I saw that brown cube.

The sign reads: 

"Deep off Victoria's coast, spectacular sponge gardens grow in a breath-taking array of shapes and colours"  

 Christine, my personal tour guide! She also informed me that you can see kangaroos at the Philly zoo too. Wish she hadn't told me that. Apparently, I didn't have to come all the way to Australia to see one :/

The other zoo I went to was called the Habitat Zoo at Port Douglas which is near Cairns, Queensland. And without a doubt, I am ready to say that this zoo will probably be the best zoo I will ever go to, period.

Here we got to hold a baby koala named "Grizzly". I was in line, all excited! Then when it came my turn to hold Grizzly, he pooped right before the trainer handed him over to me...
I just want to say thanks Grizzly, for timing your poo so well.  My hand is indeed, not a toilet <3

Another cool thing about this zoo was that the kangaroos roamed free, and we could buy a bag of kangaroo food to feed them!  While we were feeding the kangaroos though, some aggressive ducks also competed for the food as well. These ducks had beaks that hurt when they tried to grab food from my hand. At one point, the ducks ripped a hole in the food bag itself to get more food. I was not amused. I am not a fan. -_- haha

Habitat Zoo

Grizzly the Koala!

Blue-tongued lizard! (Yea, I made that up)

I touched that, and lived to type this caption.

Grizzly poops. My face reacts.

hehe :)

Parrots!

roos!

Feeding the Kangaroos:

 

See that hole? The greedy duck's doing!

Oh, one last thing I forgot to mention. At this zoo I saw an owl that looked like Hedwig devour a chick whole. I ran away from the site of the murder too quickly to take a photo. But as a mawrter, this was a sad day. What to feel about school mascot... hmm..

Anyways, I'll deal.

That's it for now guys! I'm not making any more promises. So maybe see you soon, maybe see you never. Have a wonderful day :)