beep beep beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

beep.

bee-beep.

beep.

Despite the long weeks of inactivity this blog has undergone, I am keeping it alive with this post and am officially declaring it "not dead.... yet"! 

The past month has been action packed for sure, and there are too many things that I could ever write about individually in one sitting so I'll just list them here: a truly amazing outdoor orchestra concert at the Sidney Myer Bowl, a relaxing weekend cabin trip to Echuca with my host family, watching the moomba festival fireworks from the yarra river, driving down the beautiful Great Ocean Road with friends, a weekend of rock-climbing/bushwalking/rogaining with Melbourne Uni Mountaineering club, and yet another weekend trip to Sydney including Hillsong, a cruise, and the opera house. 

Remind me to write about all those things and more, and I will try to squeeze out the details of each trip out of my not-so-reliable memory. Lately I've been realizing how useful an active travel blog would be both for me and my audience (whoever you are.... yea, you ... creepy anonymous internet audience...). HAHA jk.

I imagine blogging at least weekly would force me to reflect on what I did in a given week, and write about what I've been learning from my experiences down under.  I want to be able to read this blog years from now and experience this rare and wonderful experience fresh from Pinda (past linda)'s point of view. I want to be able to re-live these moments through this blog, so here's to my goal of blogging more regularly! May it have a better fate than all my new year's resolution! 

Melbourne Uni

Andddddd I am back! 

I actually started this entry about a week ago, but I was quite discouraged by the experience of writing up my last post. Today, I'm putting on my brave (or the more accurate adjective: non-lazy) face and finally finishing this entry! In truth, blogspot is not so bad, and I am just a bit of a technology noob :P 

Anyways, before I digress into one of my old-lady technology rants, I will get to the point of this entry which is... school! Before you boo me to shame for going into one of the most mundane topics there is to talk about, let me just note that coming to Melbourne Uni, a ginormous co-ed university, from Bryn Mawr College, a teeny tiny all-women's liberal arts college, has been a culture shock in and of itself for me. 

At home, I tend to forget how unconventional going to an all-women's college is just because it is the norm for me.  But I'm finding Melbourne Uni to be a particularly quirky, fun and exciting place to be for undergrad, and I am thankful for being able to experience the best of both worlds :) (disclaimer: no hannah montanna reference [ever] intended!!)

Here are a few photos from orientation week, or as they called it here, O-week:

Look! My only friends. 

hahaha jk 

These three pictures got me 2 free tickets to the movies!! Hurrah! Except I ended up giving it to a random stranger in the computer lab out of the kindness of my good good heart. HAHA just kidding. I waited til the last day to go, but there was a festival that I would've rather gone to. Hope you enjoyed the fruit of my labor random computer lab guy! 

And what is an orientation without its scuba diver marching band and a random fruit assortment marching band?  HAHA they were actually pretty good. My favorite form of entertainment of the day!

Yes, bell hopper acrobats. I wouldn't believe me either, if it weren't for the pictures^ HAHA

Free photobooth pictures! Free Slurpees! Free three packets of Uncle Ben's Rice (ok maybe I was only supposed to take one)! Free BBQ! So many free things! Oh man, how could I have forgotten how good it is to be a fresheman? Even if I am just a pseudo-frosh :)

Other notable acts: easter bunnies on stilts, circus ring-leaders on stilts, two angel-clown-face men going up to and harrassing random people by dancing around them. To sum it all up, it was good-humored, crazy fun :)

So now I am only in my second week of school, and I really can't complain. I love all my classes! For my education class, we got to write and record a radio segment. We came up with all the talking points and even got to choose our own music! My line was, "And you just heard piper's song by gypsy and the cat. You've been listening to the University of Melbourne on Syn FM. I'm Linda, thanks for listening." haha except that sounds a lot smoother than what was actually recorded.

Regardless, I am continually thankful for and floored by all of these new and amazing experiences! Did I tell about how I danced "the salsa" in a public square at a night market? And by doing the "salsa," I mean twirling each other around and pointing/laughing at each in public HAHA. The embarrassment and laughter gave me such an adrenaline rush! Melbourne Linda is a shameless Linda!  More and more stories to come :)

Coming up next...

Trip to a river resort with my home-stay family :) 

Free outdoor concert featuring the Melbourne Symphonic Orchestra!

Spring Break... where to? (no more New Zealand :/)

Kayaking, Bush-walking, and Rock Climbing with Mountaineering club! 

Sydney, here I come! 

p.s.

a confession: I lied when I said that I'd start writing my post cards soon! Getting into the rhythm of school again and everything has slowed me down. I am sorry! But a big thank you to those who sent me their addresses :) I will start them this week, you have my word!

Paint the Town Red, Yellow, Blue,...

Note: Sorry about the mess of pictures down there and now up here^. None of this arrangement was planned. It was randomly and stubbornly placed by the picture posting feature of blogspot! It is the most unorganized arrangement of pictures ever, but I got to the unhealthy point in my blogging career where... I almost punched myself in the face -_-

And you know, sometimes giving up is not such a bad idea!

I'm shaking my fist at you blogspot! Hope you're reading this evil.... blogspot... man!

woooooooooo sah

Anyways, please enjoy the post despite the messy array!
Have a "i wanna punch myself in the face"- free day! :D
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For me, one of the coolest things about Melbourne is the tucked away laneways lined with Graffiti art!
Christine and I spent our date seeking out these laneways together :)

 

       

    

Whew! Well that took forever and a half! (ha! ha! says naive, unassuming linda [HAHA ok I'll stop being bitter]) But yea, there ya go :) Hopefully you can see a bigger version of the photos if you click on them. I just took too many pictures of the graffiti to make the sizes any bigger. (btw, i keep getting stuck every time I have to spell "graffiti". two f's or two t's or both? arghhhh! life is hard haha)

Anyways! It was so nice catching up with Christine while she was here :) So nice to see a familiar face in  Melbourne! There's something about meeting up with someone from your home environment abroad that gives you such a sense of relief. You feel like they get you more than anyone you just met, or anyone back home at the moment. It was such a blessing to be able to meet up and talk to an RCF sister going through similar experiences spiritually, academically, and socially abroad. So thanks for calling me up Christine! Hope you enjoyed your stay here in Melbin =] (if you read this blog haha, if not I'm talking to myself)

School starts in T-4 days and I am exciiiiiiiiiiiiiited! Can't wait to buy books, read books, take notes in books, solve math problems in books! wooo! hooo! (Disclaimer: I am not a nerd. This is just what 2 months of winter break does to a person 8)

Oh yea! And I'm going to write post cards soon so please please send your address to: lindduh@gmail.com. I keep finding free ones so postcards for everyone!! wee! :D

A Few of my Favorite Things in Melbourne

One of my favorite things to do is to explore and discover new cities. So it's been a little over a week since I've gotten here now and every day I've been going into the city just to explore. Sometimes by myself. Sometimes with a couple friends. And I'm slowly, no quickly, falling in love with Melbourne. It's voted one of the most livable cities in the world and I can see why.

So here is a list of a few of my favorite things about this city:

1. Small town feel, but there's no denying that it's a big city with so much to do, see, and eattttttt :9
2. Well planned city with a nice mix of greenery/waterfronts/urban ares.
3. Greatttttt public transpo :) It's a real treat coming from the land of Septa :P
4. Little open air markets and festivals everywhere (but this may end with the summer :/)
5. Live music on every other street, buildings that look like they should be in a modern architecture magazine, and graffiti art lining the walls. It's artsy fartsy here and I'm lovin' it :)
6. Generally easy going and laid back people. "No worries" and "Fair enough"
7. Hidden laneways throughout the city that are lined with cafes, restaurants, and shops.
8. The diversity here is incredible. And I'm really appreciating it in the form of.... food! Malaysian food on one corner, then a Sri Lankan take out place down the block, tried a Turkish borek for the first time, then there's a Greek precinct with amazing dessert. droooolllll.
9. The beach is only a trams ride away. The water in the beach is not grey! Whatttttt??
10. Alright this one is a little cheesy but I gotta say it: The sunsets here are beautifullllllllll! teeheee :)

I could definitely get used to it here!
This is my town now for the next four months >:)  muhaha!

Upcoming Stories: "Wombats Poo: Brownies or Poop?" "Christine Comes to Melbourne!" "Finding Fellowship in Melbourne" (<--- Mainly to remind myself of what I wanted to write about next. I'll keep you guys posted!)

i will not get lazy about blogging. i will not get lazy about blogging. i will not get lazy about blogging. i will not get lazy about blogging. i will not get lazy about blogging. i will not get lazy about blogging. i will not get lazy about blogging.

Travel Buddies

So I have to address this off the bat. 

It has come to my attention that "'ello maties" is not something an Aussie would say. Yahoo Ask and Justin Wei tell me that it's more of an English-pirate-with-a-Cockney-accent thing haha. Oh nooby American Linda...

Anyways, I am here! In Melbourne!

And I didn't tell you guys yet, but I'm actually not traveling alone. 

I'm actually traveling with a stanley, two stanleys actually.... 

my lovely stanleys :)

For when I'm on adventures, traveling. 

For when I go out...

HAHAHA 

Waiting.. waiting... waiting to take off!

wholeee row to mahsself :) 

So those are my lovely high school friends Eunice and Jin <3 Eunice dropped these off for me the morning of my flight saying, "So this one is for when you're traveling around and this is for when you go out at night" HAHAHA and I still cannot stop laughing about it. 

(Oh, for those of you who don't know what a flat stanley is, it's this guy right here: 

No, the littler guy:

 haha apparently, flat stanley's have been photographed in every corner of the world! woah.) 

Anyways, yes so I have two flat stanleys for every and all occasions. Watch out for them in some my photos! They will definitely go to good use and will be popping up here and there :) I expect no less with flat Linda back at Bryn Mawr my dearest small group! 

(Oh man, people here are going to think I'm soooo weird.... but you know what, what's new? haha I just gotta make sure my friends like me before I introduce them to my flat friends :P )

I present to you a quick update in list form of my life down undah:

• the longesttttttt flight of my life. hands down.
• arrived in melbourne about 20 hours ago.
• sooo many blonde people... 
• the weather here is nice and breezy!
• my host family is so sweet and I couldn't have asked for better housing. Seriously, God provides!
• I'm off to a welcome program in a couple hours. I'm gonna surf! or fall off a surf board!! wahoo!

That is all I have to report so far :)

Oh, and congratulations to my Pastor and his wife on their fourth child Sungkwangeeeeee, or just Thomas. haha I am honored to have helped induce labor by eating shin ramyun with you guys the day before :) HAHAHA post lots of pictures!

I am missing everyone back in Philly so so much! I can't say thank you enough for everything I've received the last few weeks I was home. Thanks for making me feel loved and just wishing me well. It was all very much appreciated :)