Where the junk am I?

I know I’m in Oz, but it certainly doesn’t look like it. Must be the British influence, because it feels very Euro. There are a lot of old buildings from the 1850s-1880s here and I love the contrast of the old architecture with the new. I am what I like to call a stage five clinger with these buildings. I can’t stop taking photos of them! I had to talk myself out of taking pics today because I literally ONLY took pictures of buildings on my walk (one statue and three garden photos excluded). The buildings are just so cute! Every time I took a photo of a house/church/unknown purpose building, I would turn around and see one I liked even better. So towards the end of my day I just told myself to stop. But the architecture is c'est magnifique (sorry Mel for the probably improper usage of that). The houses are adorable…each one I passed I decided I wanted to live in. So many of them have iron filigree on the façade and it’s beautiful.

lunch at brunetti

my walking path

I went on a four hour walk through the city today, and it may not look like a very long route, but trust me, it was. And, many times I overshot my destination by a few streets and had to turn around, so I even went a little further than I showed on the map. I walked by the university, stopped at a café for pizza and a cappuccino and walked through several parks. Ali was upset when she found out that during the entire four hours, I did not once step into a clothing store. All I have to say to that is, it’s only day two, there’s still plenty of time to live vicariously through my Aussie fashion experience. I am really proud of myself though (not to brag, but, why yes, I am bragging), I am really good at just wandering around! I have never been officially lost and I am already starting to get a really good sense of where things are. I stopped by the same grocery today at the end of my walk, and found that walking back when I knew where I was going went by much more quickly. Then again, I wasn’t carrying nearly as much weight. So I know how to walk around Melbourne, but my feet are starting to show signs of abuse, so I think it might be time to conquer the tram. I want to try to go to the St. Kilda festival (a beach music festival) either tomorrow or the next day before my exchange welcome program begins, and it’s not in walking distance, so it might be time!

jealous of whoever lives here

royal exhibition building in carlton gardens

Lots of exchange students moved in today, and I met some of them when I went downstairs to turn in a deposit slip. Unfortunately, my sketchy key reader in my door decided to completely stop working today, so I ended up being locked out of my room for about an hour. The staff forgot I was waiting in the lobby, so it took a little too long. We figured out it wasn’t my key, but in fact my door that was the culprit. I was told maintenance was very busy today so it would take a couple of hours to be fixed. I figured the longer I walked, the better chance that my door would open when I got back. Four hours later, it wasn’t working. I’ve been given a temporary key card that works sometimes. Not sure what’s going on here, but I’m hoping that I don’t come home late one night and end up stranded. I tried to crack a joke with the maintenance man by saying, “Guess I just won’t leave my room!” but he didn’t laugh. He’s foreign, so clearly my great humor just got lost in translation.

Jet lag really hasn’t been a big issue so far (fingers crossed), which is strange. You would think travelling to the opposite end of the world would completely mess up the body clock, but it’s been alright! Just a few side notes: the people here are very attractive and stylish, although some of the men are bordering on eurotrash. Even the bums are attractive! I saw a pretty older lady in the park who I thought resembled Gwyneth Paltrow's mom, but with a closer look I noticed she was yelling things to herself and toasting the sky with a dixie cup. Well, at least she was keeping up a good appearance. Also, my new favorite phrase is “good on ya.” Still need to figure out exactly what context to use it in. I also learned that I definitely need to start walking on the left side of the sidewalk. I got the vibe that I was making people unintentionally uncomfortable by walking on the right, but it wasn’t proven until a park path had an arrow pointing to which direction I needed to be going. Thanks park path! Good on ya. 

usc?