It puts the joey in the pouch

What What in the Outback?

Hows it going guys. I am back to my regular weekly routine of blogging and it feels good. Before I begin my recounts of this past week I hope everyone is doing well back home. I am having an amazing time down here, but this place would be even better if MoCo + CP joined the team down under.

To play off of my emotional appeal, as the "summer" rapidly nears its end, I can only think back to this time last year when I was living at home, eagerly awaiting August 15th, the day I could move into Commons 1302. It was an amazing day and the first few weeks were some of the best I can remember. The past 3 weeks here have gone by fast and slow. It feels like I got here yesterday, but at the same time I feel like ive been here for months. It is a bizarre feeling, and one which people who have been abroad I'm sure appreciate. For those that have not, know that I love it here and it is an experience unlike any other, but the times I had in CP are unbeatable.

Now back to my escapades. No quotes this time, but to refresh everyones memory, the pizza here is outrageous, and while I am used to potomac pizza and ratsies for my normal fix, MoJo's pizza and Pepperonis has an edge that soon will not be equated to that of famous Rays or Cicero's in NY.

So I left off last Week telling you about my job as a bartender, my travels down to St. Kilda, and times during re-o week where I met all the other Melbourne exchange students. This week has definitely been different. Thats probably the biggest thing to comment on in regards to being abroad, everything is different. I am sure that it will level off in the next week or so, but for now every week brings new events and stories, and I cannot wait until I start traveling so I will have even better pictures, and much better stories.

• SUNDAY- So this past week we started off by going to my friend Joy's lacrosse game. We chilled there all Sunday morning and met a bunch of those players. It was pouring for 1/2 the game, but after a while it opened up and watching them loose 21-2 was actually pretty amusing. After the game and meeting all the girls we headed back, chilled for a nice long while, warmed up and went over the the Crown Casino. This place is set just south of the Yara river, which is abt a mile long and feeds into Port Phillip Bay- fucking beautiful during the day, and even more amazing at night w/ all the city lights reflecting on it. The Casino is in basically the '5th ave' of Melbourne. It has about 20 shops in and around it, ranging from Versacce to whatever the fuck is an expensive store. But its a really sick place. It is also right next door to the world's tallest apartment building and the southern hemisphere's highest observation deck. I will post those pictures later- no worries. Anyways Crown is shit compared to Vegas, but when you compare it to basically one casino in vegas, it stacks up pretty well. Shitty tables and way too high stakes of roulet and blackjack, but if I want to loose another $200, I know where to go.......After Crown and loosing some cash, I thought I'd clear my head by going to the mind blowingly sweet mall in downtown Melbourne. It has 4+ bars, a pool hall, a lot of crazy restaurants, and an amazing movie theater. BTW if you think movie tickets are expensive in the states, $14 for a student ticket is what I'm paying here, and after the 2 pitchers and 2 games pool to kill time before the movie, the Casino was the least of my financial worries. But while the movie sucked (X files, don't bother w/ that garbage), the day was full of explorations and pleanty of good times.

• MONDAY- The next day, Monday, was back to class. I went to bed around 3 (im assuming sicne thats my generic bed time, so anytime before 1pm back home is fair game for some late night/early afternoon skyping) and got up around 1230 for my 130 class. Went there and then decided what the fuck am I doing in class. I left right after class ended, hauled ass back to my place, ran into a friend and was like wow, class in a foreign country just doesn't seem worth it, lets go drink. So we started drinking goon abt 2 hrs later, chalked up some wins on my goon pong leaderboard, and then hit the town. Sad as it is tho, Melbourne is not NY, not even is it DC. All but a few bars were open, and those few bars that were open were filled to the brim with the excretions of asia. It seemed like the opening ceremonies of Bejing only w/ less athletic people, and more weed. Either way we stayed buzzed, walked around town for abt 2 hrs, went to a few random bars, and FINALLY had our first run in w/ the VICPD- the Victoria Police Department! It was great, my friends had to take a leak, so instead of going to 1 of the 300 public restrooms (aka toilets)--they peed behind a dumpster and I took the pictures, sound gay? Well it was--anyways the cops say them peeing and pulled into this dark alley, threatened them w/ $220 fines, I said my cousin is a lawyer, do I need to call him, he said shut the fuck up u spoiled American (not really but it adds a lot to the story) and then he drove on his merry way.

• TUESDAY- The next night, Tuesday, we went to the Melbourne International film festival. That my friends, was awesome. Oddly enough we say an American made movie, the Wackness. It was phenominal. It was about this guy, aka Josh from Drake and Josh- the weird disney show w/ the fat kid from max keebles big move, only now hes not fat, hes an emo pot dealer. So hes a virgin trying to get laid and get over his depression, so he sells weed to the therapist in exchange for therapy. It also stars the hot friend from Juno as the love interest. Honestly, a great movie, and at this festival it was even better. Apparently the festival is 3rd below Cannes and Sundance, but it was a great time. Samuel L Jackson was the guest of honor last yr, and I think Nicholas Cage was this year. Anyways after the movie we stopped by this cigar shop and I wanted to buy a zippo that has a koala holding an Australian Flag on it.... the guy said it was $80, im like I wont spend more than 40- he said, ok only cuz Im jewish and I know what its like, ill give it to you for $70.....$60....$50.... 5 minutes later i paid $40. Its sweet, and hopefully we can use it before August 6th.... Pineapple Express!
  

• WEDNESDAY- The next day, Wednesday- just chill and goin to classes but Thursday is where shit turned crazy.
  

• THURSDAY- Guess who arrives in the Melbourne International Airport?? Shelley and Marty Levine! Thats right the parents make it to town and it was great to have them. I leave class as soon as its over and head over to their hotel in downtown. We hug, say out hellos, and its just like i left yesterday. I took them downtown, showed them the city took them to some good spots, and then jumped on a tram into the "Jewish district." My dad, the super loving jew that he is talked to my Rabbi before he got there and scoped out some good bakeries with some actual Challah! And since I haven't had a bagel since bagel place, I figured a tram ride through the city would be worth it. We walked around, asked for some directions, and found ourselves at this crazy ortho part of town and felt like Tel Aviv all over. We stopped in this once place for some food and just as soon as I sit down, Marty is workin his magic and talkin to the girl at the counter. Turns out she just moved here from Jerusalem and my dad pointed over my direction with my back facing him and said "you see my son over there? Well he is after a nice jewish girl to go out with on saturday nights and hang out." Much to my dismay, it was not my 64 year old father that was left to hitting on girls for me, apparently my game has really gone down hill since I got here. Regardless I wave, say hello, and then get the fuck outa dodge. We head back, grab some chinese food in china town, and then I head back, pick up a box of good, and set up pong.

• THURSDAY NIGHT- The night was another story. I have a shit load of pictures that I will be sure to upload ASAP, however, I do not know all that much of what happened so it will be the pictures doing the story. It was the Melbourne University Pub Crawl- and since RMIT is basically the equivalent to the Towson of MD (thats right i said it)- Uni Melbourne is awesome and hosts pub crawls for its students. Anyways from what I remember, I FINALLY met Veronica and Brianne (btw happy 19th birthday Veronica), the 2 girls from Jersey that live on the 1st floor that will be joining us in our adventure to Brisbane in only a few short weeks. We played a game of pong, went downstairs, and went o the first bar. But before we left I took 4 shots in 5 minutes, and this is where the night blurs together. We go to 2 bars, the first one is 1/2 outdoors and 1/2 indoors. $12 pitchers so of course I get my own to chug, and share a sparing amount w/ the cute Uni Melbourne girls. The more I write about it, the happier I get because this was a crazy night. Then a few girls leave, me and some other kids decide to stay to finish our drinks. Then when the drinks hit the bottom, we head over to the other bar. This bar was huge, 2 levels, a fucking underground rainforrest under glass and made w/ legos or some crazy shit, and $3.50 rails- which in this town is amazing! I bought a round for the 6 people around me, headed upstairs set up there for a while and yadda yadda yadda, I have about 50 pictures, 5 new numbers (da numbers sabbagh!) and no recollection of the rest of the night.
  

• FRIDAY- supposed to meet my parents at 10, THAT didn't happen. Saw them around 1130 for a late breakfast. We walked around town, took them to Flinders lane, which is basically like 40 shops in 2 blocks. People eating outdoors, walking and talking, and the hustle and bustle of new york, only condensed into 2 blocks and filled to the brim w/ people and action. Then we went to St. Kilda beach. It wasn't the best weather so instead of going to the pier, we just walked around, had another amzing burger, got some sweet chocolate covered churros, and did some shopping. My mom loved it, my dad had a good time, and I got a free lunch and spent time w/ my parents, so it was a win-win-win. I then had dinner w/ them and also my cousin June has friends that live in Melbourne so she gave me their name and # and they took us all around local places in the city. Got a great perspective of life in the city and was a very nice relaxed time w/ the family. I decided to crash at their place friday night sicne we were leaving at 8am the next morning for 'the great ocean road tour.'

• SATURDAY- with the parents still in town and eager to see all the excitement, we went on a 13 hr bus tour of the entire southern coast of Australia. It was a very very very relaxing day, and was also my dad's birthday. So happy birthday to marty and it was an excellent way to spend the day. We say some crazy sights. It is basically like the Pacific Coast Highway (aka Big Sur) in between LA and Fransisco, but 10x cooler. There are random cliffs that just free stand in the middle of the ocean right off the coast and I will be sure to upload some breathtaking picutres. We got back around 10pm and then I headed back and played some goon pong, got way to drunk and passed out after watching entourage at around 4am.

• SUNDAY- after getting 6 hrs of sleep last night, me and the folks go the victorian market which is the largest outdoor market in the southern hemisphere, and equated to the turkish bizarre, or if uve ever been to southern florida, 10 flea markets in one place. Then we went for brunch in richmond w/ my cousins friend. The what I mentioned about 3 pages ago, with the largest apt building in the world- my parents and I came back form richmond and took the elevator up to the 88th floor and had a sick view of the city. Took about an hr break up there, then wento to the crown casino, played roulet for 5 minutes, lost $20 and headed over to dinner. My friends Thomas, Joy, Brendan, Brianne and Veronica all joined in for a great time on Lygon street- little italy. We got 2 free bottles of wine, some great chicken parm, and got a chance to show my parents that I actually have a few friends- they think im a loner, its sad. Then thomas, joy and I came back to the hotel for a nice dip in the hotel hot tub, chilled for an hr and took it easy that night.
  

This is one long mamma jamma blog, but if you actually did read it- congrats.

Summation:
Sunday- Lax + Mall
Monday- Class + drinking + police
Tuesday- Film Festival
Wednesday- chill
Thursday- parents + jews + blackout
Friday - st. kilda + chineese
Saturday - Great ocean road + goon pong
Sunday - market + richmond + dinner w/ friends/parents + hot tub
WEEK- AMAZING

stay posted guys

Cheers,
Mitch