Week 3-4.5 Its been a Month what have I missed?

How ya goin mate? Typical Aussie lingo at its best.

So it’s officially been one month since my departure from BWI and arrival in Melbourne. I’m not gonna say that I haven’t looked back, because I fucking love college park. I ultimately decided to come here because I was very confident back home and always had a lot of fun, but until I decided to put myself in a completely new environment, I really didn’t know how I would survive.

This Blog is as much for me, as it is for my friends and family back home. So while it may seem rather unusual to speak so candidaly of my abroad emotions and my nostalgic sense for rugged warehouse and the Mitchell building, I want to remember what it was like being here. I felt a little bit uncomfortable when the guy in assless chaps and a mesh shirt was mocking me for buying a journal at the hallmark store, so I decided this was a better forum to document my time here, and hopefully when I look through my notes in 6 months, 5 years, or when Im 50, I’ll be able to recall exactly what was going through my mind.

Now back to current life. So last time I made an entry, my parents had just gotten to Melbourne and we went to the beach, on a tour of the coast, a few markets, met up w/ some old friends from the states, and did a bunch of other random events. The same holds true for this entry, however the setting is a bit different.

So my parents left the city Monday morning and they went off to Cairns. Cairns is right on the Great Barrier Reef and is according to them, amazing. Plenty of places to see nemo, and what is considered the best scuba diving site in the world. However since I won’t be there for a few more months, I’ll stick to Melbourne. Right after they left I was feeling more nostalgic than I had been since I got here. I was really happy to be back and spend time w/ my friends, but it was definitely a nice change to have them around and have the ½ comfort of home and the ½ excitement of being over seas. It was a nice change of pace, but they were coming back to get me 4 days later so it wasn’t too much of a hindrance.

The week after they left we celebrated our friend Veroinca’s (from Rowen University) 19th Birthday- she’s one of 2 sophomores here and the youngest that Ive met down here. Despite this 19 is still very much legal and we hit up a few bars and an Italian restaurant to celebrate. The rest of the week was fairly relaxing. Went to the bars Tuesday night, chilled Wednesday, and then Thursday afternoon my parents landed back in Melbourne after their stay in Carins. I crashed at their hotel that night to make sure I made the 8am flight to Sydney; however we had the University of Melbourne exchange student gala that night. Before the Gala I took my parents to a bar in downtown Melbourne which overlooked thee Yara river and had pretty decent bar food. I took off around 6:30 to change and left them w/ the bill and some free time to do whatever the hell you do when you leave a bar after your 50 years old-don’t say it, don’t even think it, they went to the movies.

Our friend Joy’s friend from ASU Brianna has been in town so she went to the gala with us, and while she made it to 1130 after being thrown out by the bouncer for falling asleep on the couch in the bar and then vomiting all over herself, I was surprisingly restraintful and held in my liquor. 3 hours, a $30 cab ride, and a mushroom and bacon pizza later, I made it back to my parents hotel room, wasted at 3AM. I took off my pants, fell onto the couch, and the next thing I know I’m downing water at 6AM with my mom telling me “I’m glad you got a hangover, maybe now you wont be an underaged alcoholic”- thanks mommy!

So we headed off to Sydney on Friday morning, and wouldn’t get back until Wednesday morning. With no classes on Monday or Friday, it was doable to miss only 1 day of classes (3 day week w/ a 4 day weekend, its cool, you can be jealous)….. (but I do have fucking macro econ 2 on Tuesdays so I had to skip my class Wednesday night to go to macro 2, because that shit is impossible). So we land in Sydney and go to check into our hotel, but we got there an hr early so instead we grabbed some lunch next to the hotel, and then made our way to the world famous Sydney Harbor. Sydney is an amazing city. Very beautiful and scenic, and also very toruisty. Both Melbourne are very expensive, but that’s about it for the similarities. Sydney is the LA of Austrelaia, and Melbourne is the San Fransisco, only with more straight bars, in fact Sydney is the gay capital of Australia…. So its all very confusing. However what I’m getting at is Melbourne has great culture, fine dining, great shopping, and the best night life in the southern hemisphere. However Sydney has the better sights, more souvineer shops, and the high rise buildings- oh and some fat aboriginal guys playin digiridoos on the street corner.

So on Friday we toured the harbor, walked around, and grabbed dinner in Darling harbor. It was a great day and very nice to be back w/ my parents. On Saturday we got our energy back and toured the world famous Sydney Opera House. I learned all about the history, the 18 year delays and millions and millions in budget adjustments, and how the government eventually forced the architect to retire and he has never been back since, but the building itself was very cool. Nothing amazing, but worth seeing none the less. After that, we went to the aquarium. Got to see Nemo and his friends, a sunbathing crocodile, fierce sharks, and a lot of other random animals. That was also very cool, but nothing compared to Sunday. On Sunday we booked this tour with an off roading ‘truck’ that had coach bus-like seating, but drove like a hummer. Our first stop was going to the featherdale wildlife park. This place was the best part of the trip to Sydney, by FAR. I got to feed a kangaroo, pet a wombat, throw a ice cream cone at an emu, hug another kangaroo, watch a dingo eat a baby, and most importantly pet a koala. The worlds softest animal, sorry snickers but this thing was like 10 puppies in 1. I was tempted to bring some ucalyptus back home w. me in hopes of attracting a koala to move to the states. Customs stopped me on the way back to Melbourne tho-next time ill ship it. After the amazingness of the koalas we headed up to the blue mountains and saw the Australian less than equivalent of the Grand Canyon. It was also very cool, very scenic, and as always took lots and lots of pictures. While up at the mountains I was walkin by as some kid and his brother were wearing under armor Terps hoodies and I shouted out “Go Terps!” They turned with enthusiasm and we had a nice almost gay moment where we realized 13,000 miles away, we were still terps [g’d I fucking love college park!]. His dad took a picture, we talked for 5 minutes and left with a satified feeling as to almost think, wow, I love this place. It was a cool feeling, and after that we headed back to the bus and had peaceful 2 hr ride back to Sydney. It was another great day and thinking abt it makes me wish I was back there.

Monday was another nice day. We took the ferry across the Sydney harbor and ended up in Manley beach. It was about 65 degrees in the height of winter, and the bakinis were out, the surfers were goin, and the place was amazing. It was beyond scenic and a great day to hit the shops and walk along the beach. We came back after abt 5 hrs there, had some dinner, watch Dan In Real life on pay-per-view and called it a night. Tuesday was another unforgettable day. We got up at 8am, had some breakfast, got a nice coffee (flat whites are amazing here), and then climbed 1,437 steps up and down to the top of the Sydney Harbor Bridge. With 676573243 tons of steel used to make, and $200 to climb, the levines were across and on top of the world at the same time. We came back down, shaking and all, and headed back to get washed up before the 39 Steps, an original Alfred Hitchcock play, however this one was a comedy. At the end of the day it was still a play, and I was never regarded as a thespian aside from my short stint in Robert Frost Middle School’s production of “Rock Around The Clock.” However it was in the Opera House so that was pretty sick. And then push came to shove, and the parents headed back for home Wednesday Morning, and I went back to Melborune.

And that’s where I am now. Sitting in front of my computer, uploaded a few pics from 2 weeks ago (and I will upload the ones from this past week when I get back next week) , and I just got back from Sydney yesterday. Its been a month guys. I don’t know what that sounds like to you, but to me its sounds like an eternity, and also a flash. I’m about ¼ way through my time here and I love it. I absolutely love it. I haven’t been as “mitch” as I am at home, I am not going to the bar every night, not going after the random hookups with such enthusiasm, no 30 packs in the fridge (well they exactly exist), but what I am doing is soaking it all in. It’s a growing process, its not what I thought it was going to be, nor could I have ever guessed this is how it was going to turn out, but I’m flying to Brisbane and the Gold Coast in a little under an hour, I’m going bungee jumping in 2 days, maybe sky diving in 3, scuba diving in 2 weeks, back to Sydney in 3 week, and all the while loving life. I miss college park in a way I never imagined, but more than College Park, I miss the comfort of having all my friends around me and the bars where everyone knows your name. Here there is one bar that every Tuesday we head out to, the Turf club and bar, and everyone from my apt complex heads there; there are parties once a week, goon pong every weekend, and lots of fun, but its not the same lifestyle as back home. And what I am beginning to realize is that’s all right. That is in fact why I am here, to put myself outside of my comfort zone. I won’t be in College all my life, but while I am better get the most out of it. I just bought a gift for my friend and it’s a piece of canvas with the saying “the most important thing is today,” and that’s exactly what it should be. In the words of my late brother and truly an amazing person, “It’s a great day to be alive, and don’t you ever forget it” –KMF…..and I never will.

Have a great weekend guys, thanks for reading.