1/31/2012

I went to the university today and I got my ID card and my diary. A diary is what you call a planner here. I walked around a bit found the book store and the fitness center. Then I took a walk around downtown. There is an absolutely fabulous market with fresh everything meat, cheese, vegetables, and prepared food. I found the boat houses for the crew teams in the area. They are beautiful and I wanted to go for a row but couldn't find the people in charge. I'll have to go back later.

I also stopped at the Melbourne visitor's center I now have maps of everything I need from bike routes to penguin habitats. I passed the botanical gardens

The police memorial
 
I found some way over priced spray on sunscreen and jumped on a tram. Unfortunately it was the wrong tram. I was desperately trying to find when I needed to go and if I had to walk or if another tram would get me home and my phone turned off. The battery was at 16% but I guess it gave up because there was nothing I could do to turn it back on. Luckily I had all those maps which actually ended up being more helpful than the iPhone. I found a team route but it never came so I walked 1k over to grab another stop. I was a bit grumpy by the time I got home but it was a lovely day. Then dinner and homework. Katie goes back to work tomorrow so we enjoyed the movies "red dog" and "sunshine and oranges" both sad Australian movies. I need to embrace Australian movies and music more. I'm not appreciating the culture the way I should be :)

So, we are in the skin cancer capital of the world and I passed a tanning salon. It's really the only place in the world that you can get a burn indoors. Why? Why? Why?

1/30/2012

So I woke up and wrote a paper.  Then I took my bike and my SPF 30 and went to the beach.  I walked 6k along the shore(and then the 6k back).  It was cloudy, breezy, and a beautiful 81 degrees.  Let me clairify, when I go to the beach I am actually going to Port Philip Bay, not the ocean.  It's a huge bay, the only difference is that the waves are considerably smaller than the rough waves of the Pacific Ocean.  I tried to find a picture but most maps of Australia don't have a detailed view of Port Philip Bay.  Either look it up of just believe me when I say that it's so big that it appears to be open water for miles.
As I was walking I found a sign showing me the Bayside trails.  In two hours I made it to 5 stops.  I'll have to take my bike next time so that I can cover more of the trail.

There was some beautiful artwork.  This is a picture of an Emu.  The black spots represent both eggs and stars and create a map of the Emu constellation.

In the olden days public swimming was not allowed so there were hundreds of bath houses where people would go to swim in enclosed parts of the bay.

Blue retaining walls support much of the coast line.  In the early 1900's prisoners were worked to death building the wall.  When they died they were buried  in the wall and a brick was inscribed as their tomb stone.

The sand on the beaches in Australia is striated.  The effect is more pronounced on the northern part of the continent.  Here you can clearly see two different colors of sand this occurs because the floor of the bay is sandstone and the land is ironstone(thus the orange color).

I finished my walk on the beach so that I could go to a doctor's appointment.  He wasn't very helpful but he was a sweet, frail Jewish man.  Very pleasant but extremely timid.  When I got home Katie was cursing the people at the phone store because they couldn't get her phone to display a battery percentage.  She has a 3 so it isn't nearly as easy as it is on the newer models.  I spent most of the rest of the evening trying to jailbreak Katie's phone so that I could adjust the battery settings.  Unfortunately, I had absolutely no luck.  There wasn't anything I could do to achieve the compatibility I needed.  If anyone can help she'd be thrilled.  That's it for today, I'm headed to downtown tomorrow.

PS: Anyone who see's a Mittermeier please give them a hug and tell them that I love them all very much.

1/29/2012

Today consisted of marketing, swimming bathrooms and Robbie the dull.


So I woke up and did some homework. Fine I did a ton of homework. I studied and responded from 8am-1pm. Admittedly I talked to a few peeps but I was actively doing work for most of that time. I helped out with a little yard work. Then Katie and I went to the pool. It was a little crowed but I swam for about an hour. It completely ruined my hair that is now salt and pepper.i need to see what I can figure out. So water restrictions: yeah they're real.

After the pool I did a bit more marketing homework and got dressed for dinner. Katie, Stan, Katie's dull nephew Robbie and I went out for dinner. Dinner was fantastic I had some lovely pasta and I'm really starting to love Australian coffee. After dinner Katie who is shamelessly trying to set me up with dull Robbie sent us out for a walk. Robbie has class tomorrow so he wanted to get back early so we walked to the bank he pointed at a couple of things and he dropped me off. When I got back Katie scolded me for not inviting him in and began setting up our next date. Sigh! (....girl look at that body*) She's funny!  I enjoy talking to someone who is close to my age but he's pretty dull. I mean homework is more exciting.  So anyway I went back to writing my marketing paper. Hopefully I'll be done soon.


*if you didn't get this read xkcd which does come on Tuesday, thursday, Saturday here:)


Oh and bathrooms, as promised:

1/28/2012

I had a pretty productive day.  I won't bore you with the details but here are the highlights.

I got a phone number so facetime and imessage me.  61-452-514-185 Yeah I know it looks wrong but that's the right amount of numbers.  

I got a bike and went on a long bike ride

I did a bunch of homework:p

So the story of the day: 

I came home from a day of errands, my shoes were smelly so I washed them and put them and my inflatable beach towel outside.  I closed the door and was headed back to my room when I heard flapping and realized that a bird had gotten in and was slamming into the window.  I couldn't figure out how to get him outside when I came up behind him he just slammed into the window more. I ended up going outside, pounding on the glass and then chasing him around with a broom for a bit.  I finally got him out the front door.  As I was closing the door I saw Katie's note about Baxter.  Now I have met her dogs Toby and Molly and her cat Puggs but I have yet to be introduced to Baxter.  

I started freaking out.  How in the world was I going to get the bird back inside? What was I going to tell Katie?  How come I hadn't noticed a bird before today? I mean the door to his room was normally closed.   Katie had never told me about a bird but maybe she just doesn't like him too much. After running around like crazy for 15 minutes trying to figure out how to get the stupid bird back I decided it might be wise to see if she had left any other notes.  I didn't find any so I checked my emails from her to see if she had ever told me anything about Baxter.  I found that Baxter is her daughter's cat and he doesn't actually live here.  Yikes! so I cleaned up the feathers and all is right with the world.  

1/27/2012

So today was a little uneventful. I have a list of things that I need to get taken care of but I spent most of the day doing Katie's errands.  Additionally my allergies decided to start hating it here.  I kept sneezing and had a runny nose, watery itchy eyes, and swollen ears all day; even after clairatin. I started the ay off with a trip to open a bank account.  I now have an account at Bendingo, don't everyone start wiring me money at once :p despite what that word might look like to you or me it's pronounced B-indigo(like the color).  Equipped with a bank account I set off to get a cell phone.  I was moments away from a contract when Katie caught up with me.  See I had been after Vodaphone because they are AT&T's Australia partner, but Katie hates Vodaphone with an unrealistic passion for someone who has never actually used the service.  Katie keeps trying to convince me that I need a prepaid card but that just won't work for me.  It will end up being much more expensive and I have the credit to get a phone plan, so that's what I'll do if I ever have the time.  So Katie literally pulled me out of the Vodaphone store and whisked me away.  We went into the heart of the city so that I could help Katie set up a play gym at her office.  I wanted to get a bit of a look around but instead we went to a food court for coffee.  It was very good coffee but not on my list of things to do today.  Then we went to Williamstown for a lunch of fish and chips(or just chips in my case).

It was absolutely beautiful and we sat by the water for a while.  

We got home around 3 then Katie and I went back out to phiso(Australian for physical therapy).  It was an interesting experience for me.  The business aspect was quite different but the practice was quite similar.  There were no aides or PTA's just 3 receptionists and 3 PT's.  The clinic that Katie goes to is very strength intensive.  There were a large quantity of mechanical weights but no free weights or tables/mats to exercise.  There is actually only 1 table in the entire clinic which is used for assessments and manual therapy.  It was interesting but once was enough for me. 

I went to Shabbat services with Stan(part time life partner). We attended an orthodox service.  The service itself was quite lively.  The men and women were also separated so that the men could pray and the women could talk.  No one talked to me :( but it was still a nice experience.   

After temple I tried again to get phone service with no luck because they were closed.  My walk wasn't a complete waste because I managed to get a bus card.  

Fun fact of the day: Heinz is sold in Australia.  With the price it sells for I wouldn't be surprised if it was packaged in da burgh and shipped here. 

Related (not)fun fact: I'm pretty sure I'm the only one in this country that eats Ketchup 

Day 2 in Melbourne

My hair straightener doesn't work at least at home. I'll have to see what I can do I might have shorted it out Accidently. Luckily my curling iron works so I'm back to the old school style of getting my hair straight. My house mum, Katie, is a little intense. Super sweet but really intense. After a light breakfast I headed out for a walk. I can't do many of the things that I had planned to do because it's Australia day! There are parades and activities but I opted to just explore instead. Mainly because the buses are down as well and I can't get to many I the attractions. I started to walk and got a coffee. Now I was a little bit confused a few months ago when I learned that Starbucks was not profitable here and that they had abandoned the Australia market because I know that coffee and tea are both popular here. When I got my coffee I began to understand. This is a late.
There are no sizes, the cup you get is based on the drink you order. So I kept walking and went to Coles. Here it's a grocery store not a clothing store. Things are priced so differently here. A tube of toothpaste is $4 but eggplant is really cheap and it looks fantastic too.

I walked another kilometer and got to the beach.

The sand at least at this beach is very corse.

People swim in anything here. Speedos, underwear, fully dressed. While I was sitting on the beach I saw people jump in wearing just about everything possible. The water is a bit chillier than I expected but still nice.On my walk I went past the Tennyson. Apparently there's one here too.

After a 4 hour walk I got home and was about to start on my case study response when stan(part time life partner) came over to walk the dogs. He invited me along so I played with them in the dog park for about an hour. Then the two of us returned to the house and had tea with katie. It was Katie's niece's birthday so the three of us went over to kate's brother's for dinner. I think Katie is trying to set me up with her nephew. He seems ok but he's only a little interesting and not at all attractive. After dinner we all retired to read a
bit. Katie read for fun; I read about the shampoo market in India and wondered how I could be interested enough to write a meaningful response.

Lesson of the day: Melbourne is very close to the hole in the ozone. You wake up and put on sunscreen head to toe. Then you get dressed and remember to reapply often. I think I might have started to get a burn on the top of my foot but otherwise I seem fine. My australian mum also won't let me leave the house without a sweater. I haven't experienced it yet but I hear the temperature has a habit of changing drastically multiple times in a day.

Getting there

Man! So, what a long flight over here. I got my paperwork together on the flight to LA. The flight seemed surprisingly short even at the time. After a quick layover in California I boarded the plane for Melbourne. I had never realized before that when airlines make a big deal about "non stop service" that it actually is a big deal. We took off from LA and I fell asleep. I woke up in time to see that I had missed dinner and the girl next to me helped me wave down some pasta. I had a brief dinner of pasta with meatballs that I didn't eat, a roll that I didn't eat, a salad that made me feel a little weird and a butterscotch brownie(nothing close to what my aunts can make^_^ but it was ok) then back off to sleep. I woke up briefly when we stopped in Hawaii. I moved around a little because my legs were starting to hurt and fell back asleep. I slept through another snack offering and finally woke up at about 6EST. I watched some west wing. Studied for the business quiz I need to take when we land and then played cell phone games for a bit. At about 5am Hawaii time the girl next to me headed to the bathroom. To minimize disturbances I went too. When I got back a new movie was starting. It was sweet I have to look up what it was. During the movie i peered out the window. There was a georgious sunrise. 


It was even better than the picture. The next movie that came on was the walk. It had Martin sheen so I tried to watch it but it wasn't capturing my interest so I switched to reading. In between chapters I looked outside.

Sometimes it was breathtakingly beautiful other times we were inside a cloud and I couldn't see anything. They served us breakfast just before we got to Sydney. I had pancakes with apple and cranberry. They were pretty good, the grapes weren't bad either. There was turkey sausage that I was too scared to try and an apple pastry that I got half way through and some mint that made me gag. I don't know if airplane food is really that bad or if I'm just to motion sick to eat on planes.  I need to pack differently for my next trip. I don't know what I want to bring but I do know that I either brought too much or need to be in first class. A big coat was fantastic. Much better than the blanked they provide. My computer was good while the battery lasted I might buy a back up battery for subsequent trips. Other than that my things mostly got in the way I didn't have enough room to maneuver so I couldn't use most of the items in my carry on. Instead I think I need a stress ball and some slippers next time.  My fingers started to swell so I took my ring off. I dropped it as I was trying to put it away it was impossible to find while in flight. I stayed on the plane after everyone got off but it was no where to be found.  Another unfortunate circumstance of my travels is the lady infront of me smelled horribly of Bo. I wanted to offer my deodorant but couldn't bring myself to be that rude. Let me reiterate the that my flight was most definitely not nonstop. I booked a flight from la to Melbourne on continental airlines. It was instead operated by united which is no big deal since united bought continental but we went la to Honolulu where we didn't get to exit the plane. We just picked up fuel. Then Honolulu to Sydney where I changed planes and then sydney to Melbourne. Most people would call that a lay over but aparently things like this happen from time to time. Anyway to keep me from throwing a fit they directed everyone on the flight to a website where we can get free stuff. Can't wait to see what it is. We landed in Sydney.

I had a quick dash from my gate through customs, down the terminal and to my connecting flight. Now the flight from Sydney to Melbourne is the way I should always get to fly.  I had three seats to myself. I could have had more but I couldn't figure out a way to use more than 3 seats.  

I sat down and had enough space to repack my bag. I found my ring. Yay!!! But my fingers were still too swollen to wear it.  We finally landed in Melbourne and I went through 3 stages of customs.  It's not too bad they just checked my passport and had dogs sniff my bag.  Then a nice younger grandfather named chris picked me up along with a law student from Ottowa.  I wish I could remember his name but it's escaped me.  We dropped the law student off at a YMCA type place and headed to South Caulfield.  It's a Jewish suburb similar to Shadyside bordered by North and East Caufield which sounds a great deal like Squirrel Hill.  My house mum is lovely.  She is spunky with red hair.  The two dogs are manic and the cat looks like a very very very fat old version of Saji.  He even has the black streak down his back.  So Katie made me a sandwich.  I worked on my homework.  That took me up to dinner.  We had a lovely salad with a ton of extras on it.  I unpacked my room, took my business quiz which I had been studying for on the airplane, and I'm off to bed.