Melbourne Welcome!

So I havent had a chance to really sit down and write anything out about my trip, but that will come soon. For now, I am in Melbourne and this is what I have been up to!

Things have been awesome here in Melbourne. This city reminds me a little bit of Boston in the way that it has a Tram, like the T, and is very walkable. The culture, however is very different. Melbourne is definitely multicultural. The food is amazing, because of this. There is so much to choose from: Chinese, Japanese (they eat sushi mostly in handrolls her, so it is easy to eat on the go!), Malaysian, Indonesian, Indian, etc. The weather has been really comfortable. In the 70s, but when the sun is out, 80s. Its a mix of sun and clouds and some scattered rain- so it's been nice. I like that it is not as hot as Syndey!

Eureka Tower along the Yarra River

Arrived here and checked into my room at the Unilodge. It is really nice- I will
take pics once I am unpacked- right now I have stuff thrown all over the place LOL since I havent been here. I met 2 guys- one from here, Stuart and one from Scotland, Steve and we immediately bonded and they invited me out to get some beer and we had a few in their room. It was fun. The next morning me and my new friend Steve made eggs and toast. He already had all of the cooking supplies and food so it was nice he shared with me. Then I had to be over to Melbourne Uni at 11 so I made my way over there for the Melbourne Welcome program. This program is optional for study abroad/exchange students but Oxy required me to do it- everyone else who signed up for it had to pay 500 bucks but since Oxy mandated it for me, I didnt have to pay (well i did pay Oxy tuitition, so you know)....

Melbourne Welcome Group

Day 2, Sunday, aka Singles Awareness day, was fun too. Woke up super early to go surfing. Drove down the Great Ocean Road, though I fell asleep the whole (hour and a half) there so I didn't see much. Hung around on the beach all day, met some more people and then went surfing after lunch. Theres about 100 kids in the Welcome program, so we had to wait til 2 to go surf. I did TERRIBLY! The water was pretty rough, though the waves werent too big. The surf board, though, was foam and was not very wide, so I had trouble balancing. Even laying on my stomach I couldnt balance, so I wasnt able to stand ONCE! Ah well. It was still really fun, getting thrown about in the water. I have to say I always have so much respect for the ocean when I am in it. Me and Andrew and my new friend Sam walked along the beach and saw some jellyfish in the sand. Most were clear but I came across one that had some blue/purple in it. Blue bottle jellyfish!

Beach along the Great Ocean Road

Lets see, what else...after Surfing they took us back and we showered and had dinner. Then we took a tram into the city and went to 3 different upscale bars. Things were too expensive so me and a few friends just left and headed back. We stopped and got some delicious pizza called "aussie pizza" which has ham, cheese, and a cracked egg in the middle. SOOOO good!!

Cute little Penguins

Today we went to the zoo. It was alright- I had seen all the cool animals in Brisbane.
The only cool thing here were the penguins and the baby elephant- the first elephant to be born in capitivity in Australia and it was only a month old. SOO cute!!

Baby Elephant with it's parents!

Now I came back to my room and am going to unpack and such before I head back to the program for dinner. Most people are doing tours (museum, shopping, etc) but I decided I wanted some down time, so here I am.

Andrew and Holly and I at the Zoo