A-B-C, 1-2-3, mate!

G'day from the first day of school!

Yes, I'm officially an Australian student now. Well, sortof. Not quite yet Australian, but today was our first day of Uni. I had two classes... just got out of my second lecture. I had this long, elaborate entry in the works, but then the power went out in the computer lab I was in, so here I am, typing it all down again. Oh well, such is life.

Before I get in to my classes, let's rewind to the weekend. Friday night was a fun time, me and a bunch of the other internationals had a family-style dinner. Kingsley made pasta, and then, through a combined effort, we managed to get my Wii to work. WiiSports and Rayman were the games of choice... it was most certainly a good time. Highlight of the evening had to be when two Aussie girls were WiiBoxing, and actually started hitting each other. Hilarity ensued, no doubts.

Saturday marked my first journey to Melbourne. Things were off to a slower start when we arrived at the train station only to find that the railway union was on strike for the time being, and we were forced to hang around and wait for a bus. No worries, though, we made it to Melbourne about an hour later than we'd planned, and headed to the Eureka Tower. A short walk and eighty eight floors higher, we had the most breathtaking view of Melbourne you could imagine. Eureka Tower is the tallest building in the southern hemisphere, and they'd just opened the observation deck on the highest floor. It was quite a spectacle. From there, we ventured across the street to the Crown casino for lunch. I had Cantonese for the first time... "and monkey's brains, though popular in Cantonese cuisine, is not commonly found in Washington D.C.!" Alas, I didn't have monkey's brains, but it was pretty tasty, even if it did stray from my normal diet. After we ate, Rachel and I wandered around the casino for a bit, then went on a quest to find the most delicious and elaborate-looking dessert we could manage. She ended up with a pretty amazing looking lemon meringue, while I opted for the chocolatey Mars Bar cake. Delicious, I promise you that. From the Crown, we walked downtown and went shopping for a bit. There's a surprisingly popular skateboard and punk culture in Melbourne. I know cities normally cater to (at least) the latter, but it seemed as if everywhere I turned, there were kids on skateboards, black hair, dark eyeliner, and unknown band t-shirts. Another interesting note for Melbourne was how amazingly clean it was. I mean, I know I'm used to dirty Philly, but this place was impeccable. Definitely going to have to make another trip up to Melbourne soon to explore on my own time.

So, that was Saturday. Yesterday was the trip to Bellaraine and the Surf Coast. Wasn't as exciting as Melbourne, but still a good time. We stopped in Queenscliff, Tourquay, Bell's Beach and Angleside. Queenscliff was pretty dead, but Bell's Beach was great. We were only there for about fifteen minutes, but there were a whole bunch of surfers in the water, and it was fun watching them catch waves and wipe out. Tourquay was a neat little town; we had lunch there, then wandered through the surf shop outlets. I got a pretty sweet new jacket and hoodie, and although I was in the market for a board, didn't invest in one quite yet. Overall, it was a fun trip. Last night was the beginning of Dis-O week, but I was exhausted from the previous week's events, so I stayed in and watched Boston Legal (which I am super pumped to learn is on here!!).

Which brings me to today, the first day of school. I had two lectures-- PR Writing, and History of the World since 1945: 1970's-90's. PR Writing was pretty standard; it seems as if a lot of what I learned at La Salle last semester will be applied. Plus, the lecturer is pretty much an Australian version of George Clooney. EHH. Haha, of course. I met a few new Aussie girls in PR who were super nice, and pretty interested as to why I was there. Good times. And, I just got out of history lecture. It was pretty dry, more focused on American politics than I thought it would be. But, I suppose the main world events of the 1970's were Vietnam and the Cold War, so that makes sense. I was hoping it would be a bit more exciting, but then again, I haven't taken a straightup history class since high school. They've all been politics, which, to make a generalization, are more heated than history. We'll see how it goes.

I've got a few meetings later on tonite, then dinner and the "traffic light" themed dance/club/whatever. Considering I don't have any classes tomorrow, and I'm pretty rested up from just lounging around last night, I think it's safe to say I'm going out tonite. We'll see what comes of it. I suppose that's all I've got for now, I'll update as things advance. Until then... Cheers from Down Under!

+K+