Excellent Adventures

Melbourne is a very cool city. It is a city of about 3.9 million people, that started when John Batman (yes, Batman) sailed up the Yarra river, got stuck on a sand bank, and decided to justify the mistake by claiming that it was the perfect spot to build a city. And, no joke, it was originally named, “Batmania.” Then there was a gold rush, a couple of world events, and Melbourne became an international city. And a beautiful one. It’s also Australia’s second biggest city, but it’s actually projected to pass Sydney by 2020.

My first day in Melbourne was me getting off the greyhound bus into southern cross station, and, being the intrepid (read: cheap) adventurer that I am, I decided that rather than take the taxi with my year’s worth of possessions, I would attempt the transit system. This of course after my 12 hours on a bus overnight. I actually managed to do it, with the worst part being the walk from the Monash University bus stop to the residences on the complete opposite side of campus. And because I didn’t know the campus, it ended up being a 45 minute walk. By the time I found the office, I was sweating and sore. But home!

Monash asked us to get to camps about two weeks before class started for Orientation. Or actually, three orientations. The first was an Abroad orientation, where we got to meet the other abroad students. The second day at the campus, Brittany and I went on this campus tour and met a couple people including Costanza, a girl from the north of Italy (Parma! Like, where parmesan cheese comes from!) and Tina, a girl from Germany. The four of us decided to go into the city together to do some exploring, and basically became instant friends. Tina and Costanza are pretty much the people I hang out with the most here.

The Abroad orientation was really awesome for showing us around the city too. Every night we did a bunch of things that were the sort of things you know about as a local, but don’t really get into as a tourist. So the first night we did this “Melbourne Laneways” tour. Melbourne is renowned for it’s nightlife which is amazing, but also very unique in that all the good bars are found in these tiny laneways, and are easy to miss if you’re not a local. The general rule is the harder it is to find, the better it is. We had a tour of a couple of these bars, as well as this amazing dumpling house that is super cheap and good (well, I thought so. Many of the people in my group didn’t agree).

Another night we did this free African Drumming workshop, that apparently happens every week, followed by a picnic on the banks of the river. Another, we were introduced to this restaurant called “Lentil as Anything” which is ANOTHER of these vegetarian places that is based on the “pay what you can” thing. I love those! And this place has three locations in Melbourne. So I’m in love. And then after that we did this salsa lesson thing, which was very cool.

The last day of the orientation we did this Do it yourself tour thing, which was basically a scavenger hunt around the campus for various services. It was very much like any other scavenger hunt, except the prize was a weekend getaway to a beach house on the great ocean road, and surfing lessons for 10 people. So we totally got together a team and gave it our all! We ended up losing, but still won tickets to a play by the Melbourne Theatre Company, (I think twelfth night?), so that’s pretty sweet. I was super impressed by the prizes… And then the orientation wrapped up with a huge formal dinner dance and then clubbing thing which was very fun. At the end of the night, Brittany ended up spotting a possum with a baby on a tree, and petting it’s tail. Probably not a good idea, but Brittany was a little inebriated, and luckily emerged unscathed. Just another encounter with Australian wildlife.