I'm here!

Well everyone, I'm in Australia. It must have appeared as though i fell off the face of the earth, as internet has been a bit scarce and i haven't made any phone calls, but I am indeed alive and well. I traveled to Seattle for a week prior to flying to Australia, and I'll write more about that week later on. I flew out of Los Angeles on July 5th, and arrived in Melbourne early on July 7th. My bags, on the otherhand, arrived in Melbourne late on the 7th, but they arrived, so i don't even care. There were a whole bunch of us on the same flight, so we met up in the airport and found out planned ride to the hotel. We arrived at the Miami hotel, which turned out to be a hotel with an 'economy' floor, which we had booked. It was set up like a hostel, with very small rooms (doubles at that) and shared toilets and showers for everyone. Although they weren't the nicest amenities, it was a fabulous time and everyone got to know each other pretty quickly. I'm here in Melbourne through IES, which is the company who organizes study abroad programs. There are about 30 of us here through IES, and we all stayed at the Miami together.
We then all traveled to Phillip Island, which is where the little penguins that are so famous are. We stayed at "CYC The Islands", which is a christian youth camp. we stayed in little cabins here, but there was a huge dining room where we ate and had little orientation sessions. On the way to Phillip Island (which is about a 2 1/2 hour drive from Melbourne) we stopped at a farm where we had lunch (with wine) and got a tour of the farm. We saw emu's, kangaroos, and sheep. We got to see how a dog rounds up sheep, and then this lady sheered a sheep in front of us and told us a bunch of info about it. Oh, and they also taught us how to crack a whip. it took me a while but i did it, i whipped my own leg a few times before i got the hang of it...ouch! We then got to phillip island and what was really fun was the penguin parade. you can read more about them online, but they are these tiny penguins (their actual name is the 'little penguin'), which are the smallest penguins in existence. Anyway, after the sun sets, they come to shore and run from the water, across the beach, into the bushes where they have nests. We got to watch this and it was SO cool, definitely check out pictures online. The next day, we went to 'A-Maze-N-Things' which was this silly amusement place, based on optical illusions, but it turned out to be pretty fun. There was this HUGE wooden outdoor maze, where you had to try to reach 4 flags and then find the exit, which was great fun, and there was a mirror maze indoors, which was incredibly difficult. there was also this 'vertical slide' where you literaly drop straight down, parallel to a slide, and then as it curves it catches you and you slide down...scary but VERY fun! There was also a pretty fun mini golf course. We ended our trip with a fabulous walk on the beach, i'll post pictures when i get a chance. The ocean here is amazingly beautiful, i can't get over it. Even though its cold (very!! brrrr) here, it looks tropical at the ocean because the water is so green. I definitely have had to bundle up more than I expected too, as its usually around 50 here, which is quite cold, especially with the wind! Strange to go from Maine to Melbourne and have it get colder, that's for sure. So, we headed back to Melbourne for one more night at the Miami, and since we were finally adjusted to the time, we all headed out for a night on the town.
We hit up some fabulous irish pubs, but it was a good thing there were around 15 of us because it was a Monday night, so things were a bit slow. We enjoyed some good Australian beer and challenged some Aussies to a pool tournament (i just watched). The funnest part was that we live really close to Lygon Street, which is Australia's Little Italy, and on Monday morning, Italy had won the World Cup, so once it got late the street was full of Italians yelling 'Italia! Italia!' and waving their Italian Flags, it was great fun! We also found that although Australia sucks at pizza and pasta, Little Italy does not! Mmmmm.
On Tuesday, we all packed onto a bus and rode over to the Uni (University of Melbourne). Half of us are staying at one residential college, and half at the other. I'm at Queen's College, which is pretty nice! I'm glad i'm not living here, as the food kinda sucks, but its been a fun week. They planned activities for us as part of the "Melbourne Welcome", which is run by students (most of whom are 19 or 20). On the first day we just got settled in and made a Target run (yup, there's a Target in the city, there is also a Big W, which we found out today is Walmart with a different name, but exactly the same inside, same signs, same fonts, same everything). I've never lived so close to a city and I absolutely LOVE it, I don't know how I'll ever go back, and i've only been here a week. The two main grocery stores here are Safeway and IGA, which is funny because thats what we have in the US. What makes me laugh is IGA is the grocery store in Maine that everyone makes fun of, and none of my friends here have ever heard of it, so it must only be in Maine and a few other places! haha, so strange.
On the second day, we started off by going to the Melbourne Museum, which is an awesome museum, just a short walk from the Uni. We then spent the afternoon on a scavenger hunt, with locations in the city such as Federation Square, Findlers Station, Southern Cross Station, the state library, the parliament station, and a few cross streets with famous things on them. After running all around the city I quickly adapted to the tram system and i love it! So far, everyone has been SO nice, but it was this that made me realize how tourist friendly Melbourne is. At Federation Square, there is a visitors center, which is HUGE and just full of brochures and people to answer questions. All around the city are volunteers, in red jackets and red hats on, who are simply there to answer questions and give advice to visitors to the city. Also, there is a city circle tram, which is free, which goes in a loop around the downtown area. In addition to THIS, there is a free bus called the 'tourist shuttle' which does a loop starting at the Uni, going down to the bottom of downtown and back up, so I rode that into the city today for free. it is fabulous! Our scavenger hunt ended at the Rialto tours, which are similar to the Prudential Building in Boston. We got to go up to the observation deck and look out over the city. It was BEAUTIFUL!
On Thursday, we climbed on a bus and rode an hour out to the Yarra Valley, which is wine country. We went to the Healesville Sanctuary, where we saw emus, dingoes, wombats, kangaroos, koalas, tasmanian devils, and platypuses! We got to touch the wombat, and we got to FEED the kangaroos! It was amazing!! Kangaroo's are amazingly soft, and very friendly (at lest the sanctuary ones are), and there wasn't even a zoo keeper there. The kangaroos are free to roam, but there is a roped path for visitors. The kangaroos had been fed recently, and the kernals of corn were all over the ground, so a bunch of us just picked up the corn and put them in our palms. The kangaroos had already been letting us pet them, but they then ate right out of our hands and got VERY friendly. it was SO fun! I don't care if australians think kangaroo's are pests, I think they are fabulous! After a BBQ, we headed off to a winery, where we got a tour and then got to have a glass of wine. This winery (i don't remember the name, i'll add it later) specializes in sparkling wine, and it was indeed tasty. Last night I bought my first bottle of wine and after some pasta in Little Italy, my friends and I relaxed in my room and drank wine from some plastic wine glasses we got at safeway. a bit cheap, but classy and fun, we decided.
Today is Friday, and it has pretty much just been a free day. It's pretty much been my first chance to check email since i got here, and i had a chance to go into the city and get a power adapter and some gluesticks so i can start my journal! Tonight, as our final activity, we are headed to an Aussie Rules Football game in the city, and then going on a fun pub crawl afterwards. I can't wait! If you haven't seen Aussie Rules played before, look up a video of it on the internet or something, its crazy! its a mix between football and rugby (i think) and the players don't wear pads, but do where pretty short, fairly tight shorts. its very strange but great fun to watch.
To finish up this crazy long post, i'm giong to point out a few thigns that are different here.
1. The toilets have two buttons, one is a half flush and one is a full flush, that way, if you just had to pee, you don't waste water...funny but smart. we were all very confused at first, i just kept pressing both at the same time....hmmm.
2. Bathrooms are toilets, you say bathroom and people are like, why, do you want to take a bath? So its, 'excuse me, where are the toilets?'...which leads me to my next point.
3. Do not call someone sir or maam, they don't like it...infact it almost offends them. remember that!
4. Possums here, are very different from opossums in cali....they are like large mean squirrels, and infact one attacked one of the guys in our group one night, and tried to eat his coat...strange.

Oh, and you're all probably wondering about the people I'm spending time with. My roommate for the semester is Claire, and she's from Baton Rouge, LA. She goes to Rhodes College in Memphis, and i love her. Her best friend, who is from Hot Springs, AK, is also here, and her name is Erin. They are great great great. There are a whole bunch of girls in my group i really like, the ones i've probably spent the most time with are Elena (from Chicago) and Sarah (from Pennsylvania). (I know, Mom, another Sarah, sorry for the added confusion!). I also have spent a ton of time with two people on my hall at Queen's, who will be living in College Square apartments with me. They are a couple who went to a boarding school in Santa Barbara together, but he's from Colorado and she's from Los Angeles. Their names are CJ and Katie, and CJ goes to Colby and Katie goes to Bates (so we bonded quickly!). I love them both and its been fun to talk about Maine with them (they made fun of the Marden's TV commercials...haha!). Anyway, I'm moving into to my apartment tomorrow, which is VERY exciting, and then I'll be able to FINALLY unpack my suitcases! I've been living out of them since the 27th of June! Whew! Okay, I love you all and miss you, email me all you want,a nd I'll post pictures soon!