The 1 Month Mark!!!

Hello faithful readers!

Today is the one month mark! I’ve been here for a month and I can’t believe it’s gone by that fast! I’ve had a great time here and I’ve loved it! I’m sure the next 3 months will be just as awesome, probably even more so than the first month.

Not a lot special has happened in the last week. The rain has really come in now and it’s been wet here for pretty much everyday. Yesterday though, I walked out to the roof top garden we have and there was a MASSIVE rainbow! That’s what you see in the picture above. It was one of the most complete and vibrant rainbows I have ever seen! I could follow it for the whole semi-circle and for a brief moment, there was a full double rainbow. It was absolutely amazing to see as I have never seen one before. It is getting warmer now and I’ve been told that spring might come early this year.

In my month here, I’ve come to this conclusion: Australia is very multi-cultural. There are so many different cultures here and they all intertwine to make a very unique Australian culture. In two of my classes, we have talked about the multiculturalism of Australia and how it differs from the rest of the world. Recently, Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, said in a speech that multiculturalism has failed in Germany (and in turn, most of Europe). After hearing this, I wasn’t surprised at all. Germany has a distinct culture, history, language, and traditions, just like all other European cultures. The Prime Minister of England said the same thing too. I ask this question to those countries: Why try to smother your cultures? You should be embracing it. Australia is because this is an migrant nation, more than 44% of the population are from over seas or have 1 or 2 parents from overseas. That’s where the strong multiculturalism comes from.

So anyway, nothing to much going on here right now. My college has an 80’s themed pub-crawl tomorrow night so that should be pretty fun.

Hope everything is going well with you all. Again, a big thank you to those who have emailed me!

Best,

P

Week 3

Hey guys,

Just checking in from the great city of Melbourne where I have been studying abroad for those of you just tuning in to the blog for the first time. The last week has been rather eventful, but nothing special. Went to lectures and tutorials for those who care about my academic life here.

Well the clouds have rolled in again and the rain has returned, but spring is coming, no doubting that. Melbourne had one of its warmest winter days in the last 50 years last week and the sun is breaking through for a few hours of each day. Dr. Powell, the head of my college (dorm), has told me that it may just be retribution for the “lost” summer they had last year. Apparently summer came and went and never bothered stopping in Melbourne. But not my problem! I’m thankful for the warm weather we’re having now.

I wrote last week that I wanted to visit the zoo, haven’t been able to do that yet so stay tuned. I’ve visited Melbourne Central (in the photo) over the past week and I must say, from an architectural point of view, it’s a beautiful building, and the glass cone over the top of it is very warming as it allows light to flow into the depths of the underground mall beneath it. I’m planning a trip to an Aussie Rules Football game. Here, it’s called Footy and I’ve tried to watch it a few times to get a feel for the game, but it’s quite complicated. Hopefully I’ll be able to get my hands dirty and play a game or two. For those of you who’re wondering, American football is called gridiron here.

Thanks again to all those who have emailed me and continue to email me. If you’ve written me and I haven’t yet returned the favor, don’t fret, I’ll send one back soon.

Thanks for reading!,

P

The Great Ocean Road and a great weekend down at the beach

Hey everyone, it’s now been almost 2 weeks since I have arrived here in Melbourne and needless to say, I’m having a great time here. This past week has been very fun and I’ve met a ton of new people and have really immersed myself here in Australia. To give you a run down of the past week, it was week 1 of classes, so I’ve had all of them and am looking forward to the academic part of being here. The one business class I am taking is looking to be my toughest class but I think that it will not be to bad. The sun is beginning to come out a bit more often now and the sunlight here is amazing. It’s very warming and you can sit outside in the sun, regardless of the temperature, and be comfortably warm.

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of being invited by my friend Nick Yates to his beach house in Angelsea. It’s about an hour and a half away from Melbourne and his amazing house over looks the ocean. Here’s a run down of what happened:

We left Melbourne on Friday and drove to his house. His house lies on the Great Ocean Road in one of the few areas where it is permissible to build and own a house in the space between the road and the ocean, we arrived there and his place had absolutely stunning views of the coast and the ocean. The Great Ocean Road is famous for its cliff-hugging turns and spectacular views, but also for it’s great surfing. The birth place of competition surfing was only a few km away from his house. Unfortunately for me, I did not witness the legendary surface because the ocean was literally as flat as a pancake, it was perfectly flat, not a wave in sight. We arrived at Nick’s house and decided to take advantage of this flat phenomenon and go for a quick dive/snorkel. Nick, Kirsten, and myself all donned thick wet suits and headed for the beach. It was FREEZING! So cold in fact that we had to abandon the dive and instead just hung out in shallows and swam a bit. We couldn’t keep our face submerged for more than ten seconds as the frigid temperatures would give you a near instant brain freeze. After that refreshing dip, we returned home and our friends Soph and Hayden had arrived. That night, we enjoyed a great dinner cooked by Soph of shrimp, steak kebabs, and veggies. Thank you Soph! For the rest of the evening, we drank wine, played pool, and had a relaxing evening until I went to sleep.





On Saturday, we all woke up around 10:30, had breakfast and relaxed a bit more. At 11:30, we all piled into Nick’s car and went for a drive down the Great Ocean Road. For those of you who don’t know about the road, it’s a world famous drive that hugs the southern coast of Australia all for hundreds of kilometers. There are usually only meters between the side of the road and the water/cliff/sand, offering spectacular views all over. We drove up the road for about an hour and then turned around. The road’s legendary status is well deserved and I’m looking forward to my brothers arrival here in September to drive the whole road with them. We stopped in the seaside of town of Lorne (sp?) and had a nice picnic lunch on the beach. Soph and I bought 12 oysters and enjoyed those immensely. They had been freshly caught and were delicious. We also bought more shrimp, mussels, and squid (soon to be calamari) for dinner later that night. A quick stop at the market and we had all the ingredients to have a great dinner prepared by our host later that night. When we arrived back home, we played a bit more pool and our friends Will, Sammy, Nicole, Amelia, and David arrived for the night. They brought plenty of goon (boxed wine, the cheapest large quantity of alcohol to buy in Australia, $10 for 4 litres) and it was obvious that the night would be a fun one. Nick prepared a great seafood pasta involving all the ingredients listed above, and we settled in for very fun night. We played multiple games, sat on the porch, and finished off the boxed wine.

This morning (Sunday), was quite a slow morning and after an hour or so, we piled into our cars and returned to Melbourne. A big thank you to Nick for hosting us for this great weekend and entertaining us all in his great home.



After arriving back in Melbourne, I made a quick turn around and went out to the Malin’s house for a farewell BBQ for Amanda as she was preparing to leave for France for 6 weeks to visit her mom. I had a great time there and I thank Amanda for continuing to be a great host during my stay here in Melbourne!

Also, a big thank you to those who have sent me emails over the past week! It is amazing to receive them and I love hearing from you all!



I’ll post again soon, planning a trip to the zoo on Wednesday with Hayden and Soph.

Cheers,

P

Checking in!

Hey everyone,

It’s been a week since my arrival here in Melbourne and things have gotten off to a great start. Today was my first day of class and it went fine. It’s a bit different from DU as here they have the lectures, which are exactly what they are, usually an hour and a half to two hours and then they have tutorials, also known as ‘tutes’, which are an hour. The lecture is for the professor to teach the class and then the tutes are for the class to go into a general discussion about the lecture. The tutes are also smaller than the class, encouraging participation.

The weather hasn’t improved much, although the sun is coming out a little bit more often than it did a week ago. Rain is forecasted for quite a while.

So the rest of my college has moved in and Janet Clarke Hall (JCH) is bustling. Everyone here is extremely nice so I’m happy to live here. I’ve met some cool people and it’s nice to have everyone around.

Well that’s really it from me, just wanted to check in with the world. The picture on this blog is the view from the roof top deck at my college (don’t let the sky fool you, that was the one day we’ve had weather like that!!). Also, I love getting emails from family and friends so please send me something; I can talk about mostly anything.

Take care,

P

1st Post

Hey guys, welcome to the blog. This is going to be about my study abroad trip to Melbourne Uni in Melbourne Australia. I’ll try to stay on top of it to keep you all updated on what I’m doing here. For those of you who want to keep up to date as much as possible and think skype is the better way to do it, you’re right, but I have a 2 GB limit on my internet usage here and will have to pay extra if I surpass it. A 20-minute video chat can use about 300-400 MB, which is almost a quarter of my total usage. But anyway, here’s the first post.

So it’s been 3 days since my arrival here in Melbourne and so far, it’s been ok. I stayed with family friends for my first two nights and today I moved into my residential college (dorms) called Janet Clarke Hall. My room is cozy and is a corner room so it’s been pretty quiet. I do live on one of the main roads in Melbourne so there is quite a bit of traffic outside my window.

Yesterday, I signed up for my classes and enroled myself in school. I’m taking three classes. One to help further my major, called Managing the Multi-National, and two culture classes, one called Australia Now and the other called Australia and America. I’m pretty happy with my schedule because I only have class on Monday and Thursday. Monday for only 90 minutes, and then Thursday for 5 and a half hours.

I’ve met tons of cool people and I’m settling in nicely here. I’m sure tonight will be a great time as it’ll be my first night out on the town and I’ll meet a ton of people. The weather is quite gloomy here, cloudy almost all the time and it usually rains everyday but I’ve been told that once we’re halfway through August, the weather will begin to change towards warmer temperatures. The temperature is usually between 8-15 degrees Celsius (45-60 degrees Fahrenheit) but when the sun comes out, its much nicer and it feels really good. They say there is no o-zone above Australia and that’s why it is feels that much warmer when the sun comes out.

I want to say thanks to Amanda Malin for taking me in during my first two days here, it was amazing having a family friend here to receive me as I adjust to this place.

To those who are wondering the time difference, here it is:
East coast: I’m 14 hours ahead
Mountain Time: I’m 16 hours ahead
Paris, France: I’m 8 hours ahead

Thanks to everyone for your support.

Best,

P