Day 3

Jetlag's a bummer, but it's getting better. I woke up at 4:30 a.m. instead of 3:30 a.m. Small steps, yeh?

Shayna and I decided that we wouldn't leave the hotel until after 10 with the logic that if we started our day later we would be able to stay up later. Reflecting back on the day, I think we just managed to be more tired upon our return.

Anyway, we trekked out to find the nearest Commonwealth bank, which after walking past it a few times, we found. I guess that's one problem with cities, the building's are so freaking tall that if you don't look up, you'll never see the signage.

On the whole, Australian bankers are super friendly and helpful. I opened a student account with no fees or charges and was able to deposit my American money with only the currency exchange rate to account for. For future Melbourne dwellers, I suggest Commonwealth. From what I've found after comparison, they seem to be the most efficient. Also, ATMS are located in 711s so of course, they're everywhere.

We decided to visit Melbourne Central today. Now, for those of you who have no idea what that means, let me explain. It's a huge shopping complex linked to a train station located in the middle of Melbourne's central business district. With around 300 shops and a movie theatre, you can find pretty much anything you need. (http://www.melbournecentral.com.au/)

Since it was lunchtime, we decided to find food. It's amazing just how many restaurants were included in this place. In fact, there were so many that the food court covered two floors. We didn't know where to start, but one thing was certain, we wanted anything but Asian food. I stumbled across a restaurant called "Grill'd healthy burgers." (http://www.grilld.com.au/) It was awesome. I got a burger called the Summer Sunset. It included grilled grass fed lean beef, avocado, bacon, pineapple, salad, relish & herbed mayo. I've never tasted so many flavors on a burger. (O.K. maybe at Nikki Rottens, but this was much healthier.)


Now, being a Monday there were so so many more people out today. It's amazing the difference between the weekend and the weekdays. It's like Australians crawled out of the woodwork. That being said, we saw such a variety of people. My favorites were the men you knew played either rugby or Australian football. You can always pick them out because they are hulking muscled men with broad shoulders walking around in tiny shorts in midwinter. It was hilarious. I don't care what side of the street you were walking on, you moved when they came through.

I guess the other accomplishment of the day was purchasing a crappy prepaid phone through vodaphone. I thought it was interesting that vodaphone owns Verizon. Fun fact of the day. It took almost an hour to get both Shayna and I's contracts sorted out. I've never seen a busier phone booth. Must be the welcome program starting tomorrow. All the international students dropping by to make sure they have a number to give out this week. Welcome to da' party.

What was cool is that the guy who was sellin' us the phones was a Tazzy. You know, from Tasmania. When we first walked up to talk about getting the phones, he went through the usual where you from, where you studying, what are you studying. But when he came to me, something fantastic happened.


I had to upstage the mannequins' hats...

"So you from around here?"
"No, from the States."
"What? No way. But you sounded a lil' Aussie."

Yea, it's already happening. The whole mimicking accents things. I swear it's not on purpose. Maybe it's a subconscious thing. Oh, well. I think I will visit Tasmania before I leave. Maybe go trekking for a bit.

Last thought for the night. The Melbourne Uni Welcome program starts tomorrow. I will pile my luggage into a taxi, be dropped off at Trinity college and meet all of the other international students attending Melbourne Uni. I'm a little nervous. I don't have some of the most common things in common if that makes sense. We'll see.

If you have any questions or comments, leave them below.

-Jordan out.