Arriving in Melbourne

I can safely say that the trip over here was the longest night of my life, going by the hours at least. It was dark outside for something like 14 hours. Surprisingly though it did not seem to take that long. I was able to sleep on the plane for a decent part of the flight and read for the rest. I sat next to an old South African couple and the smell was not all that pleasant. The gentleman's glass eye was hard to avoid when making eye contact. Overall, the plane smelled, the flight attendants were annoyed and the food, well, the food tasted like synthetic fabric that had been marinated too long and then spiced to cover it up. Don't even get me started on the eggs.

I had a short layover in Sydney before arriving in Melbourne and hopped a cab to the hostel. After 6 years of school without living in a dorm room setting it finally caught up to me. I am sharing a room with 3 other guys; my favorite being Ken, a 69 year old Scotsman. The room is small along with just about everything else in the hostel but the people are friendly, except for the Germans. The hostel is having an ad lib Halloween party over the weekend and the girl at the front desk requested that I be "the toking American" at the party. That was the first time I had ever been asked to be a toking anything. Needless to say I don't think they know all that much about Halloween here.

The city is amazing though. The architecture is unbelievable and very modern with many public squares and statues. I sometimes feel awkward and am sure I stick out as a foreigner as I am not sure exactly how things work. It was only by trial and error that I learned how to swipe the metro card on the trams, when to cross the road (people actually wait for the cross walk signal here, a waste of time if you ask me), whether or not you tip your server and simply finding my way around city. It's very big and the metro system is very extensive. It will be a while before I figure out how to properly use it.

The Aussies are very nice though. When I was at the cell phone store buying minutes I was telling the guy about my just arriving here. After he helped set up the phone he invited me for drinks with his "mates" sometime. I can't ever imagine my cell phone agent doing the same in Boston.

So many things are backwards here though: domestic calls are more expensive than international, bottled beer is more expensive than draft, they wait for the cross walk rather than ignore it, there is free Wi-Fi at McDonald's and they drive on the left side of the road (which can be confusing when crossing the street). I think I like it here though. Now I just need to find an apartment, which they tell me is pretty hard to find.