Rain and Rainbows

"Everyone wants happiness, no one wants pain, but you can't have a rainbow without a little rain"


I've never seen the bottom of the rainbow before, it made me want to run for the pot of gold.

the lines are from street cars (trams) downtown

the bottom

This is a giant purse downtown, I just like the picture

An amazing view of houses and mountains from the train station

Somebody's Somebody

As I become better friends with the other international students I've met here I'm finding a common thing amongst us all; no matter what corner of the world someone comes from, everyone has a Somebody.

Your Somebody is a person that came into your life that you fell for, and either you're still with them, they broke your heart, or you broke theirs- no matter what the outcome, they are the person you always make reference to whenever relationships are discussed and the person that you think about whenever you have a new person you want to measure up and compare.

Now to explain the environment of a group of young adults moving the entire way across the world is one of a lot of loneliness. You're away from your friends, your family and your Somebody. This means that you make friends fast, and fall for people even faster. My group of friends haven't been here long and the Somebody talk is already starting! Hookups, rejections, crushes, friendships are daily activities in residence. 

Luckily for me, I'm still with my Somebody in a long distance thing and it's going quite well thanks to email, smart phones and skype. I'm the lucky one that gets to observe the drama (and blog about it!).

The thing I am observing the most is that whether people have been in several relationships, or none at all, there's a Somebody. Somebodies back home, crushes on Somebodies here.. "so and so was making out with Somebody last night!"

Obviously my BFF

My two best girls

Despite all this drama and confusion, it has made me realise that everyone has something in common, we all have a Somebody, and probably all are a Somebody. While this realisation is I'm sure a great annoyance to a few of my new friends at the moment, it makes me feel better to know that everyone loves and that's something we can all talk about (as I did for about 6 hours the other night).

With the recent events going on in Norway, I think it's important for everyone to realise the commonalities of people, instead of always focusing on what makes us different. So celebrate the Somebodies!!

Keeping in Touch- 2011

I have officially been here for 3 weeks! The time has felt like forever in some ways, but I suppose that means that I'm settling in well. I know what my grocery budget is and how to survive off more than rice bubbles. I know the transit system and have yet to miss a bus or train. And finally I've started classes and met some Masters student friends to go a long with my international undergrad buddies. 


However, these new friends can only be compared to the gems I left at home. This brings me to my next topic about keeping in touch the entire way across the world. 
There is a 14 hour time change between my Melbourne home and my Canadian home. This means that when I get up in the morning around 10am (hey, it's a student life!) my canadian pals are winding down from the end if their day at about 8pm the day BEFORE. When I am getting sleepy and ready to go to bed at midnight, they are usually at work at 10am. 
If this is confusing, it means that MY monday morning is THEIR sunday evening. 


Through facebook, twitter, skype and this blog I've been able to keep up with my friends daily happenings, and in some cases see their adorable faces :) I was a Facebook addict before, but now when I wake up there are tons of photos and status' to read to see what all my friends have been up to back home. Then while I'm asleep, they are able to look at what I've been posting and doing all day. It's great!


Skype makes it really nice to have a live conversation that doesn't mean that I have to type a lot. I'm able to see the people I love and talk to them as close to how I normally would as possible. I'm a big fan of it, and it's a FREE service! I'm studying a lot about international media and globalisation as well as living it.


However, there are times when less modern messages have a nice touch. I was able to purchase a bunch of postcards downtown last week, fill them out and mail them off to Canada. They have Australian animals or photos of Melbourne's cityscape on them to remind everyone of where I am. It cost me $1.60 in postage per postcard, which means one Australian beaches stamp and two Platypus stamps to get them all the way across the world. I sent them last wednesday and had no idea when they would arrive in Canada.

This is a Platypus- Native to East Australia and Tasmania

Combinaton of Duck, Otter, Beaver all in one, and venomous!

It only took about a week for them to get there! Most of my friends reported back on facebook that they had received their cards yesterday (wednesday my time, tuesday theirs).  Although it cost me about $20.00 to send 10 postcards I believe that it was totally worth it! Getting mail is an exciting thing now, because so much information is sent via email. It's always nice to have something cute like a postcard tucked in with all the bills and junk mail you have to pull out of the box. 
Obviously this is not a good forum to send information about emergencies, or anything you want instantly answered, but I think people appreciated it just the same. 


Now I can just sit back and wait for all the Ottawa, or Canadian postcards to roll in for me!

Master's Day 2!

Today was my second and last class of my Master's. It's called Transnational Media in Context. I was expecting my prof to be Sue Turnbull, a very well respected Australian scholar whose work I used for papers this past year. Unfortunately she got a new teaching position up north where it's warm and now I have an older gentlemen for my teacher that specialises in documentary film analysis. 


Although I was wary at firs,t this professor is willing to put all reading materials online, which means I haven't had to pay for ANY books this semester! The Professor made us going around the room and introduce ourselves, say where we were from, which program and what we wanted to learn in the class.
Lucky for me, my professor is half Canadian! His mother lived in Winnipeg and he travelled there every summer from Aus. Now we have formed a bond, as I'm the only Canadian in my class. He also told me that people from Tasmania are like Newfies- I'm hopefully going to travel there next semester and find out.


The class is going to talk about social media, global sports competitions, worldwide news and the foreign correspondent journalist. Looks to be very good so far!


In other news I've purchased tickets to see a Canadian Japonese Rugby game at the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand! This friday my travelling buddies and I (another Canadian from Guelph and 2 Americans from Chicago) are planning our spring break trip (Sept.22nd to Oct.2nd) . More details to come :)

Master's Day 1

Contrary to what you may have thought from previous posts, I'm actually STUDYING in Australia. 

My Student Card

I've had my first class in my Master's of Global Communications today and it went very well. My prof was nice and friendly, there were only 12 students in my class, and the readings and assignments are very clear and conscise. Here is my first day outfit:

This picture is mostly for my mother because she used to take a picture of my brother and I on the front step of our house EVERYyear that we attended school. (Secretly, I miss it).

Here is a mini breakdown of how my program works:
I'm beginning in the WINTER semester here, meaning that everyone else has taken classes for a ful semester already.
I take 2 classes worth 30 credit points- meaning the assignments count for more- each semester. 
The classes I've selected for this semester are Global and Governance, which is what I attended today, and Transnational Media in Context, on Wednesday nights.
Most classes consist of 2 large papers worth 60% and 40% or 30% and 70%.
This class I have to write a 6.000 word paper worth 75% and write an exam worth 25%
Most of the students in my classes are Masters of Global Comm or International Relations.
It's 2 semesters with the summer off- much different from Canada where Master's students must study over the summer.


My prof is pretty young and seems very up on the topics of globalisation. And he GAVE us a coursepack.. For FREE! FREE!!! 
Here are some photos to explain the awesomeness of this event:

Seeing CoursePack size = sad face

Realising large coursepack is FREE!= joyous face

So far everything seems to be going well. Although I have already noticed that my class (as it always happens) has a know it all student that likes to argue with the professor and thinks that the class is a conversation between him in the professor. Then today on the break the professor wanted to know if he'd like to continue his discussion and the student declined... Academic Pet Peeve #1 right there.

 I'll report back on Wednesday after my next class! For now I have 65 pages of reading to get through...

First Day Nerves!

Good morning everyone! Today is the first day of school at La Trobe and of my Master's program. I'll be taking my class at 2pm in Global and Governance. Wish me luck! Updates to follow 

Transportation Smansportation

Sorry for the lack of postings lately! Our router at home decided it didn't want to work the other day and we had to get a new one. However, I have many blogging topics to catch up on so prepare yourselves...

Today I am going to gripe about the transportation here in Melbourne. Now coming from Ottawa where OC Transpo, although not always reliable, is still a great system. Melbourne transportation however, is leaving something to be desired.
Now I didn't live on campus because I wanted to live with someone I knew and after being off res for 3 years I wasnt sure if doing a Master's degree at 22 is condusive to living with 30 other 18 year old undergrads. 
Now, ALL of my friends live on res, which means that I'm there quite frequently, especially since classes havent started so really, what else would I be doing? Normally in Ottawa this wouldn't be a problem because our buses run til later in the evening and fairly consistently. Also, at Carleton cabs were constantly available near residence for students to take wherever.
HOWEVER, here at La Trobe, the last bus during the week from my subdivision to the university leaves at 7:01pm. The bus to take my home from res leaves at 7:36pm and the bus doesnt run on Sundays. 
That means that I'm taking the last bus to campus and then paying $15 a night to cab home. I could stay over in res I suppose but on Saturday night busses dont run on Sunday anyways. 
Taxi's here are aweful as well. I'm pretty sure they give anyone with a drivers license a GPS and never the same area to work in because NO ONE knows where to pick me up in residence and the only cabs ive ever seen on campus are coming to get me. 
Then they don't know how to get to my house or my subdivision and having only lived in the city for 2 weeks I only know the bus route with twists and turns. Needless to say it's a little frustrating compared to Ottawa where I can get anywhere i need in the city in like 20 minutes any time before midnight. 
Finally, there is a weekend bus called The Night Rider, which runs from midnight til 5am Friday and Saturday evenings, however, waiting at the bus stop last night I did not ever see that bus. I had to call a cab and wait for an hour for that as well. 
That's mostly where this rant is coming from.
NOW the solution is that my dear friend from Detroit said I can leave a sleeping bag in her room for party nights. She is a most generous individual and I will definitely be investing a sleeping bag as soon as possible to save on cab fare. 
I'm also thinking that once classes start my partying will stop from every other day to once or twice a week.
And that's my first critique of Melbourne so far! I know that I said I was spending a year as Dorothy, but I didn't think I'd be taking the Yellow Brick Road everywhere!!

Playing Tourist?

Now I dont really know if it's considered "Playing Tourist" if you've lived in the area for 10 days and plan on living there for a year... but either way I've been getting to know the city a lot lately through going around downtown. Thus far my favourite attraction has been going to the Melbourne Aquarium. I'm a big animal person so it's really great to see animals that you would never normally get to. And most if not all the fish were found in and around Australia. We even saw some Antarctic penguins!

Enjoy!

The Melbourne Aquarium

Shark Bait!

This particular tank was a huge cylinder that you had to walk around to see the entire thing

This is called a Pineapple fish, native to Australia and probably my favourite

If you look closely the largest shark is behind me in the tank! Scary

Happy Feet in real life, adorable

International Relations

So I have made a lot of progress in the way of meeting people since my Orientation Week post. 
I met a lot of lovely people from all over the world through orientation and various events related to that. On Thursday night we had a boat cruise where all the international students could buy a ticket and tour down the Yarra River while drinking, dancing and socializing. 
At first I thought this might be a bit awkward but it turned out to be a great time and created a great friend group for me.

This is a picture of all of us on the boat cruise. Instead of giving names I'll say the places they are from- Starting left to right: Tampa Bay Florida, Leon France, Oakville Ontario, Guelph Ontario, London England x3, The Netherlands, and me! 

Now you might think that dressing up in your bedsheet is not a good way to meet people, however, if you had attended the Chisolm Residence toga party on Friday night you'd be very wrong!

As residence students they were entitled to a free ticket up Eureka Tower, the tallest tower in the Southern Hemisphere located downtown Melbourne... I snuck in with them!

And don't worry- I met a few boys too! They are from Georgia and Wisconsin- the four of us here went to the Melbourne Aquarium today to check out Australia's marine life. More pics to come from that adventure!

In short I've met a whole "heap" of great "mates"- to use Australian lingo. This has helped me cope a lot with my homesickness as well as pass the time until classes start. This week I'll be enrolling in classes... school is creeping up quickly!

My Australian Household

I have officially lived in Ivanhoe Victoria for over a week now and am finally feeling like I've settled in. 

Groceries are done, pictures are up, bed is made and every suitcase unpacked.

Thus, this is my post on the ins and outs of my Australian Household experience.

Roommates:

I live with a VERY full household in a student shared house in Ivanhoe (a posh subburb about 20 minutes by train outside of the city center, and 15 minutes by bus to my school).

There are SIX people in my house at the moment

Tom- British

Jesper- Danish

Claire- Aussie

Scott- Aussie

Kristyna- Canadian

and myself

We all share a large bathroom, living room, dining room and kitchen. 

The household works in schedules as Kristyna and I are the only people who have the luxury of a student life. This means that Tom and Jesper get up at 5am to get ready for work and depart around 6. At 6am Claire and Scott awaken to get to work downtown for 8:30ish. Kristyna and I roll out of bed whenever we feel like it or if there is something to do.. and just try to stay out of the other 4's way.

Groceries:

I am a person who LOVES to eat. But, grocery shopping in a country with no similar brands was a bit of a challenge, so I attempted to find the most similar groceries to home as I could. Here are some pictures of the food I bought and you'll probably notice some small changes in the brands.

This sign says "24 Pack Dr. Pepper 29.95- HALF PRICE!"

the best cookies in the world

Cheddar Cheese is referred to as "Tasty Cheese"

Bedroom:

I have a small bedroom in the house that fits a Queen size bed and not much else. However, the bed was FREE so who can complain and is large and comfy. There is also a large closet and window in my room. In my opinion the less space, the less mess and so far thats proved true. 

Australian homes are not built like Canadian homes. Winter is such a short season that the homes are built for the warmer weather, with many windows and doors to keep places cool. This means that the homes are not heated as Canadian homes are throughout. Instead there will be a heater in one or two rooms and that's it, meaning I have to bundle up before bed as if I'm camping! 

Another thing about Australia is that storage bins are VERY expensive. Rubbermaids run about $45 a piece and those plastic stackable drawers can be between $45 and $75 Australian. Needless to say, I went student for my storage solutions. A shoe rack with a few colourful cardboard boxes made my clothes, hair accessories, jewlery and picture frames easy to store for $25. Then I bought a few cheap decorations like a black and a white clock to keep track of Canadian and Australian time for $4 each. I also bought red branches with lights for $8 and 2 pieces of canvas Aboriginal Australian art for $20 all together. Finally I bought 2 $10 frames to store some of my pictures. All in all my room set up cost me

$80. Not bad for making a home away from home. 

Here is the finished product!

window

shoe rack storage unit- getto

map of Aus and a cosy bed

suitcase table 

There's no place like home :) 

Oh Possum!!

Last night we were hanging around in one of the many parks downtown Melbourne. This one was inhabited by many possums who will come up and eat out of your hands! 


While they are very friendly towards the food givers (our menu was pizza crusts) they push, shove, bite and eat the food out of the others mouths.


Here's some cute pictures of the possums we've hung out with so far. They are like squirrells in Canada.. or cuter versions of raccoons.

Orientation week

Today was the first day of International Student Orientation and I'm pleased to announce that I have met a lot of great people while here so far. 

While the sessions are fairly straight forward I do believe the whole point in showing up is to get to meet other people in your same situation. Thus far, I've encountered two people in the business program from Chicago, 5 people in law from London England, and a Canadian in International development. I even briefly met a girl from Carleton. So that's been very good.

However, it is such an awkward experience trying to meet people when you're older. Especially when I have chosen not to live on res again. Gone are the days when you could run up and slap another person on the back- yell "YOU'RE IT!" and immediately have a best friend- and damn I miss those days. Now it's 

"hey, can I sit here?" *pull out cell phone and pretend to know more than one person in this country* 

"so... this session is lame eh?"

 "yeah... are you Canadian?" 

"yeah"

 "kool".... more silence...

Another thing to be noted is that these people are doing their undergraduate degrees, thirsty to move even further from their parents and rules- they're about 19. 

Now I'm not saying that at nearly 22 I'm the model of maturity, but I think not living in res was a good idea. I've seen WAY more of Melbourne than these kids have already- which is great. Also, if I'm going to be trying to get distinction with this master's I've got to keep my grades up and my booze consumption down. I've realised that saving my money to travel on the off times, is WAY better than getting drunk and passing out (although I would have thought I was lame saying this 2 years ago hahaha).

Major differences in study abroad undergraduate degrees and international student post grad programs is that I get grades like A, B, C and hopefully not D. These kids are on pass or fail so no matter how hard or little they work- they will only get a pass or a fail. That means that these people really don't give a crap- and who could blame them!?! Unfortunately I'm not so lucky.

Thankfully I have met a gem of a girl who is in a similar boat as me, and her grades count. She lives in res in the res I would have lived in if I had accepted their offer of residence. And she's Canadian :)

The two of us are going to see Harry Potter tonight (because it comes out 2 days earlier than in Canada!) so let's hope this pans out into a beautiful friendship- because quite frankly culture shock is beginning to set in.

Here are some pictures of my beautiful green campus! 

Monument for those who have contributed to the University

A gumtree sans kookabura

The lovely lake in front of my university 

Lake from my bus stop

So far I have also got lost of this campus about 4 times today- but who cares when it looks like this!!!

(and it's "Winter")

More posts to come as I've finally emptied all my suitcases, done groceries and managed to get myself home on the train without a guide- that's what I call success!

First Impression

I have spent 2 full days now in Melbourne city. The first impression has been fantastic!! My lovely roommate Kristyna has shown me all the sights and set me up with a cell phone (A Samsung for $100, on a month to month plan).  My room is slowly coming along. It has a very comfy bed and a large closet, which is really all a girl needs.

It's pretty chilly here at around 8 degrees each day. However, that's nothing compared to the cold of Ottawa, and it never snows, so no trudging or boots necessary.

The subdivision we live in is about a 20 minute train ride from the downtown. And while transportation is pricey it is very efficient. I have never waited for more than 5 minutes for a train, tram or bus. 

Walking downtown is really nice too. Most of the malls are indoor outdoor do to the amazing weather. There is designer shopping on the main streets as well as more student friendly stores, such as The Reject Shop (similar to Giant Tiger) and the Big W, which I'm sure you can guess, is like Walmart.

There are many adorable ally ways lined with every kind of food imaginable (even poutine for my homesickness that is bound to kick in soon).

downtown Melbourne

St. Paul's Church

First Day in Melbourne

As you can see, everything in Melbourne is architecturally beautiful. Everywhere you look there is advertising or pretty buildings. 

So far I've been to a few pubs, the main square created in honour of Confederation, and shopped for room decorations and necessities.

I think I'm going to like it here.

Homemade Kangaroo Roast for dinner