Surf Club

The other day on campus, RMIT hosted a big involvement fair, where all of the sports, clubs, and organizations set up stands and tents to encourage involvement. After snagging all of the freebies we could, my group of four girlfriends--Cheyenne, Hollie, Amy, and I, elected to sign up for the school surf club. It's been going on for awhile at the neighboring school, Melbourne University, but has only been up and running at RMIT for a year or two. we paid a club fee to sign up, got really cool coozies (to insulate beer cans/bottles), and got invited to the welcome BBQ/party the following day. The club has lots of social events throughout the semester, all mixed with the other school's club as well, and a few organized "surf camp" trips that we go on. The consist of 3-day trips (Friday, Saturday, Sunday) where we surf all day and party all night. Sounded like a pretty good set-up to us. 

We dressed up for the beach-themed party the following day in hula skirts and leis and headed over. There was probably about 60 people there. They were grilling, drinking mass quantities of punch/jungle juice that they made in a roundabout in the middle of a semi-decent street. They had a big white board with the rules of the gathering. They all were things you had to do when certain cars passed by. For example, when a motorcycle or scooter passed, everyone had to run across the street to the grass on the other side, no matter what you were doing, and the last one to make it had to beer bond or chug a cup of their punch or a beer. The best rule was probably that whenever a driving school car passed (which was very often, since there was apparently a driving school right around the corner that the instructors always directed the students to this roundabout), everyone was as loud as possible and pointed at the car, trying to distract the kid. Pretty evil, pretty funny. 

The day and all of the people were a lot of fun, so I'm looking forward to the events throughout the rest of the semester. AND I'll be able to accomplish one of my goals of learning to surf!

Amazingness of Australians

Just to show how genuinely nice the people are here, I have an example from the other night. My friend Cheyenne, a few others, and I went out to a bar. When we were ready to head back to our friend’s apartment (in a big, all-student complex), we caught a cab. We got dropped back off in front of the building and the cab driver said it was “good enough” when we were trying to figure out the last dollar or two among the four of us. Tipping here isn’t as common as in the U.S. where it’s pretty much always expected, but the fact that he accepted a little short of what we owed, shocked me.

We then went inside and were just hanging out in our friend’s room, talking, listening to music, whatever. My phone starts ringing, and it’s an incoming call from Cheyenne’s phone, who was sitting right next to me. After we realized it wasn’t just her butt dialing me, I answer to a very friendly voice saying he was officer so-and-so from the Melbourne Police Department. He told us that he was in possession of Cheyenne’s phone at the department, and asked if I knew the owner, as I was one of her most recent calls. I told him I was with her and that we would head down. He continuously thanked me for answering, being cooperative, and agreeing to come pick it up, as if I was doing some favor for him. So we headed just down a few blocks, luckily, to the station where we were greeted by this overly-upbeat cop. He told us that Cheyenne must have mistakenly left her phone in the taxi, and that the cab driver came and turned it in. From different experiences and stories with cab drivers from America, the driver most likely would have, not only would the driver have tried to rip us off and give the wrong change to get an extra buck, but if a phone had been left, he probably would have pocketed it or sold it on ebay within hours.

The policeman told us that the driver discovered the phone on his drive home, drove back to the apartment complex, trying to find its owner, making recent outgoing calls and asking the security guards if they happened to know anything about it, then drove it down and turned it into the police station after that attempt failed. Cheyenne and I, both from America, were shocked at the kindness and effort that the driver put in. we have no way to find him or thank him, but I hope that guy has some good karma coming for him.

New Home!

I recently moved out of my temporary hotel, and into my new place. It’s a townhouse right in the heart of the city—one or two blocks from school, the city library, the central train station, a few parks, the grocery store, the Big W (their Walmart), and lots of restaurants and bars. The house/aparment itself is 3 floors. My roommate and I, Lena, from Germany, share a huge room that takes up the whole first floor (besides the small foyer). We have our own bathroom, with shower, mini fridge, separate sink, desk, a whole wall of shelves and cabinets, and two dressers and beds. I opted for the smaller bed in order to have my own nook of the room that is kind of separate from the rest, to give more of a sense of privacy and hominess. The second floor consists of the spacious living room and kitchen and small balcony. And the third floor is 2 more bedrooms and a bathroom, that are inhabited by a Canadian girl, Nelia, in on, and three Asians girls in the other—apparently one of them is moving out soon. Lena, Nelia, and I were in the same orientation group and that is how we found each other. The other girls were studying here last semester as well, so they have been here for 6 months or so already.

I had to pay a lot of money to use the internet at my hotel and just got it set up at my new place, so I can finally get in contact with everyone from home that I already miss.

I’ve been running a lot of errands the last couple of days while moving in, getting everything set up—toilet paper, bedding, groceries, etc.

We do not start classes until Monday the 28^th, so we have the week off to explore, relax, and party. I’m excited for classes to start to meet a whole new round of people. It’s really cool constantly meeting people everywhere I go and everything I do. I love interacting with groups of people that all just make fun of (as well as appreciate at the same time) each other’s accents and what and how they say some things and how it translates to other cultures.

Although it was a great idea at the time, staying up to watch the sunrise this morning and not going to bed til 8am, and getting back up again at 11, is starting to take its toll on me, so I’ll update more later!

I’m having a really great time so far and am really looking forward to the semester getting underway. Miss you all!!!

Xoxo, Em

Orientation & First week

Our orientation consisted of 3 days, which included info sessions, ice breaker activities, catered lunch, signing up for classes, and an “Amazing Race” around Melbourne, which was like a big scavenger hunt around the city. The orientation was for all incoming international students, so there was people from all over the place, except Australia.

I made one good friend right away the first day, Cheyenne, from New York. While visiting her at her apartment, we met two other girls from England, Hollie and Amy, both from England, who are now our core group of four girls. The rest of our group consists of the boys that live in their apartment complex from all over the world (England, France, China, Germany…). I’m over there pretty much everyday hanging out and to meet to pregame to go out on the nights that we do. We have gone out a few nights now, to different bars (called pubs here) that have all been pretty cool. We’re still figuring out which places are better for students and which ones are better some nights over others, which ones have deals certain nights, etc.

Alcohol is really expensive here (along with everything else), and the only cheap option is Goon, which is pretty gross boxed wine, which is what we’ve mainly been drinking. I think im either going to learn to love it or hate it pretty quickly…not sure which yet.

Trip over & First few days

1^st day: February 14, 2011

Today was my first day in Australia! After a six-hour flight from Washington to Los Angeles, I gave Mark and Steph calls while I still had a cell phone and knew I would be flying through their 22^nd birthday. It was about 8pm in L.A. and around midnight back in Maryland, so they were both already out celebrating. I was able to talk to Mark for a little bit while he was out at the bars, but only exchanged funny texts and voicemail from drunk little Steph while she was at her “100 nights until graduation, senior celebration.”

I then boarded the approximately twenty-hour flight from California to Melbourne. Just when I thought my section of the plane had finished boarding, and I was going to luck out and get a three-seat row to myself, two middle-aged (not small) people, a couple, came and sat next to me. They were Australians returning from a Caribbean cruise and were pretty nice from the minimal conversation I had with them. Because I forced myself to stay awake during the domestic flight, I was able to sleep the majority of the international one. I had my own self-controlled TV at my seat, so I watched an episode of Family Guy, the movie Despicable Me, and half of the movie The Social Network. We received two meals on the flight—roast beef and mashed potatoes for dinner, and then waffles and yogurt for breakfast. They were surprisingly pretty good.

When I finally arrived in Melbourne, it was about 8am their time. Getting my bags and going through customs went smoothly and didn’t take too long. I then met up with a driver from RMIT University to take me to my hotel. There was one other kid on my flight who is studying this semester at RMIT as well from University of Maryland, and who actually went to high school at Magruder. That was pretty cool because we both thought we were the only ones from Maryland coming here, and we coincidentally grew up just miles from each other at home as well. He arranged housing ahead of time so we dropped him off then headed to my hotel. I checked in, but couldn’t get into my room until later in the day. I skyped for a few minutes with Mom, emailed the fam to let them know I arrived safely, left my luggage in a storage room at the hotel, and headed out to explore.

The weather was pretty perfect today. They use the Celsius scale here, which I’ll need to start to get used to, but it felt like low 70’s and was sunny all day. I wandered the streets for awhile and found this beautiful park pretty close to my hotel that I lied down on the grass to relax for a little while. There was lots of people out and about—on lunch breaks from work, out exercising, people playing games and relaxing in the park. While walking around I noticed that there appear to be more Subway restaurants than any one other chain, that a lot of people smoke cigarettes, and that there are tons of little coffee shops/bakeries and Asian and Indian cuisine restaurants. Everything is more expensive than the United States, as I was told before coming here. A cup of coffee and a 20 ounce bottle of soda are around $4 each and a normally $15 dollar shirt at target is around $40 here. I got a prepaid phone, a straightener, and a few basic school supplies at Target, and a couple basic things from the grocery store before returning back to the hotel.

The second day, and a few times now, I have gone to the Queen Victoria Market, which is a huge open market under big pavilions that is open everyday except Monday. They have hundreds of fruits and vegetable stands set up as well as places with clothes, jewelry, souvenirs, food, etc. that line these massive sheds. They also have an indoor building that has meat, fish, cheese, and fresh breads. I have boughten a watch and an opal necklace from there so far and all of the fresh produce and meat that I have gotten so far. The prices are a little better than the grocery stores, and fresh daily.

Some other things I have noticed so far that are different from home:

• ·      Take away= take out
• ·      Trolley= shopping cart
• ·      Trading hours= hours of operation for businesses
• ·      Everyone obeys crosswalks/traffic lights, unlike our cities where jaywalking is normal and yellow (or red) mean speed up
• ·      People walk/drive/stand on escalators on the left instead of right
• ·      Everyone is friendly
• ·      Restaurants and stores close pretty early. Seems that breakfast and lunch are bigger here than dinner for going out.
• ·      They use a tram system, which is like above ground metro that run in the middle of the streets
• ·      They charge for rent weekly, not monthly
• ·      I always feel safe (but don’t worry, still being cautious)

Welcome!

Hey everyone! Now that I have been in Melbourne, Australia for a week, and finally have my apartment and consistent internet access, I'm starting up my blog so everyone can stay updated on my adventures and new life. Feel free to leave any comments here, on Facebook, send me an email (eowen@umd.edu), or call me on Skype (Flemowen) to catch up. I miss everyone already and want to be updated about happenings in the U.S. as well!

Enjoy :)

xo Em