Welcome to Melbourne

So it’s been very long since my last real post. Since then, it’s become 2011 (the year I turn 21), I was stuck in over 60 inches of snow in NJ, I had a fantastic week in LA where I caught up with friends, I secured a summer internship, and I made it the 14 hour 7 minute flight to Melbourne.

As not to bother everyone with the boring details or go on and on and on and make a 3 page post, here are some of the highlights of my travels thus far:

1. Plane ride: I got upgraded to 1^st class on the flight. Our flight had this seat-2-seat chat thing so Mike (my Trojan Knights’ bro) and I clearly used it. I watched Social Network and 127 Hours on the plane. I hated Social Network (shocking for a kid who is obsessed with facebook) while 127 Hours was absolutely stunning.

3. My roommate is a 17 year old Australian kid named Cane. He’s in his first year of Uni and he’s from the ski mountains north of Melbourne. I’ve literally seen him for about 30 minutes since moving in on Tuesday since both of our schedules have been crazy.

4. Mike and I still have our blackberries here thanks to this brotastic guy named Tristan at the phone store. So you can email me @ markwynohradnyk@gmail.com, call/text me at +610416819406, or bbm me. Twitter/facebook are acceptable as well.

5. Aussies love brotanks. They even have a store that sells just brotanks.

6. Drinking: Hard alcohol is insanely expensive (about 42$ for a litre), which is an issue. Mike and I plan on getting a 20 Litre wine container from the market down the road. However, being able to go to bars is awesome (I already have stories of my shenanigans).

 Buy in Bulk and Save: Great Idea from the Bad Idea Bears

7. Market down the road aka Victoria Market: had the freshest fruits, veggies, meats, bread, cheese. We bought sausage there yesterday and I made spaghetti with sausage for dinner for a group of us. After last semester when I ate WAY too much Chano’s, I’m going to try to eat much healthier while I’m here.

 Victoria Market

8. RMIT Village (the place I am staying) is boss. Everyone has a balcony in their room so we just sit on the balconies, talk to each other, and drink. RMIT Village also has a sweet gym so Mike, Christian (my FIJI bro), and I have decided to go every day and get in shape while abroad.

My side of the room prior to unpacking and setting everything up

 RMIT Village Courtyard

9. The city itself: super down to earth, very home-y and lax, everything is easy to get to, trams (have yet to ride them but they seem awesome)

10. “root”: you never say “root for that team” because its highly offensive; “rooting” refers to sexual encounters as “I rooted her” or “we rooted last night”. This term needs to come back to the US.

11. People I’ve met: RMIT Village seems to be a mix of Aussies in their first or second year and then Americans studying abroad. All of the Aussies I have met are from Victoria and live within 4 hours of Melbourne. The Americans are from all over but mainly from the east coast: UConn, Tufts, NY, Rutgers, Seaton Hall, Maine, Chicago and then 2 girls from Washington. So far, no one else from the West Coast but our SC crew. (With regards to our SC crew, we show everyone else how to party because we do it best.)

 First night out at Pugg Mahone's

This weekend is Melbourne Welcome at the Uni, where we will be going surfing, to the zoo, etc. So I will definitely fill you in on it when I get back on Tuesday.