Week 1

Thus begins the once in a lifetime advenure involving moving to a new country without parents, or plans, or classes or responsibilities. After a week I have:
a) succesfully defeated jet lag (did that in a day by staying up and not napping for like 48 hours; i don't sleep on planes)
b) ridden a number of trams and trains
c) found some awesome running routes (down to the beach and around a wonderful lake/park)
d) discovered the joy of 5 dollar bottles of wine
e) turned in multiple resumes but not yet found a job (sad, i know)
f) realized that eating out here is expensive
g) been woken up every morning by construction out in the street
h) drank a lot of good coffee and done a lot of walking
i) take about 76 pictures, some of which are on facebook
j) sent some postcards (more to come, give me your address if you want one)
k) finally gotten around to starting a blog.

After this first week I've realized that this is going to be a little tough to start off with. Finding an apartment is not going to be easy, especially considering that Ryan and I can't really afford one until we start working. And once we start working, it's going to be hard to go apartment hunting. Kind of a catch-22 thing going on.
I almost have a sort of coaching job thing which won't really pay any bills, but will be fun and a good experience. I have to fill out a lot of paperwork for said job.. ugh.
I opened a bank account today with NAB one of the 4 big banks in Australia.
It's like 60 degrees during the day, maybe a bit colder. And then low 50's or high 40's at the very coldest, at night. I really thouroughly enjoy this kind of weather.
Public transport is the best thing ever. You can ride anywhere around the city for a day for 6.50 for 2 hours for 3.50 and on sundays you can go all day for 2.80... Woo!
Right now i'm still living with my uncle. Ryan and i are sleeping in his spare room. It vaguely resembles a messy dorm room. I say we have about 2.5 maybe 3 weeks before we wear out our welcome. Although he and simon have assured us that we're welcome to stay for as long as we need.
Um, the suburb we live in is pretty spiffy, lots of interesting stores and cafes and restaurants and that type of thing. Melbourne as a city is a little different from most other cities i've been to. Very walkable, lots of public transport, not too busy, seems nice enough. MOre exploring will be done when i have more money. For now i'm going to have to concentrate on job searching and apartment hunting... wish me luck.