MELBOURNE

I am in Melbourne right now and there are so many different areas of the city and they are drastically different!! I have had a rollercoaster of emotions since I've been here... I have been sad, confused, happy, and the list goes on. The city is very different from Sydney in my opinion. It is more industrialized but at the same time more homey. We spent yesterday walking through the shopping areas and we walked through Fitzroy today which is much like Austin... as Meagan put it, "you can smell the Pachuli Oil" right away! Lunch was at an Italian restaurant on Lygon Street and it was great! Chicken Parmagiana is such a popular dish here... available at every pub and restaurant and Meagan gave it a shot. It was great! It is served over a bed of french fries though... interesting?
I am noticing that the various areas of town are definitely segreggated by race which is weird. All the chinese restaurants in one area, Italian in another... and the list continues. There is such a cultural mix in Melbourne and I think it will be interesting to learn about these other cultures. We have decided to go ahead and live here as we have a group of people that we know we can hang out with if need be and that makes things like Christmas and New Years more fun. I am looking forward to those holidays with friends. I have already been recruiting people to teach me to surf despite that the closest surf waves are over an hour away! Yikes looks like I'll just be laying by the bay for now. Hopefully we will be able to find an apartment close to the bay and/or in a nice area of town.
My thoughts are really spacey right now because it's very late... but please feel free to send me notes on my blog or via email! It makes me feel loved!! ;)