G’Day, mates! How’re ya goin’? I’m writing to you from sunny Australia! It’s currently 12:40am on Monday, Feb. 18. I arrived here last Monday, Feb. 11, but until now, had been unable to get internet into my room, and was therefore unable to write. I hope that everyone’s doing well. I arrived in Australia without incident (save a small drop while flying through an air pocket on the way to New Zealand). Also, might I suggest that the next time that you fly to Australia (or New Zealand for that matter), take Air New Zealand!! The service was amazing, and the flight was amazingly comfortable (and for once, the airplane food wasn’t absolutely awful—in fact, it was pretty good!).

I have so far been enjoying my time in Melbourne. Melbourne is a beautiful, CLEAN city (which I definitely appreciate, especially after coming from the States). It is also truly a multicultural city, in which I see many people…from Indians, to Malaysians, to Argentines. I’m still working on finding out exactly where the closest Gurdwara is, but I’ll definitely be getting there soon. One thing that I’ve noticed about Australia is that it’s light here for ages! It’s light well through 8:30-9pm at night, which is nice.

The campus here is humongous…articularly compared to home. While LC is roughly 4600 students, my uni here is about 55000 students—definitely a big difference. The buildings are very spread apart, and instead of referring to buildings by any sort of common name (e.g.: Sellinger Hall), they are referred to by number (e.g.: the Campus Centre is Building #10). My room is moderately sized…but I don’t have a roommate, which is nice. I’m still working on decorating it and making it more homey, because right now, it looks something akin to a prison cell.

Classes haven’t started yet (they start on the 25th), so my friends and I have been trying to get to know the city a bit. We’ve explored the Queen Victoria Market—a large market that sells everything from food (try the seafood paella—it’s delicious!) to Chinese New Year’s trinkets. Every Wednesday, there’s a night market, in which bands play, and all sorts of other vendors come to sell their wares. We’re going to try to head there again this week. We also visited China Town for a little bit the other day, inadvertantly. It appears to be rather similar to a lot of other Chinatowns in large cities…although I didn’t get the chance to properly check it out, so I hope to do that soon.

We are also trying to plan a trip to a beach soon. We’ve been trying for a couple of days, but plans have been falling through. We’re told that there are some nice beaches around the Great Ocean Road, although we’re trying to hold off on checking that area out, since we will be driving along the Great Ocean Road at the beginning of March. I’ve also been told to check out Byron Bay, which is south of Brisbane. I was told that the Gold Coast in general is a nice area, although has some trashy beaches (a la Ocean City), and Byron Bay is a nice clean area that people don’t often check out. OH! And I get to play with koalas and kangaroos and emus next week! I can't wait!

At any rate, I’ve got to go, as it’s getting late, and I’m planning to get up early tomorrow to get some organizing and things done. I hope that everyone’s doing well. I miss you all.
xoxo