Melbourne, Victoria

“The place to be” and “the garden state” (as the license plates so genuinely suggest), founded in 1835 and home of 3,806,092 people—(3,806,093) including me. As we took our first brisk step into Melbourne life (see end of Over So Quickly for emphasis on brisk) we were stepping into our home for the next 5 months, into this European influenced city dubbed the most livable city in the world according to The Economist (it shared this post with Vancouver, Canada—twice). We arrived by moonlight, under the city gates, and into the darkness of the city, and it was only 6 o’clock (Australian southern winter for you). packed into a small van the driver was surprisingly enthusiastic about having 18 20 year olds in the back of his van and pointed out some of the main landmarks and trivia as we oohd and ahhd. We arrived at our permanent accommodation (AGAIN: RMIT Village Old Melbourne, 5-17 Flemington road, North Melbourne VIC 3051) and were whisked off to our rooms in the 5 story hotel turned student accommodation. The rooms were as billed ‘modern student accommodation,’ that is, a large desk, a small flatscreen tv cum monitor, spacious closet and book-shelving, balcony, kitchen and space that you can really call your own. I would show a picture but my room has generally been a mess for the majority of my stay (save two days: move in and when I cleaned it once). The bathrooms left a lot to be desired (not quite as contemporary as the rest of the place) which leads to the most disappointing discovery ever. NO. OVEN. This would ultimately lead to some very creative cooking innovation over the coming weeks. After throwing my stuff around the room (realizing I didn’t have an Ethernet cable), we were out into the night to have a bit of an explore. Two of my mates and I went to a pizza place just down the road for dinner before returning to the village to meet with other people and go out again. During the entirety of the remainder of the night we wandered around the city centre of Melbourne, dodging cars and trams alike, walking in all directions up and down any street (some of which was in a search for a way back), all the while taking in everything that was new and not comprehending any of it. When we got back we had a start for a working knowledge of Melbourne, one that would both be further realized and proven wrong in the next day and the days to come.