Melbourne, Victoria

For my last weekend hurrah I journeyed down to Melbourne in the state of Victoria! I had heard some mixed reviews about the city - some people absolutely love it and others don't really care for it at all. I wasn't sure if it would be worth it to spend the money on the flight, accommodation, food, and whatever tourism things I decided to do while I was there, but I decided OF COURSE it was worth it because when will I have another chance to go? Probably never...so I booked my ticket over a month ago and waited for it to arrive because that meant that I would be leaving Australia soon after...

Yep. Today was my last Monday in this country.
WHAT???? COSA?????????

It's like the mission, and pretty much everything else in life. The beginning goes so slow, sometimes even agonizingly so. But then half way rolls around and the rest flies by. My first month and even the second month were pretty slow - I wasn't doing much of anything besides work during the week and not knowing exactly what to do during the weekends. Then my 2 week break in July came and it was packed full of awesomeness, and then ever since that time 2 months ago I have been much busier doing things with people from my ward, other au pairs, and traveling around more. So yeah, I have less than a week left now which seems unreal.

On to Melbourne!

My flight didn't get in until about 11:30pm on Friday. I knew ahead of time that I would take the Skybus (transportation from the airport to the city) and then from the dropoff point which was a train station apparently they had a hotel transfer for free. That was my plan, but I didn't see that this was only in practice until 11:30pm. I didn't get to the station until after midnight...and I didn't have a backup plan or a map or internet. HAHA. I was walking alone in this station where I saw only men and no women around and no idea how far away my hostel was...slightly problematic. I eventually made my way outside and there were tram tracks and I found a lady who looked very nice and asked for directions. People love my accent and this lady was so helpful and directed me in the correct way. So eventually I made it to my hostel around 1:00am where I was in a room with 11 other girls who were ALL ASLEEP. On a Friday night I expected people to be out clubbing - which there were plenty of those people - just not in my room. :) It made it difficult to find the only empty bed in the dark haha. So I was really tired but had to be up early the next morning to catch my tour and I was extremely paranoid that I wouldn't wake up in time...so that combined with snoring and coughing people in my room made for little sleep. At 6:30am I arose to everybody still sleeping in my room and out I went.

Running group.

Saturday was my day to travel on the Great Ocean Road. It is compared to Highway 1 in California (yeah PCH!) but is apparently more beautiful here in Victoria. This was the main reason I wanted to come to Melbourne honestly, and it was awesome.

We made a bunch of stops throughout the day to see different beaches.

Some of the coastline.

The famous Twelve Apostles is at the end of the journey.

The shoreline suddenly went from gradual rocky hills into the ocean to sheer sandstone cliffs. There used to be 12 of these random limestone outcroppings but now there are only 7 still standing.

Playing with camera settings.

I'm surprised we didn't hit some cyclists.

Razorback rock.

Loch Ard Gorge.

When I originally planned my tour I signed up for the shorter one with less stops so I could be back in the city in time to see a show at night. But that tour didn't have enough people, so they told me I could upgrade to the longer one for free or change the day or get a refund. The later one didn't end until 7:30pm, give or take some time, but that is when my show started, so I was very internally conflicted. I couldn't find a short tour anywhere else and I couldn't nor did I want to get a refund on my show ticket. So I decided to do the longer tour and just show up late (hopefully not too much) to the musical. It all worked out very well actually. I was a little late to the play but only about 20 minutes, and my tour guide gave me a ride straight to the theater which was awesome!!! When I got inside I was afraid they'd make me wait outside until intermission or something but I got to go right inside!!

And I saw Les Mis!! SOOOO GOOD!! Some of those songs just give me chills, and the singing was fantastic and the stage play very creative and cool to watch. Well done Melbourne.

It was a packed day. The roadtrip on the Great Ocean Road was over 550 kilometers and I can see now that doing it in a shorter time would have been difficult. I'm glad I got to do the longer one and still see my show. I left the theater with a big smile and made my way back to the hostel at around 11:00pm, grabbed a cheeseburger meal next door because I was starving, and when I went back inside there were tons of people partying but in my room like half the girls were already sleeping! Man, I thought I was the one with a lame idea of nightlife! 

On Sunday I didn't have any set plans except that I had to catch my flight at 6:30pm. Melbourne is the city of trams and they have a free one that does a city loop (GENIUS). So I did that and got on and off when I felt like it and walked around a ton and enjoyed a beautiful day outside!!! It was so happy.

The Yarra river where lots of rowing happens. 

It seems most of the big cities in Australia have a river running through it.

The architecture in Melboure is fantastic. Lots of big churches and cool buildings.

I just liked the colors. 

I just think this looks cool!

On one of the tram stops I got off on I was just walking around in whatever direction and I found the Italian precinct of the city purely by accident.

It was no accident when I ordered a pizza cooked in a wood oven and an arranciata rossa for lunch.

It was TROPPO BUONA. Seriously heavenly.

Apparently there are more Italians living in Melbourne than in any other city outside of Italy in the world. Pretty cool, no wonder the pizza was so good.

Pretty.

I have no idea what this building even is, but it was huge and beautiful.

St. Patrick's cathedral, another massive Catholic church. I love those.

There is a whole alleyway of graffiti art and it was amazing.

I enjoyed my time in Melbourne. It was a quick trip, but that is how most of my traveling in Oz has gone. So I shove lots of adventure into 2 days and the trip is made completely worth it! 

Why you gotta be so rude?

The song in the title above is hilarious to me. When my sister came to visit I realized that I had no idea what new songs were out and popular because I don't listen to the radio here. Well...

I find this song to be quite funny and catchy. But I just love the chorus part haha!

So my weekend has been PACKED. I'm kinda physically dead at the moment.

Thursday night I mentioned I went to the temple and I was so happy to be there. I had to get my race packet as well so I was walking around Southbank for awhile since I had time before the session started. I hadn't eaten dinner so I got a burrito (blessed food that I miss) and a little Mexican chain restaurant here called Guzman y Gomez. It's alright, but it definitely isn't California Mexican food. But the exciting thing is that while I was there I got a Solo.

Janine was requested to bring one of these home for a friend who said it was made of WATER, LEMON, AND HAPPINESS. That is my favorite description of a drink I've ever heard! And it is delicious so on point.

I haven't been to the city at night much. But that skyline is very nice to look at by the river. :)

Then I went to the temple, enjoyed very much my session, then had to take the bus back. I was cracking up because it was after 10:00pm at this point and apparently they switch to a night bus schedule, so the bus was a double bus that reminded me of Italy with it's ghetto accordion center hahahaha.

Hilarious.

Friday I worked then went to the YSA dance with a couple people from my ward. It was Bollywood themed and I was extremely disappointed that I did not here a single Bollywood song. The DJ could have done great things. Despite that fact, I NEEDED that dance. I went a little crazy and used a lot of energy.

                     This is my dance philosophy per se. I used to absolutely hate youth dances and I only went because my friends went. I rarely got asked to dance, and I was very uncomfortable in that kind of setting. So I felt awkward and didn't dance and I never knew why I was there.

                     Something changed when I went to BYU during my sophmore year. Second semester I got some new roommates and made friends in the ward who were very outgoing and we became a very social apartment. And we had apartment complex dance parties in my living room all the time. And my ward dances were awesome because everyone danced and enjoyed themselves. I start to let loose more and started to actually LIKE going and WANTING to have dance parties. Changed me.

                     They are still hit and miss, and it completely depends on the people you go with, and if I'm not in the mood to go I'm not going to go, but now I LOVE dances! It is a time for me to release frustration and pent up energy and I just don't care anymore. I don't know any good moves, but if the song has a beat I like to move and not stay still. 

                     So now being on the other side of the fence, I get really sad when I see people who go to the dances and literally sit on the sides and do nothing the whole time. Why do they go at all? I have found they are usually just shy like I was.Which is completely fine. But I am SO GLAD that I have moved on from that and enjoy myself a ton. :) :) :)

So that was a lot to say that I needed to let loose some anxiety and frustration and energy Friday night. So I greatly enjoyed myself.

PEOPLE CHANGE!

On to Saturday..................WHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! I woke up at 5:30am to catch a bus, then a train, then a car to make my way to Redcliffe (north of Brisbane) to go SKYDIVING!!! I had only gotten less than 5 hours of sleep that night, but I was pretty awake because I had adrenaline. Yes I was nervous. Of course I was, I was going to jump out of an airplane! Anyone who isn't nervous their first time doing that is strange and rare I'm sure. But it was so cool, I broke down and got the pictures and video and I'm so glad I did because I've watched the video like 20 times already because it makes me SO HAPPY!!!! We got all harnessed up and I met my tandem instructor guy. He was awesome, we got along very well and he's jumped out a plane more than 7,000 times. Wow. On the ride up in the airplane I actually wasn't that nervous as we got up to 14,000 feet. I was the 7th of 7 jumpers, so when the door opened and the cold air blew in and I watched them all fall into nothing I got so excited and so scared at the same time. And then I was in FREEFALL!!!!!!!! I can't even describe the sensation, it felt amazing though!!! It was freezing cold as I went down, the pressure was high so my head hurt a bit, and my ponytail flew out of my hair, but I absolutely loved the experience. The views were beautiful of the Australia coastline. I can't believe I actually did it! People always say they want to go skydiving but how many people actually go? COMPLETELY WORTH IT.

I recommend it to anyone who likes adrenaline rushes. :) :) :)

Sunday. Today I sinned. Hahaha I've never signed up for a race or anything on a Sunday but this morning I ran in the Bridge to Brisbane 10k. It's kinda a Brisbane iconic run, so I figured I needed to make that happen even though I felt bad it was Sunday. But I still went to church this afternoon! :) So this morning I woke up at 4:30am (this helps me understand why I'm so tired hahaha) to go catch the bus again to the city where a big bridge is. At the beginning up the 10k you run up and down the bridge which is the first 2k of the distance. It was way fun! I'm not in good endurance shape but my time was 1 hour 10 minutes which could have been better but could have been worse haha. I haven't run more than 5 miles since my half marathon before the mission. I'd love to get to that endurance point again.

Lots of people running down the bridge!

At church today I was pretty drained haha. Now I'm starving. Then to sleeeeeeeeep. 

This was a legit weekend and I'm so HAPPY!! I needed all these exciting things. :) Next weekend is Melbourne then the next weekend is the USA!

Mafia

I went to the temple last night! I love the temple! I haven't gone very much since being in Australia, this was only my 3rd time doing a session since May. Che vergogna...I am looking forward to living in Utah again where there are a plentiful supply of temples and friends with cars who I can go with! :) But seriously, it gets repetitive sometimes but I always feel so peaceful when I'm inside doing the work.

I have been feeling a bit anxious this week...this coming weekend is very busy with some intense things happening and next weekend I'm going to Melbourne so there's been planning for all that, and then I'm out of here in 2 weeks. I'm happy and excited to go back to Utah, but there is a lot of uncertainty as there always is about moving to a new place. I guess it's mostly grad school that's stressing me out haha. I have A LOT to do before I can apply...and for some schools apps are already being accepted. I can't apply yet though because I don't have any OT observation hours yet. I have a bunch of PT hours, but that obviously doesn't count. I have something lined up when I get back in a hospital but I'm going to have to get hours fast. Plus I have to find a job asap. And figure out how to take a couple online classes that are prereqs for OT school (at least they don't have to be done before apps are due). And take the GRE. And I don't have a car because I sold mine before I came to Australia. Mamma mia. But I DO have a place to live. And I'll get the rest of it figured out. But the thing about being across the world is that I can't do a whole lot. Emails only go so far, and half the time people don't even answer them. I can't call and I can't go to them yet. Applying for things online isn't very effective in my opinion.

So yeah. A bit of anxiety thinking about it all but not being able to do a whole lot at the moment.

In case that sounded negative, I'm not upset about it all. It's just a lot to digest and it helps me to write it down all in one place to know what I need to do. Hence why I like lists...I like having a visual of exactly what needs to be done.

Awesome talk I read yesterday:
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/04/grateful-in-any-circumstances?lang=eng
President Uchtdorf is the bomb.

But yes, what am I doing this weekend? Well, I'm going to a YSA dance tonight to get my groove on. Tomorrow I'm going skydiving. Sunday I'm running a 10k.

It is the skydiving that is making me the most anxious I suppose hahaha...I'm way excited but slightly a lot nervous too...I'll be glad when it's over in less than 24 hours hahahaha! But it's going to be AWESOME!!!

The past couple weeks have been pretty standard. Last Saturday I made my way up to the Sunshine Coast and got to explore around a small town and see pretty scenery. My favorite kind of touring is looking at and being in the scenery. :)

We were going to hike that mountain behind me but it was closed...good thing we checked before we went!

Glass House Mountains

I wanted to start climbing that tree real bad.

The tiny town I explored.

Found the Mafia in Australia!

Good stuff.

Another list

Some cool facts about Australia(ns):
- Young Australians give up their seat on the bus for old Australians. Without being asked, they just jump up. Awesome.
- Crackle. When making a roast pork, this is the skin of pig that they bake in the oven at a high temperature and then it's fatty and crisp and they LOVE to eat it.
- Everyone seems to travel. Since Asia is so close that's where they typically go. Very unlike Americans who to me seem scared of going to Asia...but it is very far away.
- Wages here are much higher than in America. Makes sense because the cost of living here is way more expensive. Example, I talked to a girl here who was a waitress and they don't do tips here so it's all hourly wages. She'd make like $30+/hour in a slow restaurant setting. I told her that whenever I made $30/hour consistently it was when I was running around like a crazy person with no breaks. Fast food workers get around $15/hour I believe. That's just a bit more than at home...
- Because of the high wages it would be sweet to live in Australia with someone you knew where you got cheap rent and get a job, save it all, then go back to the USA. You'd be rich.
- Public transportation is expensive here. I thought it was expensive in Italy. Nope.
- The big chain fast food restaurants here are Macca's (McDonald's), Hungry Jacks (Burger King), KFC, and Subway (where $5 footlongs do not exist). And you don't get free drink refills.
- Mexican food doesn't really exist here because there are no Mexicans. But the Asian food is delicious.
- The coastline is just endless miles and miles and miles of beautiful beach.
- Football is rubgy (there are 3 versions of it - AFL, rugby league, and rugby union) and gridiron is American football. Cricket is popular. Baseball isn't big, and instead of volleyball being really big their main sport is netball, which is a version of volleyball that I don't understand. And only girls play it.
- Australians accuse Americans of shunning all things British, which I have learned to be pretty much true, while Australians and British are similar. That's what happens when you don't have a war of independence.
- Patriotism is not nearly as big here as it is in the States. I'm proud to be an American.
- Most of the country is empty. The vast majority of the population live near the coastline, and when you live in a country that is geographically almost as big as the mainland United States that leaves a lot of empty nothing.
- People like me automatically because of my accent.
- Snake season is in the spring. I'm glad I'm not going to be here for that!
- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the same here as it is in the States. Always cool to see that fact.
- There are lots of Italians here.
- blah blah blah


Australia e' un bel paese!