Melbourne

Ok, so I've been in Melbourne for almost a week now and at first wasn't a huge fan, but it's definitely growing on me. That initial dislike may be because it has been overcast or a full blown rainstorm since I got here. I tried to explain to the weather that this was in fact part of the reason that I left Oregon, but that didn't work. My hostel is a a bit of an odd place-small rooms with only 4 beds, but very impersonal in the sense that it's much harder to meet people than it was at the hostel in Sydney.

The first day I couldn't check in until wayyy after arriving so I wandered around the city somewhat lost and out if it since I'd gotten up so early for my flight. I also made the poor decision to carry my laptop with me since I didn't want to leave it in the unsecure storage and immediately regretted that decision as my laptop weighs about as much as a fat baby after 2 hours of walking. Got back to the hostel and met my roommates- Julie from Belgium, Sharonda from Hong Kong, and Swan from Malaysia.

Julie and I clicked really well and have been walking around the city together. We got caught in a rainstorm at the Botanical Gardens and decided to give up and go see New Moon instead (all that I'm going to say about it is that it is a huge step up from the crap movie that was Twilight) and then went to the Fitzroy area the next day. It's this little boutique-ish area that just outside the CBD of Melbourne and it reminded me SO much of Portland, specifically Hawthorne area. So that was a bit trippy but cool to see another part of the city. We made friends with some English boys back at the hostel and ended up going out with them on Saturday night to this funny bar called PJ O'Briends. They played every typical American song you can think of and I impressed several old ladies with my rendition of Jessie's Girl. We were the youngest people around by about 10 years, which is how I'm constantly starting to feel here in Melbourne-its just a bit older of a crowd. And a bit hipster-ish (East Side of Portland again) which I can't decide if I like or not.

Sunday was by far my favorite day. Julie and I went to the Australian Center for the Movie Image (ACMI) which is this huge museum in the middle of town. There was this great exhibit called "screen worlds" that looks at the culture of the moving image, from video games to tv shows to special effects. It was incredibly interesting and I recognized some of the content from my film classes in Amsterdam so that was fun to have a link to something I had studied. There were two highlights of this exhibit:one being video games-I spent an hour playing Mario World (yes, on the original Nintendo) and Tetris on some ancient computer, and two: there was a whole section about Australian media culture, and Summer Hights High was featured! Yes, Ja'mie and Jonah are alive and well, they were even playing highlights of the show and apparently they have remixed "Naughty Girl" from MR. G's musical to play in clubs around Oz. If you have no idea what I'm talking about right now, do yourself a favor and stop reading this blog and go look up the show on youtube. I'll just go ahead and say you're welcome. Sunday night was the typical drink bad wine in the hostel and make fun of Americans night. I knew this time was coming and was surprised I had evaded it as long as I had, but the English boys gave me a raft of shit. One boy could not wrap his head around the idea that people in the US believe in aliens. Another just thought we were all idiots. On top of all of this, there is a huge map of the world on the wall, so I went to point out where Oregon was, and the biggest mark was Cape Disappointment in Washington. America, Fuck Yea.

Today I walked around the city and looked at tons of cool graffiti work that are in the alleys and laneways. Absolutely mindblowing that people can create these masterpieces with just some cans of paint. I took loads of pictures and will put them up once the wifi stops being moody.

It's trivia night tonight-my chance to show that Americans are not total idiots and have lots of brain space for useless knowledge. Can't wait to see how this goes..

Until next time-love and miss you all. Yes, you too Mom. Now that I know you're reading this...

Jen