.steph.goes.to.melbourne.

here i come

2007-04-05T18:32:00.000-07:00

off to NEW ZEALAND in about 15 minutes! i am sooo super duper stoked i can't believe i'm going! i know i haven't been updating as much as i hoped i would, but i will def let you all know how the kiwi adventure goes! yayayay!

just beachy

2007-03-07T16:15:00.000-08:00

I really lucked out with my roommate, Kaye. She has an aunty and uncle who live right here in Melbourne, and last weekend, they took us out for a Saturday adventure. Living in an apartment complex with all Americans who just wanna party everyday, a day with the fam was exactly what I needed. Carl and Lisa have two boys, Levi and Abe, who are pinch-your-cheeks adorable but such troublemakers. It was so nice getting out of the city and exploring more of Victoria. They took Kaye, two of my neighbors, and I out to Sorrento. It was a 1 1/2 hour drive out to the cute little beach town. We went on a refreshing swim and just hung out on the beach for a while. Then, we walked up a short trail that lead to the most amazing views. Apparently, Antarctica lies just across this ocean. Crazy yeah? We had dinner and wandered around a little bit before heading back.
I'm finishing up my second week of classes at Uni. So far, so good. It was pretty hard getting back into school mode after such a long, lazy break. But thankfully, I don't think school will consume my life like it does back home. I'm taking a first year optometry course (I just got back from a bovine eye dissection!), developmental psych, indigenous cultures, and education in natural landscapes (aka camping for credit). My indigenous cultures professor was a prominent aboriginal rights activist back in the 70s. Basically, he's amazing. The Australian government thought he was a terrorist and kept records on him that are just now being released, 30 years later. What better way to learn about indigenous culture than through a crazy hippie activist.

So you know what's crazy? I've been here about a month already! It seriously is flying by. I'm so excited for everything to come, but what I really need to do is enjoy the moment. It sounds cheesy but it's so true. I'm always looking forward to the next thing, which takes away from the amazing things I'm doing in the present. Note to me: Live in the present.

footy not footsie

2007-02-25T15:13:00.000-08:00

Aussie Rules Football aka "Footy". Going to a footy game was on my Melbourne must-do list, and it definitely proved to be worthwhile. Before the game, a few of us packed a picnic of chicken wraps, pasta salad, and Tim Tams and headed over to South Bank to picnic beside the Yarra River. The skyline of Melbourne CBD (Central Business District) was the perfect backdrop for our picnic.

After the picnic, we went to the Telstra Dome for the game! It was Carlton vs. Essendon, and since Uni Melb is in Carlton, we became automatic Carlton fans. We picked up "Goal!" and "Super Goal!" signs in Carlton blue and white colors, and got our faces painted with blue and white stripes. You never would've guessed we were footy virgins.

After some hypothesizing and asking the hard core footy fans sitting next to us, we finally began to understand what we were watching. Each team has 18 guys on the field at a time. They are allowed to move the ball either by punching it (a hand ball) or kicking it (more like punting). If a player runs with the ball for more than 10 m, they must bounce it once. There are 4 goal posts at each end of the field. If you're within the 50 m line, kicking the ball through the center posts gets you 6 points and kicking it through the side posts gets 1 point. A super goal is when the ball is kicked through the center posts from outside the 50 m line.

The footy players definitely impressed me. It's a brutal game involving zero pads. I was amazed with the acuity of their kicks, flying leaps to catch the ball, and uniform of short shorts. Carlton won! So they move on in the cup and play their next game on Saturday. Hopefully I'll be in the crowd again!

ok go go go

2007-02-16T03:50:00.000-08:00

The past week has just been go go go. Exhausting but I’ve been having so much fun. I spent five days doing a Melbourne Welcome program, and it definitely proved to be action packed, as promised. I lived in Newman College, a residential college of Melbourne Uni. I met a bunch of fun people, mostly Americans, some Aussies, and even some English, Swedish, and Kenyan.

Highlights:

Top of Rialto Towers, 360 degree observation deck looking out on all of Melbourne. This made me realize how much there is to see in Melbourne alone.

Surfing at Ocean Grove beach. My first time wearing a wetsuit and the waves were great for a lazy surfer like me. The waves broke right near shore, so no need to paddle way out to catch a set. It was even shallow enough for people to walk their boards out to catch the waves! Of course, everyone assumed the Hawaii girl was a surfing pro, but I think I showed them otherwise. Haha. I did manage to catch a few good waves though, so I didn’t look like a complete tool.

Melbourne Zoo! I got up-close with the kangaroos, got a glimpse of a koala, learned about wombats, and met some warm weather penguins.

We also checked out the nightlife in Melbourne. They took us out to a bunch of different pubs and clubs. Melbourne is known for its secret clubs located down random alleyways that are only discovered through word of mouth. We rode an elevator at the end of a Chinatown alleyway to get to an awesome karaoke bar. I even busted out some Bon Jovi on stage.

But my favorite club we've been to so far is definitely The Croft Institute. Found at the end of a particularly long, smelly, graffitied alleyway, The Croft Institute is a medically themed bar. Test tubes, graduated cylinders, and separatory funnels lined the walls. God I'm such a dork. Anyways, it was more freaky than educational. There was even a hospital bed in the bathroom.

Valentine's day dinner. We walked a couple blocks down to Melbourne's Little Italy. Basically a street lined with Italian restaurants whose tables spill out onto the sidewalks. Outdoor meals are one of my favorite things to do, so this was the perfect V-day dinner. We headed over to a cool little hookah bar down the street afterwards.

St. Kilda's beach today. It's a popular beach that's about a 20 min tram ride from Uni, so I have a feeling I'll be spending a lot of time there this semester. I was told it's a "harbor beach" meaning it's part of a bay, so it's not the cleanest beach I've ever seen. It was also super hot...kinda reminded me of Ala Moana beach actually. But no complaining, seeing as I could be trudging around in a foot and a half of snow right now.

Official school orientation started yesterday. I've enrolled in classes and got my student id. yay! Orientation goes through next week and classes start the following Monday.

i have blisters

2007-02-08T02:35:00.000-08:00

After a surprisingly comfy 11 hour flight from honolulu, i'm finally in melbourne! The flight was pretty empty, so i had a whole row of seats to myself! Score! In the past couple days, i've gotten settled into my apartment and explored the vicinity. Last night, I went to the Queen Victoria Market, which turns into a night market on Wednesdays.
There was an endless selection of booths selling food from every culture imaginable. It was really representative of the multicultural population here in Melbourne. Considering how hungry we were, I was very impressed by the fact that we were able to stop at each and every booth to see what they had cooking before deciding on dinner. I am convinced that sharing food is really the best way to eat, so I ended up splitting an African dish that I cannot remember the name of (shame on me) but it was a grilled flatbread with chicken, spinach, and cheese. I also had half a roo burger! Yes, kangaroo meat! It was actually very tasty, after I got over the "I'm eating a kangaroo!" issue. I think that roo burger was step 1 in becoming an official Aussie.

After dinner, we strolled around the market and visited the different vendors selling everything from picture perfect cupcakes...

to comfy hammocks...

At the market, I met someone who told me that Melbourne is "a city full of secrets, with surprises down every alley." Hopefully I'll discover some of these charming qualities of the city over the next few months. I think I got a pretty good start today, actually. I woke up this morning and decided to spend the day walking everywhere. I spent the afternoon wandering around, with no destination in mind. I put away the guidebooks and just walked wherever I felt like walking.

I popped into record shops, shoe stores, and candy shops, stopped for a salmon roll. It was so refreshing to have absolutely no schedule, no obligations, a totally free day to go anywhere. The thing I really admire about the Melbournians is their laid-back lifestyle. I walked through streets lined with outdoor cafes serving business people taking their 2 hour lunches or couples enjoying a leisurely late afternoon cappuccino. I'm very proud of myself for only getting a little bit lost, walking in circles only a couple times. I successfully found my way back home and even found a gelato place nearby for a scoop of hazelnut and fig swirl.

Important lesson of the day: When crossing the street, look RIGHT and then left. The whole driving on the left side of the road thing may get me run over.

The Melbourne Welcome starts tomorrow. It's is a pre-orientation trip that is supposedly "5 days of action-packed fun in Melbourne." What the action consists of is a surprise, so i am quite excited!

toga times: my big fat greek carnival

2007-02-04T14:53:00.000-08:00

The Punahou Carnival malasada. After 3 years of carnival weekend pouting, I finally got one.

And with 15 years of carnival malasada eating experience, this one may have been the best. Crispy on the outside, soft and fluffy on the inside. It was even better than I remembered. As was the teri cheeseburger, taco salad, portugese bean soup, fried noodles, corn, and hawaiian plate.

Although my stomach was happier than ever, something was missing. And not to be cheesy, but that oh so important missing piece was friends. I realized that carnival will never be the same again. I felt so old as I made my way through the crowd of kids with cut up carnival t-shirts, painted faces, and inflatable hammers. I miss being a part of carnival...dancing in variety show, selling teri burgers, painting banners.

So I have an idea. Let's all go to carnival together before we get too old and have to bring our kids. We will play kiddie games and win giant goofy hats which we will wear around for the next 2 days. We will get our faces painted, Kelly style. We will make obnoxious sound booth announcements. We will eat our way from end to end, with a malasada every hour on the hour. And we will get dizzy on the swings, smushed on the Music Express, and killed on the Zipper. You in?

Carnival Reunion soon.

guess what i found?

2007-01-14T17:58:00.000-08:00

i was cleaning the computer desk today and found a webcam! which is more than perfect because i was gonna go out and buy one for australia. i think someone gave it to us a while ago and we just never got around to setting it up. so i installed it on my laptop and figured out how to take pictures. this is how i feel about it at the moment...

little bit creeped out but we'll see how it goes...

stereo turned up loud with the phat sound

2007-01-08T02:00:00.000-08:00

just a sound check