Welcome to Melbourne!

G'day everyone!

I finally reached Melbourne, 27.5 hours after taking off from Greenville! I started out on February 13th from GSP and flew through Cincinnati, Los Angeles, and Auckland, before I arrived at the Tullarmarine airport in Melbourne. I was happily greeted by the scholarships coordinator from Rotary District 9810, Mr. Peter Murie. Tired and a bit grungy, Peter and I set out into the city.

I had the chance to have lunch with Peter and Yumi, another Rotary scholar here from Japan. Yumi is a masters student studying ESOL. She was a 06/07 Rotary scholar to the district, but she decided to return to Monash to finish the degree. It was so great to meet her and hear about her impressions from her year here.


Following lunch, Peter and I set out on finding my room on campus. Ah yes, we made our way to the Residential Services office and happily watched an orientation movie, consisting of a powerpoint presentation with all sorts of information that is vital to on-campus housing, but it went through the material WAY TOO QUICKLY!


After putting my things in my new humble abode, we set out to open a bank account. Not having opened one in many years, it was definitely an interesting experience. Too many questions, not enough answers....


I joined Peter, his wife, and Yumi for dinner for what was called "Yumi's Going Away Party." Yumi had been living with Peter and his wife while she was finding housing and the dinner was her last activity at Peter's house. We had great fun and great food, courtesy of Peter and his wife. I also had the chance to go to the markets to pick up food for the meal. From butcher shop to cake shop, we went into individual stores to collect the items that we needed.


Well, this has been a whirlwind of a day! Though I'm not feeling too much of the jetlag yet, I don't doubt that it might get the best of me very soon! More later!

Cindy

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