Anchor Leg

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Hi everyone,

Made it Melbourne safe and sound early Friday morning. I took an overnight Greyhound from Sydney Thursday night. I might have managed a few hours of sleep with all the tossing and turning. In this sleepwalking state, I wandered around the city center looking for breakfast with my huge pack and tried to kill off a few hours. Still, I managed to be half an hour late meeting my friend Sarah by the Royal Botanical Gardens, but luckily she's nice and agrees that there should only be ONE Park Street in Melbourne. Whoops!

Anyhow, it was great to see an old friend. I haven't really spent any time with her since she graduated from Wellesley in 2003 (a time that was quite possibly the most fun I've had in my life) so we had a grand ol' time reminiscing. Meanwhile Ryland, her husband, buried his nose in book and let the girls chat :)

They both showed me around the city where all the Commonwealth Games preparations are taking place, took me to the bayside beach of St. Kilda and made some mean burritos for dinner. We tossed around the differences betwen the two hemispheres in food, social attitudes, the weather and people. It was nice to speak my mind with views I wasn't aware that I had developed until I could talk with someone in a similar situation and someone else who missed burritos as much as I did.

I'm happy and sad about this chapter coming to a close. I have learned a lot and had a ball! I'm hooked on English Breakfast tea, Tim Tams, can drive a manual car on the left side of the road, surfed with dolphins, climbed a glacier and goofed off with the manual settings on my camera. In the process, I still managed to hear about all your own daily adventures and to be honest, you've all inspired me! I'm super excited to start a (semi-)mundane life back in the States! Who knows what will happen?! It's all an adventure.

much love
meesh

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