Chinatown, Train Trouble and the Shrine of Remembrance

Day one, two and three in Melbourne. Hopping off of the train at Melbourne Central Station seemed like a grand idea until I walked into the masses on the sidewalk and had no idea where I was going or what I was supposed to do for the day. Granted, I had my laptop in tow for a good solid day of job hunting, so the most logical first step: find a quaint cafe with free wifi and camp out for a while. Problem: I had no idea where to even begin finding one of these without wandering aimlessly. My saving grace was looking across and down the street and of course, in US fashion, finding not one, but two Starbucks. Now I know what you are thinking, you are in this amazing city in Australia and you choose to go to Starbucks! Well, I was in a panic, and when I panic, I need to stop and regain focus before my heart explodes and someone has to come looking for me. So there I was, with my $3 AUD cup of hot tea in hand (I bought it only thinking I would get a wifi password off the bottom of the receipt, but alas, you still had to pay more money to get on their network) and I instead opted to use a map for an alternative to my game plan. Trying to be as discreet as possible (because heaven forbid I reveal to locals by my looking at a map that I am in fact not a resident of Melbourne), I located a brilliantly marked building off Flinders Lane in the lower Southeast part of the inner city loop. Off I went to find a haven where I unknowingly would spend at least the next 3 days: the City Library. This library is not the grand Melbourne Library with beautiful architecture in the middle of the city square, this is instead a more contemporary, smaller library near an amazingly fantastic side street called Center Place (filled with tucked away shops and restaurants). On my way, I decide I need to first set up an Australian bank account at NAB (the local bank most used here). The only one I located right off the bat was in Chinatown (of course, why not try to set up an international bank account with an Asian that has an Australian blended with Mandarin accent?) With a new bank account number in hand, I journeyed onto the library.

For the next few days, I would take the tram at Camberwell station to Melbourne Central and onto the City Library to send out resumes. When on the verge of going cross-eyed, I would wander back out into the streets to see some more of the city. Wandering down toward the Yarra River, I saw the Melbourne Aquarium and the King and Queen bridges. Taking a tram I went all the way to the north part of the city to see Melbourne Museum and the city baths.

I began to meet Steph each day in front of St. Francis Church, right next to Melbourne Central, to head back to the house. As I stood there watching the crowds pile into the largely domed station, they would return the stares back at me in wonder. I am still unsure if they are looking because they can immediately tell I am not Australian or because they were scared I was about to hand them a pamphlet arguing why I believed they should attend church service on Sunday. I just smiled and nodded as they passed by, waiting until Steph arrived - and then the rush began! The kids have to be picked no later than 6:15 and if you miss your train, you have to wait, anxiously watching the minutes tick by. We run down three flights of escalators to the platform for the 5:20 train.
Day 1: jump on the 5:20 train and end up not in Camberwell where the train was supposed to be express stop to, but in Surrey Hills, 4 stops PAST where we are supposed to exit. By the time we realized this mistake, got off the train, waited for the next one and made it to Camberwell. It was a mad dash down the street, running at full speed to after school care to avoid being charged the steep rate of $1 a minute for being late. We made it just in time and swore the screen at the station was not updating properly, hence the reason we were on the wrong train.
Day 2: jump on the 5:20 train to Mooroolbark (yes, that is a real name of a suburb) and after the Burnley stop instead of continuing to Camberwell, the train veered toward Heyington - completely opposite of where we should be headed! Now, fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me - yet there were 5 other people getting off at Heyington that made the same mistake. Fast forward to the mad dash down the street toward school and this time I was not as fortunate to be wearing comfortable running shoes, instead I was wearing my moccasins (that I refused to put in my give-away pile despite requests from my dear friends on packing night). Shoes flying, hair waving wildly and my strapless bra now down around my bellybutton, we arrive at the school only 15 minutes late, not too bad considering Heyington usually only gets one train every 30 minutes. God was looking down on us with pity I guess, but we might not be so lucky a third time...

On day three, I took a tram out to the South of the inner city (in search of an ATM to withdraw money which I learned when I got there was the exact same as ATM's downtown - but hey, I got to see part of the city I would have otherwise not seen). On this route was the Shrine of Remembrance (which I felt a need to stop to pay my respects to the armed men and women who have served for Australia. It was such a nice day, I sat on a bench outside of the shrine writing postcards to family and friends back home.

{{ All in all my first week is going well. I have learned everyone not only drives on the left-hand side of the road, they also walk on sidewalks and escalators on the left hand side as well (learned quickly after several near head-on collisions). Everyone ends sentences with "No Worries" and a sweater is called a "jumper" here.

I have three job interviews already lined up, a cell phone and a bank account in place and invitations to yoga and a night out with others closer to my age. More stories and pictures to come as my adventure continues... }}