A Cross Cultures Celebration

Several days ago, my friend Brian from Cross Cultures invited me to attend a dinner with people from St. Jude's to celebrate the end of exams. [Even though I've been in Australia for over a month, it's still so jarring for me to think that for the next four months, the students here will be on their summer holiday/vacation.] Anyway, the invitation immediately piqued my interest because I knew it would give me a chance to see new faces and further get to know the people I had already met.

It had poured on and off all morning and afternoon so even though I knew I wanted to go out, part of me just wanted to stay inside since it was raining kittens and puppies, the restaurant was farther from my apartment than I had originally thought, and I'll admit that I was beginning to feel a little too comfortable in my bed to leave anytime soon. It was just one of those days where I almost felt like staying indoors under a lot of blankets [since it was rather cold as well] would ultimately make me the most content.

However, now that I'm back in my apartment after having spent a fantastic night out in a previously unexplored part of Melbourne, I'm exceptionally glad that I made the effort to go out and socialise because I had an excellent time. It would have been one of those instances where, in retrospect, I would have regretted not joining them. There ended up being more people who I had met before than I had expected, which was a nice surprise, but I also made several new friends.

It's days like these that make me realize that I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be, and that's a wonderful feeling.

Missing Thanksgiving

First and foremost, Happy Thanksgiving to my family and friends back in the US and my fellow expatriates! I hope that each of you has the opportunity to spend quality time with people you love and care about since that's what this lovely time of year is about, right?

Speaking of which, when I'm in the Northern Hemisphere, this is my absolute favourite time of year. I love being surrounded by the crisp autumn breeze, watching the colourful leaves slowly drift to the ground, and waking up to the smell of apple pies baking in the oven. There's something peaceful and maybe even magnetic about the atmosphere that just pulls me in to the point where I feel like I'm left with no choice but to thoroughly enjoy the season.

This was my third Thanksgiving spent away from home and my first time in a place where it wasn't celebrated or even acknowledged. Although I didn't necessarily spend the holiday in a traditional way [especially since I don't know any other Americans in Melbourne], I attended St. Jude's Cross Cultures this evening and met other international members of the church, which definitely wasn't a horrible way to spend my Thanksgiving even though I wished I was home with my family. Thank goodness for video chat though!

Anyway, tonight's meeting concluded a trilogy of lectures on controversial issues that the church faces, the first being depression, the second being abortion, and the third being homosexuality. To be completely honest, it's sometimes a great challenge for me to sit through presentations on the last subject because I don't tend to see eye to eye with more conservative congregations, which unlike my home church, this one happens to be. However, I felt like the talk was given with a more neutral tone and the discussion that took place afterward was interesting and stimulating.

Earlier this week, I decided to give a Planetshakers Urban Life Group a try, which ended up being a fantastic choice. Aside from meeting some really great people, I was introduced to the NOOMA series, which are short films that give a Christian perspective on different life experiences. That night, we watched two, titled Kickball and Noise; the first one focused on answering the question, "Why can't we always have what we want?" and the second touched on answering, "Why is silence so hard to deal with?" They were both rather thought provoking and made me want to step back, re-examine certain aspects of my life, which I think is healthy for anyone to do from time to time, and perhaps even weave some of the concepts from the videos into the way I'm living.

I'm looking forward to our next study.

My New Home Sweet Home

After just over five weeks of being in Australia, I've finally managed to move into a room of my own. It did take me a little longer to find than I had hoped, but I would say it was well worth the wait. I'm so grateful that I was able to stay with a friend while I looked for my own place, but I'm excited to have my own space..... and I'm sure he's more than happy to have his room to himself again.

My room is in a cosy apartment in a quiet neighborhood in one of the suburbs immediately north of the CBD so I would say it's very conveniently located. As a matter of fact, it's just a short tram ride away from the Queen Victoria Market, the largest market in the Southern Hemisphere, so that may quickly become my primary grocery store. I've been there a few times already and love the atmosphere..... and the herb and garlic ciabatta, which is a serious yum!

Anyway, there's a tram stop less than a two-minute walk from my front door and a bus stop just around the corner, but I'm even sure if I absolutely had to walk to or from the city, it wouldn't be impossible. My room, although on the small size, is just perfect for me and well within my budget. Luckily, it's fully furnished so there's already a wardrobe, a desk, a chair, and a nightstand in the room. Most of my clothing fits in the wardrobe, but I'll probably have to keep one of my suitcases out to hold some of my belongings, which I expected because of the ridiculous amount of stuff I brought from home. Additionally, there are several shelves built into the wall next to my bed, which are nice to have for my toiletries and such. Overall, I'm not sure how to put into words how amazing it feels to not have to live out of a suitcase anymore. Happy days!

I feel like things are slowly moving in the right direction. Finding a home? Check. Next up: securing a job.

Sundays Are Fundays

Today was a stunningly gorgeous day in Melbourne, which was more than a welcomed change from Friday's unbearable heatwave and Saturday's overcast gloom. I took the tram into the city on Friday to register with a recruitment agency and nearly melted on the short walk from Ben's house to the tram stop. Yesterday was just a lazy day as my mood unfortunately mirrored the weather. Today, however, was equipped with the perfect amount of happy sunshine and warm breeze to turn anyone's average day into a fantastic one.

Last week or so, I had passed by St. Jude's Church in Carlton, which is another suburb close to the city centre, as I was job hunting so tonight, I decided it was worth it to pay it a visit since I was still in the process of looking for a church to regularly attend while I'm living here, not to mention the fact that it's pretty close to Brunswick, which is convenient. Although it was a contemporary service, it was much less charismatic than Planetshakers and I recognised some of the music from the radio and other churches I've attended in the past; sometimes small aspects of familiarity feel amazing when you're in a strange, new place. It's also an Anglican church, which is the denomination in which I was raised, so I think it may be a suitable fit for me.

The service I attended is called Unichurch and is geared towards university students, which I'm not anymore :o(, and young professionals so it was a great place for me to meet people close to my age. Before the service, I talked to a few of the girls there and learned about a weekly gathering that's for internationals so it should be fun to check out later this week. Afterward, I stayed for the coffee hour, where I met a lot of people, some of whom I joined for dinner.

I've been so grateful for Ben's hospitality since I arrived here, but I think the only downside to living with someone I already knew has been that I haven't really met a lot of people, like I did in Sydney. It's definitely time for me to kick it up a notch and make new friends so that I have more than one in a 12-hour driving radius. :o)

Keeping to the Right..... and Being Wrong

As I looked at the calendar today, I realised I've been in Australia for a month, which seems absolutely unbelievable since it still feels like I've only just arrived. During my interviews and my apartment hunting, I've had to keep reminding myself that "only just arrived" works well for a given amount of time, a limited given amount of time. I think it may be about time for me to drop that phrase when telling people how long I've been in Oz.

I'm almost certain that the fact that I've already split my time between Sydney and Melbourne has further hindered my ability to fully grasp the number of days that have passed as in my opinion, two weeks anywhere isn't long enough for a place to feel like home. After a fortnight, Sydney just started to feel that way to me and now that I've been in Melbourne for that long, it's beginning to have the same effect. I love the feeling of a place that was once strange and foreign slowly growing increasingly familiar. It really is a wonderfully beautiful thing to witness.

Even though I've been here for a month already, there are some aspects of Australia to which I'm still adapting, one of them being the fact that cars drive on the left side of the road. In London and in Sydney, many of the roads, especially the main ones, conveniently have painted on the ground which way a pedestrian should look for cars before crossing the street. I couldn't possibly count all the times these simple white letters saved my life during my first few months in London.

Thankfully, I haven't had too much trouble remembering which side of the road cars drive on in Melbourne [although I will admit that I do look both ways more times than anyone should just to be sure I don't mistakenly wander into oncoming traffic], but I did have a minor incident when I was going into town earlier this week. While I was walking along the sidewalk, a bicycler and I were about to cross paths. As he got closer, I naturally stepped to the side to avoid a painful collision....... but out of habit, I moved to the right instead of the left, which clearly clashed with his way of thinking as he nearly ran me over anyway before scolding, "Keep to the left!"

Lesson learned.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like...... Christmas?

True to my word, most of my afternoon on Monday was spent in the downtown area, where I was thankful to be able to readily access my voicemail and to snag some free WiFi from the beautiful State Library of Victoria. Later in the evening, I wandered aimlessly along the well-lit city streets

when a small banner hanging off a lamppost caught the corner of my eye. As I walked closer, I realised that it was a colourful sign that proudly displayed the words, "Merry Christmas, Melbourne." I'll admit that it took me off guard and I even laughed to myself, immediately thinking that it was much too early to be decorating for Christmas; however, when I gave it just a little bit of thought, it hit me that it's mid-November already and decorations back home are probably popping up everywhere as well since Christmas isn't that far away.

Within moments of noticing the small sign hanging from the streetlight and snapping a quick photograph, the sound of bright, cheerful, very loud Christmas music filled my ears. As I looked around to try to locate the source, I saw small groups of individuals gathered around humongous Christmas-decorated displays in some of the store windows of one of the department stores, Myer. These displays were massive, comparable to Macy's in New York and Harrods in London, and the likes of "Here Comes Santa Claus" was blaring from them.

It seems that the older I get, the more quickly and unexpectedly the holiday season suddenly appears in my life, but this year, it's different for a number of reasons. First of all, it will be my first summer Christmas, which makes it no wonder why it especially doesn't feel like that time of year right now. There's no question about whether or not I'll wake up to find a beautiful white blanket of freshly-fallen snow outside my window or whether or not it will be cold enough for my dad to light the fireplace in the family room, which almost makes me feel like some of the magic has been whisked away. Secondly, to my recollection, this will be my first Christmas spent outside the

tri-state area, but most importantly, it will be my first one spent away from home, away from my family and my friends, away from those who know me the best and love me the most.

When I had originally planned my trip, the holiday season was something that was always in the back of my mind, but whenever it tried to creep to the center of my attention, I always pushed it back into the corner. It's pretty daunting now that Thanksgiving is just around the corner and Christmas will inevitably soon follow.

Despite the fact that I'll be far away from people I love, I am, however, looking forward to spending my New Year's Eve down here. It has always been my plan to spend it up in Sydney so I guess the next logical step would be to purchase a return ticket up there, right?

Settling into Life in Victoria

The last few days have been relatively uneventful as I've spent most of my time in Brunswick, which is the suburb where Ben lives, utilising the best Internet access I've had since arriving in Australia to look for a job and an apartment. One of his friends has a room in her house that will be available in about two weeks' time so we visited her yesterday. It's a cute little house on a quiet street in the next suburb over, but I know a lot of people are interested in the room so we'll see what happens. I've spent a considerable amount of time on Gumtree, which is a website that's popular to use for apartment hunting, and have emailed a few people who have or will have vacant rooms in their houses soon. For some reason, I don't get cell phone reception in or anywhere near Ben's house so it's been a bit of a challenge to contact those who have posted that they want potential housemates to ring them to make arrangements to view the house; however, I'm planning to go into the city tomorrow to remedy that issue.

This evening, Ben and I attended a service at Planetshakers, which is a megachurch in East Melbourne that several people at Hillsong had recommended when I told them I was moving down here. It was a decent service and I enjoyed the sermon that the pastor presented to us, which was largely about humility. Interestingly enough, the message that resonated with me the most came at the end when he said that one touch from God could change everything because it was something that was boldly stated at the Hillsong service I had attended. Very powerful words, right?

Although I generally found the experience to be a positive one, I'm wondering if it was just a little too Pentecostal for me. It was a lively service with tons of brightly flashing lights [and an unnecessary video camera that obstructed the screen with the words part of the time], but particularly in the beginning, I felt as if I was at a Christian rock concert instead of church..... and hours later, I'm still on the fence about how I feel about that. On the flip side, there are Urban Life groups that meet fortnightly so I'm looking forward to meeting new people through those. Most likely, I'll give Planetshakers another chance next week because I don't want to write it off prematurely, but there's another church called CityLife that I would like to check out as well so perhaps I'll find that it's a more suitable fit.

The weather here is just as bizarre as I had heard it would be. Prior to moving here, I had been told that in a single day, Melbourne could very well experience all four seasons. Today it was a bit humid and even rained on and off for a while; however, yesterday was properly hot, 30 degrees Celsius [86 degrees Fahrenheit], which was just a friendly reminder that summer is right around the corner.

So Long Sydney, Good Morning Melbourne

Since my coach ride from Sydney to Melbourne wasn't leaving until later in the evening yesterday, I had most of my day free to do as I pleased. Although I had used them as a shortcut from Circular Quay to my new accommodation two and a half weeks ago, I hadn't taken the time to thoroughly explore the Royal Botanic Gardens and enjoy them. As it was a place that I had wanted to visit for

a while, I decided to walk over to the gardens and spend a solid amount of time there, just soaking in their beauty.

When I first arrived, I came across the Palace Garden Gate and found my way to the absolutely stunning rose garden. After meandering around the roses for a short while, I noticed that I had an obstructed view of the opera house so I continued on in search of the coveted view of the opera house in front of the harbour bridge, which based on my map, I figured I would be able to see from closer to Mrs. Macquaries Point. Luckily, it was a much shorter walk to that general area than I had anticipated because I knew I had to leave myself enough time to grab my belongings

and make it to the bus station on time. It was definitely worth it to make a second trip to the Royal Botanic Gardens, and I'm so glad that I took the time to see more of them this time around. My only regret was that I didn't spend more of my time there while I was in Sydney, but I'm sure I'll be a frequent visitor once I return in the fall.

The only way to describe the journey from Sydney to Melbourne was that it was long. Oh right, and cold. Typically, I'm pretty well-prepared to keep warm with plenty of layers of clothing when travelling by bus, train, or plane, but unfortunately, this time wasn't one of those cases. I was lucky that a friend could help me bring my oversized luggage to the train station, but then once I arrived at my intended destination, I needed to make my way to the coach station, which wasn't as close to the train station as I had been led to believe. By the time I reached the coach station, I had started to work up a little sweat so it didn't dawn on me that I should remove my heavier jacket for the ride to Melbourne; however, I was grateful to at least have my lighter sweatshirt with me on board. Towards the beginning of the trip, the driver put in The Hangover [Lauren!], which was a hilarious movie;

now I feel like I could watch the sequel again and understand it better.

Once we made it to Melbourne, a friend I had met while living in London, Ben, met me at Southern Cross Station and graciously helped me bring my suitcases to his house, which is where I'll be staying for a few nights. We ate breakfast at a local cafe that's not too far from his place and a little later, he showed me around Melbourne's city centre, including Federation

Square and the State Library of Victoria. True to everyone's word, Melbourne does have a European and artsy feel to it. Uniquely, many of Melbourne's alleyways and even some of the main streets and buildings are decorated with detailed street art. It's been a truly interesting sight to see as I had never seen anything quite like it prior to today.

I feel like I'm going to love living in Melbourne.

Moving to Melbourne

After spending a total of a fortnight and two days in Sydney, I'm mostly prepared to make the 12-hour coach ride down to Melbourne tonight. During the past two weeks, I've dedicated a great deal of time to deciding which cities I wanted to call home while completing this year of living in Australia. In the end, it was clear that Sydney and Melbourne, the two largest cities in this country, were the two places I wanted to spend the majority of my time.

While debating whether or not to stay in Sydney for my first months, since I was already here and I knew it would be the more convenient option, I talked to several friends from church and other backpackers who have been to or even lived in both Sydney and Melbourne. Literally everyone I've

spoken with about my dilemma told me that I should go to Melbourne now and enjoy my spring and summer there since Sydney is more bearable in the winter.

It was a unanimous vote so that's what I've decided to do.

I'm sure I would have been fine in Melbourne in the wintertime since the coldest it gets is the 40s or 50s [and it doesn't snow :o)], but it rains a lot in the winter months so this seems like the best option for me at the moment. While I've really grown to love Sydney and have met a ton of people in just these past couple weeks, not to mention the fact that it's slightly daunting to have to pack up and move to a whole new city again, I'm excited to be travelling to the state of Victoria for the first time. People have told me that Melbourne has a European feel to it and is gorgeous in the summertime so I'm positive I'll love it. I've also been assured that it shouldn't be too difficult to find a job down there either.

My greatest hope for today is that I don't have too much trouble boarding the coach with my very overweight luggage...