the Complete Canadian Congregation

After our long flight and their long flight... the other group arrived to complete our Canadian quintet!

LET THE ADVENTURES BEGIN!

So our first outing as a group was quite the mission. We got a taste of all the main places we'll be spending time in, which involved going here and there and getting instructed to go elsewhere, waiting in lines and signing forms, all to be topped off with a little more tennis! By the end of the day we had seen our campus, the downtown campus, the bank, a few metro stations, an overpriced grocery store, Daniel Nestor's last match of the Aussie Open, and some beautiful wildlife!

After all the bustle of our first day together we thought we'd take the next day to relax a little and hit the Williamstown beach! Not quite your picture perfect white sand and turquoise waters type beach, but being only about a 3km walk or short train ride away... I think it'll do for now. A Tuesday afternoon is a great time to enjoy the quiet, calm beach. There were only a few families here and there, a couple overly tanned men with skinny legs, big bellies and speedos doing running exercises in the calm waters of Port Philip Bay, and then.... there was Hamlet. Poor Hamlet was this guy's (whose name we didn't even catch) pick-up tool... We were obviously weak at the knees from this sensitive dalmation owner with extreme bicycle talent which involved continuous falling in his attempt to ride along on the edge of the sand with seaweed caught in his spokes and his ridiculous flirtacious compliments on Liza's tropical nail colour. Although he really expected us to invite him to spend the day with us, the girls just couldn't decide fairly who would get to be this guy's sheila... Nice try, dude. After the run-in with Mr. No-Charm over there we wandered into the cute, trendy Williamstown where we grabbed some ice cream and checked out the view of Melbourne from across the bay.

We ventured out of the burbs and into the city. Melbourne is a great city! Its full of neat architecture and cute little laneways packed with restaurant patios and cafes. During our wandering we came across a magician who wouldn't leave me alone, some colourful graffiti covered laneways, some really cute and overpriced clothing stores, a nice green park and the Queen Victoria Market which has definitely become a favourite place.

overwhelming dinner options at the market...

mmm, yeah burrito, yeaaaah

 

Thursday, I woke up and really felt like something was hanging over my head... and to my not-so-pleasant surprise, I found this "little" guy -___-

aaaaaand the temperature was probably about about 37°C making my life close to 75°C warmer than those of you in Montreal... so this called for another beach day! This time we headed across the city to St. Kilda Beach. We lay around, swam, and saw some jellyfish, the usual.

 Today, we went back to the market in the city in hopes of discovering some cheaper food... and man, oh man was that ever a success! $1 boxes of strawberries, $2/kg big, crisp apples, $2 dozens of fresh eggs with the chickens in sight, and 20 fresh chicken burgers for $12!!! I think you can guess where the majority of my groceries will be coming from...

The city is great, the beach is great, the weather is great, the girls are great, tomorrow is Aussie day and Monday we're heading down to Tasmania!

Stay warm up there!

Sincerely,
AUS