WE GOT A PLACE TO LIVE!

So here's one thing I already love about living in Melbourne.. when I let my hair air dry, it dries beautifully straight! Ah I love it! At home my hair would never dry like this. It takes much less time to get ready in the morning!!

Here's one thing that kinda sucks..I have yet to find a good, reasonably priced coffee place. But I'm not giving up hope yet, I just need to do some more searching! 

Yesterday was a good day. Not only because it was my birthday but also because after four days of searching, we landed ourselves an apartment! We were so lucky that we stumbled across an ad online by a lovely lady who was willing to accommodate us. She met us at the apartment we wanted to look at on Monday morning and not only did she tell us everything we needed to know about the apartment and area but also gave us information about where we need to travel and places we need to see! I am so happy to have found Carol because she is really looking after us. The other agents we went to see either wanted thousands of dollars to 'hold' the apartment (which Carol said is highly illegal) or only came to open the door and never said a word. 

The apartment is fully furnished with absolutely everything we need in it right down to hair dryers! She is going to buy us new chairs and other things for our apartment. We will be on the thirteenth floor with a view of Lonsdale Street. We are also in a prime location right downtown next to two really big malls, transportation and basically everything we will need! YAY!!

We also had to go to the Victorian Institute of Teaching for some information on our teaching certificates for here. On the 24th floor of the building is the first time we've been able to see the ocean so far! Hoping to get a closer view very soon! 

 We are so excited to get out of this hostel tomorrow morning and move into our new place! If we get the keys today we will probably go to Big W and the Reject Store (dollar store) to get some bedding and other small items for a place so that it's ready for us tomorrow!

This afternoon we are headed into the city to do an orientation for our teaching jobs! I am looking forward to start working and I'm looking into a part time job on the side for the first bit to help pay for our rent. I just want to see first what my school work load will be first! 

Oh yeah, last night we found this crazy mirror. It kept us amused for at least 10 minutes. The security guard watched us the whole time and suggested we just take the mirror with us. Ha Ha Ha.

CHEERS!

Trains, Trams, Transportation

Yesterday was a long day for us! We started it off with a complimentary breakfast at our hostel. I had toast and figured I better try some Vegemite. I should have put it down after I smelt it, however, I am in Australia and what would I be if I didn't try any Vegemite. I put just a little bit on the corner of my toast and took a bite. ICK! It's not good at all. Its a salty, bitter, yeasty taste that you cannot get out of your mouth quick enough. I felt as if I were on a Fear Factor contest and had to swallow it to win a prize. Although there was no prize, I did swallow it and vowed never to try it again. Ewww.

We needed to get into the city to set up a bank account and look at an apartment. That means we needed to hop on the train and figure it out. It's so great that everyone here is so friendly because we just asked where to go and they tell us exactly what to do. We got a MyKi transportation pass. It was $3.50 to travel on a train, tram or city bus for the entire day! That is a really good price considering an hour pass in Calgary is $3 to ride the train. We will need to look at the monthly passes though because we will be using the transportation frequently. 

Once downtown we opened up bank accounts and met with a realtor who had an apartment to show us! It was about half a step up from the last one and all though he tried to say it was clean, it was not..at all. He also was anxious to get our money which made us walk away from him. We then walked to the mall and began looking up apartments on GumTree (a classified website) and other realtors websites. Being a Saturday, no one answers their phone and there are very short business hours for those businesses that are opened! 

The adventure back out of the city was an adventure. We ended up getting on the wrong train that was taking us in the complete wrong direction! We got off at a stop and used a help desk to ask what train we should be on. He said "Platform 5, its arriving right now, you betta get to it quick!" We saw it coming and ran up the escalator and back down to get across the tracks and made it into the train just as the doors were closing. A few more train swaps later we were back at the hostel where we decided to further search for apartments when we got a phone call back from one of the possible apartments. We hopped back onto a train right away and went to go see it. It was nice, but it wouldn't be available until next Friday! 

We took a long stroll downtown, through Chinatown and other really cool streets. After walking for a long time with tired feet we finally found a restaurant to eat at that was reasonably priced! I had a pomegranate, feta, quinoa mesculin chicken salad. It was delicious!!

By this point (9pm) we were dead tired and ready to get back to the hostel to sleep! However, the trains don't run as frequently so we needed to wait for a train for a long time. We did make it back by 10pm and fell asleep right away. Ahh! 

Today's Australian Phrase: "How ya going?" 

From: San Francisco To: Melbourne

The past two days have been filled with tons of adventure. However, when I think of adventure my mind tends to head for fun and exciting experiences. Our adventure so far has been an exciting adventure in the opposite kind of way.

Wednesday started off really well as we flew from Regina to Calgary and Calgary to San Francisco. Those flights were short and easy. Then came the eight hour wait until our 10:45pm departure to Sydney. We killed time in the airport mainly by eating, charging our phones and soaking up all the free Wi-Fi!

Finally we boarded the plane. I was already so tired and I was asleep before we were even in the air. I woke up just in time for the hot meal and stayed awake long enough to eat it and go back to sleep again. I slept pretty well the whole 15 hour flight except for about three hours. We arrived in Sydney this morning (Friday) at 6:30am. Not only is it weird that we totally never got a Thursday at all but also this sixteen hour time difference is going to be screwing me up a lot! We had an hour until we boadred out next flight to Melbourne, which is where I lucked out getting three seats to myself!!

Each time I'm on a plane I quickly remember how much I appreciate for air travel and how thankful I am that I have been able to travel in the past and continue to travel far and wide! On our landing I was so pumped, filling with happiness and ready to enjoy our first day in out new city! We were actually able to hook up our phones to a network at the airport so we got unlimited data, calling and text on our phones instantly! I am so happy we decided to get that done first.

We taxied to our real estate agents office where we signed some more documents and were handed our keys. She told us its not a bad walk and that we would be able to want to our new apartment. So we did. Uphill. Three blocks. Four bags. We arrive at our apartment, opened the door and instantly felt sick. Now, I don't exactly want to explain in detail what we saw today but just imagine the most filthy, disgusting apartment ever. Yeah. So we left our heavy luggage in the room and walked back to the agency. That conversation ended in negative terms as there apparently wasn't anything she could do to help us out. What really ticks me off is that we started paying for the place on July 24th which meant the apartment should have been cleaned prior to that date regardless.

After many FaceTime calls and conversations back and forth with different people, we found a hostel to stay at in the time being as the original apartment is not fit to stay in at all. We could tell someone had been told about our frustration and trouble as when we went back to collect our luggage there were pillows and linens laying on the beds which meant, someone had gotten into our apartment and that someone expected us to live in that filthy place. Also what scares me is that that filthy place was someone's definition of clean. Yikes! Before we left we documented and took pictures of the apartment so that we can be sure to get our money back!! 

It was heaven to finally have a shower! Something that we had longed for after arriving in Melbourne! We got word once at the hostel that we would get a new realtor and be able to look at a place tomorrow and hopefully be out of this hostel by Tuesday. We have kept our bills for this hostel and cab rides in hopes that someone can reimburse us for the troubles we have gone through.

Anyways, it is time for bed now, even though it is only eight, it has been a long day. We went out and walked around this evening as well. It is quite chilly here as it is only about 8*C today! Ahh! It's been quite the adventure so far.

G'night Mates!