Adam in....Oz???

Yep. Flew in this morning.

AUS --> PHX --> LAX --> MEL

that's MEL as in Melbourne, Australia. not Mel Gibson's house, as I originally thought. apparently mel gibson's house does not have a 3 letter airport code.

[a quick note: this blog is ridiculously out of date. many adventures from the rest of India, as well as Nepal, Canada, and Burning Man still beg to be written. Hopefully, I'll get to them before they evaporate from my mind grapes (thats a 30 Rock joke. 30 Rock is awesome). until then, I'm moving on]

My current trip began on a very auspicious day. In the hours before my flight left Austin, I accomplished two major feats:

1. Mailed off my application for the JET Program, which I spent a ridiculous amount of time on over the last couple weeks. Hopefully it will land me a gig teaching English in Japan. Which would be beyond awesome.

2. Damaged my parents' newly (and somewhat poorly I must say) built mailbox by lightly tapping it with a trailer.



Yep. Mailbox explosion at the Fore-Wakehouse residence. I'm tempted to make a bad joke about going out with a bang but I know my Dad and Stepmom will probably not find it very humorous. Okay, make that definitely.

Sorry guys, really and truly.

Anyways, back on track. I'm in Melbourne, Australia. Why am I here? Long story short, to kill time and make some money (picking fruit) until I find out about JET. And Shawna will be flying down to meet me in Sydney on new year's eve day. how's that for exciting?

By the time I walked out of Melbourne Airport this morning I had heard the following words/expressions used in normal conversation: "Crikey!" "Here ya go, Tigah." "Dingo's breakfast" "Ridgy-didge" and "a fair dinkum." This bodes very well.

I'm couchsurfing with an awesome British guy named Zak who lives in a sweet apartment that his work pays for in South Yarra. He's only been here for 5 weeks so he knows nothing about the city, he claims to have done $2400 worth of nitrous in one evening, and when he drove me to the city centre just now he bumped sweet techno tunes at earsplitting levels the entire way. Srsly, MAX VOLUME. We garnered many a stink eye from the pedestrian populace. He's basically my new best friend.

Tomorrow I'm going to meet up with my friend Raquelle who lives here that I met at Burning Man.

Off to go wander around. I'll leave you with the LP's description of this city that I am in:

It's one of the world's youngest cities yet also one of the longest-inhabited places on Earth. Sophisticated and slick, edgy and rough, Melbourne’s physical and cultural landscape is shaped by a dynamic population, ever-ravenous for a bite of global culture. The result is Australia’s most accessible multiculturalism. Ornate Victorian-era architecture and leafy, established boulevards reflect the city’s history, and cutting-edge developments such as Federation Sq exemplify its enigmatic contemporary style. But, Melburnians still keep their urban frenzy to a deliciously sedate pace. Trams lumber back and forth on routes radiating out like spokes from central Melbourne, and cycling is a common way to get from A to Z.

Character-filled neighbourhoods, such as Fitzroy, St Kilda and Carlton, hum with life and the city produces some of the best art, music, cuisine, fashion, performance, design and ideas in the world. Melburnians are also devoted to their sport and they go ballistic around the Australian Football League (AFL; ‘footy’ to the locals) finals and during Spring Racing Carnival. They love to shop, eat and attend the myriad festivals that the city offers. You’ll even find them defending the city’s temperamental weather, and if you’ve ever experienced Melbourne’s inclination to plummet from searing heat to drizzling rain in the space of an hour, you’ll understand that this must be the true definition of unconditional love.