Got up today hoping to try my first breakfast in the dining hall. I walked in at around 11:15 and didn’t see any hot breakfast items. I asked the lady what they were serving, and she said that they don’t do breakfast. I told her I had seen it posted not only in the Welcome Guide booklet they give to all incoming residents, but also on the front door to the dining hall that breakfast was from 11:00-12:00. She said that they stopped making breakfast a few years ago and most likely will not have it this year either. So I bought a couple fruit cups and an OJ and started to think about what I will do without a consistently good breakfast for the rest of the time I’m here. Every orange juice I’ve had since I’ve been in Australia has been terrible. I couldn’t even finish the one I bought and it was only 300ml. They just don’t have any flavor. At least I won’t have to worry about that too much, though, since it’s not like I’ll be eating breakfast regularly anyway. The building I live in always smells like food when I’m in the hallways. But there is no way it really is food, because the smell has been constant, and I’ve smelled it since the first day, and I’m pretty sure there wasn’t even anyone living here to be cooking anyway. Every year, there’s this festival in a town near downtown Melbourne called “St. Kilda’s Day Festival” and they were having it today, so the mentors organized a trip for all the international students. More kids had come by now, so the group was starting to get a little bigger. To get there, we had to take a bus to a train to a trolley, and it took some time. When we got there, there were thousands of people walking around the streets, which had all been blocked off. They had food, music, and little shops everywhere along the sidewalks. I definitely didn’t expect it to be so crowded. We walked around for a little, got some food, and I bought these ridiculous red sunglasses. While they would look pretty stupid in America, you would be surprised that I did see a few Aussies with glasses the same color. And I don’t think they bought them as a joke the way I did. The Festival had one huge stage where bands were playing, and a lot of people were watching. The festival was located right near the beach, so we went down to the shoreline. There was a guy in the water “kitesurfing.” I had never seen that before, but it looked fun. Basically, he was holding onto a rope that attached to a kite-like thing flying in the air, and his feet were on what looked like a small surfboard. Whenever a big gust of wind would come, it would pick him out of the water. There was a food stand there selling “sweet corn,” so I tried some. I had never seen corn sold at an event like this before, but it was pretty good. I didn’t realize it until after, but I got kinda sunburned today. The sun was strong, but it didn’t seem too hot, so I don’t think I expected it to happen. But when I looked at myself later, I had pink on my forehead, nose, neck, and arms. After the festival, we took a trolley and train to downtown Melbourne for dinner. Another group of internationals who checked in during the day met us there. I got a chicken parm at the restaurant, and apparently, it is common to have a slice of ham between the chicken and cheese in that dish down here. I asked for it without, but the ham came on it anyway. After dinner, we hung around downtown for a little while longer than came back. By now, there are a lot more people here, and most of them seem really friendly. I guess since no one really knows anyone, everyone is trying to be nice and make friends, and it’s cool to meet people from all over the world. Again, I’m noticing how different it is for me to me to be the foreigner in a place. I’m not used to being in a group of people in which I consider everyone I’m with to have an accent. I sometimes have to concentrate to understand the thicker ones. But that’s just something to get used to when in a foreign country. It’s interesting to get to know them and find out what it’s like where they’re from, seeing how countries differ from each other. There isn’t much planned to do tomorrow, but I’m sure more new people will be around, and then the Monash Abroad Orientation begins on Tuesday.
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