Settled

After a little over a week of being in Melbourne, I finally feel like I'm starting to get my bearings and understand this city and culture. I know what trams to get on and which ones to avoid. I know a few good places to eat, and what nights a few bars have happy hour. I know that my tightest pants would be the loosest pair on the block if I walk down the street from our place.

It's nice to finally have some sort of clue, not be a complete and utter outsider, and it will be nice to spend a few months in the same place. Melbourne is a city I would have never in a million years thought I would visit, let alone inhabit, so any time here is awesome. It's funny though, I always though of Boston as the place where the weather was crazy and erratic, but after living in Melbourne, there's no comparison. The one thing I can say about the weather here is that the only predictable thing about it is that it's unpredictable. I was walking yesterday, it was a nice day and there was very little thought in my mind that I needed to hustle back home or get an umbrella. Next thing I know, a long gust of wind comes through, and behind it is buckets of rain, from clouds that didn't look stormy and with zero humidity. With summer so close, I can't wait for some heat, but when that's here, I'm sure I'll miss the rain some days.

I also set up my trip to New Zealand, which is phenomenal. We are going to fly into Christchurch on the 17th, rent a camper van, and drive all over the south island, with stops at Fox Glacier for skydiving and hiking, Queenstown for sightseeing and kayaking and most likely at the fjords and Milford Sound which is supposed to be some of the most breathtaking views around.

I am pumped to do all this in a camper van, as road trips make for much better times than staying stagnant, though even typing the word skydiving made me quiver to the point of needing cold water to the face. I have a thing for heights, and something tells me jumping out of an airplane will be scary. Davs also wants to bungee jump from the highest place to do so in the world outside of Queenstown, but I may try to limit my near death experiences to ejecting from Cessna airplanes.

My next week or so now will be spent trying to find a job. I remember working in the North End at a restaurant, and seeing Mexicans or Russians or other foreigners come in looking for work...now I'm that guy. I'm hoping I can get one based on the fact that I can speak English and am really, really ridiculously good-looking, so I'll update on that situation as I get out and hit the pavement.