Day 2 - So Begins the Melbourne Welcome Program

Alrighty so day 2, (Wednesday the 16th), the first "official" day of the Melbourne Welcome Program. I stopped my last entry on Wednesday morning after I had moved into my new temporary home in Queen's College. I spent most the day mingling with other students in the program. I met a lot of kids from different countries including France, Germany, Norway, Brazil, England, and Ireland. Americans greatly dominate the group but it seems a vast majority of them are from California and The University of Pennsylvania for some reason. My room in Queen's is a single, (thank goodness because I already trashed it!) it's a little small but cozy. My floor has about half a dozen Aussie's on it as well (Aussie's are native Australian folk) as they have already returned from break (some of the harder majors start two weeks earlier - YUCK!). I am getting used to the whole co-ed bathroom thing but must admit it is a little weird. Since I was there rather early in the day, I had a lot of time to kill until programs actually started. I spent a good deal of time walking around and taking pictures of birds and interesting plants. It's interesting because even though it is winter many of the trees still have their leaves and their is a decent number of flowers in bloom! I have also noticed many of the trees don't have bark - which i remember reading about - i think. Anywho in the afternoon the student leaders took us downtown to get supplies. I bought my new adapter (CURSES!!) and a MET card as well as some bottled water. I saw some book stores that I fully intend to revisit in search of awesome field guides. After our excursion the students of the welcome program were gathered and we got a speech on the dos and don'ts of Australian culture, etc and then we were split into our groups for the week. After a yummy dinner of lasagna we had free time and most decided to visit a local pub (which was actually an Irish Pub called Pug MaHoney's or something like that). After an excellent Cider and a sucky beer I decided to come home and take a much needed shower and try this crazy Internet. So that was my day.

I know it's dark, but here is the barkless tree, there are big pieces of bark drooped all over the branches, I think it is some species of ash

This is Magpie species of some kind - they make a really crazy noise and are about the size of crows - UPDATE: Australian Magpie

Here is some lavendarish plant

These are little parrot things, they really look like lorikeets but that seems weird - I will know as soon as I get my hands on a field guide!!! (the student helpers think i'm crazy because i keep asking animal and plant questions every ten seconds) UPDATE: Rainbow Lorikeet - if anyone can confirm this, it would be appreciated, according to the field guide and distribution, the Lorikeet fits the roll but one of the lunch ladies told me they were a Rosella spp...

These little guys are everywhere, a pest bird according to my group leader Ross but he wasnt sure of the name... About the size of dove (all of their birds are bigger?) UPDATE: Common Myna

This is Lygon St., the hot spot to go shopping for all your needs - expensive though! A lot of neat little cafes and clothing stores that I plan to investigate later...