Melbourne - the world's most livable city?!

Had totally forgotten about this, I have written this a few months ago when I arrived in Melbourne. I got here on Feb. 16th, and already the flight was hilarious as I was sitting next to this 18 year-old Northern Irish girl from a family of 16 siblings who had never been on a plane before and kept on asking me all sorts of different questions...so I can watch telly here and listen to music...and order drinks for free??? (She would then ask the stewardess for a smirnoff ice. Bless her!).
My arrival in Melbourne was pretty smooth. I got picked up by a Melbourne uni shuttle service at 6 am which dropped me off at a friend's place in the outer suburbs. There I quickly had a shower and went straight to uni orientation which started at 9 am. Have to admit I was in my own jet-lag world for the whole day, but luckily orientation went on for another week.

Friday, I then started with the house hunting, I just couldn't sit still and felt this urge to get out there and look for my special place in Melbourne. Already a day later after having seen a couple of terrible flats/houses I had an appointment with Greg and Ben at their house in Fitzroy and immediately fell in love with the place. It's a lightfilled 4-bedroom victorian house with terrace and backyard and I still can't believe how lucky I am that the guys told me I could move in a day later. Fitzroy also seems to be a very arty suburb. There's lots of funky small shops and tons of cafés on closeby Brunswick Street.

My lovely housemates (meanwhile I live with Greg, Julien and Robyn) have also organized me a bike and helmet (everybody has to wear them here so at least I'm not the only one looking stupid) and within ten minutes I can cycle to Uni or the city centre. How cool is that?!

Uni is fun too. The system here is quite different to what I'm used to at European universities, much more organized and they are definitely taking good care of their international students. During the first week they would have a free barbecue (aka barbie) on Uni campus almost every day and we got lots of other goodies as welcome presents.

Meanwhile I have started with my classes and will be taking two in Aboriginal/Indigenous studies, one in advanced photography (need to decorate my new room) and one class on Latinamerica (have to practice Spanish or I will forget). Apart from that I have to do quite a bit of research for the Magister thesis. So it's not all play (but a lot...).
I also became a member of the Melbourne Uni Underwater Club and will finally go diving again. Can't wait .
The funniest club I joined is the Lunch Club. It consists of people who like good food and enjoy to check out a new restaurant for lunch every two weeks. Yummy food and meeting new people sounds like a good combination to me.

On the weekend I went to the the beach in Brighton and was hanging out in the sun for the day. Sunday a few other international students and I organized our own barbie in the park and I got to play some American footbal, Indian cricket and German soccer (my brothers would have been proud). Later in the afternoon we went to a street festival with lots of stages and different kind of bands. So far Melbourne rocks big time!

And after having lived in this fantastic city for almost 9 months, I can only say it still rocks and definitely is one of the most livable cities in the world . As soon I'll have more time, I will tell you more about my adventures in Melbourne.