Final Melbourne Post

Alas, the night has come. Melbourne has officially come to an end.

I've promised to make this blog available to future Occidental students, so that they might have an idea of what Melbourne was like for a male Politics major. I'll forever remind you that I originally wrote this for my parents, with the combined intention of having it serve as an electronic diary of my encounters, thoughts, and general experiences while in Southern Victoria.

Having said that, I am going to first reflect on my experiences in general and list my favorite things I did while in Melbourne, and then I will follow with the usual posts consisting of thoughts, events, and things that make me happy or provoke some sort of profound feeling.

The Melbourne Welcome:

Absolutely worth it. Also required by Occidental. Oxy pays for it and it serves as an orientation week. Oxy did a more mellow version of it when we first came. For 2011ers the theme was Oxywood, and they took us to a Dodgers Game, organized events and helped us find things near/around Pasadena, organize public transport, etc blah blah blah we all remember at least some parts of orientation...not much, though. O Week at Oxy also consists of getting extraordinarily drunk for an entire week, but in Melbourne you do the same but in a very different manner. The first thing I noticed is that you can go out and drink legally here. That changes everything, as if you are going abroad your Junior year you likely aren't 21 in the states. House parties are few and far between, private kegs and hard liquor (Spirits here) fall out of the picture, and bars, clubs, and goon come into the picture. Goon is the cheap shitty box wine and you'll encounter it. Enough said about that. Watch out as well-beer and spirits are expensive in Aussieland. I'm looking forward to paying $13USD in LA for 30 beers. The Melbourne Welcome also makes you a ton of friends. The first girl I met the morning we began orientation was a strangely tall but very naturally pretty Dutch girl named Fleur. In Holland, the majority of the people are tall, but elsewhere the Dutch stand out as extraordinarily tall people. Fleur was my friend until the end, and I've made plans to visit her in Amsterdam soon. The welcome takes you to a ton of places, introduces you to your University, and gets you drunk with international kids. You'll have a great time.


Melbourne Gym:
During the winter you need a gym, although the Melbourne Gym on campus is very pricey and not extraordinarily nice. At home you can pay the same amount for a full on gym complete with a sauna, hot tub, steam room, etc. Here you get everything you need to lift weights, run, swim, and you can take classes (included in the cost as I understand it, though I never made it to a class despite my friend Miranda's constant attempts to coax me into joining her). Once it's warm, you find yourself going there less, running, and swimming outside-if you are anything like me. I took up surfing very hardcore when I came here, and bought a secondhand board which I eventually sold back (sadly and tragically).

*If you live at the RMIT Village (which I recommend).

Do the second welcome week. It is available to all the members of the RMIT VIllage, and consists of another week of drinking at pubs, playing games, BBQs, and themed parties. Do it, dress up big time for all the events, put yourself out there, and make a ton of friends early on. Keep on good terms-you'll periodically see different people around the Village and if you keep friendly with them it will work out for both of you in the end.

MUSEX:
Borderline. It really depends on your scene. I did the party camp and had a phenomenal time, and nowhere else could I participate in such an event. For that, MUSEX was a lot of fun and I'd highly recommend it to anyone that enjoys drinking on retreat weekends. I've done it before and I'll do it again, and the trip they took us on to West Gippsland was amazing. The events they throw are basically cheap college versions of things you should do on your own time otherwise. I did the booze cruise with them, and had an okay time floating down the polluted Yarra river on a small boat floating with a bunch of drunk college students. The booze cruise I went on in Sydney was ten times more amazing, during Halloween, and completely supersedes the memory I have of the MUSEX booze cruise. MUSEX will basically provide a synthetic organized drinking scene with the same crew of international kids. At the RMIT Village you meet a ton of internationals from the RMIT University as well, and quickly you find yourself choosing your favorite international kids to party with. At one point my friend Carly made the criticism that, "MUSEX is always the same scene, same party, just with different costumes and at different places." The girl hit the nail on the head. Anyway, check it out, see what you think of the events, and if you want to go to a few buy the $5 membership. They'll give you a card saying you get a special for $7 on jugs at Turf if you show the card, but you get $7 jugs anyway. A sleazy marketing scheme, and one I haven't forgotten. That's about how MUSEX rolls, though.

Places to go:

Queen Vic Market. I'll let you discover this one on your own-it will be your source of food and so much more. Extraordinarily cheap. Look deep into it-I found an amazing Hindu store where I bought a prayer candle holder and a magic lamp. Amazing.

BRUNSWICK STREET. There is a place called Bimbo's that has $4.00 pizza specials and an amazing beer called the Blonde Bimbo. I tried all the pizzas on the menu and then some, and really enjoyed my time there. Go to the clubs as well, including a place called Little Creatures. I had a group of friends living in a house there, so we would party on Brunswick from time to time.

The CBD, Elizabeth St, Swanston, etc:
Great clubs. Hit Croft Institute, Billboards, Sorry Grandmas, Q Bar, the Crown Casino (also has clubs), Lyons, Ed Hardy Rockstar Bowling, and the list really goes on.

Lygon St:
Great food. Good movie theatre. Pretty walks and a lively scene. A lover's dream.

Chapel St: Only went once, had a great time. Too far to go out to with the public transportation system. If you have a late night out, you end up spending a ton of cash on your way back, making things problematic. Check it out, though. Go to Lucky Cock. Good pizza deals there, along with cheap drinks.

Places to visit:
To let you know, I missed the East Coast, Center, and Tasmania. Otherwise I'll have done everything that I've heard of doing while in Australia-save the Whitsundays, the one major part of the East I'm sad I didn't visit.

The Great Ocean Road.
This is a majestic place. Enormous rock cliffs, forests, waterfalls, small seaside surf towns, and good surfing. Very close to Melbourne. I suggest you see it at a warm time, and take three to four days to do it. Otherwise you'll see it but won't really experience it-if you catch my drift. If you are wanting to rent a surfboard, go to the Anglesea Surf Centre. It is 111 Great Ocean Road, and you can't miss it. I stored the owner of the shop's number in my phone and became good friends with the man. He gave us a killer deal on boards and wetsuits. Tell him Dan sent you and I'm sure he will treat you nicely as well.

Sydney.
Expensive, but completely worth it. Go to the Blue Mountains, Lowenbrau, Darling Harbor and Circular Quay. Visit the aquarium, eat in Chinatown, and go out at night. King's Cross if you are daring-the Red Light District of Sydney. Take a ferry to Manly Beach and catch the train to Bondi. Buy a souvenir at the little beachside shops in Bondi. Most of all, go with good friends. Sounds like simple advice, but the company really made my trip amazing and the experience all the more special.

Byron Bay.
GO THERE. It is amazing. Try to go before Australia goes on its summer holiday, or it will be overrun with 18 year-olds partying. I went during September, and spent two weeks there. See a sunrise at the most easterly lighthouse. Stay at the Arts Factory, a hostel just outside Byron Bay, and go surfing and fishing if you're into it. Tallow beach. Great place. One day I saw hang-gliders, an eagle, and whale spouts. Not to mention caught a fish with two Frenchmen and a Belgian. Your time in Byron will be special no matter what.





Enough of the PR bullshit. Time to talk about my final hours in Melbourne.

Thursday (second to last day, yesterday) I went to a large foam party. I don't know if you've ever been to one...I certainly hadn't. Anyway, they spray foam into a dancing crowd at a selected bar, play music, and provide a lightshow. It is a mess. I swear things got really rowdy and personal. Beforehand, I wound up drinking Sangria all afternoon with Gregg and her coworker. Scarlet and Abbey later joined, then Tom and some other friends showed up. We left the foam party just after 3 AM and had a long walk home with no shirt on, covered in foam, sore from dancing and sliding around in the foam. To top it off, we went swimming at the RMIT pool when we got back. We all agreed it might have been our best night out in Melbourne. Quite the way to end it.

I woke up this morning feeling like death. My eyes were bloodshot and sore from the foam and drinking, my body and head hurt from the beating it took combining red wine and diving onto a floor covered in foam, and I had to drag myself out of bed to make it to the Queen Vic market to finish the souvenir shopping. Not to mention I was feeling completely antisocial given my climactic night before. I spent the entire afternoon either in bed asleep, cleaning for my final room inspection, or buying last minute things, all with an extremely splitting headache. Completely worth it, given that this will all pass. Abbey didn't make it out of bed at all today, and Scarlet was limping earlier. It really was a rough night.




I've always dealt with loss and separation differently than most people. I tend to avoid goodbyes and rather prefer to tell people I'll see them again at some point until I just don't. That way, things are left open and aren't deliberate or forced. Tonight Tom Dixon called me and offered to drink some Coronas on my porch with me for the last time. I obliged, and had three beers, a large social feet given my condition. While I was out there I was bombarded with goodbyes and chatty people, which was hard to deal with at some points but refreshing at others. I don't know. I still listen to what Nietzsche says about what he calls 'rapture' and try to apply it to my life. He says you have to accept that the world is enormously and infinitely complex to the point where inevitably you will lose. Everything you love, and know will come to an end, including your very bodily existence. The world is constantly chaotic, and the best thing you can do is embrace the chaos, question every known truth you know, and take the plunge into unknowingness. If you are brilliant, you will emerge with some form of new truth or understanding, and spread that to your fellow man. This is how society progresses, and how men should live their lives. Sadly, that path is a lonely one that doesn't look back and lets go of the past easily, pursuing the search of a brighter, better future.

That's about where I'm at as my travels continue. Tomorrow I start the Coral Bleaching Research project I've undertaken at the Great Barrier Reef. I'll land in Cairns and start doing some research and preparing for a 3 day 2 night liveaboard dive cruise going to the outer reefs. From there, New Zealand. I'll keep you updated every chance I get, but this is my last post concerning Melbourne. It's been sealed in a large, hazy, drawn out fond memory that I'll never forget.

Until next time I'll be where the lights won't burn my eyes, beyond the electric fuzz where nobody knows my name or face.

End.