If you’re ever looking for a great diet to go on, I have one for you. It’s called living in the student village during winter. I guarantee you’ll lose those love handles you hate. I’m sure you’re asking, “How does it work?” Luckily for you, it’s a very simple process.

See due to the fact it is winter, it’s pretty chilly here in Melbourne at the moment. This means going outside to walk to the kitchen is sometimes the last thing you want to do. So there’s the first part of the diet – the weather – because it makes you stay inside. However, if you somehow make it past the first part, and all the way to the kitchen, don’t worry because there is a failsafe. Because the kitchen smells so horrible, chances are you will bolt right back out the door.  So there you go, you have two factors working against you making your meal. However if by some chance you make it through the cold and through the stench, you will realize that cooking a delicious meal actually takes time. Therefore, you resort to making a microwavable cup of macaroni, with an apple if you remembered to go to the grocery store that day. Living at the student village makes it easy to cut calories, because if the weather does confine you to your room, your dinner is a peanut butter sandwich. Be warned though, down the street there is a Dominos, and Mondays – Wednesdays they sell pizzas for $4.95. Sometimes the unthinkable happens, and you eat a whole pizza. It’s downhill from there because then you can fall prey to that deal, and before you know it, you’ll be staring at an empty pizza box three days out of the week.

I got offered the opportunity this month to shadow trainers at our campus gym, and today was my first day. I worked 9-5, and it went by within the blink of an eye. Since it is the beginning of the semester, a lot of new people are coming into the gym wanting guidance on what to do. A person can set up an appointment for an assessment, and then after their assessment they will come back in the following week to be walked through their program. I worked with about six different people today, all of who had different goals, body shapes, and gym experience. They were all either in for program assessments or to be walked through their new program. In other words, there was a lot of opportunity to teach and educate. In the beginning, I was just putting in my two cents whenever there was a pause in the teaching of an exercise, but then about half way through the day, the trainers I was working with let me actually go through and teach the exercises to the clients myself. I can tell I am in the right field because I experience what I can liken to a high when I get to train someone. I get so excited to teach and help people – it’s euphoric. Needless to say, today was awesome and I learned so much in just those eight hours. I go back Friday, and I’m already looking forward to it.

For the past five days now, the days will start off sunny and warm. I always leave my room smiling and happy that I can see blue sky. However, it’s like Mother Nature is on a timer because every day starting at around 4:30, it starts raining. It’s not a nice, refreshing rain either. It’s like the 45-degrees-downpour-that-chills-you-down-to-your-bone rain. At least I have my rain boots – oh wait, no I don’t. They are sitting in my room back at home. I should have taken the “Melbourne gets 4 seasons in a day” more seriously. 

 
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Yesterday I went to my first AFL game. AFL stands for Australian Football League and man, it is one intense game to watch. I went with my roommate from Germany, who is one of the coolest people I have ever met, as well as her two friends that are studying from Malaysia. So there we were, one American, one German, and two Malaysians who had no idea how the game worked, but heck we were determined to find out. I literally had no knowledge of how “footy” – which is what Aussies call it – was played. All I knew was that they ran around in short shorts and tackled each other to the ground without wearing any sort of padding. Luckily for the four of us, the woman in front of us could obviously detect our foreign accents, and turned around to give us a few hints about the game. I could’ve taken up a whole half asking her questions, but lucky for her I had my Aussie mate to text my questions to and bother instead. I’ll break it down for you guys back in the states, so that when you come visit me, you won’t be as lost as I was.

-       Each game consists of 4 quarters.
-       You can kick and throw the footy to your teammate, and the ball is never dead.
-       A clean tackle is considered in between your shoulders and waist, but any hit outside of that will result in a foul.
-       There are four goal posts, which create three areas to score points. The middle area is worth six points, and the two outside areas are worth one point.
-       To score a point, it has to be kicked through any of the goal posts, and a player can get as close as they need to kick the footy through
-       If the footy goes out of play, there are referees in bright yellow jerseys who throw the ball in over their shoulders, behind there head, so they aren’t biased to where they are throwing it into.
-       Time doesn’t stop

To play footy you have to be in awesome shape, because you are constantly reacting and sprinting to wear the footy is going next. It bounces in weird places, and the players always have to be on their toes to be able to pivot to wherever they need to go. Perhaps one of the most amazing things about AFL is how large the field is. It is a huge oval – approximately 164 yards long, 147 yards wide. Can you imagine having to cover all that distance?

Even though the game was awesome, that isn’t what I’m going to remember the most. The thing I will remember from yesterday is the ticket man I dealt with. One of the student coordinators at VU that I’ve become friends with, offered me four free tickets for Sunday’s game, and said she would put them under my name to pick them up. However when I got up to the booth to claim my tickets, the man said there was nothing under my last name. He obviously knew I was American, and I looked helpless because I had no idea what to do. He told me to wait a second, and about a minute later he came back with four tickets. He had printed out new tickets, and gave them to us for free. I mean how wonderful is that? I realize that a lot of variables went into that situation – he could’ve been having a bad day, I could’ve thrown a fit when the tickets weren’t under my name – but instead, that was the outcome. Always try and keep a smile on your face my friends, because you never know what it will bring you. 


 
Today I went on a field trip with some of the other university students to visit a wildlife sanctuary as well as a winery. I learned an important tip today: always dress a layer too warm, because then if you do in fact get too warm, you can take off a jacket and be fine. The winter wind here in Melbourne takes you by surprise and has taught me that you can always expect it to be about ten degrees colder then you actually think it will be. Needless to say, five hours later, I still feel like my toes are thawing out. Despite the weather being not awesome, I got to see some more Australian wildlife I hadn’t seen before. I saw my first Tasmanian devil, platypus, dingo, and skink. Here’s what I have to say about each animal.

1.     Tasmanian devils look adorable, but they sound awful. They completely transform when they open their mouths to reveal their teeth. They go from, “I could definitely cuddle with that” to “oh my gosh, get me away!” in about two seconds. With the two we saw today, I think we caught them in the middle of an argument or something, because they sounded like they were having a heated discussion. 

2.     I’m stealing Devin’s description of what a platypus looks like: an otter that got a beak smashed on the front of its face. I was under the impression that platypuses were actually quite large, but they are actually about foot or so long. They are also nocturnal, so to see them we had to go in a dimly lit cave and take the zoo guide’s word that the platypuses were there. However, at the last second, one little guy dove into the water and started swimming in circles. He seemed pretty content with swimming laps, and I was totally content watching him for however long, but alas we had to move on. Another interesting fact about the platypus though is that they are one of three animals that lay eggs, but feed their children milk.

3.     The dingo is a half wolf, half dog breed, native to Australia. Again, you have the gut reaction of wanting to snuggle with them, yet they are pretty vicious hunters in the wild. The three we saw today definitely didn’t care that we were there and just pretended to sleep. I say pretended because at one point, one raised its head, but as soon as I reached for my camera it went back to not paying attention to me.

4.     Skink – not skunk – is a little lizard. I got to see one because we were visiting the animal infirmary when one was getting its little bandages taken off his feet and tail. Skinks are a very group orientated species; therefore they usually get along pretty well, as they generally like everyone in their group. However, the skink we saw today had gotten beaten up by the others in its group and deemed an outcast. How sad is that? They can’t release him back to that same group because he would just get torn to pieces all over again. It was so peculiar to see a lizard, no bigger than an iPhone, have little bandages made small enough for his wounds. However, there is hope for the little injured one because sometimes outcasts from different groups form their own groups. With that said, the zookeeper in charge of handling the skink’s wounds sounded determined to set him up with a female who had been voted off her island to help ease the pain.

Something incredible that I forgot to share before is how marsupials are born. What makes marsupials unique is how the female carry their young in their pouches. Whether it is a koala or kangaroo, the little embryo that is born is no larger than a jellybean. It has no feet and no eyesight, only little arms, and somehow has to make it into the mom’s pouch on its own. The mom helps out the process by licking a path in her fur to help direct her joey into her pouch. After the mom makes the trail, it is up to the joey to make the journey. And that folks, is one of the reasons Mother Nature is so incredible.

The zoos and sanctuaries here in Australia have this campaign called “Wipe for Wildlife”. It sounds weird, but hear me out. Before I had heard about this campaign, I had never even considered the impact I was having on wildlife with my toilet paper choices. They now make 100% recycled toilet paper, and what it does is help stop deforestation. So next time when you’re shopping for toilet paper, think of me telling you to buy recycled toilet paper. And then smile, because you realize how much you miss me.

Since I got here, I had wondered how my first purchase of alcohol would go. Would the cashier demand to see my ID? Would I start sweating from being so nervous, even though I’m of legal age here? Well, it was pretty anticlimactic. Compared to how getting into the club last week went for me, it was a breeze. Quick side story:

Before I got here, it was recommended I buy a passport card, that way I wouldn’t have to carry my passport around with me for being identified as of age. Well last week when we went out, I brought my card with me. The bouncer told me “he’d let it slide this time” but for me to bring my passport next time. I was offended he didn’t even think I was actually over the age of 18. So rude.

Anyway, so when I went to get my drink of choice the other night, I was ready to stand my ground. No need – with a smile, the cashier just scanned the bottle and told me how much I owed him. I got all hyped up on adrenaline for nothing. And yes, you can obviously tell I’m not much of a thrill seeker if that kind of situation is what gets my blood pumping. 

 
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I’m taking this ultimate Frisbee thing pretty seriously. I think by the bruises and marks I have on my body from practicing, it should be pretty apparent I mean business. The picture I posted is of my arm after practicing throwing and catching. See what I mean? Turns out, the six times I played played ultimate, I had no idea what I was doing when I went to throw or catch a Frisbee. So today consisted of breaking down all my bad habits, and my forearm taking a beating. But it’s all going to be worth it, because this team participates in what is called the Uni Games. University sports are different here, in that you don’t go to school as a college athlete. There are specific schools designated for players who want an education in their sport. So, for people who are going to Victoria University, which is the school where I’m studying at, you play your sport through club teams. The Uni Games is where university club teams from all over Australia travel to the Gold Coast to compete for a week. From what I’ve been told, the teams of course want to win, but it’s not a super hostile atmosphere. What I mean by that is that at the end of the week no matter how poorly you do, you still party hard with everyone. Our advisor here said an exchange student last year compared the Uni Games to how spring break in Cancun might be, but only 10x more intense. The games take place over their spring break, so at the end of September. It’s a goal of mine to try and keep the amount of times I get hit in the face with a Frisbee to one until then.

The kitchen here at the village is pretty sub par, but the smell is probably the worst part of it. Thanks to people who have never learned about food safety or how to clean the counters after spilling something, there is a permanent stench that just hangs in the air every time I open the door. Because I’m only here for a short while, I don’t think buying a fridge is very cost effective, which means I have to use the community one in the kitchen. Every time I open the fridge door, I get greeted with a new smell. It absolutely disgusts me that people leave things like raw meat uncovered on the top shelf or their cream of mushroom sauce just hanging out without saran wrap covering it. I have claimed a little drawer in the bottom right corner of the fridge for my stuff, attempting to make all my food farthest away from all the possible cross contamination that could happen. Now I’m not a germaphobe, like if I drop something on the ground, I’ll run it under some water and eat it. Therefore, I don’t have ridiculous standards for what a clean kitchen or fridge should look like, I’m just saying that people should realize Tupperware containers have lids for a reason.

I know I talked about boy’s pants a while back, but now it's about their shorts. It really struck me how common shorter shorts are for guys this morning, because while I was working out, a guy was literally wearing the exact same pair of shorts I was. For the most part, boys’ shorts seem to all come to rest about mid thigh. It always catches me off guard, but I guess that’s just because I was raised in a culture where guys aren’t brave enough to show off their thighs. Instead, it’s just the women worrying about their jiggly thighs, while guys get to hide under their extra inches of material.