My First Week Alone

Hi there as I am now alone with no one else to write my adventures for me I am now taking over the blog. For those of you who do not know I am Libby 20 years old studying in Australia, I am the daughter of Brenda who has been writing the posts so far. Hopefully, I can keep up with my adventures and keep you all informed.

Let the Journey begin,

I said goodbye to my travel companion also know as my mother on Sunday, February 10th as she had an early flight to catch the next morning. She walked me to the alley which separated my area from the rest of the market. We said goodbye and I walked alone into the alley, a sort of right of passage if you think about it enough. Although what neither of us knew is that this was not the right alley and I realized this as I walked through and hit a wall instead of an opening. Thus I backtracked to the entrance, looked left and saw her walking away, I then looked right and there was the correct alley one building down. Now I was on the right path as I made my way home alone for the first time.

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Now began the practice of getting to know and becoming friends with those around me while not feeling homesick. Luckily Melbourne is a big city with many things to do so this first week I was pretty busy. Within the next couple of days, I was hitting St.Kilda beach (more than once), where there are no big waves but it does have a nice sandy area to lay down with a very gradual entrance in the water (as you walk in it does not get deep fast.) We got to experience St.Kilda as we walked around a little and took in the sights. There is this theme park which is very expensive ($15.00 per ride) so I do not think that is a priority but the entrance was very interesting to see. After this, we trammed back (only about $4.00 round trip) and rested at home as the beach takes a lot out of you.

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In the middle of the week we had ACU orientation this consisted of two days with an information session on day 1 and an activity on day 2. At orientation, we got to meet all the other exchange students and there are about 40 of us in total. We Got a tour of the campus and a pizza lunch which was very yummy. Orientation spanned two days and the second day they organized an amazing race game for us. We were given clues and tasks to complete in groups of 5 or 6 around the city with the idea to get to know people and have fun. An added bonus was the winning team was given medals as a reward. On this day I made some new friends and got to see the sights while figuring out what lays where within the city, although I am still getting pretty lost as my sense of direction is horrible. In the end, our team came 2nd only losing by 11 points we put in a good effort and went for milkshakes and fries afterward (the cheapest thing on the menu).

In Melbourne, during the summer they put on a night market within the queen victoria market. It is open 6-10pm and a big group of us went to see what it was like. I was expecting one street filled with food vendors and such but no this was much bigger. There were hundreds of people milling about nearly 20 food tents and little vendors selling homemade crafts and little items dotting the market. There was seating to eat at or have a drink while listening to live music or you could wander around and catch a couple of street performers entertaining a bunch of people. The atmosphere was great and we easily spent a few hours exploring and trying some very good food. The night market is only open for 3 more weeks so I’m hoping to go as much as possible while I have the chance.

Friday night came and some of us went out for dinner and drinks. I was not super hungry but the little food I did get was amazing. After we explored Melbourne in the dark. Shops close at 9pm everywhere so if you want to do some late night shopping you either have to go earlier or get it done quickly. Some of the girls picked up an ice cream that looked very good and we got home late that night but it was fun after doing nothing all day.

Finally, the week came to a close with a trip to Brighton beach, this one was farther away and we had to figure out the underground network. Once we got through that the train took us to the beach and what drew us here were the Brighton bathing boxes. Upon seeing these the journey was worth it as some of them had very cool designs although if you want to own one you have to give up $300,000. It made sense though as all the houses around here were large with gates to keep people out. Brighton beach was a lot rockier than St.Kilda and getting out to enjoy the water meant you had to step over multiple little rocks. Luckily no one cut their feet and we were able to enjoy the water. This beach was much more crowded because of the popularity of these bathing boxes but we still managed to enjoy it and appreciate where we were considering back home for a lot of us is very cold right now. After an exciting day at the beach, we took the underground back, this was a little more difficult as announcements made on the trains are not very loud and we were tired. We missed one and proceeded to sit on an unmoving train for 15 minutes before realizing it was the last stop and we had to get off. Luckily we made it off and not even a minute later the train started to move the opposite direction in which we needed to go. We then boarded the right one and made it home for dinner.

That concluded my first week being alone, the next day would have been Monday, February 18th and marked the official one-week anniversary of me living in a strange city by myself. There were definitely spurts of homesickness mostly while sitting alone late at night but being busy and making some good friends definitely helped. As I get accustomed to life in a new city I hope to keep the blog updated with new adventures and as school starts we will see how well this goes.