Melbourne.

Yesterday (Thursday here) I dragged myself out of bed and got ready for the day.  I was still so exhausted from the Beach Orientation trip.  It was an incredibly busy three and days and has taken me a little while to recover, both from the incredible amounts of social interaction and my tired muscles that weren’t used to surfingJ.  Before I left for the day, my mom got a hold of me to tell me that my Grandpa Gordon had passed away.  I knew it would be soon and had been praying for his peace for a long time, but it was still really hard to be 4000 miles away from home.  It magnified any loneliness I was feeling.  But instead of sitting at home crying, I took off for the city.  I decided that there was no better way to honor my Grandpa’s memory than travel and explore – his passion.  I took the tram downtown.  It took a little over an hour and I’ve decided that it is not my favorite kind of public transportation I’ve ever been on, but it’s kind of the only choice here.  There are a LOT of stops and it is really jerky, but otherwise, it was convenient.  When I got into the city, I had no idea where to go, but wandered through Federation Square (their big central pavilion) and then saw a sign for an exhibition of Disney cartoon drawings.  I went in and walked through the gallery.  It was incredible!  It was full of old concept drawings as well as sequences of drawings for some of the most classical Disney movies (Snow White, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Sleeping Beauty, Tangled and the Princess Frog).  It was so cool to see the old drawings and watch the TVs they had set up that showed selected scenes of the movies.  I stopped at each one for a little fill of Disney magic.  If there was any day to just stumble upon Disney, yesterday was the dayJ.  Life is cool like that.  After that, I wandered through the Royal Botanical Gardens and enjoyed the sunshine, then walked back up to the downtown core and wandered down Flinder’s Street.  There were tons of laneways, which reminded me a ton of Diagon AlleyJ.  It was great!  They were comprised of tons of little stores that opened right into an alley.  I wandered down a few of these.  I stopped at one called, “The Little Cupcake Shop” and got a baby cupcake… delicious!  And then kept walking around.  They have TONS of shopping in Melbourne.  After I made it through all the laneways, I hopped on a free City Circle tram and took it in the full circle.  It provided an audio commentary of main points of the city and helped me find my bearings.  It was nice to get a feel for what the city has to offer and what I’ll want to see and do while I’m here.  After that I walked down to the Greek Precinct and then back towards Chinatown and then boarded the tram back to Burwood (my suburb).  It was a busy afternoon.  Overall, I decided Melbourne reminds me SO much of Seattle.  There are tons of similarities.  I took the tram a couple stops further than my house and got some groceries.  It is strange not having a car – I have to be much more careful about the amount of groceries, especially liquids, I buy at once.  Whatever I buy I have to carry home myself.  A ten minutes walk isn’t far when you’re empty-handed, but when you’re carrying a ton of bags, it can seem like foreverJ.  I made it home fine and made some dinner, did some laundry, got things organized for orientation today, and then crashed a little after 10pm.  It was an exhausting day, but I feel good about my adventure to Melbourne and now have a much better idea of how the trams work, as well as my bearings for the city.  It was the start of my great adventure here, dedicated to my Grandpa Gordon.  I know his passion for travel runs through my blood as well.  I can’t wait to see and experience everything I got a taste of yesterday.  It’s going to be a great semesterJ.