June 23 2010

I suppose I should give it a go and write a line or two more. This week has been extremely boring. I think a lot of people believe that I am down here on vacation. Let me make it clear that it is nothing like any vacation I have been on. If you took the worst vacation I have ever been on it would still be better that being down here. Now don't get me wrong, I am enjoying my time down here. It has certainly proved to be a different experience. I would equate it to be simular to working at disney land. Not as some cool ride tester but in some dark corner of Disneyland where you don't get to see the light of day except when you come and go to work. It kind of sucks the fun out of being down here. Now that I have that out of my system... Living in the city is a little weird. I don't even know how to explain it. I know I don't like living in the city. I would rather live where I can stretch out and not have people all up in my grill =>D. I suppose this has been one of my less than exciting blogs. I hope that my next one will be better. I am hoping to visit the beach this weekend. If I do I will definately post some pictures. Until then Here are some more pictures.

More Pictures

So these are my pictures for today. The picture of the skyscraper is my apartment building. I live on the 20th floor. The other pictures are the views from my apartment. You can see the ocean from a few of the pictures and also a view of the Yarra river. The Yarra river is the river I have to cross to get into the city each day. In one of the pictures you can see a massive building on the right hand side of the photo. That is the Crown Casino. I tried not to get to much of it in my pictures but it is hard because it is pretty massive. It is about the same height as the building that I live in but it is much larger in size. I mention the casino because, this morning as I was enjoying my views of the ocean I noticed something in one of the windows of the casino. It was a man standing naked right next to his window. I don't know if he knew that people could see him or if he thought, like many do, that people can't see inside a window from the outside. Sorry ladies, I didn't get any pictures. I hope that someone tells him that he can be seen. Today was a beautiful day. It was sunny and I actually left my apartment without my jacket. That is unusual for winter down here. Most days are overcast and rainy. It was a welcome break. I had the opportunity of going to Queen Victoria Market. This place was awesome. It has everything. You have your meats of every kind, sea food, deli meat, veggies, fruit, and all kinds of clothes, souvenirs, or other products. It is all contained in an area about the area of 3 or 4 football fields. It is good that I had no money or I would have definitely bought a bunch of stuff. After that I went and bought a Met pass. A met pass allows you to use the tram (light rail), bus and train. I bought a week pass. It cost me about 30 dollars. I just didn't want to walk the 2 kilometers back home. Th tram took me down to the Flinders Street train station. Right where I disembarked from the tram there is a store called Lord of the Fries. They make hand cut fries. They were yummy. I didn't get a chance to eat my hamburger, but that is OK. Obviously they are known for their fries. From there it was back to my apartment where I took a nap and tried to avoid looking over at the casino. Now I have finished all of my chores and I am ready to cook my dinner and then go to bed. I look forward to my next blog.

G-Day from down under.

Post 6-18-2010

Well I finally got my internet nightmare worked out. What a crazy experience that was. The internet provider is the company I happen to be working for. I have heard so many nice things about them, but it still took almost 3 weeks to get it installed. I really thought that I would be more home sick than I am. It is very comfortable down here. The people are very friendly. I have had to get used to people using their car horns again. You know how it is in Az. You don't honk because the guy your honking at may shoot you. Continue to view the blog, I will be uploading pictures daily and making an entry daily. Speaking of pictures, the pictures that I uploaded today are of the first views of Melbourne. I took them from the taxi on the way in from the airport. I hope you enjoy.

First Pictures

For those of you who have been so patient in waiting for me to add posts, I ask that you be patient for a little longer. I still have no internet hooked up in my appt. As soon as I get access to the internet I will be able to add the posts that I have been saving for the last week.

Thanks,
Jeff

Alright all, I am going to start this blog of my Australian experience. I have been asked by the company I work for to spend the next 6 months on Melbourne Australia. I am looking forward to this experience, minus the part where I have to leave my family behind for such a long time. I know that this will be more difficult on my Wife and 3 kids still left at home to deal with all of lifes strifes on their own. Right now I am in the LAX airport Terminal TBIT. I thought It was a joke at first (kind of like a TBD thing), but it turns out there really is a TBIT terminal. Don't ask me what the acronym stands for, because I can't remember. It is about 7:32 pm Arizona time. So far the trip has been uneventful, except for the brief anxiety attack I had on Southwest airlines when I couldn't remember if I packed my passport. To my delight I did. All of that worry for nothing. Well unless something huge happens in the next little while I will call todays blog entry complete. I will try to upload a picture each day during my visit. I don't have one yet so I will post one when I get one. BTW, I will be posting my next blog on Monday the 31st of May. I will be an entire day ahead of my fellow americans, so don't distress if you think I missed a day.

TTFN