This past week has been full of new experiences for me. Last Friday right after I got done with class I went down to South Melbourne, in response to a flyer I saw in my dorm’s common room earlier in the week. The ad was looking for American males who were interested in some voiceover work, so I naturally gave them a call (since back home in Wisconsin I’ve worked at a radio station for four years) and got an appointment for last Friday. I showed up, and they had me record the lines for two minor characters in an X-Box game they were developing about World War II, called “Heroes of the Pacific.” I had to shout most of the lines, since my two characters (a wingman in one of the missions, and an air traffic controller in another mission) were mostly involved in combat situations. I recorded probably 40-50 lines total between the two, and it was tons of fun and a great experience. Plus it didn’t hurt to get a little cash for it either, especially considering I’m spending a bit more money than I’d anticipated. (If you’re planning on studying abroad, always plan on spending more than you budget for before you leave, because it’s pretty much an inevitability that you’ll be wanting to do things and go places that you hadn’t planned on.)
I’ve also started getting involved in some student organizations here on campus. On Friday night I went to a group called Overseas Christian Fellowship, which is actually a group made up of mostly Malaysian and Chinese students; in fact, I was the only non-Asian student there that night! But on Saturday I went with a group of them to Mt Dandenong, about an hour north of campus. Unfortunately, when we got to the observatory at the top, it was covered in dense fog, and so we didn’t get to see much of the spectacular views of Melbourne, Phillip Bay and the Victorian countryside, oh well. I’m planning on heading back there sometime when the weather’s better though. During the trip we stopped at a couple of places to eat along the way, where I indulged myself in some “fair dinkum Aussie tucker” (genuine Australian cuisine). At the first place, Miss Marples Tea Room in a tourist town called Sassafras, I had some wonderful scones with raspberry jam and whipped cream. Delectable! (Scones are akin to what would be called biscuits or plain cakes in America.) And after that we went to Pies In The Sky in Olinda, and I had my very first meat pie, another traditional Aussie meal, and it was very tasty. After we got back to Monash, I went with a couple of the OCF people to a church, and then went out to eat with them at a Chinese restaurant, where I had duck for the first time. Generally speaking, Chinese food in Australia is more authentic than Chinese food in the States, and the biggest difference that I’ve noticed was that in Australia the meat still has bones and fat in them, unlike in America when it’s typically boneless nuggets of meat that get served.
On Sunday morning I went to a different church with some people from another group, Campus Christian Movement, and I liked this service better than the first church’s on Saturday night. After church I made my way into Melbourne for the IFSA Welcome Dinner, at Lucky Chan’s Seafood Restaurant downtown, next to the Yarra River, for some “yum cha.” Yum cha is essentially a Chinese restaurant where the waiters wheel around carts with different dishes on them, and you just take the ones that you want. It’s basically a buffet brought to your table. Yum cha is apparently pretty popular in Australia, and Lucky Chan’s is reportedly the best yum cha joint in Melbourne, so we went to the right place. But we all got to try out quite a few new things, including chicken feet, cheese oysters, and mango jelly (jello), which were all delicious!
On Tuesday I went to another campus group, Christian Union. I’ve been spending quite a bit of time recently going to all these different groups to see if any of them feel like the right fit for me, and I think I’ve finally found one in CU! They have a fair amount of stuff going on every Tuesday (and I don’t have class on Tuesdays, so it’s a good match!), so this week I was able to spend a good deal of time getting to know some of them. Finding a group like CU was a huge relief for me, because I was starting to get a bit apprehensive about finding friends down here. There’s also another group I’m wanting to be involved in that meets on Tuesdays, MWACS (Monash Weather And Climate Society), so I’ll probably just alternate or something. I’d definitely prefer to have the problem of having too much that I’d like to do, rather than having nothing to do. 🙂 I guess my advice to anyone who’s going to be studying abroad (or even if you’re an incoming freshman at Gustavus) is to take time trying out different student organizations. And don’t be satisfied with the first one you try, keep going to different ones until you find one that you feel comfortable with. Student clubs and organizations are definitely one of the best ways to meet people and make friends when you’re in a new college environment.
Tonight I’ll be going out with some people to South Yarra, and spending some time this weekend with some family friends who live just a half hour down the road from Monash (they’re probably gonna take me surf fishing on Saturday!). And then on Sunday afternoon I’m gonna be attending my very first footy match! (Footy is what the locals call Aussie rules football, or AFL.) I’ve managed to catch a few games on TV, and it’s a fun game to watch. It might not be the most entertaining match, however, as the Melbourne Demons are in a four-way tie for the league lead, and Hawthorn is dead last and absolutely rotten this year. But I’ll let you all know how it was next week!