First Day in the “Halls”

Posted by Prashant Katwa

June 29, 2008

12:45 PM (Australian time- whatever the abbreviation for that is)

So I made it to Australia… finally. I’m in my room in the dorms or “halls of residence” as they call it here. The flight was good. It actually wasn’t that bad.

Although the flight from Los Angeles to Sydney was 14 hours, it wasn’t too terrible. I actually got a good seat, in that I was sitting behind a bulkhead separating first class from economy so I ended up with a little extra room and nobody sitting in front of me. I also had a window seat and therefore the best option for taking naps. I watched bits and pieces of several movies. I think they showed like 5 movies. I also slept several times. The Sydney airport is actually pretty nice, based on the little bit that I was able to see. I had to chill in the Sydney airport for a couple of hours before I re-boarded United flight 839 (I believe it was a different plane than the first tho). We were delayed for a little while in Sydney while we waited for planes to clear the way and planes to land. But we did go up and an hour later we were in Melbourne. In Melbourne I had to go through immigration, wait for a significant amount of time to pick up my baggage, and then clear customs. By this point it was over an hour past the time that I had informed the University that I’d be arriving. But luckily there was still a driver for Monash there who was picking up another individual, so I was able to get a ride as well. I then arrived, checked in, listened to and got a bunch of information and was handed my room keys.

——

10:25 pm AEST (Australian Eastern Standard Time)

So I met up with one of my parent’s friend’s cousins who lives in Melbourne. He’s a fairly young guy who’s been living in Melbourne for almost 3 years. He met up with me near my dorm and we decided we’d head to the city.

Apparently Melbourne’s vast network of transportation is a quite common way to travel. [Oh quick note: It was pretty cold outside, colder than I though it was, probably mainly due to the wind.] We got on the 703 bus where we proceeded to purchase a metcard for me, a day pass for me to be able to travel on any bus, tram or train. We rode the bus to a bus stop near the Clayton train station. We went to the station and waited a while for the train to arrive. Once it did we got on and traveled on it for about 25-30 minutes until we arrived at Melbourne Central Station, which is actually one of three underground stations that are part of the city loop. Anyway we spent some time walking around the streets of downtown Melbourne, I suppose. We drank some coffee and later met up with his roommate and watched a movie at the theaters there, which may I add are much bigger than those in the US. Anyway, after that I had to make the trek back to the Monash Residence Halls myself, because it would be impractical for them to accompany me when the route to their apartment is different. So I took the Pakenham train and after 25-30 mins got off at Clayton. Unfortunately, since it was Sunday and past 8pm or something, the Bus back to Clayton Campus had stopped running. Yeah not too good. But I managed to, after waiting for quite some time, catch a taxi along with an asian dude back to the residence halls. So yeah, I think that was enough of an adventure for my first day in Australia. I’m really tried so I think I’m going to sleep now. Goodnight!