Labor and Chocolate

So it’s been such an exciting and eventful week in Melbourne…the only problem is we haven’t been a part of it because we are now full time students. Cadel Evans, the Tour De France winner, returned to Australia and Melbourne was his first stop. Friday afternoon tens of thousands of people gathered in the city center to watch him do his first victory ride in Australia, and at the exact same time we were franticly writing notes in our youth media lecture. That’s life I guess. School is rolling full on and our restaurant has now re-opened after renovations so we are busy as can be.

me waiting for the tram to school

In hopes to cure our brain overload after class on Thursday we ventured to a mall halfway between our place and campus called Chadstone Mall. It happened to be the largest mall in the southern hemisphere and I was lost, excited, overwhelmed, and anxious to check it all out. Surprisingly we only spent 4 hours there, probably because we didn’t dare venture into the prestigious half of the mall that contained stores like Prada, Gucci, Lois Viton and others I hadn’t ever heard of. Either way, going to the mall was a huge mistake. My feet were sore from walking, my hands hurt from carrying my purchases and most of all my bank account hurt, all in all proving that I have no self-control.

The weather has taken a turn for the worse in Melbourne and the glimpses of t-shirt weather have quickly disappeared. The last few days have been abnormally chilly with the temperature dropping to 3 degrees at night. Needless to say I am a permanent ice cube and my hanging laundry won’t dry, life’s hard. I’m thinking about doing some fundraising to be able to purchase some central heating. I’m open to taking international donations as well.

We have discovered the St.Kilda library and have quickly become frequent members. The library has a very good DVD selection so we are saving money on renting movies and filling the void of our TV show’s that have now ended with at least a movie a night. Definitely have come across some interesting movies, most Australian but lots of Hollywood blockbusters too.

I finally went back to work after my little hiatus and the restaurant had doubled in size and within an hour of being at work and trying to navigate the new point of sales systems that no one had a clue about, the entire restaurant was packed and I was running around franticly. It made my vacation seem all too short. One of my tables with 3 guests spent 650$ on a bill! Pretty different from my Pasta Polo bills. Too bad tipping culture isn’t 15% down here.

I got a little time off before I had to work Sunday evening so we spent the afternoon in the gorgeous sun in the city at the chocolate exhibition. Of course if there was to be something to do with chocolate I would find it. The chocolate was crazy expensive but I treated myself and it really was to die for. Not to mention they had amazing chocolate sculptures that made me want to break off a piece… I decided against it. But by the end of the afternoon I was wearing more chocolate that I had actually eaten and I think I might’ve gone into a chocolate coma. Then to top it off that evening at work I served footy players.

ended up wearing more chocolate than I ate

Monday’s are our one day off school a week so naturally we couldn’t leave the flat because the gas company was coming to check our gas meter, for the fourth time they never showed up. Annoying I know. We spent our afternoon doing a little bit of homework and taking turns skyping at the local café, but the most fun we had was looking through drawers at the apartment and finding angel oracle cards which are kind of like tarot cards. The reading Kristina did on herself kind of…um…didn’t work since they told her to be emotionally devoted to God and become some sort of nun. Who knows, maybe all these years of university were a waste, I’m sure her parents will be glad to hear that their money was well spent. Guess this is what happens when you have no working wifi at home.

Heading into a long week of school and work but counting down the days till a favourite person of mine shows up at my door J Ta for now. 

Ps- Spotted: The dog that poops on the pathway and pees by our steps. Going straight to the strata with this pic:)