It's true. As of 4/2/2008 (that's February 4th, they do the date and month backwards here), I will be fully employed as a Communication and Marketing Officer.
That's right. After 8 recruiters, 8 interviews and 2 second interviews, I've landed a job. I will start Monday. I'm excited to get a routine going, to stimulate my mind, to start on my career and to stop interviewing! Although, I became an expert interviewee, if I do say so myself.
Best of all, it's a 4 minute walk from our apartment. Can you even believe it? It's two blocks away! I couldn't have gotten any luckier. My hours will be from 9-530, so with the commute, it'll be from 855am-535pm. It's great!
I'm very excited and after two months of not working, I'm PRETTY sure I want to go back to work:) Wish me luck!
~Kate
31 January 2008
21 January 2008
Flinders Street Station
This is the view across the street from our apartment building - Flinders Street Station, built in 1854. A mere twenty years before, the entire city of Melbourne did not exist – it was the hunting and gathering grounds of Aboriginals whom had resided in the area for approximately 40,000 years. As an aside to an aside, the earliest recorded history most of us learned about in school – the Mesopotamian Civilization - occurred only five thousand years ago. Back in a little more modern of times, the then small village of Melbourne was founded in 1835. Gold was discovered during 1851 in the region and the ensuing prosperity soon begat “Marvellous Melbourne”.
The main entrance of Flinders Street Station is down the block, on the left side of the photo. The traditionally photographed dome cannot be seen from this angle. This station is the main commuter train station for the Melbourne metropolitan area (3.7 million people), an estimated 110,000 commuters use the station on a weekday. Compare this to ~6 million people in the Philly area with only 25,000 using 30th Street Station.
In general, Aussies love their cars. Twenty million Aussies own 14.4 million cars, a slightly lower rate of 301 million Americans with 250 million cars, but still fairly high compared to the rest of the world. Nevertheless, this city has a great public transportation system, including the tram network, known to many Americans as trolleys. At the bottom of the photo is a tram stop with a tram entering the shadows on the right. Using the tram network, we can easily reach most of the inner suburbs, which are much like the neighborhoods in Philly (i.e., South Philly, Fairmount, Manayunk). There also is plenty to do within an easy walking distance of a few blocks of our new home – restaurants, shops, museums, pubs, theatres and much more.
A lot of facts, I know, but some may find it interesting.
The main entrance of Flinders Street Station is down the block, on the left side of the photo. The traditionally photographed dome cannot be seen from this angle. This station is the main commuter train station for the Melbourne metropolitan area (3.7 million people), an estimated 110,000 commuters use the station on a weekday. Compare this to ~6 million people in the Philly area with only 25,000 using 30th Street Station.
In general, Aussies love their cars. Twenty million Aussies own 14.4 million cars, a slightly lower rate of 301 million Americans with 250 million cars, but still fairly high compared to the rest of the world. Nevertheless, this city has a great public transportation system, including the tram network, known to many Americans as trolleys. At the bottom of the photo is a tram stop with a tram entering the shadows on the right. Using the tram network, we can easily reach most of the inner suburbs, which are much like the neighborhoods in Philly (i.e., South Philly, Fairmount, Manayunk). There also is plenty to do within an easy walking distance of a few blocks of our new home – restaurants, shops, museums, pubs, theatres and much more.
A lot of facts, I know, but some may find it interesting.
20 January 2008
The Tennis
Wednesday night we went to 'The Tennis' otherwise known as The Australian Open. (We still haven't figured out why they call it 'the tennis' and not just 'tennis'. They'll say, "We're going to the tennis tonight.") The Australian Open is one of the four grand slam tennis tournaments along with the US Open, Wimbeldon and the French Open. It is a tennis competition with 128 women and 128 men vying for the grand prize of $1.3 million each for the top male and female tennis players.
Melbourne is crazy about sports. Heaps of people go to these games, it's all over TV and advertisements throughout the city and even in store windows. Everyone here seems to support the tennis. So, at the advice of MANY Aussie's, we bought at $20 grounds pass ticket for admission after 530pm on Wednesday; this night, the games went until 10pm (last night, Saturday, the game started at 12am and went 5 sets). It was a great experience and since we were there, we've been following along watching more matches on TV. At Wednesday night's games, there were swarms of people, lots of vendors, excitement, 20 plus courts and lots of switching our heads back and forth to follow the tennis ball going from one side of the court to the other.
We've attached a picture of one of the matches we saw with a view of the city behind.
Hope you're all doing well and next time you're near one of the grand slam events, you should definitely go see 'the tennis.'
Cheers!
15 January 2008
You Have the Right to Remain Silent
Did we foget to tell you Steve had a run-in with the law?
It's a simulation at Old Melbourne Gaol.
37 Days and Counting
So, we've been here 37 days already! Time really flies.
I'll try to update this more often, but I'll reacap the last 37 days for you:
We arrived December 10th and started that day to look for an apartment--you all know how I need to get things done. Steve met his coworkers the next day and I bought cell phones for us and we opened a bank account. Two days and we're already starting to settle in. Wednesday, 12/12/07, our things get stolen from our hotel room. As it turns out, we're still realizing things that have been stolen even though it's weeks later. To date, we had stolen (although all on 12/12/07) Steve's work computer, two cell phones, international adapter, Steve's jeans, my fossil watch, Steve's prescription safety glasses (not sure what someone is going to do with prescription glasses) and both of our ipods. It was crushing, but we survived and thank goodness that's all that happened.
The remainder of that week we spent time looking at the 19 apartments we were interested in and settled on our current location right in the CBD (Central Business District) and signed our lease on December 17th. We're right in the heart of the city and city life is fantastic!
This is a long recap, sorry.
From then, we got ready for xmas, bought a tree, presents, settled into our apartment with furniture, pots and pans, everything. It's amazing how much you stuff you realize you need.
We've done sightseeing. The aquarium; a beach town; the Old Melbourne Gaol (jail); lots of walking around the city; frequented the Queen Vic market-lots of vendors and fresh produce and great cheeses, wine, bakeries, etc; the Melbourne Zoo; saw a Romeo and Juliet play in the Royal Botanic Gardens; visited surrounding suburbs with lots of shops and cafes. We've been to a ton of restaurants and shops.
We also settled into normalcy a little, checking out the theater seeing Phantom of the Opera and seeing a local band, going to the movies, I joined a gym; we finally got internet and a phone in our apartment! We spent xmas eve and New Year's Eve in the city, they're also having things to do in the city.
We've also been hanging out with a girl I went to college with at La Salle, it's so nice to know someone here.
So we're keeping quite busy. Steve has been going to work, about a 10 minute train ride; and I've been searching hard for a job. Two interviews today!
We're having a lot of fun and trying to pack in as much as possible while we're here.
We miss you all a ton and hope you might visit!
I'll write more often so you're not bombarded with these long blogs!
~Kate and Steve
I'll try to update this more often, but I'll reacap the last 37 days for you:
We arrived December 10th and started that day to look for an apartment--you all know how I need to get things done. Steve met his coworkers the next day and I bought cell phones for us and we opened a bank account. Two days and we're already starting to settle in. Wednesday, 12/12/07, our things get stolen from our hotel room. As it turns out, we're still realizing things that have been stolen even though it's weeks later. To date, we had stolen (although all on 12/12/07) Steve's work computer, two cell phones, international adapter, Steve's jeans, my fossil watch, Steve's prescription safety glasses (not sure what someone is going to do with prescription glasses) and both of our ipods. It was crushing, but we survived and thank goodness that's all that happened.
The remainder of that week we spent time looking at the 19 apartments we were interested in and settled on our current location right in the CBD (Central Business District) and signed our lease on December 17th. We're right in the heart of the city and city life is fantastic!
This is a long recap, sorry.
From then, we got ready for xmas, bought a tree, presents, settled into our apartment with furniture, pots and pans, everything. It's amazing how much you stuff you realize you need.
We've done sightseeing. The aquarium; a beach town; the Old Melbourne Gaol (jail); lots of walking around the city; frequented the Queen Vic market-lots of vendors and fresh produce and great cheeses, wine, bakeries, etc; the Melbourne Zoo; saw a Romeo and Juliet play in the Royal Botanic Gardens; visited surrounding suburbs with lots of shops and cafes. We've been to a ton of restaurants and shops.
We also settled into normalcy a little, checking out the theater seeing Phantom of the Opera and seeing a local band, going to the movies, I joined a gym; we finally got internet and a phone in our apartment! We spent xmas eve and New Year's Eve in the city, they're also having things to do in the city.
We've also been hanging out with a girl I went to college with at La Salle, it's so nice to know someone here.
So we're keeping quite busy. Steve has been going to work, about a 10 minute train ride; and I've been searching hard for a job. Two interviews today!
We're having a lot of fun and trying to pack in as much as possible while we're here.
We miss you all a ton and hope you might visit!
I'll write more often so you're not bombarded with these long blogs!
~Kate and Steve
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