Melbourne - Expected and Unexpected, Pretty and Ugly...

Right I havent exactly made a post about Melbourne, and life in Melbourne actually.. Life is quite nice, laced with new freedom and things to do and be done that has before taken for granted - food for example. Cooking is fast becoming such a dreaded chore...

Food prices here are EXORBITANT (if I spelled that correctly).. Its like easily 8-9 bucks for a single meal, especially the chinese food here.. Yes there is chinese food, yes a single portion is enough to feed 3 people, but yes, the prices is huge as well.. I could be eating steak everyday back home..

Weather - I didn't really believe people when they said Melbourne weather is mad.. I mean staying in malaysia, you wouldn't know any other weather than hot and humid.. Well, it can reach 40 degrees during the day, 20+ during the evening, and 10+ at night.. One entire week could have everyday at around 20 degrees, and the following week at 40 degrees... Its now at a torturous agonizing 40 degrees celcius daily.. Hot plus dry weather equals to feeling like an oven.. Strangely, when you're in the shade, you can't feel the heat at all.. I can't wait for Autumn..

Well overall Melbourne and Australia is really nice overall. You have friendly people, a truely multicultural society, a beautiful city, and great weather *summer heat don't count*.. Though, it is not without its problems.

Oh! One of my favourite chore is (surprisingly) grocery shopping.. hahaha... talk about being a jakun..

The first thing that really hit me is plain blatant discrimination which Australia was supposed to be free of. Yes I would be talking about concession cards. It is clear discrimination, and after going through NLC's (National Liason Committee) website, it became clear it has been an issue for some time, and time to come until action is taken.. I can't say how much I agree its just plain discrimination, and I have gave a small piece of my mind to the uni, to metlink, to the student union of both caulfield and clayton campus, and have gotten replies and responds. I just don't believe that any student (international, that is) should just keep quiet and ACT LIKE CASH COWS for the state government! Just so you know, only Victoria and New South Wales are the two only states that does not allow concession cards for international students. So please ppl, stand up for what you believe is right, and don't just keep quiet about such racial discrimination!

Well, besides that, the society is really civil minded unlike Malaysia - just read the news everyday and get political supporters acting like hooligans.. Just sit the ktm during the peak hour and get a nice feel of how a stampede of 'people' push you into a moving tin can. People actually LINE up here.. and you'll get homicidal stares if you don't.. People pick up after their own dog poos.. People are just simply conscious and considerate.. But as I said, not without their problems. Litter seem to be a major plague throughout the city and trains. Ride a train at night in melbourne and see the rubbish - tin cans, beer bottles, newspapers, plastic wrappers, chewing gums, whatever..

Drunks and local racists are not an exception either.. Travelling at night need to be done in groups to avoid harrassment by drunks and racists.. Take for instance an incident I myself, 3 fat caucasian boys lingering around caulfield and glen huntly always disturb foreigners and disturb the train services by always blocking the doors, picking fights and so on. Hope they get lost and get some life..

Graffiti is a huge problem here.. There is a saying, - 'if there' a flat surface, there's graffiti in Melboune'. I'm telling you it IS that bad.. every inch of the walls along the train tracks are covered with graffiti, some of which is actually nice, but thats beside the point. Trains are regularly defaced and thrown stuff at too..

Well, nonetheless, every city has their problems.. Its not to say Melbourne isn't a nice place to live, its a fantastic place to live (minus their taxes).. Overall there have been things that have met their expectations and reputation (such as the mad whacked up siao crazy erratic weather patterns), some that does not (like the discrimination over concession fares), pretty (the beautiful city), and ugly (the litter and the racists)..

Melbourne oh Melbourne.. Pics are up - but caption and description is still incomplete..

Logging off,
Lawy3rz