Jess and Colin's Australian Arrival

From Arrival in Australia

We made it to Oz after two days, I mean 17 hours, who knows how that works?? Upon our arrival in Melbourne we were greeted with Australia Day, the Australian Open tennis tournament and a record-breaking heatwave. 116 is a little hot for us but we survived and can now talk about it at cocktail parties. We are absolutely in love with the city and it's inhabitants. We are endlessly entertained by the little idiosyncrasies that sneak up and remind us we are traveling in a foreign country...walk on the "footpath," not the "sidewalk" and we know "thongs" are sandals, but I'm sorry it's still a little funny to us!

Colin has settled into his new office building at the Rialto Towers overlooking the Yarra River and Phillips Bay. Jess has moved into her new studio at RMIT. Upon her arrival at school, the staff told her she was too busy and that they would be arranging for her to have an intern...love this place!

Our first installment of pictures (see the slideshow in the upper left) could be titled "The Architecture of Melbourne: Victorian, Funky, Inspiring." We have been walking all over the city to the various "suburbs." Melbourne is interestingly about the size of LA with far fewer people. The train never runs on time but what's the rush anyway? It's laid back here to say the least.

Each time we venture out to a new area we are struck by how different it is from all the others. So far we have visited the Docklands (swanky), Carlton (the Charlottesville of Australia), Fitzroy (Haight Ashbury), St. Kilda (catch any good waves mate?) among others. Last weekend we made it out to the ocean. Jess got over her fear of Australian water and went swimming. Once you feel 116 degrees you no longer fear the cool refreshing water.

We are having an absolute blast but we miss all youins State-side. If you need to contact us email is the best: colinwhitlow@gmail.com and jessica.ann.walker@gmail.com
We canceled our cell plans so don't bother the poor souls who took them over. I'm sure they've received some interesting drunk dials from "Regis Philbun." You know who you are!

We video chat on gmail and Jess is on Skype...her name is "snappywalker"
We don't have internet at home yet but we are working on it.


Cheers,
Kangaroo Jack and Waltzing Matilda