Melbourne

So Nina and I have now settled into a relatively normal routine; catch the tram, go to school, go to sports, do some homework.
When we first arrived to Melbourne from a wonderful time in the rugged Kangaroo Island where we were able to hold orphan kangaroos and get up close and personal with the feisty koalas, we stayed in a hip neighborhood of cafes and shopping. We went to the Aussie Open a few times, where my dad and I were able to see Djokovic (now the champion) play Berdych, which was shockingly intense from our seats directly behind the Djoker's entourage (can you say aggressive in Serbian?).
A week later we settled into a great apartment that has a view of the bay and the botanic gardens. We adventured out to "the bush" to get our school T-Bars, which was not our favorite excursion of this adventure to say the least. We also got our school uniforms, which make us look like the newest members of the Barney cult. Our school is completely purple, which reminded us of North Shore Country Day School in a "we bleed purple" kind of way.
After our first week of school Nina and I felt pretty good about the culture shock the international student coordinator promised us we would experience. Our peers could not be friendlier and our teachers have been helpful and interesting. We look forward to learning CPR, discussing and watching old films in our English class, and getting to know the Robin Williams-esque literature teacher. How could it be bad with excellent cappuccinos on every corner and surf schools just around the corner?

FOOD!

New Zealand is an agricultural country, so all of the food was wonderful. We were also delighted to find the Aussie food just as mouth watering. We began to wonder what caused this strange phenomenon of great food. It turned out all that our taste buds needed was a little rotation of the Earth. It is summer here, so everything is in season. The fruits are all juicy and ripe, and the veggies are always perfect (maybe not our favorite but still perfect). We went strawberry picking near Adelaide, and Audrey and I had a hard time not finishing the whole basket before we got to lunch.

The other reason food here is so good is because they have one secret ingredient that we never get in the US: Passion fruit. It's actually a small, round, purple-y black fruit with yellow insides and black seeds; not what we were not expecting. As most people who have never seen passion fruit we were very surprised that they were not large fleshy pink fruits. Regardless, they are delicious and used on just about everything. It tastes like a sweet kiwi with mango and strawberry mixed in. It is absolutely spectacular, and once we get home we plan to become passion fruit importers.

This little taste of our daily lives will hopefully give you all a feel for the spectacular alternative organic culture we are enjoying here in Melbourne for the two weeks before school starts.