Penguin Parade!

I hit snooze a few too many times this morning! I wish I had one more day in Melbourne so I wasn’t doing FULL days on 5 hours of sleep! BUT life is still good! After some breakfast and a quick internet café stop, I was off to catch the train to Swinburne, the university Merrimack will now be sending study abroad students to. I really think I do better in countries where English is NOT the language because I was so confused about the whole system! I did manage to get myself a ticket and to the correct platform, but couldn’t seem to understand which train was coming, which was going, etc. I guess a lot of the trains were behind schedule so that sort of messed things up. It was 930am but the sign said the 917am train or something like that. Anyway I managed to get myself on a train and prayed I was heading in the right direction!

It was only a 10 minute ride to the campus, but I have to say I was not impressed when I got off the train. The area seemed dirty and sort of had a back alley feel to it. LUCKILY that changed when I got to the center of campus. I met Justine (who is the contact for Merrimack) in the International Programs office. I also met two other women, Sonia, the regional team leader and Xenia the manager.

We went to a coffee shop (the campus has a few outside vendors) where I was able to talk to them about Merrimack students studying abroad, etc. It was actually VERY cool and it got me even more excited about my future in the field of international education. I then went on a campus tour. It has a very industrial/modern feel to it, but I liked it. They just completed a couple of new buildings (a technology center and a student center) and I was also able to see a residential option for students. We then went out to lunch as there is a main street about 2 minutes from campus with banks, restaurants, shops, etc. Overall I had a really great time learning more about the school and I think it will be great to be able to talk about my experience when I am advising students at Merrimack.

It was about 140pm when I got back on the train and I wasn’t quite sure what to do. My penguin parade tour left at 445pm so I had some time, but I wasn’t sure how long everything took that I wanted to do. I eventually decided it wasn’t worth going far away (and having to worry about being back) so I decided I would stay in the area.

I had read that at Federation Square there was a Disney Princess exhibit. I know, I know..not a very Melbourne thing, but I HAD to see it and honestly it was one of the BEST decisions of my life! The exhibit was set up VERY well. It was all about how they went about animating the movies and they had actually drawings and sketches from the beginning process. It was really cool to see the “rejected” ideas for some of the characters (like the Beast). As you can expect I spent most of my time in the Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast sections. They had projectors so I walked over because the *Kiss the Girl* scene was playing. However, out of the corner of my eye I also saw the *Be Our Guest* scene was playing as well! How’s a girl to choose? I couldn’t believe my two favorite Disney scenes were playing simultaneously. LUCKILY, I was spared this tough decision as I realized they had two or three of the movies best scenes on repeat, so I was able to watch both! I really could have stayed in there for days, but I had to check my bag so I had no clue what time it was and figured missing the penguins for a Disney exhibit wasn’t cool, so I headed out. I had about an hour and thought about doing some exploring, but honestly I just wanted to rest for a bit! I decided to come back to the room and do a little write up on my time at Swinburne before I forgot everything!

Before I knew it it was time to head off to my penguin parade. There were a lot of tour options for this, but I wanted to do the penguin express, right to the penguins and back. If I had more time in Melbourne I might have done more of a full day tour, but this seemed good. The bus left at 5pm and didn’t get to the penguins until around 7pm (it was a long ride). They have bleacher style seats set up along the beach where you wait until dark for the penguins to come out from the water, cross the beach, and go back into their homes in the bush.

It was VERY cold out and windy..so I was even more anxious for the penguins to arrive. After sitting outside in the FREEZING weather, we started to see a few emerge from the water. It was really cool because they just sort of swim up in packs of 5 and quickly waddle across the beach together. They were so little and SO cute it literally made me laugh out loud. It is malting season for them (they get new feathers) so they aren’t able to go into the water for 2.5 weeks so there really weren’t a lot of penguins. I was a bit disappointed, but on the walk back to the main building I saw a lot on the sides of the walkway. It was so cute because some of the penguins would come out from their home to welcome the new penguins back from the ocean!

It was a VERY long night again (2 hours on the bus each way) but since I LOVE penguins it really was worth it! On the way back I had a woman (in her 50s) sitting behind me, who was the WORST and I mean WORST singer I have EVER heard. Honestly at first I thought it was a dying cat..and THEN I realized she was just singing out loud to her iPod. It was to the point that it was socially unacceptable; although since the bus wasn’t full I am not sure anyone else could hear it. It was like a train wreck though, I couldn’t stop listening. I mean I KNOW I can’t sing, but this lady was AWFUL. I really wish I could have recorded it because I was literally laughing, and I know that sounds mean but you should have heard her!

We didn’t get back until 11:30pm and I was starving and LUCKILY Subway was open. I asked the guy what time they closed (it didn’t seem like he was shutting down..) and without looking up he responded “24/7” Well..good for me!

I don’t mean to be complaining but I do wish I had a few more days in Melbourne so instead of doing FULL days on 5 hours of sleep I could actually sleep at night and then do half days! I just didn’t realized there would be so much to see OUTSIDE of Melbourne but I guess it is better than being bored! Tomorrow I will actually have a day to explore the city!

Hugs and kisses from little penguins!