Welcome to Melbourne

So my first full day in Melbourne is coming to a close. Not feeling too much jet lag and I am loving the city. Day 1 at work was a success. I met most of the people I will be working with and they are all very nice. That is the IBM people at least. The office is in the part of town known as Southgate. It is right on the Yarra River. Nothing too much to report today since it was all work work work, but here are a few pictures I took on my way home from work.

The picture above is of a restaurant in Federation Square. I had to be all touristy and take a picture of the city name :)

This is view of Melbourne from the Princes Bridge. It's a pretty nice walk back to the hotel at night!

Here is the IBM office I am working in. We are on the 28th floor so we have a pretty good view of the River and the Southbank area (I took this one on the way into work)

Here I am with my tennis shoes in the rain at Federation Square. It was a lot busier in the morning, and I'm sure there would be a ton more people out if it hadn't been raining. Day 1 is done, and I am looking forward to this weekend so I can check out more of the city!!!

Down Under

G-Day Mates!! So I have made it Down Under!! First impressions are pretty good. Melbourne reminds me a lot of a large US city (DC or NYC) My hotel is downtown in one of the busiest parts of the city. I did a little walking around this afternoon and headed to a grocery store. I think that was the moment that I realized I was in a different country. They do not have any of the brands that I am used to. What is Tasty cheese?

I think the high point of the trip was going to the Vegemite isle :)
There was a ton of it and I wanted to laugh so hard, but I was able to control myself. After spending quite awhile analyzing all the new brands of food, I was leaving the store through this food court type place, and who else would be playing over the loud speakers but the one and only Phil Collins. I really think hearing Phil in Australia might have made my day!!! On that high note I strolled the 5 blocks back to my Hotel.

Here are a few observations about my first day in Oz:

1) What we would call Burger King is Hungry Jack here. I'm a little bummed I might not get to see "The King" on TV. Maybe they just call him Jack here.

2) On the 5 block trek to the grocery store I saw 3 porn/adult stores. It kinda gave me warm and fuzzies and reminded me of my time living in South Austin with Stacy. You can't really beat living in between Adult Megaplex and Porn in the Woods!!!

3) People really do eat Vegemite.

A pretty laid back first day, but I am expected in the office at 9 am tomorrow. Hopefully it will be a good project and I will enjoy the people I work with. And hopefully I will have some better more exciting things to post when I am not suffering from Jet Lag. Miss everyone :)