Thursday, November 3, 2011

What is Melbourne like?

Today I helped take the year 10 geography students on an excursion to the city. We went to the Eureka Tower and then the Victoria Market. It was a good time. The group of students were fun to hang around. I got to see more of the city though I had been there once before. Melbourne is an interesting city.

People walk a bit slower in Melbourne. They don't walk as fast as Americans do, especially teenagers. The other teacher and I had to call back to keep some stragglers from falling behind. Australians seem to be a relaxed group of people compared to Americans. They're also not as competitive, though they are competitive about AFL.

There was a horse race today so we saw a lot of people who were dressed up. When I mean dressed up, I mean your nicest suit and tie and flashiest dress. Plus, some men and women both wore fashionable hats, like those hats you'll see the queen wear. It was quite a culture shock to see so many nicely dressed people walking around the streets. It was like everyone was coming from church.

Also, Melbourne is a very diverse city. It is the most livable city to live in according to The Economist. It's a very diverse city in terms of its ethnicity and nationality. Around 35% are from abroad. There are many Greeks there as well as Asians. There are also many Sudanese and Egyptians who are starting to come, fleeing from political unrest in Africa. I have a couple students from those countries. I never expected to have such a high diversity of students. On the excursion alone, three of the students could speak two languages. (Vietnamese, Hungarian and Arabic.)

Over the weekend, I went on a camping trip with the Frankston Congregation. It was a good time to get to know them, and begin to get to know what it's like in "the bush." I saw some cool insects though no crazy animals. And yes, I have seen quite a few kangaroos though they don't live in people's backyards. 

No comments:

Post a Comment

Thank you for your comment, I'll review it as soon as I can!