Day 5 - Monday, 9.27.10

Shot Tower w/in glass cone

Laetitia took me into the heart of Melbourne today to find my personal training school, the Australian Institute of Fitness, and to help me familiarize myself with the public transportation.  I will arrive at the Melbourne Central Train Station to get to the institute, which also happens to be a shopping, dining, and entertainment destination.  Woo hoo!  The station houses 300 stores, an 11 screen movie theatre, Rockstar blowing, and late night bars and cafes.  Within the station is the historic Shot Tower and Shot Tower Clock.  The tower is surround by a 20 storey high glass cone.  The cone is one of the largest glass structures of its type in the world.   

 

Shot Tower Clock

We made our way to the Australian Institute of Fitness where I will attend personal training classes from October 11 - December 4.  I can't wait!

I continued to explore Melbourne while Laetitia went to Uni (University).  I quickly learned that Australians like to shorten their words and add "ies" to the end of numerous words.  This could be a result of their laid back nature, which I absolutely enjoy.  Consider that the name of the country has been shortened to the nickname "Oz" and Australians are reduced to "Aussies".  Here are a few shortened words that I've already come across:

1. Football (or Aussie Rules) = Footy
2. Thanks = Ta
3. Brisbane (city) = Brissy
4. Good day = G'day
5. How are you? = How ya going? (not shortened but love the slang)
6. Sunglasses = Sunnies
7. Surfers = Surfies
8. Tasmania = Tassie

Magistrates Court

As I was walking I came across this magnifienct, historic building.  I decided to take a photo and research it's significance when I returned to the apartment.  The building turned out to be the former Magistrates Court (now a landmark) built between 1911 and 1913.  The architectural style is Norman (or French Romanesque).  In 1995 the landmark became RMIT (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology) Building 20 when it was purchased by the university.

After a little walking I sat down in front of the Victoria State Library reading Eat, Pray, Love (very fitting for my trip) when it started to rain so I ventured inside.  The library is the state's largest public reference library with a wide collection of books, artworks, audio and video files, music scores, and digitized copies of works.  There was also a free gallery exhibition in the library titled 'Til You Drop Shopping.  It explores Melbourne's social history through changes in their shopping habits, from early settlement of 1880's Melbourne to today. 

Prior to visiting Melbourne I was told that Aussies are extremely friendly people.  I found this to be incredibly true upon my return from Melbourne back to Laetitia's apartment.  When I got off the train I couldn't figure out which direction to walk in to get back to the apartment.  It didn't help that it was also raining.  As I was walking aimlessly I noticed a parked car with the ignition running.  I stopped to ask the woman inside for directions.  She wasn't exactly sure where I was going either so she said "hop in and we'll figure it out together."  I was amazed at this woman's generosity.  Her name was Chris.  Within 3 minutes I was back at the apartment.