The city, the smoke, the University...

I hate public transport. So. Damn. Much

Now don't get me wrong - I am all for saving the environment and using less cars and stuff. But for me its just to much commuting 2 hours (one way!) to get to work.. That's 4 hours (on a good day) thrown away that I could have spent much more productively. Also, I am someone that can't work on trains or buses. I mean, I could get by with just a train to my work (that takes somewhat an hour). But then after the train I have to take tram for 60 (!!) stops.. And if something happens meanwhile, its more like 6 hours (like on Wednesday when many trains were cancelled and I had to walk all around Melbourne to find another train to take me home - of course it was pouring rain and I didn't have an umbrella).

(btw tuki sem vedrila pod random streho - ker ni in ni nehalo deževat)

**just a quick comparison to Slovenia. Currenty I am living with my uncle in the suburbs os Melbourne and it takes me 2 hours with public transport to get to my work place (aka. Deakin Clinical Exercise Centre). The distance is comparable as to living in Velenje and driving daily to Ljubljana with public transport… (and when I used to study there, even way back home every weekend was exhausting). So yea, they say Melbourne is a big city for a reason – after all, twice as many people live here compared to my whole country

***the only good thing about living so far is that I am usually one of the first people to get on the train – so I can even sit down! What a luck! =)

Thats is why I am in a full swing of looking for a new place. I am really lucky and grateful that i can stay with my uncle without paying rent and stuff... (and I get to use the pool and just "chill" most of the time..). So, I am still planning to spend most of my time and weekend at the house in the "burbs" (aka suburbs) but it would be nice to have a place to crash during weeknights near the workplace. Fingers crossed. I have actually inspected two apartments during the wek. One was absolutely disgusting and landlord couldn't even speak English. On my way back to the city centre, rain caught me and I was drenched when I arrived. Of course, on Wednesday they said Melbourne had "worst" rain showers for 100 years. In other words, it hasn't rained so much in one day for over 100 years (of course I didn't take my umbrella with me)

Ps. Next time I complain about biking in Finland - you have all the right to slap me in the face. Twice. And maybe even make me bike the Kortepohja hill multiple times… I give you full permission!

The building on Deakin Campus where my Sport Clinic is placed

Now, I can't call Tuesday and Wednesday my first official work days yet since we only did some introductory to the clinic and orientation… but it a start at least =) I am really excited to start. They just opened new facilities in August 2019 and equipment is really advanced and up to date. On the other hand, I am also quite scared because I don’t feel I am competent enough to be working with clinical population. I think I will have to do a lot of studying over the next few weeks to “catch up” on the practical approach – because that’s the thing I lacked in my bachelor’s and master’s programme. I already have some reading to do over the weekend and I am fine with that. It will be hard to open the books again, but hey, anything to become a better exercise physiologist :P

My "sport clinic" is actually placed at the Unviersity which is actually pretty good because I don't want to "give up" the student life just yet :P Hopefully this way it will be easier to meet some new people and fellow students. And campus is actually pretty cool!

During the week we also visited Casino and I couldn't have been less interested. For some rasons, Casinos just aren't my thing. But walking inside between endless Poker and roulette tables it felt like mini Las Vegas (not so mini for me though)

Also I got sunburn blister few days after we've returned from Gold Coast - lesson learned. I have geared up on sunscrean with factor 50 now..

On wednesday it was "finally raining" – and I don’t normally like when it’s pouring I was just hoping some of the showers would reach the bushfires. Hopefully, the situation will improve in the future because smoke was also so bad today! It was so hot (36 degrees), humid and “smokey” (that’s the new term we use around here)… Towards the evening it cleared a bit but that’s also when it started raining and it was nice to breathe in in a fresh(er) air again. If my trains were cancled and delayed at least I got a nice purple/redish sunset on my way home.

What have I learned?

That in Melbourne you can have 4 seasons in one day: from hot smokey morning with 36 degrees, to chill rainy evening, and cold night... One day it's 35 and next day its 16 - totally normal