TO LIVE LIKE A TOURIST

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Ps. This band is Australian and Elly showed them to me.  I dig their tunes!
 

Have you ever had an Irish lad show you around Australia?  Well I have.  I met David at the last house party Sophie took me to and since then I have discovered he knows about as much of this city as every other Melbournian I know.  Considering he has only been here for about 2 years, it gives me hope for myself.  I mean, I came here thinking I'd be gone by now for chrissake.  It was a struggle at first: not knowing anyone, being in such a vibrant city with endless alleyway secrets, hidden cafes, bookshops, stores and the like.  All the while feeling like I had no access to any of it--the knowledge, and more importantly the friends to go with even if I did know where they were.

It got me a thinking that to live as a tourist wherever you are, and whenever you are (even if you have been there your entire life) is the best way to be.  I have lived in the Bay Area for more than half my life and yet I have never walked the Golden Gate Bridge.  I lived on Guam for 8 years and yet had just seen Pagat Caves for the first, and probably last time due to military expansion, in 2010.  It made me sad to realize.  And so I have this chance to start over.  To be the annoying tourist with her camera always tucked away in her huge black hole of a bag.  To be the one wanting to go to the shit Aquarium.  Or the spot no one goes to because it's just a place for a bunch of tourists (who want to see the amazing view even you haven't seen).  To be the girl asking for a pork sandwich when really it's called a pork roll.  I want to do all that and more. 

 

Already this place is unreal.  I had always imagined a place like this up in my mind.  A place where people talked in elevators, at restaurants, at tram stops.  A place where people cared about what went into their bodies: fresh produce, local food, no genetically-modified-high-fructose-trans-fat-malarky.  A place where amidst hard work people know how to winddown--how to relax.  A place where education is practically free, an inherent right almost.  One where the government seems to genuinely care about its country, its future and its people.  One where when you need help others actually ask you if you are alright.  A place filled with beauty from cities, to beaches, to snow, to pure outback adventure (to people). And a place where friends are thoughtful and really listen (this is the part where I say "suckkk itttt" while obnoxiously crossing my arms over my crotch and naming names of certain people from Saratoga...but I won't).

And yet I never thought this imaginary place really ever existed until alas I discovered this city, this country.  Yes, I have yet to see more, but I am already convinced.  I have never felt so at ease.  It seems like at the end of the day, worried about my career prospects and what's next,  I also know that everything is going to be OK.  Because a place like this exists and I am living in it.  That in itself is enough.