Man bags and mankinis are not manly. Just sayin'.

So I found my way to St. Kilda today, which is the main beach town of Melbourne. It probably isn't too far driving but since I am on public transportation, it took over an hour... about 25 minutes from Dawn's train station to downtown, and then the tram from downtown to the beach. I didn't mind though, not like I have anything else going on!

Side note: Dawn sent me an email telling me where her car keys are, and that I should feel free to take her car while she's gone. Is she nuts?! I still can't figure out which direction the cars are coming from when I'm walking, let alone getting behind the wheel. F that.... I need time to adjust before I am comfortable driving.

Anyway, so St. Kilda is a very beachy but posh town. Kind of like PB in San Diego, but with more of a North County vibe. There were lots of "bros", so in case I get nostalgic for So Cal, I know where to go. :-)

BUT I have a serious problem with some of the attire I saw on the dudes. A lot of the guys were bros as I said, so they had the surfery/skatery vibe... cool. A lot of them were just in like normal stuff... shorts and t-shirts and flip flops. Great. But some guys are dressing all Euro-ey, and that is not cool. No offense to Euro guys, but I can't hang with the man bags and the mankinis (aka speedos). What is the deal??? So some of the Aussies must think this is a hot look and all I have to say about that is, thank goodness I'm married, or I'd be single forever.

On a side note, if anyone spots Brian sporting a man bag or mankini...you can assume things aren't going well between us. haha!

All in all St. Kilda was cool, but the kind of place I'd like to visit for the afternoon, not to move to.

What else? The grocery store was finally open today and I did some real grocery shopping...although halfway through I had to remind myself that I didn't have a car in the parking lot and I was going to have to haul everything back 7 blocks to Dawn's... so I think I'm going to end up going to the store like every day or so. Life was like that in Boston, but it has been a while so I sort of forgot.

Other stuff: I am learning new words, but need Dawn to come home to translate for me. For example, I have heard the word "tosser" several times. Usage: "Neighborhood X is beautiful but full of tossers." ummmmm? Does this mean tool? Douchebag? Yuppies? Yeah, I'm not sure. I just know it's not a good thing.

I've also noticed that I have a harder time understanding immigrants in Australia than I did immigrants in the US. For example, I had an asian dude wait on me at the grocery store, and his accent was his original language (chinese? korean? not sure) plus Aussie english. I struggle with Aussie english a bit as it is, and then this guy is still working on it as well.... and I'm finding there are some real communication breakdowns. Whereas in the US, they are at least speaking American english, so it's easier to understand.... does that make any sense? Anyway so I feel bad because I think I'm coming across like a xenophobic white person, when really I'm just clueless.

Hopefully smiling and shrugging a lot will give me a pass.

Tomorrow is my last day of freedom before i start work!