Glen Iris

Melbourne
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I have lived in Australia for over four and a half years. This was not all at once. I first came to Melbourne in 1994 as a student, attending Melbourne University. I spent most of my time hanging out with Australians drinking and partying, but occassionally I did study computer science. I also met Claire, whom I am currently living with in Coburg, Melbourne.

After finishing my year abroad I moved back to California where I graduated from University of California, Santa Cruz. Claire came to live with me for 8 months and then went back home to study. 2 weeks after my graduation I was heading back to Australia where I got a job with Borland International in Sydney.

After nine months of working for Borland and a 10 week bicycling trip to Europe I returned to Melbourne to work for Melbourne IT and live in Coburg.

Coburg is a happening neighborhood encapsulated by two main roads in Melbourne called Sydney Rd., and Lygon St. On Sydney Rd. you can feast on a variety of Greek, Turkish, and Lebanese foods. In fact Melbourne has the second largest population of Greeks, after Athens. On Lygon St. the Italian food reigns with marvelous pizzas and other delights.

Next I was with NEC Australia doing Java Development. In order to make it to work in less than a 45 minute commute Claire and I have moved to Glen Iris. We were a 1 minute walk, 30 second mad run from the Burwood train station. It was quite convenient allowing us to easily get into the city with no need for parking.

Americans know all about the LA / NewYork rivalry. Out here there is a Sydney / Melbourne rivalry. I like to say that I am a good judge of which is better having lived in both places for a substantial period of time. I like Melbourne better because the people are more friendly, the food is better (although Sydney does have some amazing Asian food), and my girlfriend is here! Ok, so maybe I'm not totally impartial.

In the end I have to say that Australia is little different to America. In fact it seems to me that the younger generations here are more "American" than the older, and the trend is increasing. I still learn new expressions from older aussies, like Claire's grandparents. But these aussie words and expressions don't seem to be passed down to the younger aussies. I bet Part of the reason is that Australia is flooded by American media of all formats, from the web to the tv. While the movies take 6 months longer to come out here, thankfully only the good ones seem to make it.