It's full-on summer and I'm preparing for a short track speedskating competition. Surreal, man. I went with Jim and Adam to the beach yesterday - St Kilda Beach, by the 96 tram. Its about 3k from the hotel - 8-10 stops on the tram, which is real handy, efficient, but oh so expensive, like the rest of Melbourne. A small Gatorade costs 4.50. An espresso shot, Jim found out costs the same. Its the nicest city I've personally seen, natural scenery-wise, but its hard to enjoy it when its so expensive, you can taste the change in the food as it goes down.
The ice is actually quite good! Pleasant surprise. It is fast, grippy, and holds together well. this morning we practiced with the Italian Team - so I saw Tomasso who I trained with in Cali - and we did a relay with them which was awesome. We skated well. Its amazing how as soon as there's another team to compete with, our legs don't feel the fatigue whatsoever, whereas alone, it feels like a crazy hard workout. The relay is so much fun. I myself felt pretty good on the ice. Tomorrow we skate with the Japanese team, so that should be very interesting.
I love the public transportation here - once I've paid for it - and the people are friendly. The combination of a very urban, fancy, colorful city with lots of big buildings and busy streets together with the palm trees and huge heavy wilting green trees everywhere is so unique. Lunch now - Usspeedskating pays for most everything of course. A chicken burger is 18 bucks! Hopefully we can make it to the pier again today - or the zoo. I got to see me a Kangaroo before I leave Australia. I think I'm fully adjusted to the time here. It doesn't really get dark until 10pm. I don't want to go back to early march...
Awesome reporting! Good'onya mate!
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