Hello Melbourne, here I am!

G'day mates!

Finally I have landed in Melbourne.

Everything is new, everything is exciting, so I did not have time to start this blog earlier...I am already in Melbourne now for 3 weeks and I am really enjoying this city! But let me start from the beginning:

Sunday 2nd of September:
After a 5 hours flight over the whole red continent from Darwin to Melbourne I arrived in the student hostel: 90% of the students in the hostel are Asian, 9% are Indian people and 1% is Austrian....ME. People are nice, but it's so hard to get in touch with Chinese and Indian people...I really tried hard, but they really don't show any interest in you. I realized quite soon that I don't wanna be happy in this hostel - so lets have a look for an appartment!

Monday 3rd of September, 8.00 am:
My first working day in the Box Hill Hospital, Surgical Department: People are so great here. They really took me up "like their own son". In the morning I can help out in outpatients and ward, in the afternoon I can join the operating theatre. Although, most of the time the electives (Famulanten) are watching, you are surely not allowed to practice more than in Austria.

Friday 8th of September:
Weekend! I already have made a lot of new friends in Melbourne. How? Actually, I met a girl in the plane to Australia who is also doing an internship in Melbourne - she introduced me to her friends and they introduced me to their friends and they introduced me to their friends....and they invited me to drive the Great Ocean Road. That's a spectacular street from Melbourne to Adelaide with great views on the ocean. We where 8 people in 2 Toyotas. Exactly at the sunset we arrived at the 12 apostles, 12 rock formations shaped by the sea (actually there are only 7 or 8 left, the other one collapsed) Just check out the photos!

Week 2:
What an awesome week! There was a lot to do in the hospital, one day I joined the surgical on call team (Nachtdienst), what was a quite cool experience: There were some emergency cases, life threatening operations - quite a bit of action. But also outside the hospital there was a lot going on. A lot of parties, a lot of new people, a lot for the liver to work ;)
We spent the weekend in Melbourne, training our liver enzymes even a little bit more in the evening and resting the day in Melbournes amazing Botanic Garden, the biggest one in Australia.

Week 3:
Finally I moved out of the "Chinatown hostel" and moved into my new appartment in the middle of the city. I love the view of my room, I just could stay there for hours! I also have got a good connection to my flatmate, nice guy with a good sense of humour.
Tomorrow I will change to vascular surgery, I am looking forward to see some bloody operations.

OK, that's the latest from Andi Down Under. Hope everyone of you is fine. If I find time, I will update the blog with a short review of Darwin and Brisbane where I have been before I came to Melbourne. So check out my blog regularly...

Best wishes to all of you
Andi