First day in Melbourne: awesome. I wasn’t sure what to think since this isn’t the city of beaches or bridges, and I know today has been...unusual, but if they all turn out like this, I think this is gonna end up suiting me just fine.
Not a good start: I was shown my room on campus and it was very hot and the windows were cracked. Apparently there was an party in the building that had gotten out of hand. There would be no light once the sun set either. I inwardly groaned and thought this was one of those countries where the workmen take forever to arrive and forever to do the job, but the guy showing me around said they just hadn’t gotten around to calling a glazier near Melbourne to fix it yet.
I was left to unpack, and feeling really awkward, I pulled out my phone, looked up glass repair companies near me and…yeah, it was that simple. I’d been there five minutes and I already solved a huge problem that probably wasn’t my responsibility, but hey, I have hope now.
Also learned that glaziers in the area are prompt, probably a lot more so than where I’m from. Supposedly a developed country, we tend to be made to wait quite a long time for anything vaguely similar to that. Electricians, plumbers, mobile mechanics…you just make the call and hope that they decide to get off their butts and do some work that day, instead of shuffling you down the queue because they have to finish their coffee. Even if there were downed power lines or something, you probably wouldn’t get prompt service.
Or maybe it’s just around here. Like, maybe glass repair in Melbourne is unusually speedy, just like the dumpling restaurants are unusually delicious, and the people in my dorm are unusually friendly despite being procrastinators. I think I’m gonna like it here, overall.
-AJ