July 25 (Wednesday)

Melbourne feels very similar to Seattle, in size and attitude. There are numerous coffee shops, plus the same mixture of alternative counter-culture as well as the high tech corporate world. It's at the same latitude as San Francisco, so if you've been to the Bay Area in winter, you have an idea of what winter is like here.

I've been staying with my friend Katisha, who is a student at the University of Melbourne. Wandering around campus with her made me think of my years at the University of Washington. We took the tram out to the zoo on Sunday, where we got to wander in amongst the kangaroos and emus in their enclosure. Also saw some young lions roughhousing around with one another (eliciting some growls from the older lion who was trying to nap), and some amazing acrobatics by the white-cheeked gibbon monkeys. And of course all the poisonous snakes that are native to Australia, which made me quite glad that I'm not out in the bush.

In addition to spending time with Katisha, we met up with two other online friends who live in Melbourne, Occy and Calicia. We even got to see Calicia perform in "Twelve Angry Jurors", the student production at her university.

Tomorrow I'm off to Sydney, to visit another online friend, Robin. I can't believe that I'm almost at the end of this amazing journey.