Hi Mates:



How are you traveling mates?  Please don't say in your car, skateboard, bicycle, etc... because that is incorrect.  The partner in the office asked me that question and I was about to answer Qantas Airlines but I knew there was something to it.  He did get me though.  In our English, it means:  "How are you doing dude?" 

After a 22 hour journey or so, I arrived safely in Melbourne (Australia).  I have to definitely say that it's a beautiful city and the people, culture, architecture, and lights make it magnificent.  I found through my daily experiences so far that Australians are extremely friendly and joyous.  I've had great conversations with a strangers in the elevators and the Federation Square just hanging around.  In fact, the couple I met in the elevator that's in business renting and selling Real Estate here will get me some free tickets to the Australian Open since he's friends with one of the tennis players that won the AU Open several times.  Cheers to that!

I've been to many large cities but not several of the largest in the US such as NY, LA, or Chicago to kind of compare The City of Melbourn to; however, I can say that it's kind of like Barcelona with a touch of Valencia to it.  One colleague concurred the Barca part with a combo of San Francisco.  There are lots of trams, light rails, buses, and trains that make up the public transportation system, and I can see how San Fran is included.  The many cafes remind me of Barca, Brussels, Paris, Vienna, and Amsterdam but you know what, just go ahead and throw in Europe as a whole.  I can also add Haifa (Israel) because there are many cafes there as well.

The PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP building is a black, stand-alone building with its full signature logo at the top of the building along with "PwC" on the other side.  At night, it is lit in Blue Neon lights and can be seen from very far and makes up one part of the skyline of the city.  My understanding is that PwC used to be in the Central Business District (CBD) part of town; however, it moved away from the CBD and is now along the Soutbank (Yarra River runs along side).  When stepping out of the building, you can go either make a left, which will lead you to the Crown Plaza or make a right, which will lead you to the Federation Square and Flinders Station.  I'll go into each on my next blog.

Just like my colleagues in the PwC Houston office, I have wonderful colleagues here in the PwC Melbourne.  They have been extremely friendly, kind, and helpful as well as made me feel welcome from the 1st day in the office.  I've been shadowing a few colleagues on the preparation of Australian tax returns, and I'm still learning the tax rules and legislations around the latter.  On the bright side, I've prepared two AU tax returns but those were the easy ones, nonetheless, great to start out with to learn the software and some basic rules.  In the mix, I've been handed a few US tax returns, which I'm glad to do because I at least know the US side  :)  After this Blog entry, I'll go back up to my room and read up on the cookbook binder I've been given on Australian Tax Returns. 

There are also two other Baha'is (www.bahai.org) who work at PwC and we all sit on the same floor.  One of the colleagues is also in the same IAS dept. as I.  On Friday night, we went to a local event hosted by the Baha'is of City of Melbourne.  It was really nice to meet the other Baha'is in this part of the world, and I knew one of them from my visit to Haifa, Israel (Center of the International Baha'i Administration).  He also knows my older brother really well, whom he spent some time with doing Service in Haifa.  It was through my older brother and his wife that I was put in touch with Ash and Matthew.  One of the many greatest things about being a Baha'i, in my opinion, is that there are Baha'is all over the world.  We all share the same beliefs and might know somebody or somebody knows somebody else that one might know (confusing sentence, eh?).  A fellow Baha'i in Houston told me that her best friend lived in Melbourne with her husband, and told me to contact her to get in touch with the community.  I would have but the phone in my apt. still doesn't work.  I was able to meet her though at the function on Friday night.  Her and her husband will be returning to the USA.  We then went to a comic show.  It was really funny but I had a few difficulties understanding certain things that were Australian related humour.  It's all good and it'll come in due time.

Yesterday (Saturday) and Today (Sunday), I spent my days at the Shrine of Remembrance for the AU and NZ officers who lost their lives in the many wars they fought in for freedom and peace keeping missions.  It is a massive structure, similar to the Parthenon in Greece and walking up the stairs reminded me of walking up the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.  After the tour, I proceeded to the Botanical Gardens.  A very peaceful park, which is composed of tons of trees, flowers, and other plants.  Each section has several varieties and explanations of the type of plants in their biological name (i.e., Monotropa hypopithys, etc...) great gardening ideas for you).  You can also hear the sounds of the birds and other creatures, which places the touch of nature on this whole park.  There are also various areas of grass, where once can take a nap, kick a soccer ball around, or even play horseshoes (I saw two dudes playing it but with a ring as to not damage the ground).  There are also ponds and man-made lakes where you can see eels, ducks, swans, and other birds swimming or floating.  My favorite was the area full of palm trees where you can just rest underneath one as long as a coconut doesn't fall on your head :)  Just kidding about the coconut but I think I know what Palm tree I'll plant for my townhome.  I took many pictures and as I was exiting the Botanical Gardens towards the Stadiums, the batteries died.

I didn't make it to Stadiums / Sport Complexes and ended up walking back towards the Federation Square.  There was an Indonesian Festival that was going on and displays by a photographer of aerial pictures of our world and the damages that were occuring to our ecosystems.  It was refreshing to see that 2 of the 50+ prints related to Chad.  For ya'll that don't know, I was born and brought up in Sarh, Chad for 13 years and my parents were there for about 16 years or so.  My three brothers and I were all born in the same hospital!  One of the pics showed Longhorned cattles that were being herded by a sheperd along side Lake Chad.  Due to Global Warming and other pollutions occuring in Chad (oil extracts), Lake Chad has been evaporating and the species have been dying / depleting.  I didn't know that there were plans of building a link / canal that will take water and species from the Congo River by the govts. of Chad, Cameroon, Nigeria, and Niger as they all share the Lake.  Alas, their efforts have been slow and only time will tell.  So, some history and some facts for ya'll.  Apparently, Al Gore has a documentary film out that talks about Global Warming and the likes.  I've heard that it's a pretty good one too. 

I've only been here for 1 week but I've taken a greater appreciation for nature, eventhough I've always loved the great outdoors.  Today, I wondered around the Greek section of Melbourne and had lunch in one of the restaurants.  Here is a Fact:  Melbourne (or the state of Victoria or AU) hosts the largest population of Greeks outside of Greece.  I'll have to get back to you on this fact but it's true :)  It's amazing how many shops and malls there are.  Really, it's unbelievable but it did remind me of "La Rambla" in Barcelona.  The street in Barca that hosts thousands of shops that lead to the Olympic Village (Barca '92). 

After a whole lot of walking, I went back and watched a great game of soccer on on the Tele (Champions League:  Real Madrid vs. Lyon).  It was an awesome game and Lyon dominated.  Lyon (France) has won the French League 5 years in a row but I've never seen them play.  After watching them, they man-handled a team of superstars on the Real Madrid side; however, you can't say that the Lyon team was not full of stars of their own but not in realm of Real Madrid stars.  I couldn't stay up and fell asleep in the 65th minute or so.  I also started watching games from the Australian Football League (AFL).  It is similar to Rugby but it's actually Aussie Rules.  I think I'm starting to understand it and it's pretty interesting.  I will need to have somebody explain certain things to me.

Well mates, tis' late (hey, it rhymes) so I'm hanging up the keyboard.  I have pics but the X-key that GTS gave us won't open up on this computer.  So much for protected USB Memory Keys.  I'll post some up this week on my other SanDisk USB Key.  Cheers mates and until next time.



Kindest Regards,

Collin #11