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Today we're here with Andre from Chicago. How are you Andre?
- Doing well and yourself? - Not too bad. So, what brings you to Melbourne from Chicago?
I used to live here about a year and I figured it was time to come back and escape the cold weather.
Welcome back! What makes Melbourne so attractive to you?
I mean you're from a dreamland...
I am from a dreamland but Melbourne is just so welcoming
the people are nice, the scenery... it feels like home.
- So you don't have these things at home? - I do have these things at home but
just, for instance, this scenery right here we're in the middle of a veggie garden
in the middle of the city next to a theme park... - It's pretty unusual, isn't it?
Very unusual! We definitely do not have something like this in Chicago.
The grass wouldn't be this green for instance in Chicago
well-manicured.
- What do you think about the food?
The food in Melbourne is interesting. It's a difference taste of what we have in Chicago.
like, for instance, we don't put eggs on our burgers.
We don't put beets on our burgers but, with that being said,
it's so diverse here you can get on with almost any type of food you would like.
- Have you been around Australia much? - I have. I've actually been
to... well I guess I can't really say that much. I've been to Sydney,
Perth, Adelaide. I might have to stop there.
- What are your first impressions?
- What's the city you would choose and settle in?
I guess is still up in the air.
I just break it down. Melbourne, definitely wanna settle down and create a family.
Melbourne would be the place for it. Sydney, if you're here for
a short time and you just wanna party, Sydney is
definitely the place for you to do all of that.
Adelaide, I think you'd probably have to be about 60 or 70
to really enjoy Adelaide. It's a very relaxing,
wine country is beautiful, but I think the city dies at about 5 o'clock.
- Did you manage to find a lot of friends here in Australia?
I did. In Melbourne of course, given that I lived here for a year,
I was able to find a nice genuine group of friends. - How do you find Australians compared to Americans?
This might be a lot of
bias, but they are not as warm and welcoming
to Americans as we would had been let to believe.
They are very warm and welcoming to Canadians
and others of Commonwealth countries but
given that americanism neither not there not very welcoming.
I think it's maybe from the business standpoint, because any time
anyone hears my accent and realises I'm American
then they wanna engage in a conversation but
from the business world they're not willing to open the door.
- Did you find any kind of racism here in Australia?
I did in the beginning but I think I
maybe just turned a blind eye to it.
I think given that there so many refugees here they automatically
just see my skin tone as on my feature.
- I guess people tends to judge you based on how you evaluate yourself at the end of the day, isn't it?
Yeah, definitely. If you open up and
smile, be friendly
they'll embrace you. And that's exactly why I am
back here checking it out looking to give it a second shot. - How about nightlife?
I don't really go out too much so
I don't really have a good nightlife.
- But surely you've been out and about in bars and clubs.
- What is like compared to Chicago?
For one thing, don't plan on getting drunk here because I think it's impossible.
Alcohol is kinda... it's actually nice because
you know in Chicago I mean you know I can go out
for midnight I have friends who're already falling over, while here
everything's in moderation so it's
not a free poor society so you don't have to worry about that.
The night life is pretty tame here.
- I think for yourself is quite important the religious life as well. Definitely.
That's one of the things that I was here for a year and I kind of slacked on that.
I mean there's plenty of churches everywhere
you know going down the streets you can't help but to find a church but I actually
miss tight on that because I didn't dig deeper into it
but given that I'm kinda give Melbourne a second chance I will be looking at
getting into the religious aspect. But there's plenty of churches, I just
gotta find one that I
feel comfortable with.
- As we all know Melbourne is at the top of the chart of the
most liveable city in the world.
What do you think, in your opinion, makes it so high?
I think the quality of life I would say. - What do you mean for quality of life?
- It's a bit generic.
It is very generic, but if you look at it, I can leave work
at 5 o'clock, 5:30 at the latest
not feel guilty, walk home, grab dinner
still catch up with some friends and
there's still light outside. It's 9:30 at night and if I feel like taking
a stroll down
the street, down one of the canals, even a stroll down the beach
I feel safe. I don't feel like I just go to work
and come home and have like two hours of self time before I go to bed
Sometimes I get out of work at 5:30 and I'm like... what do I do with this extra time in my hands?
- I think you said it: it's about feeling safe, nice weather and easy to commute.
I mean it's amazing that the city is so huge you can get up at three o'clock in
the morning if you can't sleep
look outside it's so peaceful quiet you can actually make a loop
around your house and I've never felt like
looking over my shoulder someone was following me. I always felt safe.
- Some people also mention the fact that Melbourne is particularly close to
South-East Asia and it's very close to
pretty much everywhere so you don't feel like... even though you're in
Australia and far away from
the States or Europe, at the end of the day,
it's not that far.
I would say that it's also another selling point on Australia. Flights are so reasonable.
You can go to Singapore and be there in five hours.
You can go to Bali and be there in six or seven hours.
Hop over to New Zealand. I mean all these places that we've always heard.
- Without a jet lag. Exactly.
All these places we've heard about you get to visit them just
because you live in Australia
and it's at a reasonable cost. - So I guess all your friends have asked you
about Melbourne and you've been advertising...
and inviting them to visit you.
Yeah, I mean of course just being from
the States, first selling point we were all raised as Sydney existed.
I don't even think we knew Melbourne really existed until we got a
little older but now that I'm here in Melbourne
I tell all my friends we have to start our Australian adventure in Melbourne
and then once we get this checked out
then we can go to the faster life that Sydney might have to offer.
- That's probably the best thing you said about Melbourne.
Good things just recommend themselves and it's how we tell friends.
Andre, good luck for your future in Melbourne
and thank you very much for this interview. Thank you.