MELBOURNE AND FINALLY MEETING JULIE COMITO AND JERRY AND ANN ELLIS

I landed in Melbourne on Sunday night and was greeted at the gate by Julie Comito, my in-country coordinator and her husband Tony. Julie is a special person, as all the Australian bound Eisenhower Fellows will attest to. Beyond her impeccable organizational and follow through skills she is someone that makes your life better simply by knowing her. A true example of the impact she has on people is that I have been working with Julie mainly through email for the last 6 months and yet always had a feeling that she had been a long time friend. It was great to finally meet face to face and it was an extra bonus to get to know Tony as well.

We toured the streets of Melbourne, which is designed on a grid, like a mid-western city. People from Des Moines would feel right at home…I was a little out of kilter without having the equivalent to the Triangle inner/outer loop or the likes of the roads of downtown Durham. Melbourne navigation was enough proof to me that while two wrongs do not make a right, two rights do make a left.

More on Melbourne to follow: