First couple of weeks

I have made it through my first couple of weeks in Australia. As expected, everything has been an adventure but everyone I have encountered has been very helpful.
A few highlights:
1) Upon my arrival, after 30 hours of flying from Atlanta to Melbourne via Chicago, LA, and Sydney (I really got a world tour in one day), I got out of the taxi at my hotel and started lugging my bags (now I know why they call it luggage) with a month and a half's worth of clothes up the sidewalk when 2 very nice guys insisted on helping me carry the bags up the 2 flights of stairs to the hotel. And it couldn't have been because they thought that I looked good - see previous comment about the 30 hour flight!
2) I get to the hotel and turn on the TV, when the first thing that I see on is Days of Our Lives and the second thing is Oprah! Not to mention on the way from the airport I see a K-Mart, a Target and a Dixie Chicks song is playing on the radio. Somethings are different here, but some are just the same as home.
3) As it turns out I arrived on Thrus and had a tough time finding a hotel room. Some of the company event planners had some luck finding me something in the city for 2 nights but for Saturday I had to travel all the way back to the airport to stay at the Hilton there. Apparently the rooms in town were all booked due to the G-20 economic summit and a U2 concert. But once I got to the Hilton, I made a couple of phone calls and then ended up sleeping 5 hours, so it all worked out okay.
4) I've decided I'm starting a list words that are different from how we would say them in the US - I suspect over the length of my stay here, this list will be quite extensive.
5) Driving on the left-hand side of the road - needless to say, there is no way I will be brave enough to try this in the near term!
6) This weekend I plan to run a 10K race that goes along the nice flat terrain next to the beach. This should be great! I also plan to break out the camera this weekend to take a bunch of pictures - so I'll have more to post in the future.

Here's a view from my hotel. That's the Port Phillip Bay in the distance.