Earthquakes and the beach!

Earthquakes? In Melbourne? You bet. Friday night, just after 9, we had an earthquake - 4.6 on the Richter scale! Apparently some buildings suffered damage, but nothing severe or anything. I was sitting at my desk when the building started to shake. It lasted maybe half a minute, and then it was gone. I heard other places had some pretty big aftershocks, but I didn't feel anything. It was pretty weird - and something I thought I'd left behind when we moved from San Francisco! Earthquakes are fairly rare here, and I heard its the largest one in a long time, so I'm not too worried about any other shakes. It was definitely an adventure, though!

I finally made it to the market again. It was a great way to spend my Saturday morning, though in the future I will remember how crowded it is and go on week-day mornings! Aside from an astounding variety of produce, the market also sells live birds, which I don't know what to think about! Some of the birds are laying hens, but others are definitely for eating. Its something I've never seen at a farmers market back home, that's for sure. I did find peaches that seemed to be pretty ripe, which I'm really excited about.

This afternoon, Olivia, Ray, Mans, Natalya, Laura, and I took the tram to Flinders Street Station, and then the train out to Brighton Beach. We walked on the beach and went shell-hunting. There were a lot of jellyfish washed up on shore. The jellyfish were much more blue than I expected - I thought they'd be clear, since that the color of the bits of tentacle that wash up on shore. It was a fairly grey and windy day, though the sun broke through a couple of times, so we had the beach more or less to ourselves. Brighton Beach is famous for its bathing sheds, which are basically brightly painted sheds. We saw one with a boxing kangaroo painted on it, one with sea horses, and one painted like a rainbow. Apparently they've been there for years, and many of us had read about them in guide-books.

Ray, who is from Hawaii and goes to the University of Puget Sound with Olivia, Mans (Ray's Swedish roommate), Natalya (from Alabama and attends a Claremont school), and I wandered into Brighton to get some fish and chips. I introduced Ray to the concept of vinegar on your fish; I think it was a hit. In my book, fish and chips are just a vehicle for vinegar and salt! Olivia and Laura (who goes to a small school in her home state, which escapes me at the moment) headed back to Melbourne without us, and so the four of us had a leisurely walk back to the train station, critiquing and praising the beachfront houses we passed. Like most of our outings, it had its near-accident-due-to-us-looking-the-wrong-way moment, but we got to the train station just fine! We took the train back to the city, and then the tram back to RMIT. It was a really great way to spend an afternoon, and I definitely want to go back sometime - if you plan the trains right, its only about a half hour away.For reference, Olivia has the black hair, Natalya has the really curly brown hair, Laura is the red-head with long hair, Mans has blond curly hair, and Ray has black hair.