And I'm done!

I took my last exam this morning; and it was lovely! Well, lovely to be done, at any rate. Its super sunny today, and so the exhibition hall was actually warm-ish. My seat was in the back, and the sun came through the windows to hit the back of my neck and it made me all warm and toasty. It was a nice change from the normal icicle I've been in my other exams. This is the fountain right outside the Royal Exhibition Hall, where we took our exams. Its in what are called the Carlton Gardens, which sandwich the R.E.B and the Melbourne museum. There are several playgrounds, one of which Cari and I hung out at after our Famine exam, and the whole area is about the same size as Grinnell and its all green-space. Its really nice.
This is a sketchy panorama of the Royal Exhbition Hall right after the morning exam. Obviously, the building is not skewed the way it is in the panorama, but you can get the feel for how big it is, and the students.

After the exam I went out to lunch on Lygon Street with Nerissa, my study-buddy from the lecture. It was a nice way to finish out the educational bit of my semester. I really love Lygon - its got tons of italian restaurants, and also lots of cafes, gelato places, and really fun clothes stores.
I spend a fair bit of time on Lygon - its really close to Uni, and theres a lot to do. I've been out to eat several times there, and love window shopping. Plus, the closest movie theatre is on Lygon - and it shows mainly Australian (ie independent) films.

Kate, Cari, Olivia and I went to Federation Square and checked out the museums there. Olivia and I bailed after the first one, though - we're both super exhausted. The museum we went to had several galleries of Aboriginal art - both traditional and modern. I think it all was created post 1970. The explainations next to the art were fascinating. It reminded me of the Chicano Art Exhibit at that super cool art museum at the U of M several years ago. The pieces varied from highly political to self-expression to traditional work. Most of it was variations of the "traditional" pointilist style depicting dreamtimes and/or landscapes, but some pieces were woven statues and figurines. It was a really powerful exhibit.
This is a painted pony outside the Melbourne Racing Museum.

I realized that I've never included an image of a tram. This is (I think) a 19 tram, which I can take from the east side of Uni to RMIT or into the city. The line ends at the Flinders Street Station. I go through a 10x2hour pass about every two-three weeks. I take the tram mostly to go grocery shopping, though I used to use it to go to training. The tram system makes it really easy to get around the city - I have a map of Melbourne with tram routes posted on my wall, and I can get almost anywhere by myself. Its decently cheap, as well, which is nice, because taxis are super costly. And to close, I found this image while studying for my Statistics exam with Nerissa in the bathroom of the Economics and Commerce building. It is so ridiculous I had to share it; I can't imagine anyone actually needs these instructions!