The drive to Grinnell is a startling pretty one - I am always surprised by how much I enjoy it. Driving south down I-35 is a straight shot through farm country; but along the way I pass prarie resotrations, wetland restorations, and funny stands of trees left over from when they tried to forest the prarie. (Remember in that Laura Ingalls Wilder book? Pa plants a tree for each daughter.)

And right next to the corn fields and the soy fields are wind farms that stretch as far as I can see. This is southern Minnesota and north-central Iowa. And pooh on all those who say this is a boring drive - they're clearly just not looking hard enough.

Its good to be home

So I'm back in Grinnell now. I've been back in the states for a few months, and its pretty lovely to be home. And its lovely to be back back in Iowa. (cue Dar Williams). I missed it more than I realized, now that I'm back here. My first (or maybe second) night back on campus, I ran into a friend at a party, and as we hugged, he asked me how I was. I responded, "its good to be home." And it is.

on my way home. . .

I'm in the San Francisco airport right now. I wasn't going to post again until I got completely home, but my flight was (is) delayed, so I'm bored. I'm saving my book for the flight, my iPod is charging, and I'm exhausted. (Which will probably become apparent as this gets longer).

I spent my last full day in Melbourne running around, getting gifties for my family, and spending time at my favorite spots. I spent a few hours at the Queen Victoria Market, in the "souvenir" side - this runs the gamut from clothes to jewelry to knicknacks and there's even a pet store. (It had super cute puppies. I didn't think they'd clear customs, though.)

I got up (late) on Saturday and took a shuttle-bus to the airport with some of the other IES students who were also leaving today. Emma and I had the same set of flights to San Francisco, and so we hung out at the Tullamarine Airport and the Auckland Airport. The flight from Auckland to San Francisco had the worst turbulence I have ever experienced on a flight. Because of that, I didn't get much sleep, and so I've now been up for 24 hours. I don't get home for another 5-6 hours, so I'll be pretty much certifiable by the time I see my family. Emma and I parted ways at SFO, since we were at different terminals.

I'm super excited to be going home. Its been a long, wonderful 5 months, but I'm ready to be back. Minneapolis, here I come!

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!

Birthday! and exams

Happy 21st to me! Instead of having a party, or doing anything special, I studied for an exam. It was a little lame, but I think I did well on the exam, so. . . Instead, I've spread my birthday celebration out. On my birthday, I opened the birthday cards my family sent me - it was so nice to have cards! On Wednesday, Cari and I went out for dinner after our exam to "celebrate" the end of our class and my birthday. And then last night, Cari, Amanda, Carolyn and I went out for Indian at this super fun, cheap place in one of the northern suburbs. And tomorrow I'm going on a pub crawl. So I'm having the longest birthday ever.

I've had one exam, and still have the two I'm most nervous about to go. Our exams are held in the Royal Exhibition Hall (I'll take a picture at some point). Its a huge building on the World Historical Buildings Register or something like that. Its really pretty inside - I'd take a picture to show you, but they're really strict about electronics in the exam hall. About 2,000 students take exams at the same time. We get split up into two groups, depending on which side of the hall we're on, and we're assigned a number - I was 706 in my last exam. The hall is set up with rows and rows of desks and chairs. My Famine in the Modern World class took up about 3 columns of desks, which would be about 120 students. Its super intense. I miss exams in a small room, but obviously that wouldn't work here. The exam hall is also really cold, even though they have portable heaters spread throughout the hall.

My Famine exam wasn't too bad - it was 100 questions multiple choice, and a lot of them were pretty straightforward. Cari and I decided that our favorite question was "Patriarchy is indirectly responsible for child malnutrition. True or False". (True). I'm glad its done; it was a pretty depressing subject, and studying for it was a downer.

I have just over a week left, and then I go home. I'm getting excited to go home - I miss my family and friends, and I really want some mexican food. Its a little hard to believe I've been here almost 5 months - it seems like I just got here! I'll be sad to leave Melbourne - I really love this city. Cari and I were discussing how sad we are to leave the amazing tram system; the buses in Minneapolis just don't compete. I'm starting to plan out how I'll pack in my head, which is helping with the anxiety. I'm terrified I'm going to miss my flight, or lose my passport, or something else stupid and travel inhibiting. I've triple checked my flight time already, but I know I'll check it several more times before I leave next Saturday. I'm getting excited for next semester at Grinnell, too. I've been hired as a manager at Phonathon, and I've been elected one of the captains for the Ultimate team, which I'm pretty excited about. I've signed up for my subjects, and already have homework in one of them - of course, watching four movies isn't much of a hardship! So I'm pretty ready to go home, even though I'll miss Melbourne.

Adventuring!

Yesterday, I had adventures! They weren't particularly exciting, but they were a lot of fun.

I spent the afternoon shopping and exploring with Olivia. We went to the CBD, to Meyer, where we both spent more money then we meant to, and had fun examining ridiculously expensive clothes. We then took a tram to Collingwood, which is a suburb northeast of Melbourne. We accidentally took the wrong tram (my fault) and so ended up doing a lot more walking that was originally intended. Collingwood is a really cool part of the city. Its a bit like Uptown, only not so many chains, and a bit like Linden Hills, but much bigger. Gertrude Street is the main street in Collingwood, and the intersection of Gertrude and Smith is where the main part of the shops and cafes are. We walked by a bunch of independent clothing labels, and indie/artsy cafes which I would love to stop at. I bought a camera bag at Crumpler, which is the Aussie version of Timbuk2, except much cheaper. We stopped at a shop that sold African imports, and chatted with the owner for probably a half hour. They had some way cool metal statues - I'm trying to figure out how to get one home for you, mom! We also stopped at a funny park where they had statues of Russian stacking dolls.

Russian stacking dolls in the park.

We then turned down a side street and walked to the Cathedral of St Patrick, which, despite its imposing size, I had never seen before. The cathedral, from a block away. It covers a city block, more or less.

It was starting to rain, so I slipped inside to check it out. It was super quiet, but I've been spoiled by the cathedrals I've seen all over the rest of the world, and while the outer architecture was pretty cool, the inside was nothing new. I lit a prayer candle, and then had to explain my non-protestant love of ritual and the Virgin to Olivia. Oh well. It was a nice place to stop - and I haven't been inside a church since I left the states.

This was over a doorway on the street we took to get to the Cathedral. The buildings were all at least 100 years old on this block, which is pretty old for Melbourne.

On our way back to RMIT, Olivia and I cut through the CBD, and discovered all the expensive shops. We were clearly out of place. There is something about walking by Prada, Ralph Lauren, Hermes, and other big names in fashion while wearing converse that just feels wrong. And everyone else in the area was super dressed up, either in buisness-wear, or just plain fancy-wear. I'd never actually seen any big name stores before - they're way imposing. And they have security. I did like walking by and window shopping, though I'm still much more partial to the more independent lablels we found in Collingwood.

Last night, I went to see an Australian film with Amanda called Mary and Max. Its claymation, and fun, but really bizarre. I liked it. The basic premise is that theres a little girl named Mary who lives in Australia and has a pen pal named Max who lives in New York. Max is 44, obese, and has a mental disability. Mary is 8, has a crap home-life, and has no friends. It was a sweet movie, in a weird way. One of my favorite parts was Max describing a frisbee: its like a boomerang, but it doesn't come back.

There are a couple of other Australian films out right now that I'd like to see, but one of them is (I hear) a complete tear-jerker. I guess thats to be expected with a title like "Samson and Delilah". I am hoping to go see "My Year without Sex" sometime in the next few weeks. Its supposed to be really good.

So far, I'm enjoying my SWAT-vac. My adventures have been fun, and I've added a few places to the list. I've made a schdule for my days, and I spend the morning working, and either the afternoon or evening on an adventure. If I'm not adventuring, I do some more study. Its working pretty well.

SWAT Vac!

No, I don't know what SWAT stands for either. But this is my reading period, which is a week long. I'm not really sure what I'm going to do with myself - a whole bunch of my friends went to New Zealand, but I stayed in Melbourne. I'm planning on doing a lot of city-exploring; I already have a couple of destinations in mind. I'm going to go shopping - I have a gift certificate for one of the main department stores, plus directions to a "cute, indie" neighborhood with cute shops and cafes. I also plan to go to several art galleries, some museums, the aquarium, and back to the beach.

Last weekend, I had a tournament in Bathurst, which is in New South Wales. We drove 10.5 hours to get there. Bathurst is about as far away as Sydney, and I think its as close as I'll get to Sydney. Our team was mixed, meaning we played with a 4-3 gender ration - 4 men, 3 women. We won three of our seven games, and came in 7th, breaking seed by two. I had a fantastic time. Two of the other women played for Honey as well, and it was really fun to play with them again. The men were pretty fun to play with as well - they all respected the playing abilities of the women on the field. I'm pretty bummed that this is the only tourney I'll get to play with Moho - the Melbourne Uni team. The major tourney - Uni Games, is a month after I leave, and there are no tournaments between now and then, unfortunately.

Its hard to believe the classes portion of my semester is already over. I leave Australia in 28 days. Its making me feel panicky - I want to get "everything" done before I go, but I also have exams to study for. I'm really excited to go home - my bed is possibly the most wonderful thing ever invented, and I miss my family and friends. But I also suddenly have realized that my time here is short - and getting shorter rapidly. Several of the women I played ultimate with have left to go home - be it Canada, the US, or somewhere in Europe. Others are getting ready to do some major travelling - Annie is going to Nepal, where she's going to hike to the base camp of Everest or something crazy like that. In some ways, its nice that others are leaving as well; it makes it easier to prep to go home emotionally, since most of my friends here are other internationals.