Week Fourteen

WWI Memorial

Sculpture outside the National Gallery of Victoria

Sculpture at Federation Wharf



Me and some of my Australian friends

Hello again eveyone and welcome to my entry for my fourteenth week here in Australia! That means there will be only two more blog entries left after this, so enjoy it while it lasts! Unfortunately, my travels in Australia have come to an end, so there will be no more entertaining posts about my visits to exciting Australian cities or places. However, I can hopefully continue to enlighten my American friends on Australian culture and academia.

As is customary on this blog, I will begin by explaining the interesting photos I've included above. The first photograph is of the WWI memorial that I visited in Melbourne (if you remember last week's post, you'll remember I included a photo of myself on its steps). The next two photos are examples of Melbourne's rich arts scene. The sculpture of the gorilla wearing an interesting head piece was taken at the sculpture garden outside the National Gallery of Victoria, which was unique in that it was also a scent garden filled with unique smells. The second scuplture was an unusual art installation right in the middle of the walkway at Federation Wharf. The final photo is of me and some members of a bible study I've been attending on Monday nights during my time here at CSU.

So, anyways, I figure an update on my recent activities is in order. As I write this, the last full week of class for the semester is commencing, at the conclusion of this week, I will have two weeks of final exams prior to my departure from the "Land Down Under". Just for your information, I leave on the morning of Saturday November 1st (which, incidentally, as I'm crossing the international date line, is also the date of my arrival in the US, despite over 24 hours of travel). So, needless to say, I'm beginning to get slightly stressed; as is normal during the end of any academic semester. However, I have discovered that not having two jobs to occupy my time while attending class affords me ample free time to get my work done so that my stress is far more manageable.

So, the remainder of my time here in Australia will most likely be spent studying and tyring to make the most of the few days I have left. Needless to say, I've been blessed enough to meet some incredible people here and I feel that I've formed some strong, lasting friendships. As I've said before, I find Australian people (particularly here in Wagga) to be generally friendlier and more open than most Americans, so I will definitely miss the kindness and hospitality of the Australian people. Nevertheless, I will admit that as the weeks I've been away from home begin to pile up, I find myself missing my family and loved ones more and more.

Despite this, there are several fun things coming up in the near future. There is a big final bash sort of thing happening this Wednesday which should be (to use a common Australian expression )"heaps good". So on that note, I'll leave you, letting you know that I look forward to sharing my thoughts with you guys next week. In fact, I just came to the realization that next week's post will be my next-to-last entry! Pretty crazy, huh?