My Bee-log =D

Well, it is my second Monday here in Melbourne Australia! I had a really fun weekend so I am posting lots of pics for y'all!

Since I haven't updated in a while, I have to throw in some pics from last week.

This is the group last Wednesday, on the 4th of July! Notice the color scheme- we are showing our American pride.
We are spelling out JULY! Yes... I realize that my J is backwards. It adds personality ok?
After Saleh arrived, early Thursday morning, we took him to Stalactites (my favorite restaurant!!) for dinner. Here we have Michelle's fish face, priceless.
STALACTITES!
Random pic of Stephany at the bottom of the staircase we have to climb each day to get to our rooms.
Me and Steph =D

On Saturday, I woke up at 8 to go running around the park a few blocks down from The Claremont Hotel. Everybody came too, although we couldn't exactly keep up with Saleh and Michelle the whole time. Haha, I have gotten so out of shape! But I am going to try running more while I am here, or I might join the Monash gym right next to the building we work in- I haven't decided yet. It is $55 for only one month... I am not sure if it is worth it or if I will use it enough. Money is tight these days if I want to travel to New Zealand in September! Once we got back from running and showered and such, we headed into downtown Melbourne to explore some more. We went over to the Docklands, but it started raining almost the minute we got off the train. It was a beautiful day in the morning when we ran, but the clouds rolled in and it was gloomy and rainy from about noon on. Booo, I don't like rain.

We didn't stay long at the Docklands, because we were cold and wet, but we did walk down the pier a little bit.
This was a little cafe we stopped at in the Docklands.
A mini!!!! Made me miss Frankie. There are a fair amount of Mini Coopers driving around here, probably about the same as at home, maybe a few more. It would be weird to drive Frankie on the right side of the car though... as they do here.
This is us looking lost, since we got on the wrong train for the first time and it took us the wrong way. It wasn't hard to fix- we just got of on the next stop and switched trains. Still, I blame Saleh being bad luck, since we had been doing so good until he was there! JK Saleh- no worries!

After the Docklands, we went over to St. Kilda beach. It was a really cute town, although we would have enjoyed it a lot more if it hadn't been raining the whole time. We ate at an Italian place and I had some DEEEE-LICIOUS pumpkin gnocchi. Yum!

On Sunday, Liz, Stephany, and I went to Collins Street Baptist Church in the morning. We liked it and I think we are going to go back next week. It was a lot more lively than the church we went to last week, which was good. It was still more traditional and old-fashioned than I am used to, but it was a good service. The main pastor was not there that week, so an associate pastor spoke about "The Spirit and the World."

After church, we went down Chapel Street to the Prahran Market. They had a lot of fresh produce and other foods for sale. I think I will probably go back there soon and get some fruit. They had a nice courtyard in the middle with free face painting for kids, and a lot of cafes.
This girl was so adorable! I felt a little awkward taking a picture of her... but her parents weren't watching lol. Me and Stephany felt like stalkers. Haha, but we just though she was cute! No stalking intended- just to clear our record.
This was one of the entrances to the market.
They had a jazz band playing in the courtyard, which was fun to listen to. We grabbed lunch and sat here for a while.
After the market, we hopped on the train to head to the footy game! Here is all three of us sporting our new scarves. We were supporting the Kangaroos, from North Melbourne. The game was so fun! Definitely my favorite thing we did this weekend.
The Kangaroos! My Australian football team.
Here is Liz and me at the game. We met up with Michelle, Saleh, and our Colombian friends John and Andres at the stadium, and we got tickets for the top (3rd) level. The tickets are general seating, so we didn't have assigned seats.
Here's the whole gang! Australian football is very different from American football. For one, it's called "Footy." It is kind of like a strange mix of football, basketball, soccer, fighting, and ballet haha. They played with a ball that looks similar to a football, and they kick it like a football, but they also throw it and bounce it like a basketball. And they pass it around and shoot for goals like soccer. Random fights break out all the time, and sometimes the players will really go at another opposing player! And the ballet bit came from when they did stretches- they would all line up and swing their legs back and forth- and it looked just like a line of ballet dances warming up haha.
Here's a nice action shot. Can you find the football? It's flying through the air! The Kangaroos are the blue and white ones.
The field was huge! It was a gigantic circle that is 150 meters across in diameter. That's over 492 feet! Each team had 18 players on the field, and most of them play the whole game unless they are injured. And they don't even wear any padding, helmets, or anything! I'm surprised they all don't break their necks, what with all the tackling. Maybe this is similar to rugby? I'm not sure because I have never watched a rugby game. And the game doesn't stop for anything- if someone is injured, the medic guy runs out on the field and helps him while the game is still going! If the coach wants to tell something to a player, he sends out a runner who will go up to that player during the game and tell him the message. They have water runners too who will run out on the field (during play) at random times to give players a drink of water. Really quite amusing!
I don't think Liz realized she was in the picture haha.
Me by the railing before the game started, with my awesome Kangaroo scarf!
And again. Our seats were only about 3 rows back from the railing.
The Richmond Tigers' sign that they ran through when they came onto the field. (Boooo Tigers!)
The Kangaroos' sign that they ran through. (I was rather disappointed when the teams ran through the sign- they barely broke the very bottom of the sign, and a lot of them just ducked under it)
The mascots getting ready to rumble...
Huge pompoms that were as big as me!!! They would wave them around every time their team made a goal, or if they were trying to distract the opposing team from making a goal.
The Kangaroo pompoms! They must have been at least 5 feet tall, probably more. I wanted one.
Our meat pies that we ate at half time. They were good! Apparently you are supposed to eat them with ketchup but I was not brave enough.
Me and Liz with our meat pies.
The total attendance at the game.
The final score- the Kangaroos won! Yeah!! And in celebration, let's sing the North Melbourne anthem one more time!

Join in the chorus, and sing it one and all!
Join in the chorus, North Melbourne's on the ball.
Good old North Melbourne, they're champions you'll agree!
North Melbourne is the team that plays to win for you and me!

Haha, Kangaroos won 104 to 79. The 14.20 shows the number of goals and then the number of points scored. So the Kangaroos scored 14 goals (each goal is worth 6 points), and 20 points. Hence 104 total! A goal is when they kick the ball through the two middle posts, and a point is scored if they kick the ball through the outer posts.
Saleh doing his victory dance for the Kangaroos.

The huge crowds leaving the stadium headed towards the train station.
So many people!
Saleh, Liz, and Stephany. (Saleh was filming everything he could on his fancy new video camera)
The crowds trying to get on the train.
Our whole group! The night was so much fun.A funny sign on the train.

After we got back, we started playing cards. John and Andres joined us, along with 3 other people staying at the Claremont who were also studying at Monash University. We had a huge group, and we played this game that Saleh taught us where you make animal noises and try not to have the most cards at the end. It was hilarious.

So, now I am back at Monash. I finally got the model I am using to run when I close my computer- which means it can run overnight and finish the computations, which take over a day to complete, so that it good! Now I am trying to register with Continuity so that I can save changes to the heart model, but it is having some problems. So it is on to the next technical difficulty for me! Haha, don't you just love computers? Oy.

I am really enjoying my time here, and I am starting to feel like I fit in a bit better now. I learned how to say my name with an Australian accent! Anyway, all prayers and thoughts (and letters? =D) are appreciated! Cheers mates!

Heather