Melbourne is turning out to be a great city. I haven't had the chance to go into the city too many times, but it has been a lot of fun the few times I did go. Last weekend we went twice into the heart of the city. Last Saturday we went to the Victoria Market. I believe it is the largest market in Australia. Unlike the other markets I have been to, it is compiled of different buildings. Each building is home to different shops. So, one building is for all of the meats, another for the produce and so on. We got to the market for the last hour of the day, but had enough time to look around a lot of the shops. After, we headed to Federation Square where we saw an act from the Jazz festival. They were amazing! On Sunday we went back into the city. First, we headed to the Melbourne Cricket Grounds where we watched a footy game. It was a sad display. The Dockers lost by just 6 points, which can turn out to be one goal in footy. They were the first team all season to be defeated by the Demons. Oh well, the two teams are playing agin next week, so Freo has a chance to redeem itself. After the game we went into the city. We went back to Federation Square where the same band from the Jazz Fest was playing. After their act we headed to Chinatown. It was really a really small Chinatown. We had some dinner and then went home. Today we went back to the city to the auquarium. It was soo fun! We saw some amazing fish. The coolest were these huge sting rays. While we were there we got to see a feeding of the sharks and sting rays which was really fun. We had dinner in the city again, this time at The Lord of the Fries -- the best french fries in the world. Haha. And brought our food to eat right outside the big church in town across from Federation Square.

Other than those few trips into the city, all of our time has been spent in Preston. Earlier on this week I went to the mall here for some shopping which was fun, and yesterday we went to the Preston Markets. They don't quite compare to the Vicotia Markets, but it is always fun going around the shops. This Friday John, our professor, took us to see a play. It was a lot of fun. It was a local theater, and the show was really good. Mostly we just hang out in the dull hotel, go to the gym, and walk around the agora on campus, though. It is much harder on the weekdays here to plan events because the city is a half hour away and we don't get home until about 1:30. We do, however, have some big plans for the next few weekends.

The biggest plans of all are for our long weekend. On May 23rd Diana, Mary Beth, Gabby and I are heading to Cairnes (aka the Great Barrier Reef). I am getting really excited for the trip. Especailly aftering seeing the fish today. In a few weeks I will be swimming with them! Yay!