Almost Vacation Time!

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Hi guys. I thought I would give a quick update seeing as I haven’t written in so long. Contrary to the rumors going around I have not been kidnapped by a gang of renegade kangaroos. I have been extremely busy with school the past month or so. I have about 3 weeks of classes left, then a couple of weeks off before exams. Luckily I only have 2 exams this semester, which isn’t too bad, but I have 4 major papers due by the end of the month. I forgot how stressful school can be! Besides being busy, I haven’t updated because I haven’t really done anything exciting. Just study and hang out with friends. I hope to go on a couple of trips in late June and early July, down to the Great Ocean Road then north to Sydney and maybe Queensland. I was going to go to Vietnam and Cambodia between semesters, but that fell through.
I have been spending a lot of time in the city, and finally know my way around all the suburbs. Melbourne city’s center really isn’t that big, but its surrounding suburbs are situated so that they might as well be considered part of they city. We have been hanging out a lot on Lygon Street in Carlton lately. It’s pretty much “little Italy”, so besides lots of good and cheap restaurants it also has a great independent cinema and most importantly a Starbucks!
I took the foreign service exam a couple of weekends ago at the American Consulate. I don’t know how well I did seeing as I did not prepare for it, but we will see in July. I did meet some fellow Americans studying over here which was nice. I am the only American in my course so it was nice to hear the accent and compare experiences.
Went for a night cruise down the yarra, which was pretty neat, especially since it was free. The city is gorgeous at night all lit up, unfortunately not all of my pics turned out. I am going to try to move with 2 friends closer to the city after exams, hopefully around Richmond, which is an inner-suburb right next to the city. Anyway promise to do something more exciting soon. Let me know how you are doing.

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Photos

Yarra at Night
A look across the river from Southbank

Me & "Frenchie"
My friend, Sylvie, from France. As a joke I refer to her as my "freedom" friend instead of my French friend.

Kristina & Arman
Kristina (Aussie) and Arman (Bangladeshi) are the class clowns of the IR group. They can always be found either chatting online or wherever the wine is.

US Veterans at ANZAC Parade
ANZAC Day is Australia's version of Memorial Day. I spotted this group of American veterans during the parade. It is a pretty big holiday over here, the city pretty much shut down.

Flinders Street Station
A look at Flinders Street Station from our cruise on the Yarra.

Studying Hard
Contrary to what the other pictures may lead u to believe, I am doing some work. Rish, Martha, and I have a presentation on genocide in Sudan for our International Humanitarian Law class this week. It is actually quite interesting, I am also doing a paper on the subject for my human rights class.

Comments

[anonymous]

LOOKS GOOD
JODI YOU ARE KILLING ME WITH ALL THE NICE SHOTS SAVE SOME FOR ME ,BE CAREFULL,MISS YA - JOHN HENRY

[anonymous]

Yea, you're alive!
Thanks for the update. It's good to see things are going well. Good luck with exams! - Patricia

[anonymous]

Hmmmmmmm
Wicked site, nice pic's of oz and Rish (hehehe) good luck with the protest on Thursday. - Chevy

[Lisa]

Love the pics
It is good to see that you are having a great experience there and have met what looks like very fun,interesting people :).