The Last Week Approaches...

It seems like just a few days ago I was sitting here in the library making one of my first posts to review and summarize my trip. I can't believe it is now only 5 more days until we will be leaving, and about 7 until I'll be back at home and classes will be cranking up. The trip truly has flown by, but I intend to make the best of this last week.

Things have been really busy the last few days, so I haven't had much of a time to do any updates. We have been going to the La Trobe University which is about an hour tram/bus drive from the hostel. We are staying till the mid-afternoon and then either hanging around there or doing some kind of evening activity. Last week we had the chance to go to La Trobe's first Student Life meeting of the semester, which was basically some get-to-know-you games and just socializing time. There were 8 or 10 students and staff there so that was encouraging to see. La Trobe's campus is very active during the late morning and early afternoon, so it's a fun campus to be on. There are lots of booths set up with clubs advertising and trying to rope in new members. Most of last week was doing our specific outreach days at RMIT City and La Trobe, and then some standard days of going to campus and doing Soulariums and meeting with follow-ups.

On Friday we left campus a little bit early because we were going to meet up with some Australian guys to play Aussie Rules Football. We had been practicing some with Geoff and Pat(2 of the 1-year missionaries from the States, who happened to both graduate from Tech) and had learned some of the basics. We also met some guys at La Trobe who gave us some pointers. It's crazy how natural they made things look that were really challenging for us, but I guess the same would apply if they came to the U.S. and tried to pick up on our football with no previous experience. We got to the park and there weren't many Aussie guys there, but they continued to show up as time went on and we finally had enough to make a relatively even game(we figured it would be more fair if the American team had a couple of extras anyway). Once the game started, all the strategy and planning we had done basically went out the window and we were just running around crazily. It was lots of fun and although we lost, we actually had the lead for a good portion of the game and I was impressed we could even compete. The game is exhausting and requires an insane amount of endurance. Playing a semi-real game of it definitely gave me a better appreciation for the professionals we had watched at the MCG.

After footy the project guys and the two STINT guys(Pat and Geoff) went to the Crown Hotel to eat at their all-you-can-eat buffet. We have been saving for the whole trip so we decided to start the last week off right with the $26 buffet. The spread of food was amazing and definitely worth it. After that we headed over to the guy's house and watched The Castle, supposedly the most famous Australian movie. It's kind of like Napolean Dynamite but really just stupid and funny. Not the type of movie critics would like, but I definitely found it entertaining, and we heard we HAD to see it sometime while we were here.

Yesterday(Saturday), we got to sleep in a bit and headed to a place called Green for breakfast. I got banana pancakes which were delicious and got to try alot of different coffee drinks that different people from the group had gotten. Everything there was delicious. That afternoon we met up with a guy from Monash(another University in Melbourne) and Josh, Evan, and I went to the Melbourne Aquarium. It was a pretty standard aquarium but they have a new penguin exhibit which made it worth while. We happened to be there during a feeding time so that was pretty special too. After that, we went to a place called Thalia Thai for dinner. I've only had thai a few times but I've liked it each time. This stuff was the best I've had. I got a chicken paad thai and it was really good. The portions were huge and most of the girls had enough to take home for a second meal. After dinner, we went to a jazz club near where we're staying called Manchester. There was a live 8 piece jazz band there and a dance floor up in the front. It was really cool to just relax and enjoy the music. It was dim-lit and the stereotypical jazz club atmosphere. There were some older couples that had some awesome dance moves and were lots of fun to watch.

Today(Sunday) we slept in again and then went down to the Queen Victoria Market. I won't include too many details here to ruin any surprises, but the market has lots of good deals and some pretty authentic stuff. Tonight we are headed back to the Docklands church. I'm excited for tonight because there is some sort of scholar coming to preach this week....it should be pretty good.

The plan for this week is going to be tiresome, but I guess I have plenty of time to rest on the plane ride. We're going to RMIT Bundoora tomorrow, then Tuesday will be a day to meet with any last contacts we have. Wednesday we are going to La Trobe, and then Thursday will be a wrap up day and preparing all of our stuff to turn over to the Australians. We leave early Friday morning(around 10) and get to LA at 7 on Friday morning..that will be weird. I think the plan is to stay up most of the night on Thursday, but as good as the entertainment selection is on Qantas, I may end up sleeping Thursday and staying up the entire flight taking advantage of the free movies!

I may not be able to update again while in Australia, so if that is the case, I'll definitely do a wrap up entry or 2 once I'm back at home. I've enjoyed doing this again this summer and it is definitely useful for trying to remember all the many activities. Things are going well for the group...people are getting over sicknesses and everyone is still getting along just fine. I think we have had a really good group for the trip and it's been nice to not have any serious issues. Anyway, my time is running out of the computer so I'm going to head out for now. Talk to you all soon, and possibly back in the US!