Day 22: Modern Architecture Exposed

Today began like many days, waking up around 9:00am. I spent time doing some online research of buildings in Melbourne that might satisfy case study requirements. Specifically, I was attempting to find contact information in order to set up a technical tour of a building and have a point of reference upon return to Auburn. Reel was attempting to contact Clive to get a technical tour of the Convention Centre while I was looking into getting tours of The Gauge, a building right across the river from the Convention Centre. (Attempting to have options!) Through a process of several phone calls, I ended up leaving a message with a facilities manager requesting a tour for 3 students and 1 professor. After I made this call, it was time to head downstairs to meet up with the full group and start the day's activities.

We left around 12:30pm from the Village and headed off on foot in the direction of the RMIT campus. Today we would be meeting up with one of Professor Hein's friends who studied under the same professor at Princeton. Once we made it to our usual room, he met to go over the planned events. Professor Hein's friend, who is native Australian currently living in Melbourne (though he taught for several years at Virginia Tech), entertained many questions we had concerning the building industry and customs here in Australia. He was full of knowledge and also seemed to have a huge network of connections within the Melbourne construction industry. Several folks (possibly me) will be in contact with him to conduct literary research and to obtain references pertaining to thesis topics.

After the question and answer session Professor Hein's friend led us on a tour of the RMIT campus, which was actually much larger than I originally realized. As we walked around, I took a couple of pictures. Many of the buildings on campus are examples of adaptive reuse of older buildings like the jail and an old court room. Here's a look:

Former Jail

After the campus tour, we came back to the previous room to grab our hard hats and safety vests. We were headed to a building directly across the street that is currently under construction and will be an education facility for RMIT. We had about 20 minutes of time to kill before the construction management team was expecting us on site, so we took a break in the downstairs cafeteria. I didn't purchase anything, though I did learn not to sleep in the RMIT cafeteria. Not from first hand experience, but from seeing a security guard get ticked off at a man who was sleeping while sitting up at one of the booth tables. Apparently if you get caught twice sleeping in the cafeteria, your swipe card is revoked. Good thing this is not a policy at Auburn...

Anyway, after the short break we wandered over to the construction site and met the construction team personnel who showed us through the multiple story education building. Perhaps the most sophisticated way to properly describe this building is an expression of modern architecture. However, I prefer to call things the way I see it - it was downright some of the craziest and most complicated architecture I have ever seen. I think it is hard to describe in words the immense complexity with which each room and each facade was designed. Basically, walls were going everywhere, both interior and exterior, that took sharp angles along all three axes (x, y, z) with absolutely no repetition anywhere of any angles. It seemed like quite a nightmare to build, but the work that had been completed looked great. Color options and finishes were just as complicated and non-repetitive. Anything from carpet, polished concrete, metal coated in paint used for cars, to artificial turf (and everything in-between) had been chosen by the architects. The front atrium had been design to look like a tree from the side (a representation of the tree that originally stood directly outside, but, to the architects utter dismay, had been cut down during site development. Haha!) and was clad in panels of various shades of green. I took a few pictures to better describe the architecture, so here is a look:

The tree interpretation

Top profile view of tree interpretation design

Under the "Tree" Atrium

More oddly angled walls

The tour of the building was really enjoyable and when it was over we thanked the construction team for their time before heading back to turn in our hard hats and safety vests.

We went back to the Village just after 5:00pm via the tram and I had originally planned to do some work before going to catch some live music at the Night Market. (The same market where I bought my hat the first day!) However, I had been feeling slightly under the weather all day (despite medicine) and decided to rest instead. Some three hours later I woke up to find the few people who had ventured over to the Night Market returning, so I went back in my room and continued to research and post blogs. A little bit later in the evening many folks met up with the RMIT RA's and we spent some time hanging out and enjoying the evening. After some time, I went back up to my room, checked facebook, and fell asleep wondering what surprises Anoop might plan for tomorrow!

Day 21: Melbourne Convention Centre = Mind Blown

More site visits with RMIT today! I woke up around 9:00am this morning to take a shower and get ready for the day ahead. We weren't leaving for the site visits until later in the morning, so I had some time to catch up on facebook and I actually managed to get a blog completed before heading off downstairs to meet up with the group.

Everyone had congregated in the small cafe at the Village (just beside the entrance), so I went inside to wait for Anoop to give the signal to leave. While I waited, I got to thinking about lunch options (it was nearing midday) when Anoop said RMIT would not be providing lunch for us as they did yesterday. I had eaten breakfast not long ago, so I wasn't particularly hungry. To keep from getting hungry during our site visits, I decided to buy a tea and a small apple cinnamon muffin. After I payed for the small snack, Anoop gave the signal to head out.

We ended up going straight to the site instead of meeting first at the RMIT campus. The first site was the Melbourne Convention Centre which was already completed and occupied. Upon approach, I thought I recognized the name of the building from research I have done concerning 6 Star Green Star Rated buildings in Melbourne, so I was excited that this building could potentially serve as a case study option in Melbourne for my thesis!

We arrived at the Convention Centre that sits alongside the Yarra River in the Docklands precinct of Melbourne and met a staff member of RMIT at the entrance. About 5 minutes later, a man named Clive showed up and introduced himself as our tour guide. Without further ado, we began our tour! (I managed to leave my camera in my room at the Village (of course), so I was not able to take any pictures during the tour.) In his opening statements about the building, Clive confirmed what I thought I remembered - the Convention Centre is indeed a 6 Star building!

Clive took us all over the massive Centre and each time we entered a new room, I was amazed. (Along with everyone else on the tour.) The attention to detail in the design of each space was absolutely incredible. Any size group that could possible need to have a convention or meeting could find a space that they could customize to fit their numbers. (This avoids a convention of, say, 200 beam line scientists meeting in an auditorium built for 5,000.) Rooms (no matter how large or small) were fully equipped with a full assortment of A/V connections and the lights in the ceiling could even be customized to shine a corporate colors on the walls. Floor access to A/V controls were every 9 meters throughout the entire front of house, allowing the possibility for a convention to setup hundreds of displays outside the meeting rooms. Basically, the Centre was designed to house multiple convention simultaneously (whether local, national, international - regardless of size), without any conventions overlapping space and interfering with each other.

Great care had gone into the design of the interior environment and I was thoroughly impressed by the level of detail that the architects had gone to in order to make the building multifaceted, multi-functional, and easily adaptable as need arises.

This level of detail continued, as Clive took us to the "Back of House" so we could see how the building staff operates behind the scenes. The design of the building ensured that nothing from the back of house (like food trolleys or janitor carts) ever came into contact with the front of house. Moreover, each banquet room is serviced by some 32 kitchens (each serviced from the master kitchen) and food is designed to take no longer than 1 minute to reach a table from the time it leaves the kitchen. The kitchen area was a marvel in itself. The necessity to separate clean from dirty and still maintain proximity kitchen-to-kitchen through the multiple floors of the buildings had been satisfied with a circular motion design. Every morsel of food served is prepared fresh in the kitchens (that master chefs can have up to 10 ovens and setup their space however they like, which is different from chef to chef), including pastries which are made in the pastry kitchen. The dish washing area was incredibly extensive and even included microchips (linked to a control computer) in each dish container that can tell the staff the location of each container at any time.

Continuing through the back of house, we saw truck lifts and truck doors in the building that would enable Mercedes, for instance, to drive a show car up to the back of the building and within 5 minutes have it displayed (with custom lighting) on the third floor of the Centre.

I could ramble on for hours about the features of the Centre, but I will stop at the explanation above. Clive provided us with a great marketing tour of the building and we were much appreciative of his time and knowledge. Unfortunately we were not able to see any of the technical aspects of the building (like the solar panel system on the roof and blackwater recycling system) that Reel, Jay, and I need for our theses, but I definitely enjoyed the tour. Clive left each of us with a hardbound book that went into detail about how the project was delivered (Public Private Partnership) before heading out to the next item on his agenda.

We did not linger long after the tour of the Convention Centre, as RMIT had scheduled another site tour (this time a building under construction). We took a tram to this site, which turned out to be another high rise apartment building. This building only had the structural system of a few floors (out of around 22 floors) completed, but we were given a full tour and explanation of the project by the management team. The building seemed to be typical, except for the location of the tower crane, which had been strategically positioned in the middle of the building to save site space. The portion of the building that it created a whole in was designed to only go up three floors (the rest of the building would continue 22 levels), so after the crane services are complete, only three floors will have to be filled in. Everyone was able to ask questions and after only about an hour we were done with site visiting for the day!

A little tired from all the walking around, we returned (via tram) to the Village (Why hello camera, nice of you not to tag along to the sites...), at which time I took a wonderful nap. I woke up around 7:00pm and decided to head out to the grocery store to stock up on some more food instead of eating out at a restaurant. I walked a few blocks down the street to the Coles Central, as it was the only open grocery store close to the Village. Realizing I had not taken any pictures yet to include in the blog, I brought my camera along. (Yeah I brought my camera to the grocery store...) I actually did manage to get a neat picture though, as the Central mall has a massive dome that was built around a tall smoke stack (or some kind of chimney) of an old Shot Glass Factory. Here is a picture of the dome, looking up from underneath:

Groceries in hand, I returned to my room to heat up some Chunky Soup.  Dinner was wonderful, especially since the soup was only A$4 and the apple and milk were also inexpensive. I checked my email after dinner to see that Professor Olsen, who is teaching the Construction Law course this semester at Auburn, had emailed the students currently abroad to provide us a copy of the syllabus and a link to the video of the first class period. I was pretty tired, but I decided to go ahead and watch the video and not procrastinate. It was only a little over 27 minutes long, which was great because my attention span after a full day was quite short. When the video ended, I saved my notes and then crawled into bed to get some sleep. Another great day Down Under!

Day 20: Site Visit & The Australian Open

After a day of catching up on work, it was time to get back to group activities! I slept until around 9:30am at which time I got up to fix breakfast and get my day started. I met the group downstairs around 10:45am and we headed in the direction of the RMIT campus a few blocks further in the direction of downtown Melbourne.

We found the correct building without difficulty and RMIT had a staff representative there to show us up to the correct floor. Once there, a few more introductions occurred, but conversation did not carry on too long, as lunch had been catered to the room! An assortment of sandwiches and fruit along with orange juice and water made for a tasty meal. Here's a few shots of the inside of their construction education building. It is quite "modern," but really neat-looking:

Student Lounge Area

Back of Student Lounge

RMIT provided each member of our group with a safety vest and hard hat and after a short meeting where the RMIT staff explained to us a about their university and how it operates (It is made for students to come a few days a week for classes and still hold a job part-time.), we were off to the first site!

The first site was a high rise apartment building that housed retail on the ground floor and sat adjacent to a massive stadium. The construction management team gave us a detailed tour of the building (under construction) and we were able to see several different floors - each at various levels of completion. As the tour continued, we learned that many people who live within the city of Melbourne choose to live in small apartments like the ones currently under construction. As far as the project we toured, there were very few options given to the tenants in regard to the finishes they could have placed in their unit. (All but 10 or so of 314 units had been sold before the project started.) The only color choices were light or dark. Everything else came standardized. Another important note is that many buildings in Melbourne (and Australia as a whole) are not air conditioned. As far as these apartments went, a small split unit air conditioning system was installed in each living room, but only to supply air to the main common room, not the bedrooms or bathrooms. Air conditioning is definitely something we have become accustomed to in America, but here in Australia it seems to be used minimally, with buildings designed to allow for more natural ventilation techniques. This helps to conserve energy, but also aids in creating a natural quality to the indoor living environment. Here are some pictures I took around the site:

View of the Yarra River from the roof

On the Roof!

After the interesting site tour, we headed back to the Village to clean up and get ready for an exciting evening - The Australia Open Tennis Championship! Anoop had purchased tickets our first day in Melbourne and tonight we would be seeing Roger Federer (A 3 seed in the tournament, but arguably one of the greatest tennis players of all time) and Caroline Wozniacki (Current #1 women's player in the world.) We left just before 5:00pm to head over to Rod Laver Arena to catch the action, though the match was not until 7:00pm. We spent the extra time wondering around the shops and eating places before the doors were opened in the arena for seating. Here's the view from our seats:

Today was actually the first day of the event, so there was a brief concert before Roger Federer came out for the first match of the evening. His opponent was a qualifier who perhaps only avid tennis followers would even recognize. It was his first Australia Open match, and he held his own against Federer in the first set, but Federer won anyway, 7-5. After that, Federer took care of business and won in straight sets. Here are some action shots I took during the game:

After Federer's match ended, many fans left, including a group of fans dressed in Swiss gear who chanted for Roger after every game he won. Entertaining! The fans that left missed out on Caroline Wozniacki's match that was played a few minutes after Federer's ended. She played a local Australian player, which aroused a continual chorus of cheers from the Australian faithful throughout the match. Their cheers did not will the Aussie on to victory though, as Wozniacki took care of business in straight sets, 6-2 6-1.

It was around 11:00pm when the matches ended and I found myself with a variety of transportation options. I could get in line and wait for the tram (a painfully slow wait), get in the line of 200 or so and wait for a taxi (painfully expensive), or take the short 30 minute walk back to the Village. I chose to walk, as did many other people. The walk followed the Yarra River bank for part of the way before I branched off in a new direction at Federation Square. I made it back to the Village safely, but completely worn out from the day's activities. I took a shower and fell asleep to rejuvenate for another day!

Day 19: Work Day

Work day! Today turned out to be fairly uneventful as far as interesting things to blog about. I woke up a few minutes before 11:00am and ate breakfast, then immediately started working on the blog. I caught up on several postings and loaded tons of pictures, as well as a couple of videos. I also spent a couple of hours doing the temporary structures case study for Brisbane. I did have a couple of endeavors during the day which included an attempt to use the coffee maker to make sweet tea. This turned out "ok," but nothing to write home about. The tea bags here taste much different than what we buy in our grocery stores back home in the states.

I took a small break for dinner and walked down a couple of blocks to Subway. I picked up a sandwich, ate there, and then headed back to work on some more videos for the blog.

Brittany and I had devo over Skype for the first time in a couple of weeks, which was awesome! Just before we skyped, I took a walk around the RMIT Village and took a couple of photos so I would have some photos for this post. Here is a look at some pictures around the Village:

RMIT Study/Lounge

"Gym"

Reception Area

Village Pool

Looking from inside at the front entrance

My balcony is the first green one, second floor, from left!

All in all today was a successful work day! I was fairly tired by the end, and fell asleep somewhere around midnight, looking forward to starting another day!

Day 18: The Twelve Apostles?

Dang it! Who typed a question mark on the Teleprompter?! For the last time, anything you put on that prompter, Burgandy will read!

Hello and welcome to another exciting day in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia!! After reading several of my postings, I realized that many of them start basically the same way. So, in the spirit of mixing things up, I decided a quote from Anchorman referencing the day's title would suffice not only as a better introduction to the day, but also provide relevance to the day's experiences! Off we go!

I slept in until 6:30am this morning and quickly dressed, grabbed a bottle of water and the last two hot cross buns I had brought with me from Brisbane, and met the group for our 7:00am departure on The Twelve Apostles Drive. I was sure what to expect today, as I only knew "The Twelve Apostles" was a reference to some sort of rock formation off the coast. Our trip would last until 9:00pm though, so I assumed a variety of things would be involved during the 14 hour day.

Anoop had rented us a 21 passenger bus and driver to pick us up at the RMIT Village and drive us all along the coast of Victoria up to view the Twelve Apostles. We piled in the bus and we were on our way! The going was slow, as the road twisted and turned following the Australian coastline (sometimes within a few feet of the clifftop edge), but we gradually meandered our way across the rugged terrain to various tourist destinations. The group enjoyed the scenic tour, but I don't think it  is too amiss to remark that our driver had some trouble shifting through the gears through the mountains (we came to complete stops on inclines at times) and I don't think we reached any speed equivalent or over 40 mph until we headed back for Melbourne on the freeway. However, let me slow down a bit and show some pictures of the Australian bush we passed by along the way to our destinations. It was hard to find openings in the vegetation wide enough to snap a decent photograph, but here are some shots I managed to take:

The farms here are absolutely gorgeous, complete with plenty of fat cattle and sheep, maybe even a llama with wild roos and koalas running about! I would like to further remark that these pictures fail to do the countryside justice - the experience and vistas here are incredible!


After a few hours we stopped for lunch in Apollo Bay, where a few of us ventured into a local eatery. I ended up getting fried tempura barramundi (a local Australian fish) and chips (aka fries) and my meal was less than spectacular. The fish itself was edible, but the batter it was fried in (tempura batter apparently) was far from being one of my favorites. Will had a chicken sandwich with chicken that looked more like dough (apparently it was not edible) and Andrew had a hamburger that ended up being (quite literally) a section of meatloaf with ketchup topping placed between two hamburger buns. All in all it was probably the worst meal of the trip, but an interesting experience as tourists nonetheless. A few folks enjoyed some world-renowned, award winning gelatto (I decided to not spend any more money in the small town) before we loaded back up and were on our way again. Trading stories with some of the other people, it was apparent that we picked up the short end of the lunch stick, as most of the other people on the bus had enjoyed great lunches.

The journey continued, but once we started arriving at tourist spots, it was only a matter of minutes before we arrived at the next. Here are some photos of the various places we were privileged to see along the coast. All of the views were absolutely breathtaking!:

Split Point - First stop (before lunch)

Split Point Lighthouse

"Unstable Cliffs"

The Famous "Twelve Apostles" - some of the brethren have washed away...

Had to hold my hat on - gusty winds!

 Seaside Seaweed Art

Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the views and getting to walk down on the beach. The sand here is more brown than in the gulf states, but it was incredibly soft!

We took a much shorter and faster route back to Melbourne along the freeway. We ended up getting back to the Village at 7:00pm because we did not stop and eat dinner as previously planned. I went up to my room and spent some time catching up on facebook, then took a short nap. About 8:30pm I left my room and found that everyone, except Patrick, had left for dinner, so the two of us decided to head out and find dinner and a grocery store. We grabbed a sandwich at Subway and then went in search of the Coles at Central Station. There was a Coles sign outside the train station (central station is actually a huge mall area that happens to have the train station in the basement), but it took us 10-15 minutes to navigate the mall and find it. Groceries for breakfast in hand, we set off back towards the Village.

I went back to my room with the intentions of catching up on some blogging, but soon decided to check facebook. About a half hour later I ventured out of my room and joined a few of the folks a couple rooms down. We hung out on the balcony area (sipping on some UK Dr. Pepper) and checked out some of "The You Tubes." We shared funny stories of things that had happened in the past (somewhat relative to the videos of the 1 hour milk challenge) and overall had a pretty relaxing and enjoyable time.

Fairly tired, I headed back to my room and hit the hay. Any intentions of working tonight would have to wait. We had no events scheduled for tomorrow, so I decided tomorrow would be designated as a work day! With that theory, I fell asleep - no alarm set!!

Day 17: Melbourne - War Eagle Moment!!

Today's adventures began early for me, around 5:45am - a short night! I was well rested from previous nights though, so I wasn't too groggy or anything when I woke up. We were leaving the hotel at 7:00am to leave for the Brisbane airport to make our JetStar flight (great...) that headed out around 9:30am. I had to pack my entire backpack and duffel bag since I had washed all my clothes the night before. I quickly rolled all my clothes up and placed them in the backpack (After doing this multiple times now, I'm really getting the hang of it!), loaded up all my electronic equipment, checked hopefully for any Dr. Pepper's left in the fridge (none), and made last minute looks everywhere before heading downstairs to meet the group at 7:00am sharp!

We took a large taxi (Maxi Taxi as they are called here) which could fit 6 people or so and we left for the airport. The check-in line for JetStar was very small, so I made it to the counter to check my backpack within a matter of minutes. Of course, I had problems. Andrew had called ahead and changed our flight to allow for checked baggage, but only a 10kg allowance. My backpack weighed in at 14.1kg and thus the attendant informed me that I would have to pay A$15 per kilo over the limit, totalling at A$60. I wasn't exactly thrilled, but I decided not to throw a fit, as it was obvious from the way the clerk told me about the fee that she hated having to be the one to follow through with this JetStar policy. She actually thanked me for not making a scene (I suppose this happens regularly) and agreed with me when I noted JetStar's "low fares" motto and how it hides the fact that they get their money in baggage fees. Anyway, I walked over to another counter where I could pay the A$60 fee and had just handed the new clerk my credit card when the clerk I had previously worked with ran over and told me that Matt (another study abroad member included in the group ticket) was 3 kilos under and so it sufficiently covered my backpack's excess weight, so I would not have to pay! Thoroughly relieved I thanked her for the help and continued on to security. I had no problems getting through security, which I'm pretty sure might be the most lax airport security in the world. I didn't have to take off my shoes, remove anything (except my cellphone) from my pockets, or take off my belt or hat. I commented to the security person about how different security was here in Australia relative to America, to which she replied, "Yea, we don' strip ye down and rob ye of ye dignity!" I proceeded on to our gate (which was directly behind the security area) and sipped on a smoothy (breakfast!) while waiting with the group for the flight.

The time eventually came for our flight to board (I got a window seat this time!) and within a few minutes we were flying high above the Australian continent, headed in the direction of Melbourne! I was hoping to see some of the Outback desert, but we never crossed any part of it, only "the bush" which is what they call what we Americans know as the country - grassy plains, rolling hills, and trees scattered here and there. Here's a look from my airplane window!

The Australian "bush"

After a couple of hours in the air and crossing over a time zone (back to the same time zone as
Sydney - 17 hours ahead of Central Time in America) we landed safely in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. I would like to note here that out of all the cities we plan to visit, I was most excited about Melbourne! I'm not exactly sure why (Perhaps the way you pronounce the name - "Mel-bun" with the "bun" part softer than the "Mel" syllable - or maybe because this city is highly touted as innovative and "different" on the Internet.), but I was totally stoked to finally be here! Walking out of the airport provided further relief, as a fresh wind was blowing with temperatures in the upper 60's, low 70's!! This sure beats 90-100 degree weather in Brisbane!! (We are told a heat wave is coming Monday though, today is Friday.) We set off in taxis again from the airport to our destination at RMIT Village, 5-17 Flemington Road, VIC, North Melbourne. This address excited me, as 5-17 is my birth date! Anyway, we drove about 30 minutes and pulled up outside of the Village. After walking in and seeing the place, everyone was congratulating Anoop on a "job well done" for finding this place! RMIT is a University here in Melbourne and this was a portion of the student housing facilities. Each room holds 2 occupants. When you walk in the door, you enter the kitchen (all amenities save a dishwasher) with the bathroom on the left. A little further along is a small area where a large closet and cubby area exists on each side (one for each occupant). Then the room splits in half to create a room (with moving doors as walls) on each side that has a bed, tv (only a select few channels), a desk area, more storage space, and access to the internet via the provided Ethernet cable. Internet is the same price as in Sydney (A$10 for 1GB of data), but after the ridiculous prices in Brisbane for Internet, everyone was relieved. Here's a couple of photos I took of the place. (There is a nice courtyard area you can view from the balcony that has a nice pool.) :

We took a few minutes to get situated, then headed off to get some lunch before meeting again as a group around 2pm. We left as a group and started walking down Elizabeth Street in search of something suitable for lunch. At the beginning of the walk, all we passed were car dealerships (including Ford, Lexus, and Toyota), but eventually we came across the Victoria Marketplace. We walked inside and found ourselves in the food court area (Perfect!) and took a few minutes to check out each of the places to eat. None of the eateries were chains and included a variety of sandwich options and Indian food. I kept venturing into the Delicatessen area (which was a massive area of many shops that had all types of raw meats and cheeses imaginable for sale) before going back to the food court have a second go-around with Indian Food. I had a nice plate of Lamb and Spinach curry over steamed rice and it was wonderful! (No side effects later!) The lamb was cooked to perfection (no doubt slow cooked in a crock pot, or something similar) and practically fell apart and melted in my mouth, but not on my fork! A few of us ate outside and as we ate, we saw a huge Fresh Market across the street that looked like a huge farmer's market. Pleasantly full, we ventured over to take a gander at the items for sale.

The Fresh Market is a splendid place! There are hundreds of different vendors in the multi-block area selling not only every type of fresh fruits and vegetables imaginable, but also everything from live poultry (baby ducklings and chicks), Australian style hats (I purchased a nice kangaroo leather hat for a good price!) and jackets to homemade jewelry, art, shirts, and dresses. This place was packed with people! The feel of the market was so different than anything I have experienced in the states. For the first time since arriving in Australia, everything around me (people, shops, culture, food, etc.) seemed like an entirely different country than America. So exciting!

It was nearing the time of the entire group meeting up, so we headed back in the direction of the Village. I was most proud of my kangaroo leather hat. I visited a moment with the guy who operated the hat shop and learned the proper way to wear the hat, including how to shape it so that when it rains, rainwater runs off the hat. It is squishy, too, so it travels well and also came with a nice small bag to use for transportation.

We gathered as a group and headed off to Federation Square and the Royal Botanic Gardens (of course!) in downtown Melbourne. Anoop had purchased tram and bus passes for everyone for the week, so we walked down the block to the nearest tram station to take a tram to downtown. The tram was packed with people and within a few minutes we had made it to our destination. (Along the way I would like to make a special note of a sign in the window of a store that said "Dr. Pepper - 24pack for $29.95" - however, this may be the only place selling the real Dr. Pepper and I don't need a 24 pack just for a few days...) Anyway, here are some pictures I took of the Federation Square and downtown Melbourne area:

We took in the sights at Federation Square for a few minutes while Anoop went off to locate and purchase the group tickets to the Australian Open! He was successful, just A$60 per ticket for Monday evening!! We then ventured on to see more of the city, including several garden areas that led up to entering the Royal Botanic Gardens. These garden areas (which seem to be in every large city) are quite massive, but the one here in Melbourne provides a nice sense of peace and serenity even though it is in the middle of the city. It's massive acreage makes the middle area with ponds and lakes quite enjoyable and all the noise and hubbub from the city is completely muted. Here's a look at the gardens we strolled through:

After enjoying a short rest beside the pond (shown directly above) that had moving islands (they were really neat!), we headed off in search of dinner. The majority of the students went off in search of dinner, but I stayed behind to ask Professor Hein a question concerning temporary structures class. This was significant in the fact that it ended up leaving me and the professors heading to dinner. (Emily showed up a short time later and joined the group for dinner.) We walked back to the downtown area through the sports complex section of town (Melbourne hosted the 1956 Olympic Games) and enjoyed a nice walk (except for having to fight large crowds headed the opposite direction to the rugby game) along the Yarra River that meanders its way through the city. We ended up eating at a nice Italian place in a highly populated restaurant alleyway. I had a chicken caesar salad, which was delicious! We were almost done with the meal when a lady came up behind me and yelled "War Eagle!" (I was wearing my drumline jacket that has a large AU logo on the back.) She briefly explained how excited she was to find people from America in Melbourne. She left just as quickly (all we had time to say was "War Eagle!" back) and from observation it seemed that she was supposed to be working as a server or hostess of one of the restaurants.

Excited about having a so-called "War Eagle Moment," we started walking back in the direction of the Village. Karen, Hein, and Emily all stopped to wait on a tram while Anoop and I continued on foot. (It was only a little over a mile walk.) I needed to visit the ATM and Anoop was looking for a grocery store to purchase some tea bags. We found an ATM, but oddly enough never found a grocery store. We arrived back at the hotel after running in 7-Eleven (they are everywhere here and sell tea bags) to find the front desk personnel closing up shop. I inquired about nearby grocery stores and they mentioned the Fresh Market, an IGA, and a 24-hour Coles in the bottom of Central Station. The Fresh Market was closed already when we had passed, but Anoop and I had passed Central Station and somehow missed the sign for Coles. Oh well, an adventure for tomorrow!

I went back up to my room and after checking facebook and ESPN ended up falling asleep before 10:00pm. Exploring a new city can be quite entertaining, but it really can wear you out!