a little bit about canberra too.

on our last day in canberra, the group took a tour of the city. we learned a lot about its history and the men and women who fought for it. our tour guide was this nice older gentlemen named john. he was full of little tid bits about the city! he first informed us that the city was designed by two chicagoans by the name of walter burley griffin and marion mahony griffin. they mimicked the design from dc's capital format, which can easily be seen from the front steps of the parliament. we also learned that brothels were not only legal but they were government runner establishments! look at these aussies go. 
our first stop was at mount ainslie lookout point. it is about 850 meter above sea level. unfortunately for us it was really cloudy and rainy that day, so you couldn't really see past about five feet in front of go. after that we made our way to the australian war memorial. there was so much history and memorabilia here. after some self-obtained knowledge about the australian involvement in world war I, world war II, and other wars, we caught some footage on the big screen from the eyes of the australian air force.iI feel that australians often go under appreciated for their war efforts. they give so much and help so much, yet still get little recognition from the rest of the world. next we made our way to the australian parliament house. 

one thing i've definitely noticed is how much australians like their symbolism. right as we walked into the foyer, john informed us that numerous green pillars we saw represented that trees that were cleared out for the construction of canberra. as we visited the house and senate, similar symbol isms were seen. john told us that the house was a green color because the builder wanted the room to represent the color of the eucalyptus tree. this contrasted the red color if the senate, but the meaning behind it was similar. the red hue was to represent the eucalyptus tree in full bloom. this added a little bit of australian flair to the seemingly plain layout. the parliament also has one of the four remaining copier of the magna carta that is present for all to see. that was also something interesting. it seems that australians are very open and friendly because all the places we visited were free of charge!

we soon left the parliament to go to where all the coins are made. did you know that a long long time ago australia had a currency of half a penny? beats me for what it was used for, but i am in australia of course and a lot of the things they do don't make much sense, haha. our last stop on our little city tour was the australian museum. we were all exhausted at this point, but there was a lot of interesting history to learn between the australians now and this aboriginals that still inhabit the land. we learned about the wars, the treaties, and finally the beginning of what will hopefully finally be peace between the two groups. 

i'm not much of a history person, but I definitely gained more respect for the people who inhabit this land today <3

sleep all day, party all night.

well half of that statement was true. I think the trip has finally caught up to me because after a restful eight hours of sleep, I proceeded to sleep through nine of the twelve hours it took to get from canberra to melbourne today. it was a rough day. we all woke up at eight for breakfast and proceeded to go none stop until we got to melbourne. it took us four buses and one train to make it here. everyone was so tired and hungry you could feel all the tension in the air. tomorrow we're going to tour the uni and have our first job shadowing day! i can't believe i'm leaving here at the end of the week. time has flown by ): <3

GO BRUMBIES!!

yesterday was our first/only free day in canberra. if anyone knows anything about canberra then they know that there isn't really much to know about it, haha. canberra was basically put on the map as a common place to meet between sydney and melbourne. there's not too many tourist attractions, therefore not many things to do as a tourist. there is a nice city centre about a half hour bus ride from where we are staying, so that was where most of the group went. there were a ton of cute little shops there that had a bunch of summer clothes on sale because it's starting to become winter here. so i did what i did best - i shopped until i dropped. (: i didn't buy much though, with the crazy prices over here it isn't too difficult to say no. we stopped a little bit for lunch and i was able to grab some sushi cause i was definitely missing a little piece of home. shortly after a few of us made our way back to rest a little.

after dinner the whole group went to go watch a rugby union game at one of the stadiums located on the AIS. it was a pretty interesting match against the brumbies and hurricanes. i'm not quite sure what makes a match a super rugby one versus a regular rugby one but this match was called super rugby. it rained a little, but a match is a match and this girl was definitely missing her rugby boys. the final score was 30-23, so all in all it was a great day <3