It is nearing the end of September now and life sure has been busy for the most part. In just another day, I will be hopping on a plane and headed to Perth, relaxing and seeing the Western side of Australia with 6 other friends! I’m so excited to go! I know that I’ll be taking TONS of photos while vacationing in Perth, so to spare you all the onslaught of a MASSIVE photo post when I get back, I’ve broken it down essentially into two parts — before Perth & after Perth.

In my last photo update, I left off basically with my settling in to Melbourne. I was hanging out with friends, meeting people, and visiting some of the museums around town. I’m glad to say that not much has changed since then. I am still hanging out with some great folks here, seeing the city and its attractions, and having “dinner theme parties” here and there. My handy cameras — both the SLR and the compact digital — have served me very well. With them, I am able to capture life as it passes by in front of me. In a few years, hopefully I’ll look back at all of these photos I’m taking and remember the great times I had here.

With that said, let me get on with some of the photos.

I’ll begin with something that I actually did not include in the last photo post: A footy game!

Back at the end of July, I went to my very first Australian football game — also known in short as simply “footy”. I saw Carlton vs. St. Kilda in a mostly tame match. I can’t say I’m a huge fan of footy, but it was fun to see — even if I think the rules are a bit silly.

The game took place near the Southern Cross Station at the Telstra Dome.

Here is Southern Cross Station, a fairly large and elaborate train station. It’s similar to Penn Station in a way.

So going back in time a bit, on my first day in Melbourne, it was a Sunday, and on Sundays most offices don’t open. The office for my studio was closed so I couldn’t actually move in on my first day of arrival, so what I ended up doing was spending my very first night at The Causeway Inn. What I didn’t know was that The Causeway Inn is actually walking distance from my studio now! And to think on move-in day I took a cab from the hotel to my studio! Retarded!

Anyway, The Causeway Inn sits on a lively street in Melbourne called Bourke Street. Bourke Street is a shopping hot-spot with occasional street performers.

Since Melbourne city central relies heavily on the tram system, some parts of the city are high-strung with tram lines overhead. Sometimes they look kind of neat. But I think they sort of make the skyline a bit ugly.

Below is Flinders Street Station, another central train hub.

From Flinders Street Station, you can catch trains to the outer suburbs. I haven’t had a chance to do it yet so hopefully that opportunity will come about soon. :)

One day, my friend Ashley and I decided to just walk around and just shoot photos. We were both feeling a bit uninspired from schoolwork and we thought this might revitalize our creative minds a bit. So walk about we did! Here are some photos from that day in no particular order.

Every few weeks or so, my friends Anna and Ann throw a dinner party with a specific theme. If the weather is good, I walk to their place which is in a beautiful part of Melbourne called Southbank. I walk down Elizabeth Street (yep, there’s one here too!) and onto a pedestrian bridge, and then into their apartment!

Here are a few photos from some of the dinner parties…

My friend Anna who lives on the 24th (?) floor of the building lets me use her tripod to photograph off of the balcony. Here are some shots you may have already seen…

And in case you missed my post on it, here is a panorama of Southbank from the balcony.

One of the classes I take called Popular Culture and the Moving Image took a class trip to the National Gallery of Victoria, where there was a special exhibit from the Guggenheim Collection.

I think the following picture is the CBD (Central Business District)…but honestly, I can’t remember.

And just like in the movies, the police vehicles here all look funny and checkered!!!

Here’s my desk on a Monday morning after I realized I woke up way too late to even bother to go to class.

In the next couple of weeks, I hope to go see the Pixar exhibit before it closes on October 14th. I haven’t had any time to go see it yet, but I did take some time out to pose with the Pixar lamp and bouncing ball.

Occasionally, I get invited with some friends to go to a music club called Night Cat. There’s great live music and dancing, although I’m usually there to listen to the good music. It’s a fairly large place and the entrance fee is $0. :)

I apparently don’t hold my liquor very well.

I actually don’t even really like drinking, so this was a good thing to experience once and never again.

Near my studio, there is a very large empty (and presumably, abandoned) lot. There is nothing there except two decrepit buildings and lots of weeds and grass. It’s the most quiet place to be in my immediate vicinity, so sometimes I like going in there to just stand and do absolutely nothing but think. The following photo is how I get in.

At the beginning of September, I went to a conference with St. Judes to Camp Manyung. The topic of the conference was the Holy Spirit and the theme was “Absolut Spirit” (ripping off the famous Absolut ad campaign…this is another example of how lazy Churches are at putting solid thought behind visual design…but I’ll leave that topic for another day). Anyway, the conference was GREAT! I have never been to a conference that was along the beach! And now that I have, I’m not so sure that any other conference can ever compare (unless, of course, it is at a beach also).

And these “sea grapes” were fun to shoot at people. They just seemed to pop out of your hands.

All in all, the conference was pretty fantastic. The laid-back culture of Australia has certainly permeated into churches as well.

After the 3 day conference, my friend Joel drove me to Coppin’s Lookout, a moderately high point along the coast. The view from the top reminded me so much of Hawaii. It was stunning and beautiful.

For those that are curious, here are what mailboxes look like in Australia.

Just this past weekend, I accompanied a friend’s friend, Janina, to some local attractions. We took a highlight tour of some of the exhibits inside the National Gallery of Victoria (WHICH TOOK FOREVER) and then got some stuff to eat before heading over to the Melbourne Museum.

After grabbing a bite to eat, Janina and I went to the Melbourne Museum. I had never been there before so I was pretty interested in going. It turns out, the place is very much like the Museum of Natural History in NYC. I think I’ve found my favorite museum here in Melbourne… :)

DINOSAURS!

STUFFED KANGAROOS!

OLD COMPUTERS THAT STILL WORK (SORTA)!

BUG COLLECTIONS (YUCK)!

REAL BLUE WHALE SKELETON! GINORMOUS!!!

And so this is the end of my MASSIVE photo post. I hope that kept you all interested and I hope you all read the captions. I tried to keep them short so that you wouldn’t skip over them.

I now leave you with the following two photos. One is of the RMIT logo and the second is of the flag of Australia. I suspect you’ll be clever enough to figure out which is which.

Later!! Leave a comment!

Related: My very first few weeks in Melbourne.