Auf Wiedersehen

I had to say goodbye to my special friend yesterday. Joni has left.

We have been a great company for each other since the very beginning. Sometimes there were miscommunication between us and we had to go through difficult time, but I believe that we could understand each other better at the end. Thank you so much for being such a great friend. My remaining stay would never be the same without you.

We will see each other again in the near future, of course, in Germany and Japan.

Love and hugs,

Fitzroy and St. Patrick's Cathedral

The first weekend since the semester started-I even discovered a bohemian enclave in the city!

New semester has been going great so far. All my units seem fascinating, and I'm even motivated to sit down in the library and open my textbooks. It's been only a week yet, but I'm seeing something budding already inside me which I couldn't see last semester.

Fingers crossed.

Back to School Disco

.... get dressed in old school uniforms!

back to school: Semester 2

Semester 2 started today. After the 2 week holiday(or a little more), it was nice to see the lively campus again. I had one lecture today in Caulfield campus, and got a kind of nervous but also a fresh feeling which we always experience at the beginning of the semester. I'm taking 4 subjects this semester; Journalism, Film& TV Studies, Media and English. I'm really motivated to study these subjects, and want to do my best for all of them. Also this is my last 5 months to study at Monash; I'll keep telling it to myself.

I'm also very excited for another 5 months of my life here. I'll meet more people, visit even more places, and I'll have more fun with all those great people I've met here!

By the way, textbooks were so expensive!

St. Kilda in winter

Finally, we've made them all. As I said at the beginning of the holiday, I made a list of the places I want to visit, and at last we made a trip to our final destination, St. Kilda. I introduced about the place in one of my early posts, but this time it's winter so I was looking forward to seeing another face of this beach town. Luckily, the weather was nice that day, and we looked around the shops and cafes on Acland street for a while. Actually, there was another way of enjoyment at St. Kilda in winter time; coffee. St. Kilda has a lot of groovy cafes and restaurants, and enjoying chitchat with a nice cup of coffee at one of those cafes is the greatest thing to do especially in such cold weather.


Also, Acland street is renowned for its European cake shops. Who could miss out those delicious temptations? ....We had two pieces of them;P Creme Brulee and Cheese cake. SO yumm..!

During this 2week holiday, I had been to so many places in and around Melbourne, and I've also seen how different cultures live all together in this city. Even when I was just walking on one of the street, I've witnessed a lot of multicultural moments which we cannot experience in my country, and sometimes it made me think of my own Japanese ethnicity. You'll definitely be able to feel it if you have a chance to visit Melbourne.

What a great holiday I had. Lastly, I'd like to thank for my great partner of all the journeys I had during this holiday; thank you Wai Kitt! We are now experts of Melbourne city..and also experts of good places to eat..right?;-)

Classes will start on Monday.

Casino debut

Since we have been out in the city almost every day for last two weeks, it seems that we are getting insatiable for excitement; even after the hectic city exploration the day before, we again headed out to the city in the evening next day and had another great melbourne experience.

Dockland is melbourne's new waterfront, and its harbourside was filled with a lot of new restaurants, bars and cafes. We were lucky to visit there in the evening; the view of Victoria Harbour was magnificent at night, and the lights from all those restaurants and bars created a great atmosphere around the area.

We, however, had another plan for that night; Crown Casino;P Since we are in Melbourne, we thought why not experience one of the city's great night attractions. I've already been to Crown before, but this time was my first time for actual gambling. It was weekday that night, but there were still many people gambling and trying their fortunes. What about us? Well, we couldn't dare enough; we only spend $5 together for slot machine, but I mostly enjoyed the atmosphere of the place rather than gambling.

By the time we got back to the hall, it was already midnight, but I could hardly go to sleep since I was still feeling so excited from those interesting melbourne's night life experiences we had that night.

final week of holiday

Cathedral, Little Saigon, and Coffee time

Surprisingly, almost half of the holiday has gone already...two weeks are too short! My holiday, however, has been just great so far; I've been visiting many new places in the city ( sometimes I just spontaneously go out by myself..!), catching up with friends, cooking and baking, watching movies and relaxing...I'm 100% enjoying my time. Especially the city discovery is so much fun. Today, we also made another exploration in the city.

Today's our destination; Richmond. On the way to catch the tram at Collins Street, we dropped by at the St Paul's Cathedral, which is located just on the other side of Flinders station. Cathedral was magnificent. I'll let the pictures speak themselves.

In Richmond, Victoria Street is especially known as "Little Saigon" and is the heart of Melbourne's Vietnamese community. One of today's our missions was to try authentic Vietnamese food, but there are hundreds of restaurants stretching out along the street and therefore we asked one of the locals which one serves good food. We asked the right person; the restaurant she told us was bingo;) We enjoyed good Vietnamese beef noodle and Congee.

We headed for Bridge Road after lunch, the main street of Richmond, where all the shops and cafes are.

After spending entire afternoon in Richmond, we came back to the city later and enjoyed coffee at one of the cafe at Degrave street. It was raining, but I discovered that rain really does suit this city.

Another lovely holiday time to remember!

one more good-bye

One of my good friends has gone back to her country yesterday. I've been friends with Laura from the very beginning, and we did lots of fun stuff together. We'll miss you so much!













There are still many good-byes waiting for next couple of weeks, but new exchange students are coming in at the same time. Life never waits for me.

Sunday Art Market

Another city discovery; Art Centre Sunday Market was one of the places I've been looking forward to visiting in Melbourne city. We caught the Sunday train around noon and headed for the city to see the works of melbournian artists.





Market was absolutely worth visiting. It was just so much fun looking at all the arts and crafts on the stalls. The place was packed with aroma scents and cozy music.













By the way, markets are one of the highlights of this city. I still have a lot to check out before I go back!

The wind was brisk, but it was such a beautiful Sunday afternoon to spend time with someone I love!