birthday!

wee, i had a fun birthday in australia!!

i got lots of cards from my family at home..thank you guys..mail is the greatest!

i took it easy for the day and then rachel p., rachel l., and my roomate, victoria, went out for my birthday.

we went out to eat at a really nice mexican restaurant called amigos.  it was soooo yummy! 

we've been searching for a good mexican restaurant.  they don't have many here.  we all pretty much stuffed our faces with chips and cheese dip before our dinner even came!  and then we still had to eat our dinner.

after dinner, we went to strike bowling bar.  it was so cool inside, i loved it!!

we bowled a game and sadly birthday girl didn't win. :(

oh well, it was so fun!  and the bowling shoes were AWESOME!!

oh!  and we came back to my room for yummmyyy cake that my roomate made...she's so sweet!

gaol time

went down to the historic melbourne gaol yesterday 

( that's jail for you americans ;) )

this is what the inside looks like.  three levels of hallways with cells off to the side.  it was so dark and freezing cold.

really small cells.

this is where the hung people. they would lock their hands and feet together and put a mask over their heads and then put the rope around their neck.  then, the little door in the floor would open and then they would drop...creepy.

after walking through gaol, we went on what we though was a guided tour of the old holding gaol next door, but when we walked in they pretended like we were in jail.  it was kind of scary at first!

  mug shots and all.

locked up in a gaol cell in complete dark for the night

(with a really good camera flash)!

federation square

we visited federation square on saturday.

it's like a big, public courtyard with lots of museums and things to see.

many of the places help to tell the story of melbourne.

the architecture is so unique.

horse racing is very big here.  these are old jockey uniforms from the museum!  

home

here's what it looks like where i'm living!