One of the many things which I’m thankful for here in Melbourne is the ridiculous amounts of fun I’ve been having. Much of this simply consists of hanging out with my Cardi Housemates and being silly together; I thought I’d be too blessed to have friends who could make me laugh so much both in Edinburgh and Melbourne, but it turns out I was wrong! Aside from this, I thought I’d briefly share with you some of the fun things we’ve been getting up to…

Bouncing – Kathryn turned 20 on August 5^th, and on that weekend about 30 of us went to Bounce, which is a huge room full of trampolines! There were foam pits, trampoline walls, basketball and dodgeball courts! I was annoyed at myself for being too scared to try a flip, but it was heaps of fun. We all drove to a gig afterwards organised by a guy at church, and danced and chatted the night away, and they raised $5,500 dollars for children’s education in Niger! It was a pretty great night.

Australian Football League – Ranga and his brother took me to an Essendon vs Collingwood AFL match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The atmosphere was incredible, but I wasn’t so impressed by Essendon’s performance particularly as everyone had forced me to support them; I could’ve played better, and I didn’t even know the rules.

Sightseeing – Christine, a Dutch friend from church, and I have been making the most of our time in Melbourne by being serious tourists. We spent a day looking around funky buildings on Open House Melbourne Weekend, and spent almost a whole afternoon sitting at the top of Eureka Skydeck, the tallest skyscraper in Melbourne, looking over the beautiful city.

Underground Explorations – Kathryn and I had heard rumours of entrances to the underground drains of Melbourne. One Saturday night we were in adventure mode and decided just to do it. Head-torches at the ready, we drove to an outer suburb where some friends live, and they led us out to this swamp/river where we found the drain entrance (and an abandoned canoe?). It was pretty darn cool walking/crawling beneath the city, although the cobwebs in our hair weren’t ideal.

Mount Dandenong – Last Friday, after my lecture at 7pm(!), my friend Dan drove me out and up to Mount Dandenong. The views over the city at night were so beautiful, and as we were walking to the viewpoint we found a little fire which someone had made. We drank tea and looked over the city; perfect for an English girl!

British Party – A couple of weeks ago we threw a British-themed party which was, though we say it ourselves, a huge success! Best outfits were of course us as the Spice Girls (although there were only 3 of us who did it in the end; awkward), the Queen!!, Charlie Chaplin and Janine who came in a Union Jack onesie. We baked so many scones and decorated the house with red, white and blue streamers (which we still haven’t taken down). I made a cracking playlist, and we had an awesome night.

I’ve also just got back from a skiing adventure, but I think I’ll tell you all about it a little later on. Hopefully what you’ll get from this is that life here is never dull; so many fun ways to live!