The HDU group

Here's one final picture for you of the Houghton Down Under group when we flew to Tasmania for one of our four day weekends (included and paid for as part of the HDU program).

The Christmas Tree

As Christmas is approaching we are getting ready to come home. Since this is my last semester at Houghton I won't be blogging any more, however, if you have questions about the Houghton Down Under Program or Houghton in general I would love to talk to you about it. Please e-mail me at katherine.brown@houghton.edu and I promise to get back to you :) Merry Christmas!

Christmas time!

The city is absolutely beautiful for Christmas! It's hard to get into the Christmas spirit without snow since it has been in the 80's for the past few weeks, but the decorations throughout the city sure do help :)

Country Party!

One of the best aspects of Kingsley College is that the kitchen and student center are open for great parties like this one, our country party. Several students decided to celebrate country music and southern cooking by throwing a country party! We all had a blast eating fried chicken, mashed postatoes, and corn, and learning to country line dance!

Flinder's Station

Here's a picture of the train station in the center of the city. It's about a 25 minute ride from Kingsley College and a close walk to many fabulous shops and restaurants in the city.

Kingsley College

Here's a picture of the beautiful Kingsley college. The campus may not be as nice as Houghton's, but the wonderful community of the college along with being so close to the city has made it one of my all time favorite places! :)

Aussie Rules Football

Australian Rules Football, otherwise known as footy, seems to be one of the biggest parts of Australian culture. One of our activities was to go see a professional footy match between two rivaling teams. We had a blast watching the game and my favorite part was that our tickets were free because the game was a part of our Engaging Australian Culture class. The game is similar to American football although at the same time very different. I especially liked the game because it is more action packed and fast paced then American football.

Night Life

One of my favorite parts of the city of Melbourne is the night life! Melbourne becomes a different city after dark so it is fun to go into the city and enjoy the fun! There are lots of restaurants, ice cream parlors, movie theatres, bowling allies, and so on to take advantage of in the evening. When we're short on cash, we like to walk around the city to people watch and take fun pictures. Here's one of the pictures we took after eating at a fabulous cheese cake restaurant!

Stay Left!

Dr. Shea, better known by our HDU group as "Papa Shea" is the Houghton professor who came as our on-site supervisor this year. It's been fun to get to know Papa and Mama Shea outside the classroom. We have become close as a group through our weekend trips. Spending up to five hours in the car each weekend singing, sleeping, and joking around as we explore Australia has been one of my favorite parts of being here. One of the on-going HDU joke is about Dr. Shea's driving, as we are constantly reminding him to "Stay Left"!

Federation Square

Above is the modern structure called Federation Square. This area is full of unique coffee shops and restaurants. There are also often street performances in front of the building. It is always an exciting spot to hang out and be entertained!