March 26, 2006

Hello,

It has been another week and I just have to warn you that this update will not be too exciting, or hopefully long.

Monday and Tuesday did not prove to be interesting days. I attended classes and studied. With the exception of attending, if only for forty-five minutes, my first cricket game, St. John’s College v. Wesley College, I did not do anything out of the ordinary. On Wednesday I attended my classes and started my exercise routine (I’m convinced I have gained a considerable amount of weight. But don’t worry I am not intent on losing it, just turning into muscle). After exercising I attended Formal Dinner and it was a good time as usual. After dinner I fully realized how big a going out night Wednesday is. I don’t know why, but more people go out on Wednesday night than any other night. So, in order to fit into and completely understand Australian society and culture, I went out to a couple of clubs and bars with a whole bunch of Johnsmen and Jets (Johnsmen are the men who live at St. John’s College and Jets are the women). It was a very good and long night. And for any of those who are concerned, I was able to wake up a reasonable hour on Thursday morning and I did attend both of my tutorials and was an active and productive participant in both. In light of the importance of going out on Wednesday night, Thursday is much quieter. I spent it in my room doing some work, but mostly finalizing some reservations for when my mother, father, brother and sister come to visit in 10 days!! I was able to get them hotel rooms for when they are Sydney and booked our trip up the Sydney Harbor Bridge! As well, since my father, mother and brother will be arriving on a Wednesday (Formal Dinner night), the Rector has insisted that they not only attended Formal Dinner, but also sit at the High Table with the Rector and other high ranking staff. It will be a nice experience, both for my family and me, but also yet another opportunity for my family to embarrass me (not that they ever could). Despite any worries I am very very excited for my family to be coming, not only because I get to travel to a bunch of great places for two weeks, but because I finally get to see some very friendly faces. But you will hear plenty about their visit in later updates.

I spend Friday doing a lot of reading, errands and cleaning up. After exercising and eating dinner, I went to the apartment building where a lot of people from my program live, UniLodge. Some of my American friends had a bunch of people over and we all relaxed on their deck, it was very nice. Saturday proved to be the most eventful day of the week. The day was nothing special; however at night was the St. John’s College St. Patrick’s Day Formal. I did not attend the Formal proper (the dinner; would have been a lot of money for tickets and a suit), but I did attend the party that too place after the dinner. I was told by my friends who did go the dinner that I missed nothing special. Both the dinner and the party were held at St. John’s. The party was a very good time and lived up to its description as one of the highlights of this semester at St. John’s (below you will find a selection of pictures from the party; I did not take many good pictures, so my choices were limited).

After this week I feel as if I am doing nothing but studying, attending classes, eating and hanging out. Not a bad life, but I feel like I should be doing more. Thus, I took some time this week to stop procrastinating and started doing work on my future travels. I have roughly five weekends, one week and then three weeks after school ends to travel. Some places I am looking to visit include (but are not limited; suggestions are always welcomed) Tasmania, Perth, Brisbane, Melbourne, Alice Springs, Vietnam, China, Thailand, Fiji, Singapore, Japan, India, Laos and Cambodia (Any Asian nation I visit will most likely be during my three weeks after school is over). Obviously I will not be able to visit all of the Asian nations I mentioned, though I hope to at the very least visit all of the Australia locations I listed, and some more on day trips, and at least one of the Asian countries listed. I will keep you all posted on my travel plans, and if anyone has suggestions, or preferences, please let me know.

I believe that I have written everything I can for this week. As I stated earlier, not a very thrilling week. However, I continue to be very excited for my family’s approaching visit and I continue to enjoy my classes and St. John’s College.

As always, I hope all is well with all and I thoroughly enjoy any and all e-mails, mail or any other forms of contact. I especially appreciate pictures, it is always nice to know that nobody has changed, or, if they have, what they look like now.

Will have more to write next week.

Love

Jon

The Dinning Hall (a rushed photo, sorry)

Three Johnsmen and a date, in the Dail for the St. Patrick's Day Formal after party.

Two Jets and a Johnsmen outside the after party.

This is the inside of the Dail, our pub and the main center of the after party.

Four Jets outside the after party.

I am not sure why, but people are asking for photos with me in them. I will work on this for next week.