Canberra Day 2

Well today was a public holiday because of the queen's birthday, so we had another full free day in Canberra. This morning was very quiet and relaxing. I got an opportunity to FaceTime with my family and I was able to catch up on some emails and upload my photos to my computer. I also was able to finally do a load of laundry, which was good cause I was starting to run out of my warm clothes. In the afternoon some girls and I decided to make our way into Canberra to tour the war memorial and to sight see. Before we walked to the bus we stopped to get some hot chocolate from the Recreation Room. It may be the only thing that is keeping me toasty warm on the inside. When we got on the bus we were unsure which stop to get off at and when we asked the bus driver she wasn't very helpful either, and very rude. After a few stops some locals got on the bus and we decided to ask them for directions. However, after talking to all of them for a while I was pretty sure that they were all homeless. One of the guys was spitting everywhere, and it was quite disgusting. Needless to say we missed our bus stop and by this time all of us were frustrated, so we just wanted to take the bus back around to where we started and chill in our rooms watching a movie or something. However, once we got to a stop literally in the middle of nowhere the bus driver told us that the bus route wasn't a circuit and that she had time to take a toilet break. We were expecting to sit on the bus and just wait, but she kicked us off and said she would be back in about twenty minutes. All of us didn't want anything to do with that lady again, so we walked into this huge building where there seemed to be a lot of people and discovered it was an outlet mall. That may have been the highlight of our day. So instead of going back to the terrible bus driver we decided to make our way around the outlet mall and catch another bus that would get us back to the Institute at a later time. I made the purchase of the trip too... a brand new pair of heel booties for $60 that were originally $179 and they are real Italian leather. Too bad I can't wear them in the states for a few more months since they are winter shoes. After a couple hours in the outlet mall we caught the bus back just in time for dinner, and after dinner it was another chill night of relaxing and movie watching. A group of us got together in the TV room to watch the Dark Night (Batman Movie), but before the movie was halfway over I was ready for bed and made my way to my room and the top bunk. Canberra has certainly been an adventure and an experience, but I am no where near in love with it as much as I was with Melbourne. I think a lot of it has to do with the lack of plans and structure we have had the past couple of days, but I will let you know by the end of tomorrow how it goes because we actually have a day of lectures and a rugby game planned.