The journey to Australia proved to be quite a challenge, but fortunately, everything went smoothly. I must confess that I underestimated the sheer magnitude of the trip, but I suppose it's hard not to. The reality of a 16-hour flight only sinks in once you experience it firsthand. However, what truly amazed me was the city's remarkable ethnic diversity. Prior to my visit, I did not realize that Melbourne was such a multicultural hub. While I had anticipated interacting mainly

Blog Post Assignment 1: travel experience, first impressions of Melbourne/Australia, and how the trip is going so far. 3 Days in! "Once we arrived in Melbourne there was quite a bit of relief from myself and others that the flying was done and that we could mostly relax for the rest of the day. Another surprise was that the jetlag hasn’t been a huge factor. With the exception of waking up earlier and easier than normal which has been quite nice, the main thing has been stayin

Day 7 wow a week flew by! This was the busiest day of the trip so far. Day started off very early at the US Consulate where we were able to talk with a political and financial officer mostly. We learned there’s five different departments within the consulate and the roles of each one. We also were informed that the younger generations don’t care as much about the alliance between the United States and Australia which could potentially be harmful in the future. We continued

Now that we have moved on from Melbourne to Sydney it is time to look back and reflect on everything we saw, did, and learned there. We had two business visits, lunch with a Clarkson grad, a trip to the US Consulate, a coffeehouse, a brewery tour, a free day, and a trip to the Old Melbourne Gaol. Not too much right? Not for us, we enjoyed every moment of every day, or at least I did. Melbourne is a beautiful city with many sights to see and no way to ever experience it all i

Our experience here in Melbourne has been great. We had a few more professional visits, going to the U.S. Consulate, IBM, DeBella Coffee and touring the Carleton Brewery. The visit to the consulate was pretty interesting, because I wasn’t exactly sure what made a consulate different than an embassy or really what they did there. The political and economic officer that spoke with us said that the only real difference between the embassy in Canberra and the consulate in Melbou