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

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