Good-bye, bike...

There are so many signs that my time in Melbourne is almost over, unfortunately. One is that I only have one exam left, on Tuesday. (Although, this should be a happy thing!) Another sign is that yesterday, I parted with the bicycle that I had used to commute to and from Melbourne Uni throughout the semester. I sold it to another student. Now I am sad...

One of the biggest differences between here and Princeton is that at Princeton, all the undergraduate students live on campus, so there was never an issue of getting to campus. But here in Melbourne, I've been living 2.5 km away from the university. Quite a big difference!

Back when I got here in February, I had been considering taking the buses and trams to get to the campus each day. Melbourne's public transportation is great, but to get to Uni, I would have to take a rather indirect route. Also, I thought it was a bit expensive. So, I decided to get a bike, even though I had no prior experience with cycling as a way to commute!

And it has been great! In the beginning, I felt super shaky and unbalanced while riding and pedaling. (Actually, I had a hard time just getting onto the bike!) But I quickly got used to riding the bike around, not just to Uni and back, but also around the city! It was fun and healthy, and it saved time and money! I also got a chance to meet a great community of students at Melbourne Uni who also biked to campus! Perfect!

I really would like to bike more from now on. Obviously, I didn't have to come all the way to Melbourne to discover the joys of biking, but I suppose it's just one of the benefits of putting myself in a new environment!

An extra benefit of biking: yummy food! The environment department had free "Ride-to-Uni" breakfasts every Thursday for students who rode their bikes

Here's a closer view of the bike.  (I took this picture to post on advertisements.)

Me with the bike, minutes before the buyer rode off with it. Sad moment for me...

I did consider shipping the bike back to the U.S. That would have been super cool! It would be so nice to have the same bike back at home. But the cost of sending the bike would probably be at least 2/3rds of the price I paid for the bike. Yikes! Oh well... another bike may not be as special, but I'll never forget where I started biking!

Almost done with exams!

Not-so-exciting update: This week, I turned in my linguistics research paper on Tuesday and took my maths final on Wednesday. Since yesterday, I've just been studying for my philosophy exam next Tuesday. Then I will be all done for the semester!

Not-so-exciting pictures from today:

Arriving early to study in the library!

After several hours, some more people arrived!

Mock meat restaurants around Melbourne!

I turned in 3 history essays on Monday, and I have a linguistics research paper due next Wednesday. And I also have some exams coming up! Ahhhh! But I don't want to bore you with all the work that I have. (I'm afraid that I might have already done that!)

During this period of intense busyness, I've saved myself from going insane by remembering to step out of the library every once in a while and do something else. Writing this blog right now is a good example. But I don't have time to write a bunch, so I'll put up a bunch of pictures instead. (Actually... isn't that what I usually do anyways? Haha!)

The theme? Eating at mock meat restaurants around Melbourne! You might think, what's the point of mock meat? I don't know myself. As a vegetarian (well, actually a pescatarian), I used to think of mock meat as things like veggie burgers and veggie sausages, which I feel scare a lot of people away from vegetarianism. But the mock meat at these Buddhist vegetarian restaurants is much better. And really fascinating!

Last Friday (1st of June), some friends I met through the Environment Department decided to have dinner at The White Lotus Vegetarian Restaurant

Group photo!

We ordered a variety of "meat" dishes, and they were all delicious!

The mock duck was very convincing!

That was my yummy introduction to mock meat restaurants in Melbourne! And then this Thursday, the tai-chi club went to dinner after class at Enlightened Cuisine, another mock meat restaurant.

We made it to the restaurant!

Group photo!

Soups and appetizers! (Except the appetizers were mostly eaten by the time I took this photo!)

The first main dish came out: sizzling "beef"!

Yay food!

Closer view of all the dishes. Remember, there's not actual meat!

Fried ice cream for dessert! Probably not something I should have often!

Okay, back to work for me...