So last week my mom and sister were still here which was great. On Tuesday night Lisa and I met up with the PRIME group with some German friends we made at the Claremont Hotel. They
knew of this really cool pub down by the Yarra River. We sat outside and it wasn't too cold because they had little outdoor heaters and so we got to look at the city at night. We talked a lot about California and Matteus [on of the guys from Germany] really likes Jack Johnson so we started to sing Banana Pancakes. We met up with John and Andres in a different pub in Federation Square and they brought their Italian friend from school. Lisa and I both agreed that he looked like our cousin Tres. Maybe he is our long distant relative and we didn't even know!Then on Thursday night Lisa, my mom, and I went to Koko Black to get some drinks and their
last taste of chocolate before they left Australia. Everything tasted great and the place was really cute. It had big couches and chairs that reminded me of the coffee house on Friends.. but a little nicer. Then we made our way to the Italian District up on Lygon St. So we had dessert before dinner; our excuse was that they were on
vacation. We stopped in the first restaurant that we saw. There were so many that it was hard to tell which one was going to be the best so we had to take our chances. Inside there were not many people, but the owner asked us "How many?" After replying three, he interrupted and said "Four?" and counted the three of us and then included himself to have dinner. It was apparent that he had a good sense of humor and we knew that we chose the right place.He sat us right next to the chef and said that this was the special table because we get three
surprises. Not knowing if he was joking or not, we looked at the menu filled with delicious Italian food. Then quickly asked if we needed an extra plate and threw it our way without giving us time to reply. I caught the plate but I realized it wasn't a plate but a plastic top! I guess that was surprise #1. Then he gave us markers and challenged us to a game of tick-tac-toe and said if I won then the meal was free. He was too good for me, but I challenged to a rematch. He said if I lost this one then I had to do the dishes... I lost! Don't worry.. I managed to escape the restaurant without cleaning a single plate. Then he did things like throw a plasitic 
spider at us to continue the surprises. It was fun and exactly what Lisa and my mom needed before they left. Not to mention, the pizza and salad that we got was very tasty! Lisa and my mom left on Friday morning. The visit was great and it was fun to show them around. Love them so much!Since we had our big presentation on Tuesday, we kinda had a
relaxing weekend. I came into the office both Saturday and Sunday, but we managed to do some fun things in between getting everything perfect for the presentation. On Saturday night we met up with John and Andres in the city and watched a salsa band. It was fun just to watch them dance to the music and it seemed like they were at home, even though Columbia is half way around the world. After the band finished their set, they went to go talk to the band and it ended up that one of the members is actually from Cali; their home town. They even exchanged numbers with him!Then we met up with our German friends back at the hotel and made our way over to St. Kilda for the night. We had to wait 15 minutes for the tram and so we entertained ourselves by taking pictures and singing songs... a car filled with Aussies at the stop light even joined in with us. It was fun. Then when in St. Kilda we did a lot of
walking around to find a place to go and checked out a few pubs. There were tons of Australian kids at some of the big clubs but it looked a little out of our league. Realizing that we needed to catch the last tram back home, the 5 of us left and walked to the tram station. Saleh, Liz, Steph, and I got on the tram, but somehow Heather missed the message. We left her in St. Kilda! Then we were going to get off at the next stop to meet up with her, but the doors closed too quickly so only Liz and Saleh got off! Now, Steph and I were the only ones on the tram and we quickly found out it was the wrong one. Long story short, we did a lot of walking and we all made it home safe and sound.
The next morning we went into the city to check out some parts that we missed. I showed them the arcades and where most of the chocolate shops were that we visited on the chocolate tour.
The little cafes were open and it was cute to see everyone out for
Sunday brekkie [breakfast]. Then Steph showed us this alley that is just COVERED with graffiti. We were taking pictures and then a garbage man came up to us and said "Why the hell are you taking pictures of graffiti? Its so ugly!" Then we explain how we aren't around from here and how we heard about the special graffiti alley. Then he laughed and said "Don't they have graffiti in America?" We just carried on and put our cameras away so we didn't look so much like tourists.
Then Steph and I met up with Liz in St. Kilda for the crafts show that
they have on Sundays. It is time to gather all the souvineers that we can get and so we were having trouble deciding what to get. I think that we might go back next weekend too! The sun peeked out from the clouds and it turned out to be a nice day. I think that St. Kilda might be my favorite part of Melbourne.We then spent the next two days working hard on our projects.. getting every last bit ready for our presentation at Clayton. There were moments where we were very nervous, but the we
would try to calm ourselves down by saying that there were not going to be too many people there. Then David sent us an email saying that Larry Smarr just so happened to be in Melbourne and would attend our seminar. Larry is the Institute Director of Calit2 which is a main funder of the PRIME program. Lets just say that 
the nerves came back! After practicing our presentation and compiling all of our presentations together, we were ready to go. Everyone did a great job and David said that he was very proud. Everyone from our lab gave us a pat on the back and we congratulated them for not falling asleep through the long talk about mostly biology. After eating some cheese and crackers and talking with some people who attended our seminar, we packed up and headed home.Giving the presentation made us realize how limited our time is here! The next big thing on our list is to plan out what we are doing in New Zealand. I know that is going to fly by too!
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