We arrived in Melbourne this morning, travel-weary and bereft of Tuesday. Mike Shepski, the state director for Student Life (Campus Crusade in Australia) and a Penn State grad, collected us from the airport and took us to his home so we could shower off the stench of 16.5 hours on a plane, nourish ourselves with coffee, and email our loved ones, thus regaining much of our humanity lost on the long journey from LA.
We squeezed back into the car to head to Melbourne University campus. As far as I can tell, Melbourne University is a cross between Hogwart's, Harvard, and Penn State. Later, we headed over to Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) to hang out with the Crusade undergrad summer project team doing an outreach in front of the RMIT 'caf' (Cafeteria). Blood sugar levels dangerously near zero, we walked across the street to Melbourne Central, a train station/mall. There we were fortified by delicious Malay cuisine before moving on to our next meeting at University House to meet with Malcom and Sandy who are involved with post-grad (grad student) ministry at Melbourne. University House is a private club for faculty and staff at the university with a fine sitting room where we sipped tea and hot chocolate and felt much like Britons.
(Parenthetically: Ash and I have just determined that we have been awake or engaging in what passes as sleep on a plane for the past 48 hours. Our insanity has begun to thicken and solidify like pudding. If this entry doesn't seem very coherent, that is why.)
Malcom and Sandy were delightful and we really enjoyed meeting with them while the rain began pouring down in earnest outside. Dodging the rain, we met up with our hosts James and Jane, at the train station. As the day closed we found ourselves running on fumes, and used our train ride to learn how to use Aussie phrases like "No Worries" inappropriately to random strangers. Now our kind hosts have fed us and tried their darndest to keep us awake with conversation. However, motor skills and language are beginning to fail me and I must go to bed, even though it's only 8:24pm. Look forward to more interesting/less erratic updates tomorrow.
Hello Tracy, We're all excited to hear the details of your travel. How did you stand such a long plane trip? Was it mostly at night? What is Malay cuisine like? Is it really cold there? Hugs from Aunt Shirley
ReplyDelete@shirley - it was a pretty arduous flight. We left LA at 10pm I think, so it was pretty much night the whole time but hard to sleep. I can't pretend to be an expert on Malay cuisine after one meal in a mall food court but the stuff we had was pretty Chinese-y. Peanut sauce on beef, fried rice, etc. It is pretty cold- they say that it would be like early Feb. in the 'states. Highs in mid 50's, lows in 40's and high 30's. Have a rad day Aunt Shirley!
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