The problem with being in the city

Today I'd like to highlight one of the major problems with being a tourist in the city. Carrying things. Yesterday we went to the Queen Victoria Market in the pouring rain, necessitating a raincoat along with my fleece, gloves, and scarf. This raincoat ended up stuffed inside my large purse which was already weighted down with the following:

• Water bottle - hydration, clearly important
• Notebook - for all the info and blog notes
• Granola bars - for snacks
• Wallet - for money and cards
• Knitting and knitting book - for the train ride
• Sunglasses - in case the sun comes out
• Pens - for writing stuff
• Phone - for calling people
• Mp3 player - also for the train ride
• Tissues - for my sniffles
• Cough drops - for my throat
• Map - for finding my way
• Banana - for lunch
• Camera - for photo-documentation
• Alfalfa sprouts - also for lunch

Then we went to the Queen Victoria market and I added to my burden:

• A heavenly 20-cent orange
• A passionfruit
• Numerous souvenirs

Unwieldy to say the least. The boys opt to carry their bookbags everywhere. However, they do not appear to be immune from the "but I'm going to be in the city all day so I should bring this also" problem. Jared went to pay at a restaurant the other night and the following items had to come out of his pockets before he found his money.

• Wallet
• Large ipod
• Chapstick
• USB drive
• Mints
• Pen
• Notebook

All this makes me think that it would be truly useful to be a marsupial and have a nice little built-in pouch for carrying all my stuff around.

Make-a-plan Monday

Today we made a plan for the rest of the week. We set up meetings with Malcom, other post-grads in his Bible study, and with other leaders in Christian Union. I also set up an academic meeting with a researcher at the Division of Primary Industries. I also got to go to Sandy's women's post-graduate bible study, where we examined Daniel 1, a great study for graduate students.

One of our concerns so far has been getting information about grad student life. Mike gave us a research tool called "Decoding Your Campus" - a guide to finding out all about the geography, demography, social and spiritual landscape of an undergraduate campus. We looked it over and decided that there would be a lot of value in finding out this sort of thing for the post-graduates. However, we recognized that every lab or program would probably differ, at least on the social and spiritual landscape areas.

So yesterday while Ash went back to work on some other stuff, Jared and I walked down to the botanical gardens and the Shrine of Remembrance, then walked back up into town to catch a bite to eat at a cafe with good seating for working. We fashioned a new survey, one that would hopefully tell us what we need to know about post-graduate life and spirituality. We also hope that this survey will get us into some good conversations with post-graduate students. The plan is to set up a table in a central area with a sign that says "Post-Graduate Student Survey." Candy will be provided.

Today we will visit the Queen Victoria Market - a large open-air shopping facility that's been around since 1878.

Lyrical Lyrebird

Tracy mentioned the other day that we were privileged to see and hear a lyrebird at the Healesville Sanctuary on Saturday afternoon. The male lyrebird, in addition to some rather impressive plumage, has the ability to imitate just about any sound. You name it, from car alarms to saws to other birds to people talking, if it makes a sound, the lyrebird probably can and does imitate it. In this video below, the lyrebird can't get the song of some other bird at the sanctuary out of its head. And obviously it's not working on the female, because she's not coming over to him. She must prefer some other station!

Lazy Sunday

Sunday we had another relaxing day. We didn't do much, so there isn't much to report. From my side of things, the most blog-worthy thing about Sunday was the public toilet I used near Flinders St. Station.

Think about what "Public Restroom" means in the 'states. When I hear "Public Restroom" I think dark, fetid, costly restrooms not much better than a port-o-let. When I hear "Public Restroom" I think, "better off finding a bush somewhere." Public toilet (they don't use the word restroom here- they call them toilets just like Britain - Australia's a very British place, really) in Melbourne apparently means "palatial personal lavatory and grooming center."

The signs for public toilets in Melbourne look like signs for tiny subway stations, pointing toward a stairway that leads to a large sub-level bathroom. It was impeccably clean, the polished pink terrazzo floors gleaming in the low light. The sink area was spacious, with heaters mounted over the sinks to keep you from catching a chill while washing your hands. A friendly "NO SPITTING" sign was also mounted to the wall near the sinks to remind you to keep your saliva in your mouth while washing your hands, thank you.

Most incredibly, opposite the sinks, a shallow countertop ran around the wall, the mirrors above it providing the most convenient place to check one's makeup or hair. They had even provided little stools for you to sit at the small counter. Though I had no need to adjust my makeup as I wasn't wearing any, I sat on one of the stools and marveled at the quality of the lighting and what a gift this little haven would be to any woman walking around Melbourne.

Best of all, a large sign near the entrance proclaimed "No Charge." In the 'states, often maids will stand at the entrance to public restrooms with a tip jar, or, in the worst-case scenario, they will actually put a price on your use of the restroom. Here anyone, be they homeless or wealthy could take advantage of the sweet asylum offered by the public toilet.

I emerged to the street, bubbling with joy. The boys were saddened. Apparently the men's public toilet wasn't anywhere near as nice.

Aussie Rules Football: Geelong-Collingwood match

A few months ago, when Jared informed us that we would be attending a "footy" match in Melbourne, I didn't know what that meant, though I could have made a bad joke about Aussies flirting under the table. Apparently footy is another Aussie nickname - in this case footy means football, specifically Aussie Rules Football or AFL. (By the way, my checklist of cute Aussie phrases has really grown. Favorites include "brekky" (breakfast) and "bikkie" (biscuit aka cookie))

Jared told us that his friend Paul was going to get us tickets so that we could enjoy this quintessential Victorian (that's from the state of Victoria, not necessarily from the time of the reign of queen Victoria) pastime. It sounded like it would be a cultural experience, but never being much of a sport-lover, I didn't know if I would really be able to get into this so-called footy.

Later, as Paul revealed, Jared had the same thought. "I don't know how excited she'll be about it, but she probably won't bring her knitting," he had said to Paul.

Well, friends, I definitely didn't need my knitting at this event. Aussie rules is a much more fast-paced game than American football (call

ed gridiron here). There's very little stopping for the entire game of 4, 20-minute quarters. The ball is constantly in motion, sailing smoothly from player to player, punted or punched with knuckles. If a kick is caught cleanly, you get to "mark" the ball and essentially take a free kick where the defender cannot pass a certain point to attack you. The object is to kick or push the ball through your opponents goalposts on either end of the field. Getting through the outer goalposts scores you 1 point, the inner goalposts 6. Defenders can tackle you when you have the ball, but instead of everything grinding to a halt when this happens, as in American football, when you are tackled in Aussie rules the goal is to get rid of the ball while you're being crushed by other players. A player goes down in a pile and the ball squirts out like a big yellow egg to be snatched up by another player who keeps the play moving. Simple in its rules, elegant in its execution, AFL is infinitely watchable.

As we climbed to our seats in the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG),I noticed that Aussies from all walks of life attended footy. There were tiny boys and girls with their faces painted, many elderly fans, as well as a large number of mid-twenties people like us. I noticed the girls were dressed smartly, as if they were going out to dinner somewhere nice. Girls who watch football in the 'states are by no means inelegant, but usually a football match calls for more masculine attire than a night out on the town. I wondered what drew them to the games.

As the game started and I watched the players begin to run around, I have to admit there was but one question on my mind. Why are their shorts so tiny? I asked Paul, our resident AFL expert. He had no answer. I looked again- weren't they cold? There could be any number of good explanations for the size of their shorts. Perhaps it was so that they didn't lose them when they were tackled. Perhaps it was difficult to punt successfully in longer shorts. But as I watched further, the game seemed to be full of innuendo. Scoring a point was known as a "behind," the official spanking the goalpost enthusiastically when one was scored. The most frequent word shouted by the crowd was "ball," referring to when a player failed to get rid of the ball when they were tackled. Perhaps this explained why so many women were fans of this full-contact sport.

The match was a nail-biter, but in the end the Geelong (pronounced "Jah-LONG") Cats, reigning champions and our team, failed to scratch out the Collingwood Magpies, the number two team this year. Even though we lost, there was an atmosphere of good fun for all. As we filed out of the stadium, some boys started a kick-the-coke-bottle game which followed us all the way down to the riverside. Australia is always up for a good game.

Day 4 - Recreation

Yesterday we had a great day going out East of Melbourne to Marysville and Healesville. Our intrepid Aussie expert, Jared, drove us out of the city traffic and into a country populated by sheep and horses still shaggy with winter and endless vineyards, their closely pruned vines stretching in parallel lines over the hills. We passed so many vineyards, I wondered if they ever ran out of pretentious-sounding surnames to call them by. Climbing further, we encountered gum tree forests carpeted with soft green ferns. Large tree ferns filled the understory like palm trees, their armored, reptillian stems making us feel as if a velociraptor might pop out into the road at any moment. The bark peeled from the gum trees like they were giant brown string cheese sticks.
Further on, we crossed into a different sort of forest. This was the area where in 2009, brush fires had raged through, killing 173 people and destroying whole towns like Marysville. We pulled into Marysville, new houses everywhere, and marveled at how much they had rebuilt in a year. The forests are recovering curiously, the gum trees covered in a furry layer of new growth.
We turned around and hit Healesville, where we stopped at a bakery and had pies, a very traditional Australian treat like a pot pie but with lots of different options for fillings. Good Aussies like Jared squirt tomato sauce (ketchup) on theirs. There were also a large variety of sweets. I picked one at random off the menu- a "beesting." Jared had something called a lambington, which, as he promised, contained no lamb.

After lunch, we headed for the Healesville wildlife sanctuary where we got to meet all the most popular Australian animals: kangaroos, emus, koalas, wombats, platypus, tasmanian devils, snakes, echidna, dingoes, and numerous birds. Among the birds, we were especially privileged to see and hear a lyrebird singing. There are videos and pictures better than mine, so be patient, they will soon be coming to a picasa album near you. In the lyrebird enclosure we met a delightful sanctuary volunteer named Leigh, who also showed us the secret nest of an eastern yellow robin in the bushes.
Running out of time now, Leigh implored us to visit the dingo puppies instead of running off to make it to the footy match. I could have lived there all day, but, alas, Jared's friend Paul was waiting for us. Perhaps we will have time to hit up the zoo later.

The footy match merits a post all to its own, so I won't get into it right now. Suffice to say I stumbled home around midnight, incredibly tired after such a full day!

Day 3 - A Day at Monash

Our first couple of days in Australia have really shown us just how dependent we've become on mobile phones. I mean, we've had to arrange specific meeting times and places with people hours in advance, or -- gasp! -- even the day before, just because we had no way for other people to reach us. It was so quaint, and like we were stuck back in 2002. So we were all thrilled yesterday (Friday) when Mike was able to give each of us a mobile phone that we can use for the rest of our time here in Melbourne. The Campus Crusade summer project undergrads from Va Tech and UVA returned to the States yesterday morning, and so we're using some of their phones that Cru loaned them. Now we'll be able to communicate much more effectively with each other, with the contacts we're meeting, and with my friends here, especially since Ash, Tracy & I are staying at different homes and I'm occasionally off doing other things. Anyway, it's great to have a phone again. If nothing else, now that I have a mobile phone I no longer have to wonder what time it is, since I don't have a wristwatch!

Anyway, after spending the first couple of days in the city at both Melbourne Uni and RMIT, yesterday we stayed out in the eastern suburbs and took the bus from Blackburn Station down to Monash University in Clayton (I walked to Blackburn Station, but Ash & Tracy barely arrived on the train in time to catch the bus). At Monash the three of us met up with Mike and then also Graeme Chiswell, the campus director for the Christian Union group at Monash. [CU is affiliated with AFES, the Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students, which is in turn affiliated with IFES, the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. In the States, InterVarsity is affiliated with IFES.] In my semester at Monash I was quite involved in CU, but Graeme arrived the semester after I was here, so this was the first time that I met him. Our meeting today went really well, and he seemed keen on exploring some sort of partnership with us and Student Life to reach graduate students (or post-grads, as they're called here). The part of the meeting that didn't go well was the coffee we got, which was passable at best. Tracy's latte was basically just hot milk!

CU already has a bit of a ministry going with post-grads and staff, through some "prayer triangles" or "prayer squares," groups of three or four people in the same department or building who get together every fortnight or so to pray with and encourage one another. Once or twice a semester these groups then all get together for a potluck or other sort of campus fellowship event. In the recent past there have been Bible studies as well, but the primary students who've been organizing those have gotten busy with their studies and other things, so that's kind of gone dormant for the meantime. At any rate, there's at least something going on with post-grads here at Monash that can be built upon, and something that's actually not dissimilar to some of what we're hoping to do at PSCG.

I'm sure Ash or Tracy will have a bit more to add about the meeting with Graeme yesterday morning, because I had to duck out in the middle of it. I had to leave because I gave a seminar on my research at noon today at Monash, in the Monash Weather and Climate group in the School of Mathematics. Only about 15 people or so attended my seminar (apparently quite a few folks are out of town this week), and I thought it went fairly well. One of the professors and research scientists took me out to lunch afterward. Having a glass of shiraz and a latte at lunch is definitely something different for me -- I think I could maybe adjust to the Australian university setting. :-) I met briefly with a couple of other faculty members after lunch as well. One of the main questions I got from people is, "Why are you here in Australia?" So I decided to tell them that my primary reason for being here now was to investigate some ministry opportunities with post-grads here in Melbourne. "Ministry? Is that a church thing?" someone asked. "Yep, a church thing." It was of course way too early for them to have any idea what sort of post-doc opportunities there might be two years from now, but I think it certainly helped to get my name out there, so that if I do apply in another year or two for something, they'll hopefully remember me and think positively of me. That's the goal anyway, and is what I hope comes of my other upcoming seminars at the University of Melbourne and the Bureau of Meteorology Research Centre next week, where I'll also be "selling my wares," as the Monash folks called it. I'm glad seminar #1 of 3 down here is in the bag!

After I was done with my post-seminar meetings, because Ash & Tracy had already gone back to the city to meet someone at Melbourne Uni, I took some time to wander around the Monash campus, including taking a walk back to the dorm that I lived in back in 2004, Roberts Hall. It was a nice little trip down memory lane.