Sunrise in Sydney

A few students and I made an 11pm decision to wake up the following morning to catch the sunrise at dawn. Despite the 4:45am wake up, the sunrise made it completely worth it. Although Maggie was out there first, awake and chipper, I didn't actually expect to see Julian and his seemingly reluctant roommate Greg to be standing outside in the cold, but alas, there they were at 5am. We caught the 5:02 bus to Circular Quay, (pronounced Circuler Key, although it's quite hilarious when foreigners, especially Americans, called it QU-ayyyy, and even better when they manage to mispronounce Circular as well...) and rode with surly commuters, bitter they need to leave the house at 5am just to beat the morning traffic.
Maggie showed us an ideal location to watch the sunrise, on the pier just across the water from the Opera House. It was spectacular; just as it was rising, the sky glowed like a volcano that was erupting molten lava. The pictures came out fantastic, justifiying such an early rise to what promised to be a long day.

I had to remind myself that our librarian Lorraine wakes up at that hour every day just to get here on time to campus at 8:30!

Such Is Life

I've decided to devote an entire post to Ned Kelly, even though the Melbourne gaol (pronounced jail, people.) was essentially part of my successful trip to Melbourne.
*Et pour mes amis français, en bas pour lire en francais!*
To say that Ned Kelly is a legend is the biggest understatement since the captain of the Hindenburg said, "Does someone smell gas?!" [Thank you, Tina Fey.] Ned Kelly is so much more than a legend. His story is so epic and iconic that it has weaseled itself into Australian literature, folklore, culture, art and film. He is a folk hero and a symbol of Irish-Australian resistance to the Anglo-Australian ruling class. One of our resident professors, Sharon Clarke, has not only a framed photograph of Ned Kelly and his epic beard, but an entire library devoted to the Kelly gang. So who is this famed robber? Is he a villain? Saviour? Bushranger? Modern-day Robinhood? Hero?
He would rob banks for example, but burn the mortgage deeds for the people of the town. During a bank robbery, his gang members would keep their hostages "busy" with drinks at the local pub. He was proclaimed a local hero at the age of 12 when he saved a boy's life from drowning. He was given a green sash by the family that he wore the same day he was captured at Glenrowan.

I first read about the folklore surrounding Ned Kelly in Bill Bryson's In A Sunburned Country when he succinctly wrote that you couldn't understand modern-day Australian culture without understanding this outlaw's story. It somehow ties together greater themes of good versus evil, the strained history between the British and the Irish playing itself out in Australia, and the perpetual predicament of justice and human rights.

Ned Kelly was the son of Irish immigrants, born in Victoria in 1852, and considered Irish-Australian. At the time, the British ruling class had a deep-seated resentment for the working class, ill-educated (and ill-mannered) Irish low-lifes. After a series of run-ins with the police, bank robberies and hostage crises, Kelly and his gang ambushed a couple of policemen, and out of self-defense (or so they say) Kelly shot and killed Officer Thomas Lonigan, thus raising the bounty on his head to about £5,000. Kelly built himself and his gang extremely "homemade" and amateur armour-- he used blades from farming equipment to make the armor that weighed over 100 pounds. 

 Can you imagine moving in that thing?

The epic battle came at Glenrowan in June 1880, about 40 police vs the 4 gang members after an attempted bank robbery. The armor protected Kelly's vital areas during the shootout, but he was finally taken down and arrested with 28 bullet wounds in his legs. Ouch!
He was taken the to Melbourne prison hospital, and nursed back to health so he could withstand trial. Keep in mind, he was a thorn in the ruling Anglo-Australians' side at the time. They wanted to being this dude dead, on any charge. It was the Wild West out there, and they planned on bringing down Kelly and his family (his mother, Ellen, was in prison at the time for a crime for which she was wrongly accused)
After months in the hospital, Kelly was put on trial for the death of Officer Lonigan two years prior, accused of murder and hanged on November 11, 1880. Why was his death so significant?
First of all, his daring and defiance to the ruling class at  the time was revolutionary. The Irish had suffered for far too long at the hands of the British, whether in the Old World or the New, and he stood up for his people. Second, it was clear that Kelly was not given a fair trial and was simply hanged to make an example of him.


I led two separate tours of the Melbourne gaol where Kelly was imprisoned and later hanged. The gaol cells are absolutely tiny-- about 3 ft by 4 ft. The guide explained that at the time, it was believed that solitude and isolated confinement were the best tools for rehabilitation. Prisoners were kept in their cells 23 hrs a day and interacted with other humans once a week. Instead of rehabilitation, this led to depression, anxiety and general crazy town. Didn't work.
 Our group also got to participate in a fun courtroom drama, where we re-enacted the Ned Kelly trial, acting out major characters from the trial. Witnesses, prosecutors, jury members, Ned Kelly's beard. We got to dress up in white-haired wigs and robes, and read from a script to decide the ultimate question: Was Ned Kelly granted a fair trial?

In my opinion, no, he was set up for a death sentence. There was a fellow from Parliament, Gaunson, who tried to get Ned a fair trial since he was pretty much screwed with Redmond Barry at the bench  (he was infamous for having a burning hatred for the Kelly family, and had previously sentenced Ellen Kelly to three years in prison).
Gaunson purposely sent an inexperienced and dim-witted lawyer, Henry Bindon, to force Judge Barry to adjourn until later date. Unfortunately, Barry was still the residing judge when they resumed, and Kelly was left the halfwit Bindon, rather than Molesworth, who was originally meant to defend Ned. The prosecutor was Charles Smyth (this was my role during the reeanctment) who painted a dark portrait of Kelly and his doings. They say that the shorter the time a jury takes to decide, the more likely it is that the verdict is guilty. For Ned, they took less than 15 minutes.

I've never had much (or any for that matter) interest in law or court cases, but I find this one fascinating. The whole trial was ludicrous and entirely unfair. After Judge Barry sentenced him to death, the two had an infamous exchange where Kelly basically told Barry that he'd see him in hell.
Kelly was hanged at the Melbourne gaol on Nov 11, 1880, his last words being "Well, I supposed it'd have to come to this. Such is life." Ironically, Judge Barry died only 12 days after the hanging, supposedly of blood poisoning.
How, you ask?
From a carbuncle, or infection at the back of his neck-- from years of wearing a horse-hair wig. Talk about his wig was killing him, literally.

About a decade ago, folks did a re-trial of the Kelly trial, presenting new evidence that was concealed or absent. For example, they proved that Kelly did not actually kill Officer Lonigan, the crime for which he was accused and hanged. 

What's interesting nowadays is that you'll get two different accounts of this legendary figure. Some will tell you that he was a villain, a cold-blooded cop-killer, a famed bankrobber, a bushranger in the Wild West of Australia. Others will tell you that he was a modern-day hero who stood up for justice in the face of tyranny. I guess it all depends whether you are descended from the English or the Irish.

At the end of the day, I'm still left with the haunting question of... "What would his face really look like without all that facial hair?"


*Un p'tit mot pour mes amis français: désolée, mais mon francais écrit c'est vraiment affreux. Tout se passe bien ici en Australie, je suis bien installée à Sydney avec une apartment dans le centre-ville, mais sans colocs!! :( Mes colocs Gaëtan, Pauline et Elise me manquent trop... Je bosse pour Boston University, il y a 62 étudiants dans notre programme. J'organise des évenements pour le programme, je m'occupe de 24 étudiants dans notre résidence, et je bosse dans notre bibliothèque. Deux jours par semaine je bosse pour une organisation AFAP qui soutien des ONGs en Asie et Afrique, notamment des petits groupes qui ont besoin des fonds et des conseils. Je suis stagiaire, je suis chargée des affaires sociales, pour augmenter les membres dans l'organisation. 
Enfin, j'ai un vélo mais il y n'a PAS les pistes cyclables!!! Je suis en colère!!! C'est assez dangereux de rouler dans la rue avec les buses et les taxis qui passent. Mais je me méfie, et j'espère de pas se peter la geuele...une deuxieme fois :) La semaine dernière je suis allée avec la programme à Melbourne pour le weekend--une ville simplement GENIALE. La ville est assez petite mais il y a des galleries, le film, le theatre, les arts, la culture, la cuisine que extraordinaire, avec des petits cafés européens partout. Je me vois bien à Melbourne, je m'entend bien avec la culture. 
La semaine prochaine je vais à Cairns au Great Barrier Reef dans le nord, là où l'ocean est bleue claire. Trop beau! En décembre, je vais en Chine pour voir la petite Buddha Claire, et nous passerons par Bali (le surf!!!!!) avant de rentrer à Sydney pour Noel et le Nouvel An.
Voilà-- j'espère que mon francais écrit est pas trop dur à comprendre. Des années et des années de cours de grammaire-- tout pour rien! Quel honte!

Melbourne

Week three of September already, time is flying by! We hit the road and flew the entire program down to Melbourne (pronounced MEL-bin, people.) for 4 days, which quickly became my new favorite field trip. It takes a trip down to Melbourne to truly understand the rivalry between Sydney and Australia's second city. These two have a relationship that rivals only New York and Boston. Sydney, like New York, is like the big brother who doesn't really care that much about its little brother. Sydney thinks it's better so doesn't bother with comparisons. Melbourne, like Boston, is like the little brother who is constantly comparing the two and has developed what we might call an inferiority complex. Personally I know that Bostonians are always saying "Yeah! We're awesome! We're so much better than New York! Yeah!" whereas New York...doesn't even compare the two. I've met quite a few Aussies during my time with GYLC-- all of whom will proclaim "Melbourne's #1" or "No, no! Sydney's better!" Here's the truth:
They're both great cities in very different ways, for different reasons.

Melbourne's definitely got a more European feel to it, both in look and diversity. Historically, each city got off to a very different start. Sydney's got a convict background-- it was originally set up as a colony to which to send Britain's criminals. During Britain's Industrial Revolution, crime skyrocketed and soon jails filled up too quickly for crimes as petty as stealing food or clothing. Even the smallest crime, such as pickpocketing, would send someone packing to Australia to serve time. After being released from prison however, the criminal wouldn't go back to England but rather would be expected to stay in Australia.
Melbourne, on the other hand, doesn't have this convict history. Instead, it was a major hub for European immigrants who landed directly in Port Phillips Bay, or came over after landing initially in Perth. This is how Melburnians attribute their diversity, multi-culturalism on steroids and city planning.
In 1850, gold was discovered in Victoria, ironically only a month after Victoria split from New South Wales. This transformed the city as hundreds of thousands flocked to Victoria to sift for gold, and the colony soon replaced NSW as the darling of Britain's colonies down under.

Throughout the city are these tiny laneways that twist and wind and offer all sorts of shops, boutiques and cafés. The city is known for its unique and quirky bars with a decor that New York restauranteurs could only dream about. For example, Sunday night I went with my coworkers to Madame Brussels, a rooftop bar that looked like a 1950s garden party. After we hit up Gin Palace and ordered exorbitantly priced but fabulous cocktails. The inside was dark with pillows everywhere-- it looked like Austin Power's lair. Another fun bar was a place called Cookie, a trendy restaurant with a decor themed 50s children's room, with old trains, children's stories and lanterns surrounding the bar. But by far my favorite venue was Berlin, down an old venue with a menu that's split in half: The West vs. The East. The cocktails on both sides are themed after each side of Berlin, including the Checkpoint Charlie.

Chinatown

Another cool bar was down a twisted alley covered in graffiti, (no sign by the way) called The Croft Institute with mad scientist cocktails in test tubes. From What's On Melbourne: "The Croft Institute is tucked at the end of a winding Chinatown alley well off the beaten track. Getting there [and actually finding the place] is part of the experience as you wander past street art covered walls and the back entrances of some of Melbourne's finest Chinese restaurants."

 The city is actually a grid system, or at least the CBD (Central Business District) is. This makes the city extremely easy to navigate-- I could walk from the northeast corner of the grid to the southwest corner within 20-30 minutes. Along the way you'll see trams running in the centre of the street. Melbourne actually has one of the most extensively tram systems in the world-- and they're not your typical trams that you'd find in Grenoble, but more like the ones in San Francisco. Old rickety trolleys that are adorable and give the city that extra charm. This accounts for one the biggest differences I think between the two: the trams give Melbourne the appearance of being clean and organized, while Sydney's non-existent tram service, suburban trains and bus system give the appearance of...chaos, loud city noises and exhaust. It's.. lovely.
Why would I move to Melbourne over Sydney?
Two words:
Bike Lanes.

The downtown is covered in them! I am so envious! Sydney,  having NONE, can be quite backwards when it comes to modern-day transportation (it seems like). Apparently there was a tram system in place, but they ripped it out at the turn of the century in a bone-headed move. Second, there is ONE official bike lane that will take me absolutely no where, and there are rumours going around that the city may remove it. Blurgh!The general argument goes that if you're trying to decide between the two, Sydney's got the harbour and the beach. Gotta love the beaches' proximity to the city. It really can't be beat.
If you're looking for the beach, a city that is more finance/business and all that serious stuff, head to Sydney.
If you're looking for the arts, the film industry, theatre, fantastic quirky bars and cafés, a river on which to go running and BIKE LANES, head to Melbourne.

Lights, Camera, Action!

This week has felt very glamorous, simply because I've had a year's worth of film and television pared down to one week.  Thankfully there's been something to cheer up a week made grim by our one of student's falling terribly ill and needing an emergency liver transplant overnight, and the 9/11 anniversary hitting me/others harder than I expected.

I'm working with one of the students, Megan, to shoot a film for a her class Film Production Using Video. This means that I'm her movie star and I do whatever she tells me when we're on set. Her short film is about a girl (that's me!) that finds a coconut in the middle of the city, and when she brings it to her ear she hears the beach. She wanders around the city, trying to crack it open and engage others, and finally ends up inside the coconut, which is the beach. We shot this first scene, which is far more complicated than I could have imagined. No wonder why films take years to produce: you have to get every angle and lighting right, and that's on top of the actors not messing up their lines. Then, rather than a one-dimensional shot, you shoot the same scene over and over again from different angles and points of view.
This is what we did on the street corner down at Broadway and Regent St. First we filmed my feet stepping into the street and jumping back, me approaching and picking up the coconut from different angles, my INCREDIBLE acting skills as I listen to my furry pal and hear the beach (my facial expressions are real winners...)
At the end of all this, Megan will have the mammoth task of  editing all the footage and just using what she needs to create a seamless scene and story line. It was also fun to be standing on a corner and when people see the camera on the other side, they ask, "Excuse me, but what is going on here?!" as if Angelina Jolie were about to walk out on set. Nice try!
I've learned that right down the street from our building is an excellent place to people watch: I saw people of all shapes and sizes, two old hippies in automatic wheelchairs blaring 80s music from their ride, and a car drive the wrong way down a one-way. I may take a lawn chair and just park myself at this street the next time I'm feeling the least bit bored.

Part Two of TV was that same day, one of our professors, Daryl, invited me along with his class to ABC's Q & A, a live TV studio recording, interactive panel that answers the audience's questions and debates them. The beauty of democracy, says silver-fox host Tony Jones, who also happens to be the studio's in-house lawyer in case of [insert big word here that I still don't understand].

Silver-fox Tony Jones

What's great is that ABC studios is just a stone's throw away from our building, we walked down, went through the nonexistent security (that would NEVER happen in America), chilled out with the crowd and waited about 15 minutes before we were on air to be seated. Australians are amazing at live television, everything runs on clockwork for them. So much so, that we were still being prepped 5 minutes before going on air. The guests were introduced before it started, here's the line-up:
Famed writer and feminist Germaine Greer, author of The Female Eunuch, and always one to say provocative remarks, right-wing politician and snake-looking Barnaby Joyce (I really don't know how he gains any self-respect with a name like that...), feminist and author of Big Porn Inc. Melinda Tankard Reist, another provocative but brilliant journalist Paul Barry and blogger/journalist Joe Hildebrand. Brilliant journalist, but also quite witty. Here's the biography he submitted for the show:

"Joe is a writer for The Daily Telegraph and The Punch who specialises in speaking on subjects he knows nothing about.
Despite being a hugely skilled journalist and an online sensation, he is still dogged by rumours that he rose to the top due to his good looks alone. "...the nerve!

Once in a while, the camera zooms in and out of the audience's faces; unfortunately they didn't find mine tempting enough to flash on screen-- a couple of our students made it up though! The whole experience was quite fun, being on live television nation-wide, laughing at the sweaty, pathetic remarks made by Barnaby Joyce, and cringing at the uncomfortable and tense dialogue and debate between Greer and Joyce (you couldn't find more opposites and stick them next to each other). Things got real good when the topic of erotica came up and how the ad industry is hyper-sexualized and sending the wrong message to young boys. Barnaby looked realllll uncomfortable during that one. He made me realize that all politicians, or should I say all right-wing politicians are the same. Everywhere. It really doesn't matter to me when country you're from and or what you stand for specifically, a politician is a politician.

Part Three of Glamour Week was the Italian Film Festival with Kerry. Kerry is a powerball, bombshell, dynamite gal who places our interns, found me my internships, and knows how to party. I've never seen anyone network and work the crowd like this girl, she's incredible. We also have the same birthday, which explains why we get along so well. We've been running a few times, in Centennial Park and Bronte Beach, but when she invited me out to the opening night of the Italian Film Festival, I knew I had a golden opportunity to see Kerry at her best. She jokes that when the night falls, she turns into a different person. She can handle the number of martinis that would have me tumbling down the stairs.

We ran up to the Verona cinema in Paddington, and hit cocktail hour hard: Lavazza espresso martinis with cocoa on top and Prosecco champagne. She effortlessly struck up a conversation with these two ladies, Eva and Vanda, both of whom had lived in Italy and were great lovers of its culture. Within minutes, Kerry is taking pictures of me with our new friends, and we're pounding down the free cocktails like they're going out of style. The film, Escort in Love, was fantastic and very typical Italian. By the time the movie had ended, she had the four of us booked at her favorite Italian restaurant in Five Ways Paddo called Christo's. She knew the owner Peter quite well, got us some wine, olives, haloumi and fresh pasta, and made sure we didn't pay when we left. She ran off to another gig at Bondi, and I stayed and chatted with our two new friends. I was laughing to myself that technically we had picked up the ladies, and taken them out to dinner. Well, I'm not complaining cuz it was one hell of a good time. Especially when Eva asked Vanda : "Are you feeling peckish?" I nearly died. She is straight out of Wallace and Gromit. A fabulous, glamorous evening was made only better when I met a French girl Julie at the bus stop and we chit-chatted all the way home from Paddo.

Festival of the Winds

My fourth weekend in Sydney and probably the quietest yet. I'd like to say that it was because I was on call and couldn't technically be more than 15 minutes away from campus in case of an incident, but the truth is, I haven't made enough friends here yet to truly have a social life. It's a frustration that I know eventually will pass, it takes living in a city and making solid friends at least a couple weeks if not months. I got incredibly lucky last year meeting Jayne and Jordan the first weekend of October, only two weeks after arriving in Grenoble, and having a BLAST with them all year. I think because I'm not in university anymore and I'm not in a program like the language assistantship, it makes it harder to meet people. But good news! I've lined up two internships this week: one working for a nonprofit called AFAP, partenering with development organizations in Southeast Asia and Africa; one, completely unrelated, doing event planning for the gay community. It's gonna be AWESOME. Hopefully through these two internships I'll meet people (other than experience, that's the most I'll get out of it since they are most definitely unpaid!)

 Saturday morning, I had Dim Sum for the first time! I don't know how I went through my entire adolescense and college years without eating Dim Sum. What is wrong with me?! What a revelation. They bring the food to your table so you know what you're ordering, and it's steaming hot! Only thing is, the bill does seem to rack up.
Sunday morning, Julian and I took an hour and a HALF (what a hike) to Bondi Beach, but it was worth the trip. The beach is absolutely gorgeous, with bright colorful flags flying everywhere. September 11th kicked off the spring festival and Festival of the Winds, where families came to fly kites all day. There were massive kites such as Shamu (awesome), a chinese dragon (incredible) and an alien on a UFO (unreal.)

Off to Melbourne on Sunday!

Beauty in the 'Burbs: 52 Suburbs and Newtown

I tacked on to Peter's field trip to Sydney's museum to see a fascinating exhibit exploring 52 of Sydney's 683 suburbs through photography. Blogger Louise Hawson has lived in Sydney for over 20 years, and yet felt as if she knew nothing about other suburbs. What goes on in Penrith during the day? What is the neighborhood feel in Woolloomooloo? She spent one week, one for every week of the year, photographing a suburb, its people, its restaurants, its beaches, its houses. She kept a blog of her adventures 52 Suburbs * and using her photographs, created a series of diptychs, or juxtaposition of two or more photographs.

For example:

See the resemblance?

She does this with designs, patterns, people, funny signs matching with funny pictures.

It was a brilliant exhibit for the wandering student who knows very little about Sydney outside the city limits. Each suburb makes up a small part of the city-- there's no actual "Sydney" in a postal code form, but rather various neighborhoods that make up the city. Check out the blog to see more photographs, or my Picasa album for more. There are some really great photos and some interesting diptychs. Check it out!
Long story short, one of the pictures was of perfectly hand-rolled dumplings -- Julian and I made a beeline for Chinatown to get some soup dumplings. YUM!

Love this one in Manly:

Part Deux of Peter's tour was the following day in Newtown, the seedy/hipster/starting-to-be-gentrified part of Sydney. This suburb is the Soho/Jamaica Plain of Sydney. King Street runs straight down the middle with heaps and heaps of restaurants, shops, vintage clothing stores, seedy pubs and hotels mixed in with sleek wine bars. It is simply... the place to be. Back in the 1880s, Newtown was very working-class, which explains the numerous pubs and hotels (not your typical hotel remember, the English term "hotel," or pub.) When education became free for all back in the 1970s (date?), the demographics changed drastically as students and people of all backgrounds started moving into the Newtown, renting cheap apartments due to its proximity to the University of Sydney. In the 1970s and 80s, Newtown was the scene of all that was punk, rock, death metal and just pure awesomeness.
Things change once again as that generation grows up but remains in Newtown: people start having families and wanting nicer restaurants and wine bars. Townhouses that were worth $90,000 ten years ago are now worth close to $1 million AUD. Pretty crazy, huh ?
Peter was explaining that you'd be hard to find a glass of wine anywhere in Newtown ten years ago, but in such a relative short period of time, some of the best wine in the city you can find at local places such as Bloodwood.
Some of the best vintage shopping I've ever seen is here as well-- some people are dressed like it's still 1956--except they've added tattoos and piercings to boot. And with Newtown's hipster and punk beginnings comes the great debate of graffiti vs. street art. Houses, buildings, even entire alleyways are covered in graffiti, tagging and murals. Tina & Brad, you would simply LOVE this! ;)
We took a stroll down Memory... I mean, May Lane to check out some of the work. It was so cool!

Would you like this on your garage door? I would!
("Forget about the garage!")




This is by the Newtown train station. Neat-o!

And finally, this famous mural was painted in 1991 in one entire day. And how did the guy get away with it, you ask, despite graffiti being highly illegal in this city? He made a fake letterhead from the City Council, saying he was on some project to paint a mural. And the police bought it!

I cut out part of MLK's face oops-- you get the idea though.
I also like that this girl matched the background. I didn't put her there on purpose, I swear!
Trivia question: What flag is represented on this mural?

*Photos courtesy of 52 Suburbs by Louise Hawson

Fanatical Footy

I had my first taste of sporting events in Australia at Sunday night's last Roosters game of the season. After reading Bill Bryson's book In a Sunburned Country, (highly recommended), I knew that Aussies were wild about sports. In fact, so wild about rugby that they invented their own type. That would like Americans being so wild about badminton that they created their own spin-off, including a different birdie and rules about how you can hit it, and then follow it religiously. Pascal has been very helpful in teaching all the nuances about Australian sport. It turns out to be quite complicated-- and it's not even cricket season yet (I've already given up on cricket though, I'm hopeless.)
There are three types of rugby: Rugby Union, Rubgy League and Australian Football League, affectionately known as "footy." The first is known as rugby and is played worldwide. The Rugby World Cup (starting next week in NZ) is Union. Rugby League is played more between Oz, NZ and England and is known as NRL (National Rugby League). And Aussie Rules, or footy, which is played on a cricket field. Weird.
The most important thing to note about rugby in Australia is that it depends what city you're talking about . Sydney follows the NRL religiously, Melbourne follows the AFL fanatically. Interesting.
It would be like New York being huge softball followers and Boston being huge baseball followers. Similar sport, different rules. On that note, don't even ask me what the differences are between the three types. It would be like if you put a picture in front of me that says, "Can you spot the 17 differences between these photos?" It's all the same! The scrum between Union and League is slightly nuanced, and AFL is apparently more "graceful" than the former.
That's all I got.
See? Hopeless.
 Sydney's one big AFL team is the Swans, their NRL team is the Roosters. I thought this was fascinating that it depends on what city you're talking about for the sport. Footy has a huge following in Melbourne and other parts of Australia, but not nearly as much in Sydney. I'll continue my research when I'm in Melbourne for work the week after next.
But one thing's for sure: everyone is cheering for the Wallabies in this year's World Cup!

Kick It to the Kerb

I recently found out, while watching a flashing road sign, that the British spelling for curb is "kerb," which just makes me laugh. Reminds me of Kermit the Frog.
 
This weekend was non-stop action-packed, filled with activities and events designed to get the students (and me) out into Sydney exploring. Thursday night is Julian's weekly "Tucker Thursday," tucker being the name for food around here, where he takes a group of students to discover a new restaurant in a new neighborhood. Once again, being the selfless person I am, I decided to join the group and eat at the world's fanciest food court at the Westfield Tower. It's attached to a high-fashion mall, a bit like the Natick Collection, where you catch your reflection everywhere because the floors, ceilings and banisters are all so shiny and new. It's like being in a fancy hall of mirrors, but with more clothes. I settle on Malaysian food, which is delicious and unique. I like that Malaysian and Indonesian food are offered here far more than in the States, obviously because of the proximity. It's a nice and fresh change from your typical Thai, Vietnamese or even Indian dishes, with its own variations.


After dinner, we walk to The Rocks, one of the oldest parts of Sydney. It juts out into the water and at the end of the neighborhood is where the iconic Harbor Bridge crosses to north Sydney. There are heaps of cozy restaurants, and some of Sydney's oldest pubs (two to be exact, who fight with each other on a daily basis as to which one is really older). We head up the hill to the Glenmore Hotel for its rooftop beer garden and a spectacular view of the city. Since we're up fairly high, you can see most of the CBD and look right over the Sydney Opera House. A few more students clamber in and join us, and I'm reminded that while it's been great to go out with some of the students on the program, it's time for me to make friends my own age. After the Glenmore, we hit up The Ivy, one of the most famous nightclubs in Sydney, known for its outdoor dance floor, cool, sleek style...and its exorbitant prices. Luckily it was a Thursday night so the boys didn't have to pay a cover.




Friday afternoon I take my new bike (!) for a spin to Centennial Park, my new love affair. Julian meets me there and we play frisbee in the park and talk about doing a student barbecue with the program. Friday evening after work I go to the Marly Bar in Newtown to meet my new friend Aaron -- his dad, John, shadowed my group LGM during session 4 of GYLC this summer, and introduced me to his son via email.
I met up with him again on Sat afternoon when his dad John was in town. It was really nice to see John (he was born 2 weeks after my dad, weird!), he was incredibly supportive during the insanity that was Session 4 and offered a lot of advice on how to deal with my bad-egg students. I'll be going to Melbourne on the class trip in a couple weeks, where he lives with his wife Jennie. So Friday night Julian (who is an AWESOME wingman cuz he's great at making conversation with new people, esp Aussies. plus he has a gf, so we're totally set for the platonic-but-still-joke-around friendship!) and I met Aaron's Aussie rugby buddies. Lot of beers and lots of jokes.

Saturday morning we all went TO THE ZOO! The Taronga zoo is absolutely stunning-- it's in northern Sydney so it overlooks the harbor, the opera house, the bridge. and plus, it has animals! I was with the three aforementioned boys, so we just cracked jokes the whole time. I acted (as usual) like a puppy. Or a 6-year old at the zoo. Things I learned: monkeys like to pick their butts, tigers are not meant for a cage, and the platypus is officially the most badass animal ever (the males have venomous spurs, which makes them some of the only venomous mammals on earth, plus they can live in water or land AND lay eggs, even though they're mammals...so bad-ass..) At the end of the day, I can't decide which was more entertaining: the animals or watching Pascal at the zoo.

Saturday night I planned my first (or maybe second, but this one was actually a success) floor event at my buddy Neil's restaurant, the Fork in Hand. I organized a deal to have the program pay for each student: $10 steak plus a FREE beer for everyone, and I bought dinner. So everyone came! All 24 students! We were 28 total, mainly because I told goofballs Joe and Sam that if they dressed up in suits and ties for the pub, I'd buy them dinner. Sure enough, they arrive lookin' fresh in their ties, so I added them on to the tab. I've never done event planning before,  but I'm finding it's really not that hard and it's quite fun!

Sunday morning Brunch with Cal and Julian in Paddington (Paddo) where Cal lives. Paddo is the South End of Boston meets Soho. I love it. We went to a posh place called Tiger Mottle where there are often celebrity sightings...but alas, none. After an incredible meals of eggs benedict and fantastic coffee, we walk through some of Sydney's best suburbs: Darlinghurst and Surry Hills, where Cal points out all these must-go places. Drinks at the Bene-something hotel. Must try this sandwich shop, get brunch here and be sure to get the chorizo sandwich. Great live music at this bar. It was fun! Of course I didn't write any of this down, so I remember none of it... We went in these quirky boutiques on William St where they sold old items from 1950s, from old medecine bulbs to wooden stamps to a soda maker (Julian bought one, ahem). We even went vintage clothes shopping and I found a leather purse with quite a personality for only $25. Julian decides he needs a vintage letter jacket, you know the sports jacket kind that footballers wear in high school? He buys it impulsively, and I make fun of him the rest of the day cuz it actually has a chick's name on it, Rachel.

Sunday afternoon I meet up with my lovely coworker Caroline in Centennial Park for a long bike ride through this 500 acre park. I have yet to see the periphery of the park, it's that big, and we ride around noticing how many PEOPLE are out. Half of Sydney was there! Children were coming out of the woodwork, literally the trees, and there are picnics and dogs and bikes and music-- it's Father's Day in Australia we realized. And the perfect day for an afternoon at the park. It was nice to get to know Caroline a bit more, especially outside of work. We decided to try and make our bike ride a regular weekend thing and discover new parts of the city.
Later that evening, I went with the program to a RUGBY GAME! The last one of the season in NRL (National Rugby League) with the Sydney Roosters vs. the Melbourne Storm. The Roosters killed it, with a 40-9 point win. It was great fun to be at a game, cheering on one of the biggest sports in Sydney, if not Australia. More to come on rubgy, it gets quite complicated considering there are three types of rugby that are followed fanatically in Australia.