The Pig and the Penguins
It took me a little longer than expected to find the cheap internet cafe- but I'm here now and ready to update.
I successfully got on the performance tram on Friday- and it was certainly an experience. The tram was decorated inside and out with all kinds of Indian designs and lights and fringe. It circled around the city and you could stay on for as long or as short as you wanted. The performance was a woman playing the most bizarre instrument I've ever seen- it was made of leather and was played almost like a bassoon, except that the body of it was curled like a tuba or a french horn, and it also had a set of electronic controls which she would manipulate with her hands, and which must have been sending signals to the man with the computer sitting behind her. From this bizarre instrument came the least formally "musical" sounds ever. I did my very best to appreciate the "music"- not to be prejudiced against experiemental art- but I was very glad when the tram finished its circle of the city and let me off! Later that night, I met Andrew and Norva (A&N) at a Vietnamese restaurant near their apartment and got to try sugar cane prawns (shrimp), congee (chicken soup/porridge), vietnamese pancake which is eaten wrapped in lettuce leaves, and rice paper rolls. I think it was my first time eating Vietnamese, and so Andrew insisted that I record all the things I had tried! We then went home and stayed up till 1:30 playing a card/board game whose name escapes me. They stay up so late! I think being professors, they are just permanently on college student schedules- which is not a problem for me!
Yesterday A&N took me to another art museum out in the suburbs- the Heidie museum of modern art. We saw an exhibit of Australia's most famous artist, Sydney Nolan, and his most famous paintings, a series depicting the folk hero Ned Kelly (a tragic outlaw along the lines of Bonnie and Clyde). After that they rushed me back to the city so that I could get on a Penguin Parade tour. The Penguin Parade is a phenomenon when the "little" or "fairy" penguins return to their nests from the ocean after a day of fishing. The beaches that they live on are about 2 hours southeast of Melbourne and they emerge from the ocean at sunset- so every day dozens of tours go down to this one beach to see them. Well, let me first say that the penguins were adorable and definitely worth seeing- first they come in very small groups of 4 or 5 and stand right in the surf waiting to see if the coast is clear, then they waddle across the beach looking like the might fall forward from the weight of their bellies. Gradually more and more emerge, in bigger and bigger groups, and they all head up into the dunes to regurgitate their food for their babies. The best part is that the baby penguins will try to get food from any adult penguin, even though only their parents will feed them- but the attempts to get fed create some interesting penguin fights. Now, that said- the Penguin Parade made me fully realize the meaning of "tourist trap". You pay all this money to take a 4 hour round trip bus ride to a big visitor's center built a little ways back from the beach and filled with two gift shops, a horrible fast food restaurant (which I had to eat at because I didn't think I needed to pack dinner), and the most absurd part, the "penguin photo experience". See, you can't take pictures of the penguins or videos (the bus driver said that it was bad for their health, but I can't possibly see how being video taped can be bad for your health!)- therefore, if you want your picture with the penguins, you can pay to be digitally inserted into a picture of them. What a scam! But, like I said, the penguins themselves were great- just the method of seeing them was fascinatingly awful!
I got back from the penguins around midnight- just in time to land in Chinatown for the New Year! It is the year of the Pig, as was 1983 when I was born, so I think that this is supposed to be a good thing for me. I got to walk around the stalls and see some lion dancing for a little bit before everything closed down. But, this morning I went with A&N to new year's dim sum (traditional breakfast of prawn and pork dumplings) and we saw the lion dancers and the dragon dancers and browsed around for the full New Year experience. Somehow I've manages to never celebrate a Chinese New Year before, even the year I lived in NYC. It was a lot of fun, although I'm sure it is not as fun to hang out on the streets of NYC in February, maybe that is why I never did it before.
Anyway, I've spent the rest of the day shopping for gifts and browsing the Sustainable Living Festival- a big hippy fair happening this weekend that I wish I could take half my friends to! I saw two booths selling keepers and "moon pads" (for any coopers reading this!), and a food tent giving demonstrations of macrobiotic/vegan cooking and selling lentils and gluten-free pancake mix. Oh, it makes me miss the coop so badly!!! I also finished seeing the National Gallery of Victoria. Thursday I had gone to the International art building, and today I did the Australian art building. The best part was an exhibit of women's hats, which made me want to live in 1940. I even had time to stop in at "Champions" the Australia Racing Museum- as in horse racing. I didn't know horse racing was such a big deal in Australia, so now I'm going to try and get out to the track before I leave Melbourne.
So that was my extended weekend. Hopefully I haven't lost any readers by posting less frequently. I'll try to pick it up- don't forget to comment so I know you are there!
Love,
Emma
PS- Almost forgot, an addition to the last post. The night I got to Melbourne, after dinner A&N walked me into one of the city parks to see the possums. They are everywhere! The squirrels of Australia, as Andrew said. And so cute! Okay, that is really all now.
I successfully got on the performance tram on Friday- and it was certainly an experience. The tram was decorated inside and out with all kinds of Indian designs and lights and fringe. It circled around the city and you could stay on for as long or as short as you wanted. The performance was a woman playing the most bizarre instrument I've ever seen- it was made of leather and was played almost like a bassoon, except that the body of it was curled like a tuba or a french horn, and it also had a set of electronic controls which she would manipulate with her hands, and which must have been sending signals to the man with the computer sitting behind her. From this bizarre instrument came the least formally "musical" sounds ever. I did my very best to appreciate the "music"- not to be prejudiced against experiemental art- but I was very glad when the tram finished its circle of the city and let me off! Later that night, I met Andrew and Norva (A&N) at a Vietnamese restaurant near their apartment and got to try sugar cane prawns (shrimp), congee (chicken soup/porridge), vietnamese pancake which is eaten wrapped in lettuce leaves, and rice paper rolls. I think it was my first time eating Vietnamese, and so Andrew insisted that I record all the things I had tried! We then went home and stayed up till 1:30 playing a card/board game whose name escapes me. They stay up so late! I think being professors, they are just permanently on college student schedules- which is not a problem for me!
Yesterday A&N took me to another art museum out in the suburbs- the Heidie museum of modern art. We saw an exhibit of Australia's most famous artist, Sydney Nolan, and his most famous paintings, a series depicting the folk hero Ned Kelly (a tragic outlaw along the lines of Bonnie and Clyde). After that they rushed me back to the city so that I could get on a Penguin Parade tour. The Penguin Parade is a phenomenon when the "little" or "fairy" penguins return to their nests from the ocean after a day of fishing. The beaches that they live on are about 2 hours southeast of Melbourne and they emerge from the ocean at sunset- so every day dozens of tours go down to this one beach to see them. Well, let me first say that the penguins were adorable and definitely worth seeing- first they come in very small groups of 4 or 5 and stand right in the surf waiting to see if the coast is clear, then they waddle across the beach looking like the might fall forward from the weight of their bellies. Gradually more and more emerge, in bigger and bigger groups, and they all head up into the dunes to regurgitate their food for their babies. The best part is that the baby penguins will try to get food from any adult penguin, even though only their parents will feed them- but the attempts to get fed create some interesting penguin fights. Now, that said- the Penguin Parade made me fully realize the meaning of "tourist trap". You pay all this money to take a 4 hour round trip bus ride to a big visitor's center built a little ways back from the beach and filled with two gift shops, a horrible fast food restaurant (which I had to eat at because I didn't think I needed to pack dinner), and the most absurd part, the "penguin photo experience". See, you can't take pictures of the penguins or videos (the bus driver said that it was bad for their health, but I can't possibly see how being video taped can be bad for your health!)- therefore, if you want your picture with the penguins, you can pay to be digitally inserted into a picture of them. What a scam! But, like I said, the penguins themselves were great- just the method of seeing them was fascinatingly awful!
I got back from the penguins around midnight- just in time to land in Chinatown for the New Year! It is the year of the Pig, as was 1983 when I was born, so I think that this is supposed to be a good thing for me. I got to walk around the stalls and see some lion dancing for a little bit before everything closed down. But, this morning I went with A&N to new year's dim sum (traditional breakfast of prawn and pork dumplings) and we saw the lion dancers and the dragon dancers and browsed around for the full New Year experience. Somehow I've manages to never celebrate a Chinese New Year before, even the year I lived in NYC. It was a lot of fun, although I'm sure it is not as fun to hang out on the streets of NYC in February, maybe that is why I never did it before.
Anyway, I've spent the rest of the day shopping for gifts and browsing the Sustainable Living Festival- a big hippy fair happening this weekend that I wish I could take half my friends to! I saw two booths selling keepers and "moon pads" (for any coopers reading this!), and a food tent giving demonstrations of macrobiotic/vegan cooking and selling lentils and gluten-free pancake mix. Oh, it makes me miss the coop so badly!!! I also finished seeing the National Gallery of Victoria. Thursday I had gone to the International art building, and today I did the Australian art building. The best part was an exhibit of women's hats, which made me want to live in 1940. I even had time to stop in at "Champions" the Australia Racing Museum- as in horse racing. I didn't know horse racing was such a big deal in Australia, so now I'm going to try and get out to the track before I leave Melbourne.
So that was my extended weekend. Hopefully I haven't lost any readers by posting less frequently. I'll try to pick it up- don't forget to comment so I know you are there!
Love,
Emma
PS- Almost forgot, an addition to the last post. The night I got to Melbourne, after dinner A&N walked me into one of the city parks to see the possums. They are everywhere! The squirrels of Australia, as Andrew said. And so cute! Okay, that is really all now.
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