On the Bottom Half

Off time and the Start of Ausification

This turned into a bit of a novel, sorry!

With Garett now sent home and I now on my own, I've so far taken one day off to do nothing: I sat around, watched movies, and tried to plan this trip.

I'm certain that in very little time, any of my careful planning is going to fly out the window, but to own the truth, I'm not really that concerned. I've had it in my head for a while that to come home and be able to say to myself that "yes, I've truly 'travelled'", I'd need to have done whatever the Lonely Planet told me to do. Now I've figured out that whatever I do makes the travels worthwhile and there simply is no way to do it all or, for that matter, to do what anyone else thinks are the right things to do. Since the LP caters to all tastes, it is an indispensible tool and full of useful tidbits that every traveller, with his and her own unique tastes and travel style, will find helpful.

Now... we're past the shameless promotion for LP. The past few days have been interesting, notwithstanding the above. I don't think it is possible for a day not to be interesting (I think I split an infinitive there, sorry) here or anywhere else. Saturday after Garett was spent wandering hither and thither in the CBD (central business district) of Melbourne. The hilarious wrinkle is that I had on my backpack containing most of my belongings and my man-purse with the balance. My shoulders got sore because of the inbalance caused by the man-purse and I had to keep switching sides with it. I was hoping to find some new shoes, but I was a Kyle-bull in the proverbial china shop with the thing. All the trendy retail people in the trendy shops were looking at me funny when I came in. One asked: "Did you just get off the plane?" I hope that was only aimed at the backpack because I had taken a shower that morning and I thought I'd gotten enough sleep. Furthermore, since I don't drink much when I drive, I couldn't have been slurring my words ;-)

I have to elaborate a little about the trendy shops. I was in there because they had some trendy shoes showing in their trendy window. When I went in, those trendy shoes were a trendy $220, but even more gobsmacking were the jeans hanging a trendy distance from the shoes: $490. I think those take the wallet as the most expensive denim constructions in my existence. Whoof... Since I've see a lot of Calgary uni students in such trendy clothes, I figured out that day why I have money to spend on flying and travelling, even after finishing 5 years of uni...

1500 hours rolled around and I found my way over the the Spencer St. train station on the east side of the CBD, hopped on the train and rode out to Sunbury, where I am now. The couple here, Bruce and Helen, are very friendly and very kind. They had friends coming out for 'tea' that evening and wanted me to be there for that. Bruce picked me up from the train stop and brought me to the house, where I helped him prepare for 'tea'. The friends are Indian Baptist missionaries; they had many interesting stories to tell and were most interested in the solar car.

Sunday morning we all slept in, watched some of the 3rd and final Australia vs. The World XI One-day cricket match, some of the Bathurst 1000 rally race, then put together a picnic lunch and headed out to an historic homestead just outside of town. The wind was howling and I was shivering in the shade - time to get something a little warmer to wear until the Sun comes out and cooks the city with +40 degrees. However, the homestead was an interesting tour - a kit house produced in England, shipped here, then assembled in the late 1800s. The host was an older fellow wearing the tails of a butler, but the cheery disposition of a grandpa whose grandchilden are thoroughly spoilt upon every visit. He served with a Catalina in World War 2 and was as excited to tell me about it as I was to hear it. In fact, we had to cut the conversation short as Helen needed to get back into town for an appointment. I rushed through the rest of the homestead and off we went.

Bruce and I then watched the end of the cricket and the Bathurst race. Holden took both 1st and 2nd in the Bathurst. Australia won the cricket with only 5 wickets in 50 overs for a total of 293; World XI could only get 137 in 27.5 overs before all the batsmen were out. If you can decipher that, you're doing VERY well. Then a cheesy Steven Segal flick came on and we stayed up too late watching that.

Helen works about 2 hours away during the week, so she left early Monday morning and won't be back until Thursday night. Bruce works in the afternoon from 1500 until 0030, so he does everything in the morning. I got up at about 0830 on Monday, and did very little physically all day. I watched The Last Samurai, which was as fine as I thought it was going to be (that's a good thing, in case you're wondering); Johnny English, which was as silly as I thought it was going to be, but to see the Archbishop of Canterbury with his pants down in Westminster Abbey is a sight that redeems this movie. Then I watched I, Robot, which was a great Will Smith action flick. Read my LP a lot, etc., etc. Altogether a wonderful day!

Today was intriguing. I went to Monash University, southeast of the city, this morning to see Andy and Helen Tomkins, friends and native Aussies that recently left the U of C after they completed post-docs there. Andy and I had discussed Ph. D. stuff a little bit back at the U of C and he has done a little more digging for me. He's quite keen on me doing a Ph. D. here in Aus and has presented me with the necessary paperwork to get the whopping big scholarships that are prerequisites to study post-grad in this country. That's a big decision for me that I have to admit, I'm a little unprepared for. I wasn't expecting something to serious to come so soon. It has turned out that he has found a researcher in Sydney that does a lot of Antarctic projects. Andy himself has thought of a great project that, if possible, would be a jointly supervised by he and the Sydney scientist as my Ph. D. There are field sites in Japan and possibly in South America and other such exotic locales that would be part of the project. Since I've always deeply wanted to go to Antarctica, I'm not sure I could turn down an opportunity like this. Japan has also held a deep mystique for me since I studied it in grade 7 as the primary unit in Social Studies. The application deadline is the 31st of this month, so everything has to happen quickly, though I'm a little overwhelmed at this point. Also, we don't yet know if the necessary outcrop is found in Antarctica, the presence of which in the project is a very important consideration for me. I guess we'll cross that bride when we come to it. I wanted to discuss this first on the phone with you guys, but I'm afraid I couldn't wait the couple of days it would take to do so. Nevertheless, we'll talk about it soon.

The rest of the day was spent in the CBD where I followed (almost) a walking tour outlined in the LP. It brought me to wonderful architectural tidbits in the city that I otherwise wouldn't have seen, part of which were the Sofitel Towers. The restrooms on the 35th floor, which I serupticiously used, have $%!^ters with a view! Definitely not for the acrophobics in the crowd, but altogether one of the finest views I've ever had from a bathroom! Found some shoes that agreed without argument both with my feet and my wallet. Got an intense sugar rush from a one pound, excuse me, a 440 gram, caramel slice. Found a shoe store that Mom, you would buy out in its entirety. Saw a department store with frescos on its ceiling - magnificent! Lovin' life!

Love you guys!

Aussie slang for the post: "That's grouse!" Tanslation: "That's cool/great!" and "Tea is on the table." Translation: "Dinner is on the table."

posted by Kyle @ 07:48