Melbourne 2

In New England we have the saying, "If you don't like the weather, wait 5 minutes." Melbourne is similar, saying that you can experience 4 seasons within a day. That turned out to be pretty true today. Very windy, alternating sun and rain, warm and cold, a rainbow. Crazy! I spent the day with my colleague and her friend who's on assignment in Alice Springs for 6 months, and two of the grad students from Monash. We took a tram out to the beach/harbor and saw one little penguin hiding in the rocks, and had lunch at a cafe out on the harbor. Then we experienced an Australian pub and then a bar, a quick, casual afternoon bar hop. Australian hard cider, and wine ... not as trashy as it could have been :P

Being in the cities - Sydney, Melbourne, even Wollongong - has given me a good sense of Australia, but I know quite clearly that I'm missing in a lot of way the real thing. The outback, the northern jungles, the Great Barrier Reef, the opal fields. This is why I wanted to take the train to Melbourne rather than the quick flight, and I am really glad I got to see some of the interior, the countryside. As quick and isolated as this trip feels, I think it's been enough, and given the option right now I wouldn't stay and spend the extra time it would take to get up to those other parts of the country.

While I was talking with one of the grad students today, she asked me about my fiancee, and as I explained a little how it was being far away, she commented how distance makes the heart grow fonder. I've felt this, but I don't like it! We were engaged exactly a month on the day I left for this trip, putting me roughly 8000 miles away from where Jeannie was then in BC; flying out of Phoenix there was a flight leaving 2 gates down for Vancouver - sometimes God has an ironic sense of humor. I also wrote an email to a friend who just got engaged last week himself, and I told him that at least for the first few months, do not travel for any length of time! In past travels, last summer especially, I'll kind of build walls within myself to allow me to be independent and alone in a foreign place and not let that get to me; these have had to be a good deal higher and thicker on this trip. In some ways I've been ready for this trip to be over from before I left, but the walls have allowed that not to interfere with the trip itself, which is good. And though I feel this distance quite strongly, I wouldn't change a thing about the situation ;) This is my own small odyssey - 10 days, rather than years - and I've been on my way home since that first takeoff in Phoenix; but I'm almost there.

Wollongong/Melbourne

I am in Melbourne now, 4 days later: Monday in Wollongong, Tuesday on a bus and a very long train ride to Melbourne, and then the past two days here. Wollongong was an hour and a half train ride from Sydney, south along the coast, a major shipping port and manufacturer of coal and steel. I went there because this is the city where Colgate University, my undergrad alma mater, sends its Australia semester abroad groups, and a former professor of mine in biology is leading the group this fall. So I went for a visit. Frank picked me up at the train station, then drove me out to a lighthouse on the shore where I took some pictures (they're coming, I promise! Once I'm back in AZ). Then we had lunch at a Lebanese/Mediterranean restaurant, and went to Wollongong University to meet with his 16 undergrads. I had sent my short story about Belize ahead to them, since the focus of their study group is nature and the environment. I met with them over the course of three hours as they came and went from classes, anywhere from 1 to 8 at a time; I said a few things about my writing and traveling, and they had a few questions, but really we just chatted the whole time! It was a really nice time, though the cooler weather further south in Australia, and talking about Colgate has made me nostalgic for mid-state NY for the first time since I left.

Tuesday was a long day. Up at 5:30 am to catch a bus up to a little city above the escarpment called Moss Vale, which is exactly what you would expect of a train-station town. And it was cold there! From it being winter now, and higher elevation. But the bus ride was really nice, winding up switchbacks (the bus driver had to back up sometimes to make the curves!) through a national park. On both the bus and trains I was able to see the country and interior a little, which was really cool. It's mostly one of two things: cattle/sheep pastures, and eucalyptus forests! Australia is very dry, but these trees grow well in it, so you get what appears to be rainforests, but are also dry. As if Belize were suddenly desiccated, the trunks bleached, the undergrowth stunted. But Frank said there are over 700 species of eucalyptus, so it's not a forest of the exact same thing, but an ecosystem. There are also short palm trees that have ferns at the top ... they look like there should be dinosaurs around!

In Melbourne, I met my colleague Rachel where we're staying in one of the colleges of the University of Melbourne, and we took a half-hour taxi ride east to Monash University yesterday and today to meet with their center for creative writing staff and students, and with Jewell. They've all been very nice and welcoming and fun! Tomorrow a few of the grad students are taking us around Melbourne, which should be a good time. Rachel and I gave readings and talks about our work today, which also went very well and seemed well received. Jewell, Rachel, and I are here forging a further partnership between ASU and Monash, and so far so good. We're working on a multi-university arts conference a year from this October in northern Italy ... sounds like a good plan!

It was pouring rain this morning and cool, though the sun came out for the afternoon. It's supposed to rain again tonight and through tomorrow, and be colder ... I'm crossing my fingers it will let up in time for our tour of the city. Otherwise it could be a little damp. After that, we're attending the Melbourne Writers Festival for the weekend, and then home on Monday. More tomorrow, hopefully!

Sydney 2

[I apologize in advance if this post ends up a little short, I just wrote the whole thing, then there was a problem posting it and now it's gone]

Day4: This pretty much concludes my visit to Sydney, tomorrow I catch an hour and a half train ride down to visit a Colgate semester abroad group led by a former professor, then a long train to Melbourne for the literary festival the day after that. But in four days I feel I've seen a good amount of Sydney, at least Sydney Central/Harbour and Darling Harbour. I walked around a lot and explored, did some tourist stuff, but the one thing I've probably spent the most time doing was visiting opal shops! I'm almost a little reluctant to post that in a public forum, but hey, it's fun, and there's some amazing stuff here, and this is the best place in the world to find it, to shut up! :P There's actually a national museum here that features opal fossils, and they have incredible specimens, including a full plesiosaur skeleton, all fossilized in opal! I visited at least a dozen different shops in 3 days, and spoke for a while with several of the vendors, even ones who knew that their stock began above my price range.

People here are very friendly, which is known about Australians. What I didn't expect, and should have probably, was how strong the Asian influence is. Australia is quite close really, but I hadn't made that connection before. I might have seen more Asians than Australians this weekend, though the Asian population does seem to run much of the tourism in the city; probably differs elsewhere. It influences the food too, both just being everywherem but also blending with other cuisine, which doesn't always work. But I have found the style of gelato that they had in Beijing (!), and I've discovered pumpkin soup, which is amazing!

This city is huge, but very well planned out: the lightrail/monorail system is fully integrated with the city plan, it runs on this track above the sidewalks, then just slips right into one of the buildings' second floors, where there's a station. Walkways and bridges are really easy for pedestrians to get around, and despite the layout of the harbors, the city maintains a good amount of a grid pattern. Almost makes up for driving on the wrong side! :P

The next couple days will be busy until I'm settled again in Melbourne, so the next post may be long in coming, but pictures soon! I promise!

Sydney!

Yesterday, for the first time in my life, someone said to me, "Are you queuing?" I was about to look at him like he was crazy, then realized what he meant and said yes, and he got in line behind me. I'm also still having a little trouble remembering that in places people drive on the lefthand side, they also walk on that side. No collisions yet though. Today was Day 2 in Sydney, having arrived at 8 am yesterday after the 14 hour flight from LA, but I managed to learn my way around the city as well as stay awake until a reasonable hour for bed. Day well spent! I'll be here through the weekend, a total of four days, then catch a train down to Wollongong an hour and a half south to meet up with the Colgate study group for the day, then a 12 hour train journey to Melbourne on Tuesday for our conference. And by Tuesday I mean 17 hours ahead of west coast US, 14 ahead of East.

The first thing I saw from the plane as we were coming in was the Opera House. I walked up to it from my hostel first thing too, and was surprised to find that many of the domes are separate from each other! Who knew? I've been walking around the main part of Sydney these two days, and then over to the Darling Harbour area today, visiting the Aquarium and Maritime Museum. I've actually been walking so much that my legs are sore, but its fun, and the weather is beautiful: 60s, windy, sunny. It's winter here; the sun is down by 6 pm. Another weird thing is that the sun arcs across the northern sky, rather than the south - this is my first trip to the southern hemisphere.

This is also the first time I've blogged in almost a year, but that's because I haven't traveled as much this year as last, or as I expected. My travels have mostly taken me to Washington State and home to CT - family visits - and to Victoria, BC for spring break, but not exactly the kind of trip for this blog. This also looks to be my last big crazy trip for a little. It's time though, I think, to settle down a little.

Pictures will come soon once I get online with my own computer, probably from Wollongong, or maybe even Melbourne.