I just realized I may not have explained what I was doing in Melbourne. My whole program had a mandatory field trip to Melbourne Sunday through today (Wednesday). While down there, we each had to pick 2 academic tours during the 4 days, and the rest of the time was free to explore the city, or do other tours if you wanted. The trip coincided with Rosh Hashana (the Jewish New Year), which was Sunday night through Tuesday evening. Most Jews go to synagogue during this time, and I learned through some research that the Jewish community is not in walking distance of where we were supposed to stay, and since I do not take transportation on this holiday, I had to find somewhere to stay so I could observe the holiday. More on this later in the post.
Melbourne:
Nothing much interesting about the travel. Though for lunch on the plane they had meat pies (which everyone raves about) but nothing vegetarian except an apple, so I am so glad I packed a sandwich. Also, security is quite different here. Shoes and coats stay on through security, liquids don't matter, AND they don't even check an ID. I don't mean you just don't need to pack a passport, I mean ANY ID AT ALL. None. I had my license with me but they didn't check it once.
Anyway, my first impression of Melbourne, like any other city, was upon landing. On either side of the runway were trees! It looked like forest. It's possible I've landed other places like that, but if so I can't remember. I have no idea why but it just made a huge impression and I really liked it (though for a second it felt like the show LOST, I'm not quite sure why since I knew I was perfectly safe).
Driving through the city toward our hotel on the bus, I noticed that it is not much of a high rise city (this is just a fact, not good or bad), and the architecture is beautiful. The city (or at least the center, in which we stayed) is a grid, which is convenient and easy to navigate and quickly get to know the city.
My first tour was of the ACMI, the Australian Center for the Moving Image. There were a few sections. One was about famous Australians in the film and tv industries, though most of them I didn't know much about, and to be honest I just wasn't really that curious about that part. The part I liked was the interactive part. There was a cool room with "horizontal light" where you go in and it's dark and foggy and there's light coming toward you in a ring, with clouds. I'm not really sure how to describe it, but you can see when someone is inside or outside the light. Hopefully the picture will clarify what my description is lacking horribly. There was another room where there are three screens, one in front of you and one on each side, and a movie goes on switching screens and sometimes using all at once to make you feel as though you are really in the movie. Hanna, Amanda and I lay down in the middle of the room to try to get the full effect (we also managed to scare Sarah, our RA when she walked in and found us lying there). I personally found that the Moulin Rouge clip was the coolest one. There was another room with little figures in a circle, and then the circle started spinning and with strobe lights it looked like they were all moving. We also made a flipbook, but didn't want to buy it, and sadly, the one day I was there, the make your own Matrix scene was out of order so that was unfortunate. So that was all I did Sunday.
The Horizontal Light Room
Then Tuesday night Hanna's friend Tuvya picked me up with Hanna, Justina, and Julia and we went to St. Kilda. Now, for those of you who don't know, I came to Australia with one of my goals being to get to Melbourne so I could do the day trip to Philip Island where there are penguins. Unfortunately, the trip was on Monday, so I couldn't go because of Rosh Hashannah... luckily though, this ended up for the best. It turns out that in St. Kilda you can go to the end of the pier and.... see penguins in their natural habitat! Same as Philip Island except for free and you can get even closer than there. So my dreams came true and I cannot describe how overjoyed I was. Those penguins are the cutest little things. Just to clarify, these are tiny little penguins, maybe ten inches tall (no, I still don't know the metric system). We saw one bringing a stick back to his nest, another swimming, and more just walking along the rocks. Most of them were in their nests though and we could just hear them. Those are some noisy animals, though still absolutely adorable.
http://stkildapenguins.com.au/skp/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/rocky_nest2_small.jpg
See the white? That's a penguin. There was no flash allowed so that's the best I could get since I only had my point and shoot with me.
St. Kilda itself is a cute area we walked around for a short time, though it started raining so not long.
On Wednesday I finally got to see a bunch of Melbourne. In the morning I went on a theater tour at the Arts Centre Melbourne. The main building has three theatres downstairs. One was huge, seating i think 2,000, and we saw them setting up the lighting for Swan Lake. It was pretty cool hearing them call out what they liked and didn't like. Another was small and a semicircle, seating around 350. It reminded me of where I saw Warhorse in Lincoln Center, though a bit smaller. We also saw a function room which had really cool walls made out of objects but then looking at the whole thing it made a cool design. It sort of resembled Aboriginal dot paintings. There also were some of those, and the woman told us all the significance of the dot paintings, but I was wondering if they really were significant or if the Aboriginal painters had made up significance to please the artists.
The cool wall.
Some up close detail
Anyway then we went to the next building which was still part of it I think and where the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra performs and they actually were rehearsing (maybe recording?) and we got to watch! Free concert! Now that was amazing. At the end of the tour we looked at a ballet exhibit which was cool to see. I'm so impressed by great dancers.
By then we needed lunch and had heard about this place under the bridge on the water, and we went down there but weren't so interested in eating, though it was really cool just to see. We ended up getting food and having a picnic (me, Kate, Hanna, Amanda, and Victoria). There's actually a vegetarian Kosher fast food place so I got the fattiest most delicious fries, onion rings, and "chicken" nuggets. Then we all went and met up with 5 more girls at the Ice Bar. Yes, it's what it sounds like. They give you Uggs (I have never worn Uggs before, I have to be honest, they were super comfortable) and gloves and a poncho and then you go into a room with walls and the bar and sculptures and stools all of ice. Our entry also came with a drink, so I had this delicious drink called a Polar Bear, and all the cups were also made of ice (yes, I did eat a bit of it). We could be in there for a half hour and we made it I think 24 minutes, so pretty close.
Kate, Hanna, Amanda, Victoria
Me and Kate on a wombat
Hanna, Kate, and I then went to this amazing chocolate shop (but I was stuffed and restrained myself from buying any) then Hanna showed me some of the cool graffiti that she had a tour of. Melbourne is known for having a lot of art so graffiti is big there. Then, walking through Chinatown, she brought me through this cool alleyway which leads to Croft Institute, a cool bar that's like a mental institute I believe? Anyway it was closed since it was so early but some other people went and said it was really cool. But the alleyway was also covered in graffiti. Chinatown there I'm pretty sure is the oldest continuous Chinatown in the world so that's pretty neat. They also had elephant statues decorated and all around the city (like how a lot of cities have at different times). Anyway, I think that's most of what I did in Melbourne. I wish I could have had more time since I really enjoyed it. Uneventful flight back, but I got to sit next to Lindsay! And I watched the beginning of Brave and was very much disappointed and have no interest in finishing it.
Graffiti
Ok, on to Rosh Hashannah:
My friend Becca, from home, has cousins in Melbourne, and was kind enough to put me in touch with them. First of all, I e-mailed just the son, Benjamin (in his late 20s and married to Anath), and I heard back from him, his sister, Romy, who is my age, and their father Henry. What warmer welcome could I have gotten? So I went with Ariella. They live in Caulfield, a suburb (one of the two in which the Jews of Melbourne mostly live now).
Claudine and Henry (and their teapot display in their new kitchen)
Sunday night we went to Claudine (the mother)'s sister (Linda)'s house. There were 18 people at dinner, all family minus the two of us, but they treated us the same. It was so nice. The dvar torah was funny, all about how all of the food represented various things. Some were real though, like carrot (gezer) is the same root as decree (gezer) and pumpkin (karah) like read (karah) and more. Sitting here right now I can't think of all the connections but it was funny and fun, though I couldn't wait for food. I FINALLY HAD MEAT! Next week I think I'm going out to buy some because this whole "being vegetarian" thing because I haven't bought Kosher meat just isn't going to fly any longer.
Monday morning we went to Claudine and Henry's shul. It was relatively small but nice. Thankfully we managed to find seats for us. I enjoyed the service. Afterward we went back to the house and had a nice dairy lunch and then meant to nap for an hour then do tashlich (where we go to a running body of water and throw in pieces of bread to symbolize getting rid of our sins from the past year), but we accidentally slept until dinner. We had a small, nice dinner and then set up for the big lunch Henry and Claudine were hosting the next day.
Tuesday morning Romy took Ariella and me shul hopping. We started at the Caulfield synagogue which is HUGE. It seats I think 2,000 people? Some huge number and it was pretty full. They bring in a choir of men from Israel to help lead the service and they were quite impressive. However, there was TONS of talking there! I don't know that I've ever been to a shul with so much talking, it seemed like they didn't even try to be quiet. Other than that though I thought the service was nice. We didn't stay for too long though as we continued on our tour.
Next we went to Mizrachi, a smaller synagogue. I wasn't a huge fan. It was pretty crowded but didn't impress me so much. I thought it was rather boring and we left quickly. Apparently there were other minyans there that we didn't go to that were supposed to be nice.
Last we went to Shira, similar to the Shira Chadasha in Israel. Women led some parts and it was a very spirited service. There was still more talking than I would have liked but I enjoyed it overall. We stayed there the longest. It was nice hearing some familiar tunes, though there were some that I missed (like Hayom was different than I'm used to).
It was really interesting getting to see so much of the Jewish community in Caulfield. So many of them know each other and it seems like such a great community. There were also guards at all of the shuls, and Romy told us that a lot of them are volunteers from the community who train (for example we saw her friend guarding and her boyfriend used to). Only police are allowed to carry guns, so the security learns krav maga and other things in case they notice any threats. It was interesting to hear about.
Thankfully shul ended when it did and we were close to the house, because once we got inside it started pouring! People who came in after us (including Henry and Benjamin, their son) looked as though they had just showered. Lunch was 15 people and again very lively and delicious. Claudine made a barley soup that I loved, and Anath, Benjamin's wife, made funny blue meringue that turned people's mouths that color (she also made great pate). Lunch went pretty late and then after another nap we just sat around talking until the holiday ended.
It was a great way to spend Rosh Hashannah. I felt so comfortable and welcome and it was really interesting seeing the community there and learning about their family.
I was so happy about my whole trip to Melbourne. It really was amazing.
Now I'm off to Surf Camp for the weekend! I'll be sure to watch out for sharks and killer jelly fish, though honestly my biggest worry is whether or not I'll be able to stand on the surf board. That post will come soon!
LeeAnn, Sounds like a terrific trip to Melbourne, and also an introduction to nice people and a welcoming community. Love, Dad
ReplyDelete