March 6th-13thHello again,
On March 6th there was a group excursion to a place called Healesville Animal Sanctuary and The Rochford Winery. Both places were located about an hour or so from the Hawthorn Campus in the country. We left Hawthorn on a charted bus at around 9:30 or so in the morning for the animal sanctuary to see some quintessentially Australian things like Kangaroos, Koalas and Platypuses. I was excited because other than a few penguins and the common birds like ravens (which on a side note manage to be even more annoying then North American ravens, so loud and obnoxious) I had not seen much wild life around. When we first got there the group was split up into sections to see some very cool nocturnal creatures like sugar gliders, ring tail possums as well as some reptiles like snakes and bearded lizards. I was amazed at how soft the possum's fur was and I had a great time. After the private showing of these animals we went out for the feeding of the Kangaroos. This place was sweet! It was in a rural setting so nearly all of the enclosures were outside and were very spacious. When we went to feed the kangaroos there was only a 2 foot high fence with 1 rope on top which more served as a place for the people to line
up than to keep the Kangaroos enclosed. Several Kangaroos crossed the border fence and wandered amongst us extremely interested in the carrots and corn we had been give to feed them. The Kangaroos were followed by a very exciting "Birds of Prey" show which involved some fierce looking trained birds one of which was a Wedge Tailed Eagle with a wingspan of 6 or 7 feet. At one point when it flew over me its wingtips touched my head. Later, Will and one of my other roommates, Mike, walked around tried to take in as much as possible in the short time we had there. We got the standard Australian animals in and then it was time to leave. A little too soon if you ask me made all the worse because we had left later than expected from campus in the morning. No worries though, and it was on to the winery.
We arrived at Rochford Winery around 1:30 or so. The country was beautiful, with rolling hills and rows of grapes as far as the eye could see. Luckily, both the Rochford Winery and the Sanctuary had been untouched by the recent bush fires so they were both intact and looking gorgeous. The plan was to do a wine tasting of several different wines offered by the winery and then head back to campus. Suffice to say, wine is not normally my thing, it is probably half the price of beer and liquor here so I had been drinking a decent amount of it when not out at the clubs. However, this doesn't mean I had been drinking good wine so it was going to be nice to sample something that is supposedly better. It turned out to be a pretty fun time and it was interesting to learn about the distinctions between wines and how they get their names. The wine tasting finished and I was real hungry so I ordered some french fries. We got back on the bus and I sat with one of my friends Valerie who has been in Australia since the end of January traveling around, up and down the coastline. She stayed in hostels and back packed around, riding buses, and rented a car with some random Swedish guy she met. It seemed like a pretty cool trip.
Anyways...when we got back to campus we had a swinmates event. Every international student gets assigned an Australian, called a "swinmate," who serve as something like an ambassador while we are here. My Swinmate is a guy named Todd Kitchen whom I had met on the previous Wednesday at the campus bar after he had emailed me a few weeks before saying we should get together. That Friday's swinmate event was at the primary local hangout, the Hawthorn (more on the Hawthorn and other Melbourne nightlife in a later entry). Todd didn't get to the event until around 7:30 or 8 so I spent most of the time hanging out with some of my Mexican friends, Ana and Malila as well as an Australia girl, Ally, who is coming to Northeastern in the fall. When Todd got there we watched some Australian Football on the TV. Its a very interesting game combining the athleticism and endurance of soccer with the physical brutality
of the American gridiron. We left at around 9:30 to go to a beach themed party at a local club called "Cheers." It was a pretty solid night, although I could only listen to techno and dance for so long so I went home around 12.
The next day we planned to meet at 9:30 downtown at Flinder's Station to catch a train to Phillip Island for some sightseeing. Unfortunately, my friend who was leading the excursion showed up late and we missed the train. The alternative to that plan was to take a different train out as far as we could and hop on a ferry to Phillip Island. However by the time we finished our 2 hour train ride the last ferry had left until 5 o'clock that evening. So we walked around a little town called Crib Point and then hopped back on the train back into Melbourne. Along the way we got off at a stop called Bonbeach and decided t hang out there for awhile on the beach. Two of the Mexicans that we were traveling with had been there before and said it told us it was great. I think the greatest part about traveling in a place like Australia is that even if you mess up your trip by missing connections you can stop along the way and have a great time. The beach was huge! I don't know the exact dimensions but it was at least a few miles long if not more with great sand and calm water. Unfortunately, on this day it was a little too cold to swim so we tossed around the frisbee and built a sand castle. After and hour or two we got back on the train and went back to our respective apartments.
The next week classes went on and on Wednesday I met Todd at Spacebar where I had a drink with him and his friends. He and a lot of his friends play for the Swinburne Football club so he invited me to come along to a training session. I had been looking for something active to do since I hadn't been doing anything healthy since I had gotten to Australia. I went to the training session and it was really cool. Between what I saw on TV and the training session footy seemed like a great sport. I was really sore the next day and I was also hooked. Todd also invited me to his 21st birthday party that weekend in his hometown. More on that in the next entry.
Until next time,
-Greg
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