More Cool "Free" Things

So the Common Wealth Games were utterly fantastic and provided more free entertainment than any traveller could desire. The highlights of the past few days have been :

1. Men's 20K and 50K Race Walk - SUNDAY AND MONDAY
I still haven't decided if that's a real race or not. They definitely haul some walking booty! These men are in peak performance condition and I reckon they were once marathoners who have stuffed up their knees at some point in their lives and are now race walking? What do you think? Australia won...

2. Golden Pride Children's Choir - TUESDAY
Saw this show with Jodi, a friend from work, and it's amazing ... 42 Tanzanian children sing about the joys of being Tanzanian. These primary school children from a remote area in Tanzania had no voal traning but have beautiful voices. They were discovered by an Australian mining engineer and offered the opportunity to perform in the UK and Australia.

Tanzanian children singing in Swaheli


3. Random Dance - WEDNESDAY
Just that--- bazaar random dancing with amazing strength... but definitely bazaar. I think the first scene was about a threesome and the second was a fight between a man and woman and then they made up... hmm....

4. Athletics - THURSDAY
OH Wowsers! Meg and I was watched the Women's Pole Vault at the MCG and I couldn't have been happier! Tatiana Gregorieva and a jumper from Canada both jumped 4.20 meters which was exciting. We only had tickets to see the semi finals and therefore only watched a few jumps... the finals on Saturday produced a jump of 4.62 meters (a meet record) by Australian Kim Howe. That's a great jump! Also, the quality of the track and field facility was ridiculous! (Apparently they are going to throw the track away in a few weeks because they have to prepare for a footy-match that will be in the MCG! What a waste) I got so nostalgic watching the sports and momentarily regretted quitting pole vault. Grrr....










I also saw a Canadian high jumper Nicole Forrester competing who used to practice with me at UT!! That was a trip to see someone I knew! I mean, I realize that half of if not most of the girls I used to run with at UT were Olympic athletes, but WOW!

Other events we watched : Men's 200, Men's 400m Hurdles, Women's 400 m Hurdles, Discus

5. Legs on the Wall - SATURDAY
We headed out with the intention of watching a huge Bollywood (Indian cinema) production in the Sidney Myer Music Bowl but discovered that the amphitheatre had already been full for a few hours. Jess, Meg, Stuart and I wondered around Alexandra Gardens (among probably 2 million other people) looking for something to do and ended up at Young and Jackson's Pub for a beer followed by Legs on the Wall- On the Case. It was an aerial "thriller"performed high on the wall of the arts center in which the artists are attached to rigs and transform the wall into a vertical stage. Really cool.





Stuart, Meg, and Me watching Legs on the Wall...






Jess, Me, and Meg on the bridge overlooking the Yarra at Night






Back to the Bollywood tragedy... my flatmate Jess decided that every person wearing a Sari walking around the gardens was also too late to get into the Bollywood show and was therefore"severely depressed" and on the "verge of tears" because they didn't get to see their favorite actors/actresses! haha She proceeded to take pictures of these "sad' Indian families to document it.

Common Wealth Festivities

Mariam Makeba - FRIDAY
Meg, Stuart, Jess (my new Kiwi roommate) and I went to see Myriam Makeba in the Sidney Myer Music Bowl. She was South Africa's first Grammy winner and is well known for demonstrating against the segreggation in South Africa and for her fabulous voice.

On our way home we came across Shenzo Swing, three men dressed in suits attached to arial rigs who played various instruments while swinging through the air. One guy played the violin, another the bass, and the third a guitar. They played songs like "the Devil Went Down to Georgia" and swung upside down and in circles as they played! They hardly missed a beat! It was awesome. There was also some Cirque du Soleil-esk performances in the middle that scared the pants out of us. What a cool, random thing to watch!





Shenzo Swing.... doing Cirque du Soleil type stuff.








Triathlon - SATURDAY
Saturday morning Meg and I woke up around eleven and headed to St. Kilda to watch the Men's Triathlon. It was so crowded but we were able to see all the key points of the race. I watched the guys exit the water and transition to the bike... cycle past us on each lap... then watched the fastest transition I've ever seen to the run... they were so fast I couldn't even get good pictures! Australia won the gold of course!

Pack of Cyclists in the Men's Triathlon







Gymnastics - SATURDAY
Meg, Natalie, Jess, Naomi, Gui and I went to see the women's all-around finals in the gymnastics at the stadium. For 20 years I've watched gymnastics on TV and been amazed and the floor routines, balance beam, bars, and vault were exciting to watch live except disappointing to see the competition without China, Russia, and the US. It seems like half or more of the girls fell off the balance beam and the other half off the uneven bars! The girls definitely look like little babies in person since they are only about 14 years old and weigh about 80 pounds! Australia's Chloe Sims won the event ... I have been inspired to re-learn gymnastics when I get home... better start stretching. Missy... can you help me out with this goal? ;)


The girls warming up on the balance beam.

Urban Living in Myer's Window

Thursday night after work, Meg and I went to see a cool show provided by a Canadian group called Scrap Art. They played a million different instruments all constructed completely out of car and bike parts, farm equipment, etc etc and made great entertainment. It was interesting to see and hear.

The next stop was Myer's Department Store where 4 men between 40-65 (with shaved heads) are LIVING in the display windows for 2 weeks!!! They have three windows (kitchen, living room, bedroom) and literally spend 24/7 there. We can watch them at any point and see what they are doing. Last night 3 of them were dancing to music Karaoke style whereas 1 was just sitting on his bunk talking on a mobile.


Myer's Men Dancing to songs in their "living room!"

It was really funny because a group of 14 year old skater dudes decided to dance and act silly in front of the window facing the "Myer's Men." One of the boys took off his shirt and then the Myer's Man copied... and ultimately the boy was almost nude by the end of the dance-off! haha Then one of the Myer's Men was chosen to shower... and they had to figure out how to get in the shower without the people in the audience seeing anything! ha!

Opening Ceremonies

The Common Wealth Games are in full swing in Melbourne and have provided these two lucky travellers with free entertainment galore! The Games are basically the Olympics but a chance for Australia to show all the other countries associated with England that they are better than them. Seriously, Australia takes positions 1,2, and 3 in almost every event!

Wednesday night was the Opening Ceremonies which cost the city $40 million dollars to include an amazing light and water display along the Yarra River. Meagan had tickets with Stuart to the actual Ceremony in Rod Laver Arena but my seats were cool too... in the bush! Literally, I had to climb through dense, dense fawna with really spikey plants that made you itch to get to where my friends were standing. We looked like we were hiding away in the bushes!

Andy and me hiding in the bushes of Alexandra Gardens at Opening Ceremonies.




The light and water show involved huge metal fish (one designed for each country competing) that spurted water out with the rhythm of the soundtrack. The baton was run from Buckingham Palace to the ceremony and handed off the the Queen (like the Olympic torch).



Fish lit up on the Yarra River for the Opening Ceremonies.

Afterward, Andy, his boys, and I went to Transport for some celebratory drinks and catching up.

Pictures, Finally

So I finally got my camera back... note to self, don't break it again because it costs just as much to fix it as it does to replace it!

Dallas Bar
Saturday night, Meagan and I were finally convinced to go to Dallas Bar, a backpacker place in North CBD. Andy and his buddies go there all the time for sickeningly cheap drinks... but the crowd can be summed up with 18 year old, hormone racing, surfer dudes. Meg and I were once again asked for identification when no one else we were with were and neither were any of the 18 year olds! grrr

I think we witnessed the longest lasting bar brawl ... let's just say the owner (a 70 year old) and the surfer boys got into it and the police arrived which lead to "Capsicum Spray" or in our language Pepper Spray. The bartenders rushed bottled water out the scene and were flushing the owners', the bouncers', and the boys' eyes out for about an hour. FYI Pepper spray is illegal here for civilians.




Me, Shaza, Meg, Mic at Dallas Bar







Immediately when I saw Lauren's friend bouncing around and talking... Richard Simmons came to mind. (In the city 3am)







Docklands
I have written about the Docklands where I work a few times and I thought I would post some pictures of the things I see on my 30 minute walk to work.



The "Blow Hole" is my favorite piece of Melbourne art. The arms move at varying speeds and directions when the wind blows and the piece never moves in the same pattern.











Cow Up a Tree is a sculpture of a fantasy, but does actually happen from time-to-time thanks to the unpredictable and sudden nature of Australian floods.








This is one of Australia's first fleet, the Endeavor, and was actually sailing by Mecca Bah on Sunday!









Another structure designed to represent the flow of the water. The pink is supposed to represent the scales on schools of fish. Mecca Bah is just to the left of this.






My co-workers drinking after work... Mikhaela, Wade (sadly enough he's the guy in charge!), Justin, Julian, Broder, and Kazumi









Krispy Kreme is opening near Mecca so promo donuts have been floating around... no wonder people associate them with getting fat... you should see these Aussies pack them away! Dave the bartender ate 7.5 of them in one day...

Napier Hotel

This has been a busy 3 days .... Friday I worked from 12-6pm and then headed home because I was supposed to meet up with Broder from work for steaks but those plans were changed and we decided on a really cool pub called the Napier Hotel (which was a really awesome outdoor/indoor pub built a long freakin' time ago!) . The rooms in this place were tiny and they played "Texas Country" music and had a patio and a pool table!

For dinner, I had a taste of the most delicious Kangaroo Fillets (pronounced 'fill-its,' here) with a salad and chips. Holy cow they were awesome! Meg, Broder, and I ended up with 2+ pitchers of beer and one or two pool games under our belts. In fact, in Australia, besides the fact that the balls are smaller (haha ) and don't have numbers, when a person loses by 7 balls, they have to take off their pants and run around the pool table in their briefs! Well, Broder and Meg's team lost by 7 and he definitely did ran around the pool table! It took a minute for us to figure that one out since we weren't pre-warned of the tradition!!

Saturday I got my hair done in Camberwell and then Meg and I shopped around for a few hours. I convinced the employee at a pet store to feed this really awesome "Mexican Walking Fish" some beef heart because I had never seen one before! They are the coolest reptiles, one step down from a salamander... and look so freakish!

Pancake Parlour

Monday Meg came home from work and we decided to make it a 'girls' day which was filled with some of life's most wonderful things... pancakes and shopping! We headed into town and stopped in at the Pancake Parlour that I had seen signs for... just as we headed down the escalator to the underground arcade Meg says ' um maybe not... this place looks like a waffle house!' but we kept going and saw a quaint, Cracker Barrel/IHOP restaurant! It was so American! We were instantly at home... the menu was a sight to be seen with anything you could dream of on a pancake. There was one that had CHICKEN on it! What?

Meagan and I shared the "IT" pancake which included a fried sliced banana atop sugar crusted walnuts with maple syrup.... and in Australia.... pancakes are eaten with ICE CREAM! We definitely ordered that on the side since it just didn't seem right but I ended up preferring it to syrup! It wasn't quite as sweet and much more moisture. You should try it at home. ;)

Work last night was good... and I have finally scheduled to get my hair done! Wahoo...

Rant n Rave

I work in hospitality and therefore have interaction with hundreds of people daily all who have different experiences, opinions, educations, concerns, etc. Most of the people have opinions of the U.S. that they really like to share upon first meeting me. Most of the questions I receive include: "Did you vote for your President?" "How do you live knowing that your neighbor might have a gun?" "Did you hear about the lawsuit in America..." etc, etc. I used to just respond with the truth but now I've learned to respond by saying "Did you vote for your Prime Minister?" or "well I read in your newspaper that some silly Australian...." because that seems to be the only way to get them to recognize that their country has faults also.

One funny story I heard was told by my Aussie friend who travelled to the U.S. to be a camp counselor. She was standing in line with a couple of British friends talking when a hill-country guy from North Carolina tapped the Aussie on the shoulder and said in a country accent "Scuse me, but can I ask where y'all are from?" and she responds "Well I'm from Australia and these two are from England." The American says "Well welcome to America, how long have you been here?" and the Brit replies "about 3 weeks." The man then proceeds to say "Well that's great, I can't believe it's been only 3 weeks... your English is reeel gooood." hahaha! My friend (the Aussie) says "Sir, you know that's THEIR language right, they speak English in England?"

Well I thought that was pretty dumb but lately I have had my share of dumb questions from Aussies... when they find out I live in Texas they have responded with things like "Wow, is this culture shock working on the water like this?" or "What's it feel like to live in a city with so much going on?" My response is usually something like "Well considering I used to work on a huge lake and I grew up by the beach, this isn't culture shock at all... in fact, Texas has about 20 lakes, lots of big cities, and a beach that extends from the southernmost point to about midway up the state." You should see their faces ... I know they just think we ride horses around through the desert and run through hay fields for fun!

Grr... I'm just slightly frustrated about these questions that I about 3x per day. One man told me I should be paid by the US Embassy to promote Texas as a vacation spot ;) I just feel like it's my job to change stereotypes... it's a tiring job when everyone has one.

It's a Small World

So Thursday my two jobs overlapped and I had to work the day shift at La Scala and the night shift at Mecca Bah and the most ironic thing happened!

I was working in the bar at La Scala and Natalie (my flatmate) told me there were some Californians in the corner of the restaurant so I went to say hello. After about 5 minutes of small talk I knew quite a bit about the three including that one was marrying an Aussie next week and the sisters were here to visit... at 5pm I went to Mecca Bah and when I went up to my table to introduce myself I couldn't stop staring at a girl that I recognized somehow.... we stared at each other when finally we both started laughing! She was the same girl from La Scala, now at Mecca Bah with her fiance and some different family members. The first question she asked was "HOW MUCH DO YOU WORK?" It was so funny and so ironic ... not only that she was there but that she was seated in my section on the one night that I worked at both locations! It's a small world. I jokingly suggested that I might see them at the ice cream place in a few hours when I started my third job ;) hehe

Last night Meg, Stuart, and I went "bar hopping" starting off at Primo Posto on Southbank and then to BLVD (the trendiest club around to which all of Meg's co-workers go every Friday night) and finally to Bond Bar which is a really swanky underground bar down an alley. We were pretty toasty when we got home which made it even more hilarious when Meg actually fell out of her bed! Who does that? Needless to say, we slept until 1:30pm on today before heading to the beach.