royal botanic gardens. aquarium. momo. moonlight cinema. etc.

On Monday I posted about water polo... here are some things I have been doing since then! (aka... during the first week of classes when I only sort of had class).

On Wednesday I was killing time on campus from 11:00am to 2:00pm. Around 12:30, when I had eaten my sandwich and was wondering what I should do for an hour and a half, I got a call from the socialist alternative club "reminding" me that they were having a meeting at 1:00. So I went. The title of the lecture/discussion (they have someone present... and then open the room for discussion and questions) was "A Rebel's Guide to the Russian Revolution." Once again, their meeting was extremely interesting. Wednesday afternoon Laura and I went to investigate the Melbourne Royal Botanic Gardens. It is massive! And there is a huge amount of park space that is not technically the botanic gardens, attached to it. (Alexandra Gardens, Queen Victoria Gardens, King's Domain, Sydney Meyer Music Bowl... ). The whole area is incredible- huge lakes, wonderful trees, artistically decorated walkways... the list goes on.

On Thursday I went to a Pride meeting on campus and was invited to the "Q & A" (nope- not question and answer, queer and alternative- who knew?) night at a pub in the city. So of course I went. And I had a blast, though Laura and I determined that there were far too many gay men. Apparently the ratio used to be the other way around but since the event (or venue, it was unclear) has been relocated the tides have shifted.

On Friday Laura and David and I went to the Melbourne Aquarium. Did you know that more people are killed each year by vending machines than by sharks? [The moral of that story is supposed to be not to be afraid of sharks... but I think the lesson is really not to stress so much if you lose $0.75 in a vending machine. Maybe it's just a sign that you shouldn't be eating the crap.] Here are two fun pictures from the aquarium... b/c I like blogs accompanied with pictures. The left is the giant dead squid frozen in a block of ice. The right is the three of us looking ridiculous!





Then I went to my flying trapeze class... only to find that it was cancelled. So I stuck around and did the two-hour intensive conditioning class instead. It was 93 degrees (F. 34 C) when class started. It nearly killed me.

On Saturday Laura and I went to the MoMo... the Melbourne Museum of Modern Oddities. The museum is inside the City Hall building... and it turns out it is just one room. The exhibit that is displayed there right now is titled "(mis) Information Bureau" The description is: “Drawing inspiration and reinterpreting elements from the City of Melbourne Art and Heritage Collection. MoMo takes an irreverent view of Melbourne celebrating its myths, alternative histories and folklore.” It was * super * random. The room was set up with chalk-board walls and corrugated cardboard, with hilarious labels for seemingly arbitrary artifacts written in chalk. For example, there was an old photograph of a man holding the two front paws of a kangaroo (as though they were dancing); it is labeled: olympic training. Or... if you look through a cardboard hole labeled (in chalk, of course) "truth displayed" you are eye to eye with a blue man who is perpendicular to you. Modern art and Melbourne artifacts combined, tres interessante. Then at night we went to the Moonlight Cinema that happens in the Royal Botanic Gardens… b/c they end tomorrow! It had to be done. It is quite a production. People bring massive picnics and incredible amounts of bedding. The best part wasn’t the movie though, it was all the bats that came flying out of darkness just at sunset! And guess who joined Laura and I? Elena. Yes that is right, Elena Wright. Wonderfulness.