Parliment, City Council, and Tour of the City

Today started off with our group catching the train into downtown from Cheltham station. You may notice that Wes, our taller counterpart, is missing from these photos. No worries! We did not forget him and were able to meet him in the city.

So, this is our uniform! Not quite as stylish as we hoped it would be. In fact, I think we all felt as though we were wearing our father/grandfather's jacket that did not fit quite right. I am certain this would have been my sentiment had either my father or grandfather ever worn a jacket. All the same, it took some time before I was able to look at one of my other team members without cracking up. We definitely felt like a school children in our uniforms. Our large rotary badges served as beacons throughout the day resulting in non-Rotary individuals approaching us to ask where we were from and what we were doing, as well as random Rotarian's who recognized the emblem and engaged us in conversation. Matt seemed to draw these people out, which I attribute to his good natured hello's and g'day's he said to everyone we passed or looked at us. He is a true Southerner!

We started out at Parliment, which is the state level of government. Following a group of school kids we were able to listen to Andrew Elsbury, a Liberal member of parliament answer questions about the Australian government. This was followed by a lovely tea with The Honorable Bruce Atkinson MLC who is the current President of the Legislative Council of Victoria (the equivalent to the Speaker of the House for our state government...I think). Both were seemingly very open and willing to talk about their views on different topics related to the government in Victoria.

We did a walking tour of downtown and were able to see some of the amazing street art. Melbourne is known for the professional artists who put up graffiti. There seems to be quite a few inexperienced artists as well throughout the city. Graffiti is everywhere and while I have been told they try to keep it cleaned up it is hard to keep up with it because it is so prevalent here. I'm not sure how quickly we get it cleaned up in Dallas, but in Garland it is gone within a few days.

We ate lunch at the RACV club, of which one of the Rotarians is a member. It seems to be a cross between AAA and an exclusive country club in the States. We had an amazing lunch there followed by a tour of the various perks of being a member including the fitness center, the Billiards room, and the lovely dining hall. Below is a picture of Ann pretending to be a professional pool player.

Australia: Day 2

This morning started out with a nice walk on the beach with MacTavish, the 9 year old Gordon Setter who belongs to my host family. Dogs are only allowed off leash at the beach from sunrise to 10 am on certain days of the week. As a result, the beach was filled with all kinds of people and their four legged friends this morning.

After we returned from the beach we decided to head out to the market. This market was similar to the flea markets back home with all kinds of vintage clothes, jewelry, and random odds and ends. Unknowingly, this outing was also Rotary sponsored! Thank you Bronwen for agreeing to be "touristy" with me and post for a picture.

 We followed up with a trip to Haelsvile Chocolates. Apparently, the best place to get chocolates in Melbourne. This place has been brought up by just about every Rotarian I have met as a must stop location. We then stopped and had coffee and desserts.

Our next trip out was to the Rotary Welcome Afternoon Tea where we were greeted by Rotary members from all over the district and learned more about our iteneraries for the remainder of the trip. I win the competation (of which there really isn't one) for staying up the latest. I made it last night until aorund 10:30 local time whereas my fellow team members crashed around 8:30! I don't know what that really won  me since I was still struggling with the jet lag today.


This evening concluded with an amazing chinese dinner with my host family and some of their relatives at Redwood Gardens. We each picked a different entree so I was able to sample a variety of different chinese foods including Peking Prawns and Crispy Beef. It was truly a fabulous meal!



This is Frankie, the most amazing waiter who we convinced I came to Australia just to come see him and eat at Redwood Gardens. It was definitely the best Chinese I have had here in Australia (just because it is the only Chinese I have had should not matter!!).
 
Greg, the brother in law of my hosts, opened up lively conversation and definitely kept me on my toes. A few things brought up in conversation that were interesting:

1. Australians do not carry firearms.
2. Australians are not allowed to carry knives and can be fined up to $1000 for carrying even a swiss army pocket knife.
3. Minimum wage in the United States is about half of the minimum wage in Australia reinforcing the argument that it is not possible to live off of American minimum wages.
4. Brothels are legal in Australia, and if I'm lucky I might get a chance to take a tour of one thanks to some connections I made at dinner.
5. You can never have too many after dinner mints.

All in all, it was an amazing day filled with lots of great conversations. I hoping that by tomorrow I will not feel like the walking dead by lunch time and will be more aware of everything going on around me. I feel like I cannot possible take it all in! So, I plan on doing a much better job of documenting through pictures. Be prepared for lots of photos from here on out!

Starting Trouble Already

So, we made it! All five of us...still in one piece...a little jet lagged, but otherwise excited and ready to take it all in! The flight from LA to Sydney was surprisingly nice. I lucked out and had an empty seat next to me so I was able to spread out and make myself at home. Three movies and a sleep aid induced nap later we were being served the breakfast of champions: airplane pancakes wrapped around cinnamon apples with a side of fruit. It was actually really good; however, I may not be remembering it completely accurately since I have not really had an adequate amount of restful sleep.

Thanks to Ann we were able to get caffeinated up at the Sydney airport, which made the layover and one hour flight to Melbourne seem like a breeze! After collecting all of our luggage we started to make the trek to customs. Along the way we noticed a large poster of a crocodile on the wall. The conversation then proceeded as follows:

Holli: I should totally get a picture of that giant crocodile to show Alex [my friend's four year old who has been extremely concerned about the wildlife that could bite me here in Australia] there are other animals to be afraid of here in Australia.
Ann: We can get a picture on our way back through.
Random Customs Employee (with Australian accent): You should get a picture now because you won't be coming this way when you fly back.


So, without thinking I bust out with my fancy camera and we start snapping shots.

Oh yes, we looked like completely insane crazy tourists with a complete disregard for authority. Especially since there were signs posted everywhere indicating the use of cameras are strictly prohibited in this area. We were promptly reminded of this seconds after this shot was taken by another customs employee who pointed out the signs and rushed us to put our cameras away before we were caught by someone who would fine us. I blame the jet lag/lack of sleep/caffeine for our poor judgement. Not even out of the airport and already in trouble. I hope this is not a preview of what's to come.

Ready to Take Off!

It’s finally here and it still seems surreal to me. It was just a few months ago that I received a vague and strange e-mail from the father of a friend saying I should apply for program through Rotary International. Confused, I checked out the website and thought this exchange program was too good to be true. Who in the world pays to send you to a super awesome country to learn more about your job and the culture there? I was pretty sure I had been spammed and it was some sort of scam. Thank you Blake Barker for following up with me and making sure I actually read it rather than deleting it.

So I went ahead and turned the application. Less than a week later I was standing with five other people in the living room of a Rotarian member waiting to be interviewed for a program I was not entirely sure about. In an effort to keep us from getting an upper hand in the interview process we were “secluded” from the interviewers. Little did they know that none of us really knew what we were getting into and thus would not have known how to get an upper hand in the process anyway. I could not have been more unprepared, so I just went with it and hoped that I would be considered. After being interviewed and hearing more about the program I started to get even more excited about this possibility. Once I began to get to know the other interviewees and got to hear stories about other GSE teams I found myself really, really, really, really, really (did I put enough reallys?) wanting to be selected. Little did I know that I would hear immediately I was on the team! It was surreal. I am going to Melbourne, Australia for a month!

So, several months later, here I am. Stressing over letting go of all the things I have my hands in and trying to prepare myself to live in the moment and take all of this in.  Just a few hours until I will be starting the first leg of this 26 hour journey to the land down under! I will do my best to keep everyone updated on this incredible experience through this blog! However, if you have had the chance to look at my itinerary for the next 30 days then you know that it looks like I will be constantly on the go. I will do my best! Until then, feel free to listen to Men at Work’s Land Down Under and think of me and this amazing adventure. Is it wrong that I have had this on repeat and have been listening to it non-stop all morning?

Let the countdown begin, it's 10 days and counting. Running around gathering up things for the trip. It seems when you have plenty of time there is not much to do yet when you have little time there is so much you need to do.

Preparing for Australia

It's less than 2 weeks till we depart DFW for Melbourne.  So much left to do before we leave.
Team training tomorrow to wrap up final details.
Australia here we come.