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!