A Grand Slam on the Day We All Age a Year

Parade in Chinatown

In Asia, Chinese New Year is celebrated over a period of fifteen days, with the first day being the most important. The seventh day is traditionally regarded as the birthday of all mankind; in other words, it marks the day when everyone turns a year older.

Near Crown Casino

This past Sunday, there were several lion dances and a parade in Chinatown and around the city centre. I met some friends in town and we walked to Little Bourke Street, which is where Chinatown is, to secure a spot to watch the festivities. After that, we made our way over to Crown Casino, which is the largest casino complex in the Southern Hemisphere. In honour of the the continued celebration of Chinese New Year, there were many food stalls lined up and down the pathway in front of the casino. With all the delicious options of food inside and out of the venue, it made it difficult to choose something for lunch. In the end, we found ourselves inside because it was ridiculously hot again this past weekend.

Semi-finals in Federation Square

Although I'm not exactly a sports fanatic, there are a few that I do enjoy watching, including soccer, hockey, and tennis. After church, I met my friend Albert at Melbourne Park to watch the Men's Singles Finals on the big screen at the Australian Open, which is one of the four major tennis tournaments, or Grand Slams. Although it would have been more cost effective to just watch it on the big screen in Federation Square, with the Rod Laver Park just behind us, it was worth the expense to get to experience the atmosphere.
 

At the Australian Open

Not that I'm familiar with many of the players, but I wish I had bought a ticket toward the beginning of the tournament when they were more affordable so I could have seen some of the games in person. Years ago, my dad, who's a huge fan of tennis, took my brothers and me to the U.S. Open. Although I don't recall much from the specific games, I do remember that we had a lot of fun and it was exciting to see them play right before my eyes.

Albert and I didn't attempt to stay at Melbourne Park for the entire game because we figured it would go on for several hours and we had had a long, tiring day in the sun. In the end, it lasted almost six hours, setting a new record for the longest Grand Slam singles final in the history of professional tennis.

Australia Day Amusements

Cricket in the park

The official national day of this beautiful country is called Australia Day and is celebrated every year on the 26th of January. It commemorates the 1788 arrival of the First Fleet, eleven British ships under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip, at Port Jackson, which is now a part of Sydney. Currently the largest annual public event in the country with many concerts, ceremonies, and festivals, it's a time for Australians to get together with family and friends to celebrate their nation.

Our festive-looking chef

On this particular day, I met several friends from Cross Cultures at Princes Park in Parkville for a picnic and to play some sports. Originally, I was planning on just going to socialize and take some pictures since I'm not exactly the athletic type, but surprisingly enough, I found myself participating in a leisurely game of cricket....... and enjoying it! I won't attempt to explain the game here because I can't honestly declare that I fully understand it, but I will say that unlike baseball, once the batsman hits the ball, he or she is supposed to run with the bat, not drop it as I did out of habit.

After spending a few sunny hours in the park, we returned to St. Jude's for our Australia Day barbecue. I had invited someone I had met at City on a Hill who's new to Melbourne to Cross Cultures so he was able to join us to celebrate the holiday. Following our Bible study, there was a contest to see which table could decorate the best pavlova, which is a popular Australian meringue-based cake. Actually, there have been conflicting reports on whether the recipe originated in Australia or New Zealand, but for the purposes of this blog, we'll just go with Australia. My table decided to use

Another group's Oz-shaped pavlova

the fruit we were given to make our pavlova look like an Australian Football League field. I know nothing about the AFL, except that I'm fairly certain I was told that they don't wear any protective gear.

By the time we were finished, the best way I can describe our cake would be to say that it resembled modern art:: creative, open to interpretation, abstract..... no one, myself included, understood what it was.

Oh well, at least it was fun to decorate. :o)

Revealing the Secret Gardens

Queen Victoria Monument

As it was mentioned in a previous post, Melbourne has a wide selection of self-guided walking tours. Earlier this week, Jason organised another walking tour; however, this time, we spent over three hours exploring the luscious gardens of the city. We started our adventure at Federation Square and made our way down one of the main roads to an entrance of the Queen Victoria Gardens. We followed the winding paths, surrounded by green grass and blossoming flowers, to different monuments, ponds, and statues, including the Queen Victoria Monument, the Water Nymph,

Shrine of Remembrance

the Phoenix, and the Water Children. Some of these works of art were more abstract than others, but nonetheless, they were interesting to see.

Eventually we were guided to a place I had been itching to  visit since I arrived in Melbourne:: the Shrine of Remembrance. Presently, it's viewed as the National War Memorial of Victoria and is dedicated to all Australians who

At the Royal Botanic Gardens

have spent time in the armed services; however, it was originally built to commemorate the lost lives of Victorians during World War I.

After exploring the memorial, we continued on to one of the most popular tourist destinations in Victoria, the renowned Royal Botanic Gardens. Impressively, this attraction has over 52,000 plants and 12,000 species from all over the world.

It was another successful walk around Melbourne. Two down; six more to go?

Dinner in Chinatown

A bunch of us got together to celebrate Chinese New Year so I wanted to share some photos::

Delicious vegetable dumplings

One of our three tables

Lion dance

Frisbee

Exhibition Hall in the Carlton Gardens

Celebrating the New Year..... Chinese New Year, That Is

Each week, we share a meal at Cross Cultures, but this was a particularly special dinner because we celebrated Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring Festival or the Lunar New Year, which is today. When I was in middle school, I did a massive research project on China, and my favourite part was learning about the festivals and holidays that took place there because... well, who doesn't like celebrations?

The Lunar New Year is the most important holiday in many countries in Asia, including China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, and Macau. Since the majority of the group at Cross Cultures consists of those who are from Asian countries, it was interesting to hear about what traditions are typically practiced during this holiday in different parts of the continent. For instance, one of the traditions is to clean the house, which signifies sweeping away the past and any bad luck that may linger to make room for the good luck. Old debts are repaid and

people do their best to repair any broken friendships. Additionally, children stay up late the night before to either help their parents have long lives or to have long lives themselves; there were different opinions on this tradition. It's popular to have family gatherings, called reunion dinners, on New Year's Eve and for red envelopes with money to be given to anyone who's not married. Even though we never properly celebrated the holiday in my family, we did acknowledge that it was Chinese New Year and I remember receiving the red packets from my grandfather and parents when I was younger. In the northern parts of China, dumplings are customarily eaten.

On Thursday, we ate noodles with vegetables and meat for dinner and later had the opportunity to make our own dumplings by wrapping filling in dough. For dessert, we drank bubble tea, which is black tea with tapioca pearls. I've had it a few times, mostly when I was studying in Ithaca, but before this meal with Cross Cultures, the last time I had had it was at the mall when I was home. It was my friend's first time drinking it, but it was slightly entertaining since she wasn't a fan of the texture of the tapioca pearls, which I have to admit is something we have in common.

In continuing with the Chinese New Year celebrations, over the weekend, a couple friends and I ventured out to Box Hill, which I had been told has a high Chinese population, to check out the festivities there. We walked around for a bit and had a chance to try sugarcane juice, which was a little too sweet for even my liking. The police were handing out fortune cookies and mine read, "The year has the prospect for a thrilling adventure for you" or something to that effect. Then we met other friends for a light lunch and dessert atone of the restaurants there. I meant to stick around until the lion dance, but I ended up returning to my apartment for a while before heading back to Box Hill for the nighttime events since it would have been too long of a day to just stay there. The lion dance ended up happening over two hours after I had expected it to so I walked around a little more and watched a few of the performances, which ranged from a mediocre pop band and a woman singing glorified karaoke of Britney Spears and Lady Gaga [ick....] to a Chinese rock band that wasn't half bad; if only more of their songs had been sung in English. The lion dance was exciting to watchthough and well worth the wait. At the end, the performers shot off firecrackers to celebrate the arrival of the new year.

Tonight I'm meeting friends in Chinatown to enjoy a dumpling dinner in honor of the Lunar New Year. It should be fun.

I read somewhere that the Year of the Dragon represents mobility and change, mostly from bad to good, so we'll see what this year has in store for us all.

Picnic in the Park

Main entrance to CERES

The weather here has been crazy gorgeous lately, if not a little too hot. Just to give everyone an idea, it was around 31 degrees Celsius [close to 80 degrees Fahrenheit] on Monday night, well after the sun went down. It was a bit humid and made for a rather uncomfortable tram ride back to my apartment, but I think I may have been secretly in awe of how warm it was at such a late hour. I do love summertime!

Earlier this week, I met a group of friends at CERES [Centre for Education and Research in Environmental Strategies], a sustainability facility in East Brunswick. It was similar to the organic farms one might find in Ithaca, NY. Even though it was unbearably hot outside, we decided to have our picnic near the café, which uses solar electricity. It wasn't quite as bad in the shade, which is where we sat, but I felt like I was melting as soon as I stepped into the sunlight. After we finished eating lunch, we

Solar Pavilion at the centre

took a short tour of the grounds and visited the section where they were selling a wide variety of plants, organic vegetables, and such. It would have been nice to further explore the area or just sit down and enjoy each other's company, but the heat was too torturous, making it impossible to do so.

Despite the fact that the weather has been so extreme lately and my housemates and I don't have air conditioning, our apartment has remained at a comfortable temperature. How lucky for us! :o)

Peaceful and Wild

Group photo at the beach

This past weekend, I had the chance to escape city life for a while and join a bunch of friends from Cross Cultures at a beach house in Inverloch, a seaside town about two hours southeast of Melbourne. Don't get me wrong as I love living in the city, but sometimes it's refreshing to leave and enjoy the atmosphere of a smaller town. If my memory is serving me correctly, it was the first time I left Melbourne for somewhere new since moving here... and it was wonderful. This short getaway reminded me of the way I felt when I left London just for a few days to experience someplace different, like Edinburgh or Abergavenny.

The ride from Melbourne to Inverloch was serene and rather scenic even though it was dark by the time we arrived at our destination. As we drove along winding roads and passed by many trees and open fields, I commented on how peaceful the area looked and how it resembled home a little bit;

At the scenic lookout point

however, someone else in the car shared a different perspective, stating that it just looked wild. I guess that much was true and I might agree that I wouldn't want my car to break down in that area, especially if I was alone at night.

Since we were in such a remote area, I was hoping to see some sort of exotic wildlife. There were several signs along the road that warned drivers to beware of kangaroos or koalas that might randomly dart out in front of the car. At one point, we drove by a small animal as it disappeared into the bushes, and I'll admit that it was a bit disappointing to learn that it was just a fox and not a kangaroo or something not native to North America.

It was a relaxing weekend that was equipped with hours of pool, table tennis, card games, puzzles, and scenic walks. We also went to the beach a few times, one of which was supposed to be to watch the sunset over the ocean. However, I suppose my Australian friends don't know me well enough to

Sunset at the beach

know about my............. unfortunate sense of direction, meaning I should be the last person to lead a group of people anywhere. Several of us were to meet the others at the beach after buying our food in town, but we ended up getting there a short while after the best part of the sunset. Oops.....

It was a great weekend and made me think about doing other short trips around Victoria. Caylee will be in Melbourne at the end of February so hopefully we'll be able to drive the Great Ocean Road together. I'm looking forward to it!

Exploring the City by Foot

Lanes in Melbourne

Several of the other cities I've been to have offered comprehensive walking tours, which I've always found to be a great way for me to familiarize myself with my surroundings a little bit, especially Krakow since I only had a short amount of time to get to know the area. Melbourne doesn't offer any such guided tours; however, the information center in Federation Square has a decent selection of self-guided walking tours that anyone who's

Coffee break

interested in doing can do. These include everything from the beautiful gardens and the stunning waterfront to the gorgeous Victorian buildings and the magnificent cathedrals.

My friend Jason had a friend visiting from Adelaide so he arranged a tour for him and anyone else who wanted to join called Arcades and Lanes that led us down some of Melbourne's smaller cobblestone alleyways, lined with funky stores and adorable cafes. Walking along these narrow, more hidden streets reminded me of

Outside the GPO on Bourke Street

Europe, especially the dozens of open cafes with the outdoor seating that almost made me think I was back in Paris or Porto.

When I first arrived in Melbourne, I feel like Ben may have taken me down some of these streets, but it's all sort of a daze since that mini-tour came after a twelve-hour bus ride from Sydney. Back then, Melbourne was unfamiliar so the city seemed immense and like a place where I could easily get lost, but now that I've been here for a couple months, I've come to learn how compact it is. Even though there's still more for me to see, with all the little side roads and boutiques, sometimes I miss the vastness I had felt when I was new to the city; however, I'll admit that it's nice to know my way around.

Avoiding the Post-Holiday Blues

Group photo at the night market

Although I've heard that the weather back home has been relatively mild lately, with the holiday season coming to an end, enduring short, cold days with drawn out, even colder nights, and looking outside to see nothing but greyness and bare branches, this is normally a rather depressing time of year for me. However, this year I'm experiencing the total opposite in terms of the weather. With the new year came

Massive paella

temperatures that soared to a sultry 39 degrees Celsius [102 degrees Fahrenheit], but thankfully, the days have cooled off to more comfortable temperatures since then.

Last night, I met several people from Cross Cultures at the Suzuki Night Market that's held at the Queen Victoria Market during the summer months. I had heard about it a few weeks ago, but even though I only live about ten minutes away, I hadn't made it there yet. With live African music playing and numerous food and merchandise stalls

Stall of Polish products

set up, the market was quite the place to spend a nice summer evening. There were many vendors selling locally-made jewelry, clothing, and a unique assortment of other items. There was one stall that featured eating utensils bent into interesting pieces of jewelry and another one that sold all products made out of old tires!

I enjoyed myself last night so hopefully I'll make it back there before the night market closes for the season at the end of February.

A New Year's Eve Spectacular

Before this year, I wasn't aware that there was a theme for the New Year's Eve celebration in Sydney, but this year it was "Time to Dream," which was perfect because bringing in the new year there was an absolute dream come true. I remember being a young child at one of our neighborhood New Year's Eve parties and watching a brief clip on NBC of fireworks going off all around a structure that resembled a massive sail. It was before the whole concept of international traveling ever entered my mind and possibly around the time when I was just beginning to understand the idea of timezones, but I recall thinking how amazing it must be to see in person. Even though it was just on television, all the bright lights and loud music fascinated me.

Well, ten-year-old me, it truly was quite a sight to see. Unbelievable. Magnificent. Perfect. Days later, I'm still in a complete state of awe.

At Makoto Sushi Bar

My New Year's Eve adventure started with a long coach ride from Melbourne to Sydney, but somehow I was fortunate enough to have both seats to myself again even though it was just about a sold out bus. We arrived in Sydney almost an hour ahead of schedule so I took my time making my way to Emma's apartment since I didn't want to wake her up too early. Once I made it to her place, I took a much-needed shower and then a short nap in the afternoon. I had meant to meet another friend earlier in the day, but I was feeling a little too sleep-deprived so I headed over to Mrs. Macquarie's Chair a little later to see what I would be in for the next day. While I was there, I ended up randomly talking to a small group of girls from Canada, South Africa, and the US and we made arrangements to meet back in that area on the following day since it had a great view of the opera house and bridge. After that, I met Daniel from my Urban Life Group who was visiting Sydney and his friend from home for some sushi, which was a fantastic choice.

Since I had been told I should arrive at the gardens early for New Year's Eve, the next morning, I woke up around 6am and was out the door by 7am to get in line. Imagine my surprise when I got there and found my new friends close to the beginning of the queue..... but who had been waiting

Waiting for midnight... before 10am

there since 10:30pm. And I had thought waiting for the ball to drop in Times Square since 4pm had shown dedication!

I ended up joining them in line and waiting for one of my other friends to arrive and for the gates to open at 10am. When the authorities finally did start letting people in, we began walking over to our planned location, but then we came across an area that would be restricted to 3000, I think, people. We decided to get wristbands so we could set up a blanket there and also one at our planned spot since one of their friends wouldn't be getting out of work until much later, meaning she probably wouldn't be able to get into the restricted area. It worked out well since Kat entered the gardens too late for the restricted entry as well so there was a comfortable place for her to sit when she did arrive.

It was a sweltering day and I definitely wouldn't have been outside if I didn't have to be, but good conversation helped the time go by relativelyquickly and I was more than happy to be there. Since our group was split up, we rotated places every once in a while so that we could talk to different people. I would say that it was a pretty good arrangement.

At 9pm, they had the Family Fireworks and then at midnight, of course, came the main event, which was nothing short of spectacular. There were moments when the fireworks lit up the sky so brightly that it looked like daytime. I experienced a bit of camera failure when I realised just a few seconds before the finale began that I had run out of memory, but everything else was amazing.

If you're interested in viewing any part of the show, you can click on the link below to see the televised version::

I have high hopes for this year and can't wait to see what 2012 has to offer. Happy New Year!