Gov-nahhh

This whole “no internet” thing kills. Powered by the need for internet, I hit the streets of Sydney this morning with one destination in mind: my super-sketchy corner where there is free wifi. It's pitiful. The run wasn't without the now typical views of the opera house, ablaze with man-made nightlights before the sunrise makes them irrelevant.

After breakfast I had to head over to the Glover Cottages (yes, in the city) to set up the projector and prepare for out next speaker, Dr. Staiff. A glamorous life I lead. I only got lost once on my way there- I think that's a new record.

Staiff's lecture was about the area of Sydney we've grown to know and love called The Rocks. People that arrived in Sydney, after 8 months on a ship mind you, were convicts. The society here had an interesting dynamic: forgers painting famous photos, women running stores (gasp!) and women smoking pipes (call the authorities!). Practically a revolutionary movement.

A trek across the discussed area followed after the lecture which was very welcome. I'm pretty sure that room was transported straight from the arctic. He led us to some spectacular views of the Harbor Bridge which included a line of old warehouses. Sounds dull, right? These warehouses were gorgeous.. long story short the government bought out the entire area and proceeded to demolish it, rebuild it, and put a giant highway through it. Lovely. In this process the government decided to also beautify everything and turn it into a somewhat mini-Disneyland. It really does carry that feel. Almost fake.

Dr. Staiff continued to tell us the story about the Sydney Opera House (ironically the opera house is the smallest part). I'm telling this story in half-asleep language/Iwasntreallypayingattentionsosueme wording. So this one guy hires a bunch of architect people to build an opera house/concert hall... because apparently Sydney needed one. The one guy thinks all the designs presented to him were “complete rubbish” until he saw one that was simply a sketch of pointy things. So, this one guy talks to the one architect who sketched said pointy things and wants to build it. Thus, the brainchild of the opera house was born.

Problem: the base of the future opera house is built, and the geometrical shapes and base for the opera house wasn't yet worked out. So, as many people do, the one architect peeled an orange which gave him a brilliant idea to create the basis of his design out of spheres.

And then the Opera House was built.

Later on down the line the government ran out of money and the one architect's interior design, while incredible, was too expensive. Some other (irrelevant) stuff happened so the one architect went back to his country because he was mad and the house was finished in “sub par” fashion. Whatever... I still think it's cool.

Staiff also led us through little colonial-style walkways equipped with cobblestone paths. It was during this lecture that I truly got the full effect of (1) this place was built into rocks, terrace-style, and (2) jet lag.

Along the walk I happened to look into a store window that was selling.... drumroll.. DEAD CANE TOADS. Normal people think “ew”. I squealed with excitement. My poor students.

If you haven't, you must watch “An Unnatural History (of the cane toad.. or some such nonsense title)”. Seriously. Google it. It's 50 minutes of pure hilarity interlaced with some figment of truth. It's. Awesome.

The city also preserves its heritage by having some photos of old times. In murals. On walls. This one was showing what the street looked like before the massive highway was put into place. So, imagine yourself standing and looking at this painting on the concrete while cars whizzed by on the highway above. Peaceful.

Our groups begrudgingly tramped (dragged) over to the teeny tiny little museum to back up all this new found information that Dr. Staiff had delivered but much to my student's disappointment the capacity for the museum was far too small. It could only hold about 10-15 students at a time. So, naturally, like good students they hung around and eagerly awaited further instruction and more lectures. Not.

They found a candy store. I followed. 

I have no earthly idea how they make these, but I'm eternally impressed.

Still waiting for what was to come next, I sat in the sun to warm up after shivering all morning long. While trying not to fall asleep, my eyes wandered and I found a building with a really amazing mural on it. On the right is a very primitive depiction of Sydney. It progresses as the mural goes to the left to the present day. Naturally, like a tourist, I took a picture.

Bob graciously bought me a wonderful lunch of sushi (of course) from the Friday market (SO AMAZING). I headed back to the YHA, retrieved Mandy, and went back for a second course. Food Science. I am what I am.

I also noticed that a nearby store had wine... on tap. I'm thinking instead of a cot getting installed in our office we should invest in one of those glorious inventions.

 There was everything there... German food, Turkish, Japanese, wraps, cake pops, gourmet cupcakes, all kinds of dried fruits and nuts, produce, flavored oils (chili and wasabi!), flavored vinegars (guava.. vanilla and cinnamon?), and some soaps. It was a rather random assortment but awesome nonetheless. I couldn't help getting some baklava.

Mandy and I had a bit of a break before our next event, the oh-so-thrilling parliament tour. I spent that time chugging caffeine in a desperate attempt to revive myself and re-doing the data.

SO MANY STINKING NUMBERS.

Luckily for me, the group cell phone wasn't activated so I took the bulk of the parliament time to hunt down a Telstra store (which has free wireless by the way) and get completely, 100%, hopelessly lost on the way. Asking ozzies where the store was a last resort, but after wandering aimlessly for 30 minutes asking someone where to go is pretty reasonable.

Long story short: the phone got activated, the minutes got loaded, and the pizza place was called. Success.

I took my sweet time getting to parliament which I kinda felt bad about but not really. I spotted peter rabbit (Australian version of course) in the royal botanic gardens and admired the architecture that the New South Wales Library boasted. Upon my arrival to parliament I was greeted by a very bored security staff (apparently carrying knives on your person in NSW is illegal) and proceeded to meet up with my group. On the way I was severely distracted by a massive library that was reminiscent of none other than Beauty and the Best. I think I stood there a solid 5 minutes with my mouth open.

I met up with the group, received some disapproving stares from my students, and life went on. We saw the chair reserved for the Queen herself to sit in on meetings (she's only visited twice) and listened to another lecture about... dun dun dunnnnnnnnnnnn law and government. Anyone who knows me at all also knows that you can say “legislature” and I'll either run away in terror or immediately fall asleep, narcolepsy style. Every single time the speaker said “Governor” in his ozzie accent I immediately thought “Stewie for gov-nahh!!” and couldn't focus. It was great.

I think my subconscious made me get lost earlier. Just a hunch.

Tonight's dinner was free (!!!) pizza and carrot cake. I'm not one for pizza, but to quote many before me, beggars can't be choosers. Free is free. The cake was to celebrate a birthday in the food and nutrition (FDNS) course. There's 8 of them, and they'll be traveling with the 25 biology students that I'm (somewhat) responsible for.

Tomorrow is a show at the Opera House.. and we have tickets. Opera House, I'm sorry, but this particular guest will be adorned in her very best and wrinkly (sorry mom) cotton sundress. Deal with it.