When I Grow Up I Want to Be a Tourist

It is almost Easter Break and it is just in time! Last week I had a ton of assignments due, and it wasn’t very difficult work, but I’ve gotten a little too used to not having homework. I am ready to get to New Zealand, and I leave Wednesday night!

hipster coffee

It changed again!

Last weekend I had friends from USC visit, two of whom are sorority sistas. They’re studying at UQ in Brisbane and dropped down for the weekend to the slightly less warm city of Melbs. Friday was an extreme tour day. It was my first time showing off the city, and obvi I enjoyed being a tour guide. We started off with some hipster coffee at Seven Seeds, supposedly the best coffee in Melbourne. Then we headed to the Queen Vic Market where we sampled cheese and dips like it was Costco. I told Rebecca that they sell canned black beans, and she got really excited and bought two cans that she ended up hauling around all day. That is dedication. From there we headed to the Victorian State Library which reminds me of Doheny. It is so beautiful inside that it is distracting and slightly difficult to actually get work done there. Then we headed to the famous street art laneway, Hosier Lane. Leslie, Rebecca and I took a photo in front of a spray painted diamond doing the diamond symbol with our hands (for ADPi) and a homeless man started interrogating me. Of course he somehow only spoke to me (this always happens). I explained it was related to our sorority, which I then had to attempt to explain as a club for just girls. He was like, “Ok, so like the opposite of a fraternity?”

“Uh, no basically the exact same thing as a fraternity except girls instead of guys.”

“Ok. So the opposite of a fraternity.”

“Sure.”

“How do you pronounce it again? Sowity? Surwerity?”

 I don’t know why strangers always want to strike up convos with me, like the time coming back from my birthday dinner on the tram when a man started asking me how to get to the hospital and told me he “burned his teeth” which is why he was hard to understand, then a bunch of other jibberish I didn’t understand, then he shook my hand because it was my birthday. My only guess is that it was somehow inherited from my mom who gets life stories out of strangers on the daily.

NGV

We walked around Fed Square and headed to Degraves Street for lunch. We hit up Grill’d, a popular burger chain here that would totally make bank in the U.S. I want to franchise that shizz. The fries are delish and have rosemary salt on them. It’s pretty legit. And the Brissy’s were happy because they have Grill’d in Brisbane and decided that at least this is one aspect of Melbs that they can’t be disappointed about when they return because they can eat there again! Then it was off to the National Gallery of Victoria where we explored for a bit. The security guards there must be bored out of their minds because multiple times we were victims of a chatting ambush. The worst time though was when a guard scolded one of us for taking a picture with flash, and then he proceeded to give us a mini tour of the room we were in and told us his life story (his sister married a truck driver from California who she met online and now they breed dogs together…). Christine and I sort of wandered off and eventually had to come back and save the others from being stuck there all day. The museum is really nice though, I don’t know why I hadn’t been yet! We trammed to St. Kilda afterwards and had a drink for happy hour and watched the sunset on the beach. Back in the city it was the infamous sushi handrolls (or as I have now nicknamed them, “sushitos” aka sushi burrito) for dinner. We headed out that night to Eurotrash, a club in China Town, but it was a pretty strange scene and we ended up at the bar next store dancing to the strangest mix of music, ranging from Gipsy Kings to Mambo Number Five. It was fun though!

Rose Street Market

Saturday morning Leslie left to meet up with her fam in Sydney. The rest of us grabbed breakfast at a place called Auction Rooms, which I found on a blog solely about breakfast places in Melbourne (genius). Christine and Rebecca both had poached eggs and I had coconut stuffed French Toast that was ridiculous. Then we walked through campus, saw Lygon Street, and headed to Fitzroy to walk up Brunswick Street. We stumbled upon the Rose Street Market while checking out some street art, and it is my new favorite place! It happens every Saturday and Sunday and it is a craft market for local artists to sell their goods. Christine and I were both in heaven because we have a strange obsession with cards, and there was no shortage. I ended up buying cards and an art print, but it was hard to restrain myself from buying more things. We tried to head to a free music festival later that day, but it started pouring rain as we rode the tram, so we got off and took it straight back into the city and had an early dinner in China Town instead. The three of us split 41 dumplings and it only cost 16 bones. So glorious. We had pork, veggie, and my favorite, pumpkin. They awkwardly sat a group of Asian businessmen at the table with us, even though there were plenty of tables everywhere. Hmm. That night we hung out at a friend’s apartment and were shown a 24/7 Greek restaurant where you can get $2 pita and hummus. Let’s just say I've already been back.

The next morning we woke up early to road trip to the Mornington Peninsula. My dad’s former co-worker Tony owns a winery there and he invited me to visit. Of course we got a bit lost on the way up, and got off the freeway in a town called Frankston instead of getting on the Frankston freeway. It was kind of a sketch area, and I had to ask this rando man for directions. You just have to wonder where this guy was going at 8 AM (or coming back from). The whole time I was talking to him, he was obsessively pushing his hair back behind his ears à la Steve Nash. He had a middle part, and I do not understand this. Guys are not supposed to have parts. It is just not natural, unless they have really long hair. Maybe I’m a little bitter because the property manager at my apartment has a middle part and he got on a little power trip regarding me having three guests in my room. He made it unnecessarily difficult, so I was quite perturbed with him, and the whole time I just kept noting how annoying his hairstyle was. My advice: don’t trust a man with short hair and a middle part. They are up to no good. And it just looks creepy.

living the dream

It was “vintage” at the winery aka harvesting time, so we helped pick the grapes! The winery is a post-retirement hobby, so they don’t host tours there, so we were lucky! It was such a beautiful place and overlooked the ocean and Phillip Island. We had breakfast when we got there, then picked the Chardonnay grapes for several hours. It was slightly tedious, but I really enjoyed it! I was a little paranoid that I was going to eff up his wine because he told us not to pick any grapes that were too green and to watch out for mold otherwise the wine will age prematurely. There was a professional crew out picking as well and they were whipping through the rows of grapes. It’s funny how much less PC Aussies are than Americans because they all kept referring to the staff as “the Cambodians” which would make me cringe every now and then. They weren’t snooty though, they were really down-to-earth, nice people, it’s just a cultural difference. Sometimes I think Americans are too PC, but there are situations when it’s necessary. After picking, Tony and his wife cooked us all a feast of delicious food and wine for lunch. I also got to hear some black mail stories about my dad, which is always a joy since he tries to hide his wild side (dear dad, heard about the photo of you and Tony dancing on a table…). It was such a wonderful day, none of us wanted to leave! We got lost trying to get back into the city and somehow managed to drive completely past the city. Then we had to drive in the CBD which is always terrifying, we witnessed a car accident right in front of us, and then failed to get the car back to the rental place before they closed and got charged extra, but it was worth it for such a great day! 

This week was all about the school work. Thursday I finally got money for my broken phone from the culprit and it was potentially the most awkward experience of my life (and that’s saying something). I met him at Melbourne Central (a giant train station/mall) which I guess was good because it was crowded, but at the same time I’m sure everyone around thought there was some kind of drug deal going down. My roommate, who thank god accompanied me on this journey, said it would be more likely that I looked like a high class prostitute. That’s comforting. Apparently I also said out loud in the middle of this whole ordeal “This is awkward!” and I have absolutely no recollection of this. It would be a subconscious statement coming from me. My only guess is that I said it in response to his annoyance that I was counting the money. “Really you’re going to count the money? You don’t trust me?” Um. Hell yeah I’m going to count the money, I’m a business major. And I want to be done with this never-ending transaction (it was almost a month ago that my phone was broken). Well, at least he was nice and paid me.

Mark's birthday

My friend Holly (another ADPi from SC) came from Canberra and stayed with me Thursday and Friday night. My friend Mark’s 21^st birthday was on Friday, so we ended up going out Thursday and Friday night for that. Holly and I explored St. Kilda on Friday and went to Mark’s bday dinner at Taco Bill’s for half price margs. We ended up going to Eurotrash for Mark’s festivities, but it was weird again. There were two 70 year old men, one of whom was wearing a trench coat. There was also a 50 something year old man dancing by himself right next to all of us doing the most ridiculous moves with his mouth wide open. I wondered if he was a few bricks short, which made me feel bad for laughing at the awkwardness of the situation, but it was pretty funny. Saturday, Holly and I met up with one of her friend’s from ANU and her dad. We got dumplings in China Town then headed to the MCG for a footy match! I realized I never really explained what footy is, but it’s Australian Rules Football and it is HUGE in Melbourne. There’s not really another sport to compare it to. They either punt or volleyball serve the ball up the field and try to get the ball between one of three goal posts (the outer two are worth 1 point, the middle goal is worth 6). There are 17 teams and the majority of them are all from suburbs in Melbourne. Sydney has one team, just as a point of reference. The game was Carlton vs. Essendon (both Melbs teams) and we were going for Carlton. I think I have finally decided that Carlton is going to be my permanent team! I like their logo (which, honestly I just want a t-shirt or scarf out this whole ordeal anyway), I live close to Carlton, and they are pretty good. So that decision is finally made! The game was very exciting, but somehow, with my luck, ended up being a draw again! So I’ve only been to/watched two footy games ever, and they both ended in a tie. And ties are very rare! It’s really disturbing because everyone leaves the game upset. It was definitely exciting though, and I learned a bit more about the different rules of footy. Then, that night I went to a friend’s house party in the city and dominated at goon pong. It was a successful weekend!

I also tried a Tim Tam slam for the first time. You bite off either end of a Tim Tam and use it as a straw for your coffee. The coffee melts the middle layer and then it starts to collapse in and you are supposed to shove the melty cookie in your mouth. There is even a Wikipedia  page about it that involves the science of it all (i.e. “Use the double coated Tim Tams because they have extra structural support that keeps the biscuit from collapsing in on itself so quickly” SCIENCE). Kind of a big deal. Of course I managed to spill coffee on myself while doing this, but it was worth it. Tim Tams for life! I think I will start a business venture importing Tim Tams back to the U.S. That’s what I’m going to do with my business degree, thanks parentals for paying for my education so I can start a Tim Tam importation company. o