Post Twenty Eight: no arms and no legs remaining.

My final part of the break journey began when I departed Cairns the morning of the 18th. I flew out to Melbourne and met Janet and her son Jacob at the airport around 2pm. We then drove to their house in a small, rather nice sort of suberb area of Melbourne.

"their house is gorgeous! located right behind Peter's business office which connects to the street, it has lots of wood and a bright sunroom at the back of the house which is the eating area, then it has an outdoor courtyard and an studio for Janet, which at this point doubled as a bedroom for me. I learned that the kitchen had been totally redone, and I have to say that I approved immensly! Nice and open and central to the rest of the house, it was everything a kitchen should be (minus a dishwasher) AND it was oriented to left-handers!!! YES!" --Journal entry April 19th

After quickly settling in and refreshing up, we all four headed across the city to a friends house for my first ever real Seder. Along the way I was able to get some insider information on various buildings, parks, and other locations of interest as we drove by.

Songs

Food

"The Seder was so wonderful. Everyone was very friendly and welcoming and fun and not afraid to tease. I was able to feel fairly comfortable fairly quickly. WE sang Seder songs to rock tunes, and ate tons of amazing homecooking including beef briskit, sweet potatoes, flourless cake, and chicken. It was so nice to be among real people in a real house around a real table! I was so privileged to be able to share in this experience and I look forward to many more lovely times with this family." --Journal Entry April 19th

On Tuesday the 19th, Janet, Jacob and I went on a bikeride along the shore down near St. Kilda's. We had a bit of trouble getting there, but we eventually made it down to the path. It was a lovely ride, a great way to see some of the sights (including some famous and colorful beach cabanas). Melbourne is definitely the place of food, hence I will be mentioning it alot in this post. We had authentic fish 'n' chips first, then some fancy bakery items later at Aclan Street. I could definitely grow fat there (if I had the money) I am told that it is not what it used to be, but even so, the few bakeries there had alot of variety and everything looked marvelous.

Jacob was not feeling too well, so they headed home from Aclan street. I made my slow way back by biking along the path and past some gorgeous parks, before heading to the (amazingly prevalent) bike lanes on the streets. I kept thinking to myself as I pedaled past and through Melbourne, "Hannah was probably here, oh she was probably here too!!". Upon my eventual return to the house I was able to help Janet make a scrumptious and colorful REAL AND HOMECOOKED (I love this home cooked meal stuff, can you tell I am a college student?) dinner of chicken meatballs in tomato (NOT ketchup, actual tomato sauce) sauce, mashed potatoes, carrot salad, and some really yummy and super fresh brussels sprouts sizzled in garlic and olive oil.

HANNAH!!!

Wednesday the 20th I spent by myself in downtown Melbourne discovering the main area of the city. It was raining pretty much all day, so I browsed some of the mall/arcades looking for Haigh's chocolate shop (I found it, it was pretty good for Aussie stuff!) and went to the free Australian art museum at Federation Square. Unfortunately (and ironically) the 'stormy weather' exhibit was closed, and the Aboriginal area was also being cleaned or something, but there was a gallery devoted to the best high school art of the Victorian area, it was cool to see some 'young' art.

Post art gallery, I headed by tram to Bimbos Pizza to satisfy the demands of Hannah Sawitsky and eat their $4 pizza. It was fairly well priced considering amount for dollar (by Australian standards) however, still did not have the cheese or sauce that makes pizza pizza, it was more faithful to the real Italian version of the stuff. So, conclusion, good, well priced, nice and gourmet, worth the trip, but still not the (terrible for you) American style of pizza.

rosemary, onions, redpepper and sausage

I finished off the day by walking through an old cemetery, it was the perfect sort of day for it and the cemetery was filled with gravestones where the markings were rubbed off, my kind of cemetery! I also found some real Mcvities at a shop nearby!!!! So I munched down a half package of these as I meandered in the cemetery. It was cool how the sounds of the city seemed to disappear while I was there...creepy!

apparently Wall-E died...

a momentary lull in the crowd

Family dinner!!!

my Pavlova

After another amazing dinner and meeting some more of Peter and Janet's friends, sampling some excellent Australian wine, and making my first Pavlova (underneath the watchful eye of a true Aussie aka Peter who said "make a Pavlova right and you will win over any Australian"), I got to use the internet for a few minutes to sign up for my LU classes. Yes, break is not all break, I now had to start planning my (gulp) senior year at college!!!


Friday the 22nd was my last day in Melbourne.

"we all traveled to a farm which Peter had very recently purchased, about two hours from the city, a beautiful piece of land surrounded by fence, with its own wild goats, woolshed, former racehorse named Henry, old trees, and some new trees that Peter had planted. We walked through the property, spotting wild kangaroos and wallabies, thankfully it was too cold and cloudy for snakes. We then had another picnic lunch (a feast more like, with chocolate cake, and eggplant parmesan, and lots of fresh fruit) and I was given the honor of planting a tree." --Journal Entry April 22nd

'sound of music' or 'man from snowy river'?

I was then driven to the airport under a glorious sunset as we all thought of man with no arms and no legs jokes (hence the title of this post). It was no less than absolutely wonderful to spend time with Peter Janet and Jacob. To be welcomed into their family for the time that I was there, watching old movies, looking at photo albums, eating amazing food, laughing teasing, seeing Melbourne and just generally having a great time. I am very thankful that I was given the chance to stay with these gracious people. It was the perfect way to end my break before returning to University to finish out my school semester. I am very very thankful.

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