Mes Amis

One of the things I miss the most about home are my good friends. But it's simply amazing how many ways there are to connect with people from across the world. Technology, thank you for being so awesome. That is all.

As ridiculous as this may sound, remember that Sex and the City episode in the last season when Carrie is in Paris? She peeks into the cafe, sees the group of friends, and misses her ladies. That episode didn't truly hit home for me until recently.

So in an effort to get myself out there to meet some local peeps, I'm checking out meetup.com which looks interesting, and I've heard some great stuff about it from multiple people. Thank you once again to Drea for telling me about it! There's a trivia night for film people coming up next week which hopefully will be nice and rowdy. Richard and I are heading to our first brunch on Saturday to check it out.  It's on Lygon Street(favorite street in Melbourne thus far), which of course will only make it awesome;)

I've started speaking French again with a girl from Paris who is here in Melbourne to practice her English. She's helping me with my rusty French, and I'm helping her with English. I took French for probably about 7 years total, and its been 10 years since I've been in a French class. I'm surprised by how fast it comes back! I'll admit, its really been fun being thrown back into speaking the language. I would never admit that to my high school teachers though...

Flies Suck

There are evil flies here that are beyond words frustrating. No matter where Richard and I go, we are constantly followed by 1 fly which just circles our heads and follows us for blocks. I can understand this happening when either of us are wearing perfume/cologne, but when we're just wearing simple sun screen, wtf. The Australian response to such pests is a cork slouch hat. We have not purchased said hats as of yet...photos to come ;)

War Horse

Going to the theatre for the first time in Melbourne surpassed every expectation I had going into it. It was staged in the State Theatre which was stunning. It's one of the biggest stages in the world and the theatre itself is underground (it was basically a maze getting to our seats). It in a way reminded me of the LA Opera in its use of mirrors in the cavernous lobby. The proscenium theatre felt very 80s in design, but the seats were quite comfortable seating over 2,000 people.

The production of War Horse was magnificent, the audience was wonderfully responsive. The unique difference in this production is the horse puppets were made to be larger because the theatre is SO much more vast than other theatres the show has been performed in previously. The puppetry work, done by the Handspring Puppet Company, plays such a large part in the show; it's absolutely beautiful and moving. The puppets are different from Julie Taymor's Lion King because they are much more stylized. The puppeteers are not hidden but the horses are so creatively done, and their movement so life-like, that they don't distract whatsoever.

What struck me as the main difference in theatre etiquette between here and the States was that the audience didn't do a standing ovation during curtain call despite it being incredibly performed and having such a high production value. The same creative team used in the original production from the National Theatre in London, worked with the company here which was made it so expertly executed.

I still have NO desire to see the movie; the play is intense enough…and I should've brought a box of tissues.

French Luck

On our quiet and relaxing Saturday last weekend, we came upon a French Crêperie in the CBD. It turns out it was Crêpe Day in France. The owner and his daughter had set up a mini station outside with crêpe batter, a pan and a mini stove. Legend has it that if you're able to successfully flip a crepe in a pan and catch it WHILE holding a coin in your other hand, you'll have good luck for a year! WAHOOO!! 2013 is the year for us both, we nailed it on both of our first attempts!! And, we both flipped it multiple times;) 

Down the Road

The Blackman Hotel was such a great hotel to begin the adventure. There's this important car race coming into town over the next few weeks, the Australian Grand Prix, so we would have been kicked out of the hotel this past Tuesday because of the influx of car racing fans. Luckily, we were able to find a furnished apartment just in time! The apartment hunting process is a bit odd here. The first place I went to "inspect" in person with a realtor, no one showed up. I sat there for about 45 min until I was able to get through the office and was then told that the place had been rented…grrrr. Rental agencies here don't feel the need to make sure their websites which show the rental listings are up to date. This place was across from a bar called Witches N'Britches…so I think it turned out for the best that this option fell through.

After doing much searching online, I narrowed it down to 2 different places to start again with. The first place I saw, which was just about a 10 min walk from the hotel, was the one we ended up going with. It's on the 6th floor which is great because it gets so much light, it overlooks the park which has the Shrine of Remembrance, and it's wicked accessible to the trams. The second place could have been wonderful too, but unfortunately with the time limitations, the other realtor changing the 2nd inspection time to the day before we would have had to be out of the hotel, we went with easy.

I feel much more settled being in an apartment vs a hotel. AND, the unit has a washer and dryer…I have not had this awesomeness since living in Venice with Freeborn. 

Random side note, finding dryer sheets in this town is insanely hard, no one tends to use them. A woman told me yesterday that because Melbourne's water is supposedly so gentle, you don't need dryer sheets because things will come out of the dryer perfectly fluffy. I say bullshit!

The Flush

I promised several people I would post a video of a flushing toilet. I'm afraid it's going to be nothing but disappointment… The toilets here don't really flush like one would think. All toilets seem to have a 1/2 flush option in order to conserve water, in addition to what would be the equivalent to a normal flush. I swear as soon as I can find the right toilet with a flushing situation that lives up to stereotype, you better believe that I will post that video, STAT.

But yay for there being so many public toilets scattered throughout the city! 

Seahorses & Emperor Penguins

The Melbourne Aquarium claims to have the largest Seahorse Population in the world. We were both really excited to find out that the aquarium offers tours behind the scenes of the Seahorse Nursery. It was incredible to see baby seahorses up close. They have both Southern Pot-Belly Seahorses and Yellow Seahorses. There was one adorable yellow seahorse youngin who was trying to balance with his belly on a ring that they hang in the tank for the seahorses to grasp on, and the poor thing just completely toppled over. There are rings of all various sizes. Depending on the age of the seahorse, they need different thicknesses of objects to wrap their tail around while they're growing. They are such fragile fish, and sadly don't have a long life expectancy. We got to feed them which was unexpectedly exciting, the food was a super food that they created for them that's basically a type of plankton. Seahorses don't have a digestive gut, so in order for them to get energy, they constantly have to eat. 

The Aquarium also houses a decent sized group of Emperor Penguins. They had a baby born on 1/23 (23/1), and we were able to see the baby poke its head out from underneath its daddy's fluff. The father still has not handed the baby off to the mother. The animal handlers are waiting anxiously for THE handoff to happen. I love how penguins walk; it's amazing to me how clumsy and awkward they are on land but yet are so graceful in water.

I absolutely want to come back here at some point. It's really cool seeing the different fish, frogs and sharks that are native to Australia. We skipped over the squid and jellyfish exhibit because let's be honest, they're just super creepy.