Picking up where I left off in Part 1 a few days ago, here’s Part 2 of 4 of my Australia trip recap.
Sun 8 Aug
I was exhausted from our very full Saturday so I just slept in at Joel & Rosey’s. So I just chatted with Rosey until it was time to go into the city to meet Ash & Tracy. We planned to go to the RMIT University “Open Day,” because someone had told us that a bunch of grad students and faculty would attend, showing off research posters. So we had high hopes that we’d get to meet quite a few grad students. That’s not at all what Open Day was, however. Instead, it was purely an undergrad recruitment day, with one representative from each department there with some basic facts about the department. So we quickly decided it wasn’t going to be useful for us, and instead decided to relax for the afternoon — I wasn’t the only one who was really tired. So we went down to a café on Southbank to have a coffee and write some postcards. I’ll tell you what, I really needed a day of pretty much doing nothing.
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About 5pm we took the tram to Christ Church in Hawthorn to see my friend Rob of The Backyard Bard with a storytelling of “Revelation.” It was a dramatic performance of “Revelation” — Rob memorized the entire book! Very impressive. Here’s a segment of the performance, from Revelation 4:
The storytelling that Simon and Rob both do for The Backyard Bard really helps to bring the Scriptures alive. It aids and enhances my mind’s eye without overwhelming it the way that a film would. Joel & Rosey were kind enough to bring my luggage to the show too, so I was able to say my farewells to them there.
After the show I rode with Rob back to his house in Brunswick, a northern suburb. Rob & Simone have a 1 1/2-year old daughter named Hannah, and again, I know them both from Monash CU; we had a Sunday night Bible study in their house, and they’ve since both been on staff with CU part-time a bit, though neither are currently. They’re both taking courses at Ridley (a seminary), and Rob’s also working full-time with The Backyard Bard.
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Rob & Simone are planning to move to the Middle East to work with a deaf ministry in about a year and a half, and they hope to move to the region permanently eventually. They have a heart for Middle Eastern culture (perhaps partly because Rob’s mum is Lebanese), and as such much of their cuisine and even the furniture in their house has a Middle Eastern feel. For instance, instead of having a couch in the living room, they have a muffraj (sp.?), which is basically some cushions or pads laid on the floor and against the wall. I’d even drag the muffraj into the study at night to sleep on it, so it’s quite portable.
Mon 9 Aug
Read Tracy’s perspective here
After discussing Australian and American politics with Rob for a good chunk of the morning, I caught the tram down to Melbourne Uni to meet up with Ash & Tracy. I was a bit late, however, because I got mixed up which way was north and south. I knew I wanted to go south toward the city, so I started walking toward the sun and wanted to catch a tram heading that way. After I waved off one tram, I realized that was actually the one I wanted when I looked down that way and saw the Melbourne skyline — south is away from the sun in the Southern Hemisphere. Doh! So yeah, in addition to cars being on the left side of the road, the sun was in the opposite direction, so I was all screwed up!
After getting some additional meetings set up, Ash went back to Mike & Bec’s house to work on some things, while Tracy & I took advantage of the third beautiful day in a row (60 and sunny, and what would turn out to be the last day of gorgeous weather in Melbourne during our stay), and walked around the Botanical Gardens some, hung out at the Shrine of Rememberance for a bit (a gigantic WWI memorial that is viewable from the CBD down Swanston Street/Saint Kilda Road), and then took some time to write up a survey we could give to grad students, to find out more accurately what their needs are as grad students in Australia, and how they view spirituality. We knocked that out while having dinner at a sidewalk Italian restaurant on Swanston St. Unfortunately I didn’t find out until we got the check that my two bottles of beer were $7 each. Yikes! Glad I didn’t have more!
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Tue 10 Aug
This was the rainiest day we had in Melbourne. Fortunately the Queen Victoria Markets are covered! Queen Vic Market is a huge mostly open-air market that has lots of just about everything: delicatessens, bakeries, butchers, fresh fish/seafood markets, produce markets, jewelers, souvenir shops, clothing shops, sports apparel shops (even selling American sports jerseys), leather shops… Yeah, pretty much anything you can think of, the Queen Vic Market probably has. I almost bought an akubra hat, but then realized I just wouldn’t wear it that much. That, and knowing that I’m soon moving to Colorado and already have too much stuff helped prevent me from buying anything there (I’d already purchased an Australia t-shirt and zipper sweatshirt a couple days earlier).
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After eating lunch at the Market that we each bought piecemeal there (an orange here, a banana there, a roll here, some meat and cheese there), Mike picked up the three of us and drove us to La Trobe University, where we met with the Christian Union staff there, led by a man named Peter. He initially seemed skeptical of a partnership with us or Student Life/Campus Crusade (lots of raised eyebrows while questioning us), but by the end of the meeting he’d warmed up to us and seemed keen on the idea of a partnership (lots of raised eyebrows while joking around). Needless to say we were quite pleased and relieved with how that meeting went! Peter and his team were already poised to launch some sort of grad student ministry, and it seems like they’d welcome our input and energy. They also provided some helpful ideas for what would make future visits from us or other American students useful.
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Following that meeting we had a Skype conversation at Mike’s house in Brunswick West with a guy named Lewis, a transplanted American who’s on staff with CU in Sydney at the University of New South Wales. Lewis is pretty much the main person in the Christian Union national organization who’s really been pushing forward grad ministry in Australia, so it was helpful to talk to him. He was really excited that we were there and interested in giving energy to grad student ministry in Australia. Back-to-back great meetings!
Another cool thing about that meeting was that Rob came by Mike’s house to pick us up for dinner, but sat in on the last part of the meeting while we finished up. Mike had previously seen Rob in a Backyard Bard production and wanted to meet him anyway, and Lewis had heard a lot about Rob and was planning to see a show later this year. And then I forget if I mentioned this, but Mike is a Penn State alum, who studied abroad for a semester in Sydney at UNSW, which is where he met Lewis. Add on all my connections with folks on staff with Christian Union as well, and we think there are too many connections to be purely happenstance! We really feel like God was paving the way on this trip, and opening quite a few doors.
For dinner Rob took Ash, Tracy & I to a Yemeni restaurant in the suburb of Ascot Vale. Coincidentally enough, the restaurant is called Yemeni Restaurant. Clever, huh? Rob & Simone visited Yemen (and other countries) last year, so Rob was showing the restaurant owner some photos on his iPad — and the owner even spotted his former house in one of Rob’s photos of a city in Yemen (Sa’na?). Anyway, eating at the Yemeni restaurant was quite a neat cultural and culinary experience. First off, the food was excellent. We sat on the floor, and the dishes were all laid out for us on the floor as well. For the various bean, meat and rice dishes, we’d scoop it all up with pieces of Yemeni bread (much like naan bread in Indian cuisine). We were all dipping and scooping the bread on the same plates, so we really were sharing a meal together, not just eating our own separate dishes while happening to be at the same restaurant or table. We all felt like it gave us a much better insight into what it means in Middle Eastern cultures (and meant, in Biblical times) to sit down and share a meal with other people. It really is more of an experience, and one in which you have to trust the people you’re eating with, because they’re dipping bread into the same bowls or dishes as you.
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Following the game we all retired to Rob & Simone’s place, where Ash, Rob & I enjoyed a riveting game of Power Grid (Rob won). And because it was Power Grid, Tracy knitted instead. All in all, it was a really fun way to spend my final evening at Rob & Simone’s.
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Stay tuned for Part 3, coming up in a few days probably, which will cover my last few days in Melbourne. Part 4 after that will be about my whirlwind visit to Western Australia!