Footy – Geelong v. Collingwood

Melbourne is a centre of sport in Australia, with arenas next to arenas, next to other arenas (and this is no exaggeration – I have pictures to prove it). Strangely, they all seem to keep busy enough, and in more recent years, a new arena was built to help manage the load (the Telstra Dome, which is right next to where I live).

In fact, Melbourne is so sports-centric that they created their own game to provide more opportunities for people to play: Aussie Rules Football, or Footy for its close friends. The game has started to catch on around the rest of the country, but remains a predominantly Melbournian sport. And the people’s commitment to it is similar to the commitment to local soccer teams in the UK.

My first experience with Footy happened 14 July 2007. We headed out just southeast of the CBD for a visit to the Melbourne Cricket Grounds (MCG), a stadium that holds about 100,000 people – the largest arena in Melbourne, as far as I know.



In honor of my friend Luke, I am a committed Geelong Wildcats fan, which is just as well, since they sit that the top of the ladder this year. This game pitted them against the Collingwood Magpies. People either love or hate Collingwood. I chose to hate them. It makes conversations more interesting. They are kind of like the Yankees – really good, but better funded than other teams, so it’s hard to get behind them. Another comparison would be to Manchester United in UK soccer.





I imagine Aussies would get pretty tired of the stop-and-go in American football. It’s interesting to see the distinctions. In Footy, you have to have speed and stamina, a little size doesn’t hurt, and an ability to both punch and punt the ball with high accuracy. Comparing the two, I suggest that American football has a lot more specialization of talent, where Footy requires each individual to be more well rounded.

On a side note, each team has its own song, each of which is pretty ridiculous. Collingwood’s was something about making their magpie proud, which I think would be a tough rally cry. But, apparently, these themes have survived the test of time. The music is something out of a 1940’s war support movie. I wish I could explain the music itself better, but I won’t do it justice. Add to that the lyrics. Here’s Geelong’s (more or less):

“We are Geelong, the best team of them all. We are Geelong, we’re always on the ball. We play the game the way it should be played, at home or far away.”

During the game, Collingwood pulled ahead to an early lead, and I was concerned that I would be embarrassed by a blow-out. But Footy is a high-scoring game (and a long game, with four 20 minute quarters), so there was plenty of opportunity for a turnaround. By the end of the first quarter, Geelong had recovered from the early setbacks and pulled into a lead they would hold until the end of the game, much to the chagrin of the obnoxious guy behind me who thought that his arm chair coaching was going to turn the tide for Collingwood or change the referees’ perspective. But I guess that’s any sport.



So, Luke, I’ll mark that one off my list. You were right – it is one of the top things you have to do if you come to Melbourne. And I’ll probably do it again, wearing my new Geelong beanie.

Food for Thought #2 - Slice

Slice

Somewhere between a no-rise cake and a brownie lies the slice. It’s not really a specific item, but a category of desserts. I had a chocolate one, but they come in a variety of flavors, sometimes with fruit embedded in them, and I hear they are best from mom-and-pop shops.

About a five-inch by two-inch rectangle that is a quarter to half an inch thick, they resemble the size of two standard brownies. They tend to be a little more moist than a brownie, but are still densely packed. Most of the ones I saw had a top layer, like a frosting but a little more thick.

I definitely enjoyed it, and will have to go back to try the varieties.

The Drought

The last few years have not been kind to the island continent. While surrounded by vast oceans of salt water, freshwater is at a premium here. I didn’t realize it until I had a conversation with some people I work with. I had noticed that there appeared to be a huge focus on conservation in general here, but I didn’t know the drive behind it.

Prolonged droughts have plagued the country, and even with a couple weeks of rain, water tables are still not where they need to be. In the city, no one is allowed to wash their cars or water outdoor plants. In rural areas, no one is allowed to water anything outdoors.

But Aussies are not to be outdone by the elements. They may not have tamed the Outback, but they know how to survive there, and how to keep it from encroaching on their home.

Apparently, Australians have been putting their engineering capabilities to great use for all kinds of practical problems. While watching a recent television show on Ten, one of the major TV stations in Melbourne, I learned about some of the amazing inventions that have come out of Australia – many of which I would never have guessed. You can thank Aussies for latex gloves and the Ultrasound, to name a couple. Surprised? I was.

They have also focused this attention on the drought. I was reading an informational pamphlet that indicated that Aussies have been responsible for the largest consumption of freshwater per capita in the world. Now, they’re trying to change that. Two shining examples of their ingenuity in action are both in the bathroom.

First, Aussies invented the two-flush toilet. Every toilet here has two buttons. One performs what I’ll call a “half flush” – where it uses far less water than a normal flush. The other is the standard flush.

Recently, I found the other example, but it’s gender specific to men (sorry ladies, and forgive any crudeness that follows). I was in a government building recently, and learned about something called a “Desert Cube.” It’s a 1½ cubic inch green cube that is lightly fragrant. The cube is comprised of some bacteria and enzymes that are relatively hygienic. You’ll find them in men’s bathrooms in the urinals. The urinals have been changed so that they no longer flush; instead, the Desert Cubes actually clean them up. Based on this, they say that they have reduced the water usage in those bathrooms by up to 98% in a year.

I continue to encounter these different examples of Aussies learning to cope with or overcome adversity through determination and a little innovation. America may be the “Land of Opportunity,” but Australia is the “Land of Ingenuity.”

Food for Thought #1 - Chicken Parma

Chicken Parma

On my first day of work, our work “buddies” took us out for lunch at a local pub, and we were introduced to the Chicken Parma (short for chicken parmesan). Now, for those of you who don’t eat American Italian food, chicken parmesan is a breaded boneless chicken breast covered in marinara sauce with mozzarella cheese melted over the top, all nestled in a pile of spaghetti noodles (or some other pasta).

In Australia, it’s a little different. Still the breaded chicken, marinara and mozzarella. But there’s a little piece of ham to protect the chicken from the sauce. And it’s not pasta on the bottom, but french fries. Sounds strange to the uninitiated palate, I know. But it’s a staple here. A lot of restaurants serve it – so many that people are surprised when it isn’t on the menu. And, I have to admit, it was pretty good, and I would eat it again.

Ballarat

Here’s a little history lesson. Melbourne was founded in the 1830s. In the early 1850s, little nuggets of gold brought a boom to the area, quadrupling the population of Melbourne in a short period of time. Ballarat was one of the predominant mining towns responsible for that boom and influx of population. Melbourne actually became the largest city in Australia, housed Parliament temporarily, and was the center of arts and commerce for Australia, until the gold rush fizzled out. In the early 1900s, Sydney surpassed Melbourne as the largest city, and in the 1910s or 1920s, the seat of the Australian government moved to the planned capital of Canberra. More recently, Sydney also surpassed Melbourne as the financial capital of the country. But Melbourne has retained pre-eminence in culture and arts, sport, and multiculturalism. Today, of the approximately 21 million people who live in Australia, about 4.1 million live in Sydney and its suburbs, and about 3.8 million live in Melbourne and its suburbs. End of lesson.

Ballarat still exists, a little town about a two-hour drive from Melbourne’s CBD, and I had the pleasure of going, though not for pleasure, so I didn’t see the old mines. What I did get a chance to see, however, was my first taste of the land beyond the city. I learned in a documentary that Australia has a huge fence that runs from part of South Australia through part of New South Wales (the state where Sydney is located) to keep dingos (read: wild dogs introduced unnaturally by settlers) away from the herds of sheep in the southeast, including Victoria (the state where Melbourne is located). That meant I could see sheep grazing along the way. Interestingly, the trip also meant I got my first chance to see a kangaroo crossing sign, though I was not fortunate enough to see the ‘roos themselves.

The drive along the Western Highway was relatively hilly. The grass was green, but a very different green than I encountered in Ireland. It isn’t as vibrant as the greens there, but was a little more yellow. That may have been because there wasn’t as much rain as usual, but I heard there were two weeks of nearly nonstop rain before I came.



The clouds move quickly around the state, and on our trip, they seemed to hang low in the sky. Larger hills loomed in the background. As we approached some hills closer to the city, you could see sheep milling about, up and down the hills.

The setup of the population centers reminds me of a thought I had when passing through Canada. In the US, drive along a highway, and you will often see sparse population all along the highways (keep in mind that I travel on US highways more in the east than the west). In Canada, it’s more the roads are the only connection between hubs of population. You don’t see many little towns along the way. The drive I had in Victoria was about the same way.

Now, I’m pointing out the differences, but the conversation I had with an Aussie I work with was a little more revealing. What is strange about being here is how similar things are to home. It’s almost like going to another major city I just hadn’t been to before. What is weird is what is not weird. And it’s funny, because I keep trying to be culturally sensitive, and use words I am picking up that they use. But, as one person said, “Just talk normal and we’ll understand it. We all watch American movies here.”

Melbourne Apartment Virtual Tour

For those of you who are interested in seeing where I am staying, here's a virtual tour of my apartment.

A River Runs Through It – The Skyline and the Yarra Southbank

The city sits at the north end of Port Phillip Bay, which is huge, so when I look out from buildings and see it, I can’t distinguish that it isn’t the ocean per se. They say it takes about an hour and a half drive to get from Melbourne, at the north end, to the southern tips of the bay. Not a Great Lake, but maybe bigger than a Lake St. Clair (North of Detroit, between Lake Erie and Lake Huron).

The City sits along the Yarra River, which flows out into the bay. Formerly a polluted industrial river that smelled so bad the mayor of Melbourne threatened to move out of his house nearby, it has been part of a huge cleanup project, not quite complete. It winds around the city and beyond, so it’s hard to say that things are north, south, east or west of the river in certain areas, but generally, the downtown (known as the central business district, or CBD), is north and a little west of the river. The Docklands, where I live, is at the southwest corner of the CBD, so I can walk to the Yarra in a couple minutes, and the Waterfront is a stone’s throw away.

From the Docklands, the River runs east-northeast, creating the southern border of the CBD (which is pretty much a rectangle, longer east and west than north and south). More recently, the skyline has advanced across the river, so it almost looks like two fortresses facing each other in battle, Lord of the Rings style, with huge central towers yielding to lower outposts, sloping into the lowest levels right before the River. Everything here is a competition, I think. There are more stadiums than I know what to do with. I’ll cover that in the future.



Because Melbourne is in constant competition with Sydney (though Sydney would never know it), architects and developers are always trying to outdo the Opera House, so all of the architecture is eclectic and interesting. Add to that the more historical, Victorian architecture, and you have a blend of more classical and modern architecture. And somehow, it works.

I’m not sure what it is, but just on the north side of the river, in the CBD, there is this old, ruddy Victorian building that runs about three blocks uninterrupted, and is about three to five stories high, with an old clock tower. Behind it sits taller, modern buildings, and an old Catholic church’s steeples. From the Southbank, we could see this, across the river, with bridges that are also some starved artist’s legacy, while trams darted back and forth across from the CBD through the Southbank, to the great beyond.



Usually, when I take a picture, I try to make it look as good as possible, which can sometimes lead to an impression that a place or thing is better than it is in reality (okay, I’m a novice, so this doesn’t always work). With Melbourne, I had trouble capturing some of the views we saw. We took a walk along the Southbank of the Yarra (it’s a shopping strip, similar to the idea behind Riverwalk Crossing, but much more integrated with the city, and not unusual in its architecture compared to the city). Think Chicago, where the river runs through the city, but with more parks, and the competing skylines. Strips of trails with palm trees and whatever maple/oak/willow equivalents they have here (I’m not a botanist), and through them you can see the river and the skyline. It was compelling.

Further south are the botanical gardens and other walks. I could only see them from afar, because we had to turn back around to head back to Federation Square, the tourist center of the city, and back to the Docklands for dinner.

Poll #1 Results - 15 Hours on a Plane

Here’s a recap of last week’s poll and responses:

Question: What should I do for the 15 hour flight from Los Angeles to Melbourne?

A. (1 vote) Take some sleeping pills
B. (2 votes) Watch the in-flight movies
C. (6 votes*) Strike up conversations with as many people as possible
D. (5 votes) Jog up and down the aisles wearing a workout suit

The sixth vote didn't come in until after I arrived in Australia, so it doesn't count.

Jogging and convos won out.

Actually, 15 hours is longer than you think it is. I pretty much had time to do all of the above, in some manner, if you include the Nashville to LA flight (which isn’t paltry, at four hours on its own).

I didn’t exactly take sleeping pills, but I did get between three and four hours of sleep; in the future, however, I'll take one commenter's advice and let the neon Lunesta butterfly pay me a visit.



Qantas has an entertainment system similar to a beta-version of TiVo. I could select movies, TV, or other things to watch, and rewind/fast forward, etc. whenever I wanted. So I found time for a couple TV shows, some music, and a documentary on Australia.

For conversations, I'll just summarize. I talked to a group of youth going from Tennessee to the Dream Center in LA, a family heading to Seattle for an Alaskan cruise, a girl headed to Australia for a study-abroad program, and a Melbournian woman who didn’t speak any English. Okay, I didn’t talk to her – we invented some crude sign language to order meals, fill out customs forms, and signal when I needed to go to the bathroom.

And, okay, I didn’t wear a workout suit. Nor did I really jog. But after an admonishment from my mother (who is a nurse) and a moving video on the plane about deep vein thrombosis (DVT – sounds bad, eh?), I decided that getting up and moving around the aisles was in my best interest. So I found about four or five opportunities to walk the aisles. Not exactly jogging, but it definitely was the highest priority.



So, there you have it. Poll #1 complete.

Ya Ta! (I did it!)

The day I left, I had a great reminder of American culture – a Southern breakfast. My grandmother got up early (she always does) and stopped in at the store for some fresh salt pork. She made salt pork, biscuits (which we had with butter and honey), and grits with red eye gravy. Then, just before the first leg of my trip (Nashville to Los Angeles), we had fried chicken, potato salad, green beans, and fresh fruit, with sun tea to wash it all down.



In Los Angeles, I transferred over to the Intenational terminal, where I had dinner from a Mexican restaurant. I figured Mexican wouldn’t be as common in Australia, so I rounded out my last “American” meals with some tacos. The eating areas were pretty full, so I shared a table with a girl from the UK, who was passing through on a trip from the UK to New York for a week, Los Angeles for a couple days, Fiji for a week or so, New Zealand for a month, and Australia for six months. She knows how to travel! It was great to swap stories, and I might get some benefit from her New Zealand experiences later on when I try to go there.



The flight from LA to Melbourne was pretty much a straight shot. And once we arrived, it wasn’t too long before I made my way through immigration, picked up my bags, got them sniffed out by a security beagle, took my things to customs, declared my Fig Newtons, and found my driver.

They know how to treat people here. EY had arranged for a driver to pick me up (not a taxicab, mind you). I happened to ride with the owner of the business, who drove me in a BMW down to the CBD (central business district; equivalent to “downtown” for most Americans). Before dropping me off, he gave me some advice on sports teams, things to do, and took a detour around the CBD to show me some of the sites.

Upon dropping me off, I met up with a couple from France, guys from New York and Seattle, and my roommate from Boston (not all at the same time). My roommate took me on a tour of a few areas, went for pancakes with ice cream on top, and showed me to the Queen Victoria Market, which will likely be a blog of its own sometime. Later that evening, we went down to the waterfront, which I can see from my apartment, checked out the area, and met up with a couple other Bostonian transplants. I was pretty tired when we got back (I almost fell asleep standing up), so I turned in about 10 pm and slept like a baby until about 6:30 am Sunday morning (about 3:30 pm Saturday, Central time, I think).

Biggest take-aways so far:

1. Everything is more expensive here!
The purchasing power of the dollar itself is so much less. I’m not sure if it’s taxes or transport, or some combination, that causes the disparity, but it’s hard to convert Australian to US, then figure out why things still cost so much more! You may say that it’s because I’m used to Tulsa, but even the Bostonians and New Yorker agreed. And that’s saying something.

2. Even speaking the same language, there are still some interesting differences.
Australian English is a lot more laid back. It’s not an Exit (okay, sometimes it is), it’s the “Way Out.” The back of a bottle of oil didn’t say it was still usable, it’s “fine for use.” Just talking with people, of varying ages, the way they use the language just seems more casual. Little things like that will make this more interesting.

Bon Voyage

“All my bags are packed, I’m ready to go.”


The countdown is on. In less than 12 hours I will board the plane. The timing couldn’t really be better. I just got to celebrate my grandmother’s 94th birthday with my family. My dad will take my brother and I to the airport to part ways for near simultaneous departures for different locations. It’s a four-hour flight to Los Angeles, then a three-hour layover. After time changes, I leave Los Angeles just before midnight.

The Aussies are serious about letting people in the country. They take a day of yours before you arrive, and don’t give it back until you leave. I guess that keeps crime and illegal immigration down. Most apartments have you put down a little money; it’s a little more serious when the country you’re going to can take time away. I’ll definitely have to be good.

I love that it’s a little sad to leave. Maybe that sounds strange, but I think when it’s sad, that means you are leaving something you really value, something that’s really good. Bittersweet is the best feeling to have when you leave. That may be a little hokey for a three-month trip, but it’s a general observation I’ve had about various changes in my life, and it seems fitting today.

Preparations

Since I left Tulsa, I've been spending some time with family before getting on the plane, which has given me a few minutes to do some research on the "Land Down Under." I figured I'd share a few of those things.

1. Australia uses plastic money.
Yeah, I thought that was strange too. They have the regular coins like Canada and Europe, with dollar and two-dollar coins with no bills. That's it's own problem, since I hate having change jingle in my pockets. But the non-coin money (I can't say "paper money") is made of plastic. Used to be paper, I hear, but they wanted money that would last. I guess I won't have to worry about leaving it in my pockets when I wash my clothes.

2. Melbourne has special traffic laws.
My US license will allow me to drive in Australia, and interestingly, as long as you have an official translation of your license from a non-English-speaking nation, you can often use that license as well. That should make things interesting, since Australians drive on the left side of the road. Good thing Melbourne is a big mass transit city, with trams and buses.



While Australia has some common road rules, Melbourne is set apart from the rest of the nation for having some specific, unusual rules. The biggest is called the "hook-turn." To understand this, first you have to remember that you drive on the left side of the road in Australia. In some areas, to keep from blocking tram routes, you have to get in the leftmost lane to turn right. So, for us Americans, that would be like getting in the rightmost lane to turn left (puts it in better perspective, eh?). It'll be interesting to see how that works; but I guess I'm used to weird traffic laws with Michigan Lefts (and yes, that's a technical term - you can look them up yourself). The rest of you non-Michigan folk are missing out on the best thing since the turnabout (actually, it's better than the turnabout).

3. No shots.
Australia and New Zealand don't require any special vaccines, etc. Okay, maybe that sounds stupid, but it's nice to be travelling to another country and not have to be told by a middle-aged female nurse to bend over while she sticks a needle in your bum that resemebles a turkey baster, and with a name like immunoglobulin, you neve knew what was in it. To any Australians reading, that's not meant to be a derogatory observation - I assumed that I would need some kind of shot anywhere in the world. I almost thought I would need one to go to Texas.

4. The most deadly __________ lives in Australia.
Everyone I have talked with mentions some new animal native to Australia that is the most deadly of its type. Most deadly spider, most deadly snake -- you fill in the blank. Even a kangaroo can kill you. Why don't I need any shots?

5. A power adapter is not enough.
So I went to Radio Shack to get an adapter for my electronics to the Australian plug (why we can't standardize that across the world, I'll never know -- we invented electricity, so everyone should just use our outlets). The salesperson led me over to a set of adapters, and then started talking with me about what I'd want to do with it. When I explained I was going to plug my US stuff in, he said I didn't need an adapter, I needed a converter. And all this time, I thought those words were synonyms. Australia uses 220 volts, vs. 110 for the US (except our major appliances). It's like everything has to be more deadly, so add the most deadly electricity lives in Australia to #4 above. Add to that, a converter is only good up to a certain number of watts, and most won't support a US laptop, which means it will cost extra to get one that will let me use my computer from there - things I never thought about when I packed up all kinds of electronic equipemnt (camera, computer, iPod, etc.).

6. Everything is backward
In addition to driving on the other side of the road, seasons are reversed from the US, so I'm headed into winter. Water in the toilet flushes down in the opposite direction. To you auditors out there, busy season is during July and August, not January and February. The Pacific Ocean is to the east (okay, now I'm stretching).

7. English is more like French.
In the US, with lots of exceptions, words sound like how they are spelled. That allowed this whole movement called "phonics" that I learned as a child. So I figured phonics works for all English. I thought wrong. Upon mentioning the city of Cairns phonetically to a friend from Melbourne, I was instantly corrected. "It's good we're getting to this now," he said. So, it's pronounced "Cans" - like our favorite French city. And that's not the only word whose pronunciation is divorced from its spelling (like most French). Melbourne isn't "Mel-born" like I thought. It's "Melben" (and you have to say it real quick) - check out the pronunciation in wikipedia. I say all that to give Aussies a hard time, but I have to confess I wouldn't mind coming back with a bit of an accent.

Okay, that's enough for now. I head out Thursday evening, so I'm posting a poll for you to help me figure out what to do on the 15 hour plane ride from Los Angeles to Melbourne. Yeah, 15.