Adventuring!

Yesterday, I had adventures! They weren't particularly exciting, but they were a lot of fun.

I spent the afternoon shopping and exploring with Olivia. We went to the CBD, to Meyer, where we both spent more money then we meant to, and had fun examining ridiculously expensive clothes. We then took a tram to Collingwood, which is a suburb northeast of Melbourne. We accidentally took the wrong tram (my fault) and so ended up doing a lot more walking that was originally intended. Collingwood is a really cool part of the city. Its a bit like Uptown, only not so many chains, and a bit like Linden Hills, but much bigger. Gertrude Street is the main street in Collingwood, and the intersection of Gertrude and Smith is where the main part of the shops and cafes are. We walked by a bunch of independent clothing labels, and indie/artsy cafes which I would love to stop at. I bought a camera bag at Crumpler, which is the Aussie version of Timbuk2, except much cheaper. We stopped at a shop that sold African imports, and chatted with the owner for probably a half hour. They had some way cool metal statues - I'm trying to figure out how to get one home for you, mom! We also stopped at a funny park where they had statues of Russian stacking dolls.

Russian stacking dolls in the park.

We then turned down a side street and walked to the Cathedral of St Patrick, which, despite its imposing size, I had never seen before. The cathedral, from a block away. It covers a city block, more or less.

It was starting to rain, so I slipped inside to check it out. It was super quiet, but I've been spoiled by the cathedrals I've seen all over the rest of the world, and while the outer architecture was pretty cool, the inside was nothing new. I lit a prayer candle, and then had to explain my non-protestant love of ritual and the Virgin to Olivia. Oh well. It was a nice place to stop - and I haven't been inside a church since I left the states.

This was over a doorway on the street we took to get to the Cathedral. The buildings were all at least 100 years old on this block, which is pretty old for Melbourne.

On our way back to RMIT, Olivia and I cut through the CBD, and discovered all the expensive shops. We were clearly out of place. There is something about walking by Prada, Ralph Lauren, Hermes, and other big names in fashion while wearing converse that just feels wrong. And everyone else in the area was super dressed up, either in buisness-wear, or just plain fancy-wear. I'd never actually seen any big name stores before - they're way imposing. And they have security. I did like walking by and window shopping, though I'm still much more partial to the more independent lablels we found in Collingwood.

Last night, I went to see an Australian film with Amanda called Mary and Max. Its claymation, and fun, but really bizarre. I liked it. The basic premise is that theres a little girl named Mary who lives in Australia and has a pen pal named Max who lives in New York. Max is 44, obese, and has a mental disability. Mary is 8, has a crap home-life, and has no friends. It was a sweet movie, in a weird way. One of my favorite parts was Max describing a frisbee: its like a boomerang, but it doesn't come back.

There are a couple of other Australian films out right now that I'd like to see, but one of them is (I hear) a complete tear-jerker. I guess thats to be expected with a title like "Samson and Delilah". I am hoping to go see "My Year without Sex" sometime in the next few weeks. Its supposed to be really good.

So far, I'm enjoying my SWAT-vac. My adventures have been fun, and I've added a few places to the list. I've made a schdule for my days, and I spend the morning working, and either the afternoon or evening on an adventure. If I'm not adventuring, I do some more study. Its working pretty well.