Melbourne: Queen Victoria Market, Melbourne Museum

On our next day in Melbourne, we went to the Queen Victoria Market, which is very hyped in advertisements, and bought some fresh fruit, bread, cheese, and honey. It was surprising how many of the non-food vendors were on their cell phones the whole time, not even trying to make a sale. I think salespeople in other parts of the world would be very disappointed in their sales skills! I saw a couple things that tempted me, but no one was there to push me to buy them.

The Melbourne Museum turned out to be a great experience. It was the starting location for the touring Jurassic World exhibit, so we sprung for that and the IMAX 3-D dinosaur movie, although it turned out we had seen it already (but not in IMAX). The exhibit was short-lived but cool, with music from the movie and several animatronic dinosaurs, including a T-Rex and Indominus-Rex! I think it’s fairly clear many of us would go to one of these parks if it existed, despite safety issues.

Learned the origins of the names Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous

T-Rex!!! It moved pretty far, a couple car lengths from L to R.

Didn't know that Stegosaurus could blush their plates, or that their tail had its own 'brain'.

Hard to see, but on the left is Indominus Rex & on the right is the Stegosaurus.

Afterward, we checked out the dinosaur area in the main part of the museum as well as the human body and mind floor. The body exhibit had real preserved human organs, and the mind section had all sorts of interesting historical facts about how we study the mind. I wish we would have had more time and realized that’s it’s a good sign for an exhibit if it makes you want to stay longer. When I walked into the Jurassic World exhibit, I got that feeling of excitement regarding learning about science and was thinking how we really need to foster that kind of excitement and discovery in our students. Learning should be fun and interesting, especially in the Humanities! We don’t have formulas and stuff that has to be memorized before we get to the good stuff. All/most of our stuff should be good stuff!

There have been several significant fossil sites around Melbourne.

 

Skeleton images of a giant and a very tiny person.

The X-ray section was disturbing. It was an accidental find, but of course they didn't know how bad they were until later. It still bothers me that New Zealand forced me to have a chest x-ray to rule out tuberculosis before coming here.

 

For dinner we went to an Irish pub restaurant in Southbank where our server had an Irish accent, then for dessert went to the Lindt chocolate café. 

fish and chips; chicken parmigiana

brownie sundae

A lot of people here call it Macca's, but this was the first time we saw a sign with that name!

Melbourne showing its solidarity after the Orlando attacks. I appreciated this as an American abroad.

beautiful view of the city waterfront

Pavlova Paradise and Chinese Lantern Festival

I've been having several spurts of entrepreneurial activity and thinking and trying to pass it along to others whom it might help, and it really is infectious. I don't think the students who hole up in their rooms or in the library and don't interact much with anyone else quite understand that they are missing out on all kinds of valuable learning experiences. To me, going to university is about so much more than studying and writing papers and passing tests: it is one of the only times you will be in an environment packed with learning opportunities (visiting professors and businesspeople, like-minded and un-like-minded peers) where you have the time and energy to do deep thinking and wrestle out ideas with others, to have people disagree with you and force you to defend yourself or change to adapt to new information. Plodding along is certainly one way of going to college, but such a poor experience and value for your money compared to really taking advantage of so many resources in one place.

On that note, several of us attended a public lecture by Austin Mitchell, who is famous for writing The Half Gallon Quarter Acre Pavlova Paradise in 1972, which is a satirical look at New Zealand culture, and then a sequel called Pavlova Paradise Revisited in 2002. It was so heartening to see the lecture theater packed out. I arrived late because of getting off work late and had to sit in the sound booth room at the back crushed with a bunch of other latecomers. Mitchell is British but spent some time in New Zealand as a lecturer in history and sociology. He had a great character and captivated the audience. After discussing some of the disturbing trends since the 1980s deregulation and privatization, he ended by saying that New Zealand should use its small size to its advantage, not to be anti-intellectual but to push for using things like television and documentaries to educate its populace and make positive change. He inspired me to want to read his books, and it was heartening to hear that New Zealand used to be better even if it has declined since the mid 20th century. He challenged academics to get out in the public eye and not just write articles that few will read, which is something I have been thinking a lot about, especially with Digital Humanities' call for open access rather than pay-walled content available only to the privileged. Afterward, there was a hang-out where they gave everyone free pavlova (like an airier angel food cake) and we continued the intellectual discussion with our friends. To me, that evening was the stuff universities should be made of and encouraging. 

At the university's clubs day, I met several American students here on exchange, and it was fun talking about U.S. politics (more commiserating) and explaining some things about New Zealand. I like the immediate sense of camaraderie I can establish with most other American students here. You already have something in common and can launch into almost any topic without hesitation. It makes me feel old hat since I've been here for over a year. I also met a Canadian recently and we got along immediately.

We gave up on trying to mow the lawn ourselves and paid a lawn-mowing guy who left his business card in our mailbox to decimate it and trim around all of the overgrown edges. One of the best uses of $30 I've spent. It was done so fast and saved us a bunch of time and back-breaking work. I can't believe how much time, energy, and money people who have lawns spend to maintain them. When the water supply goes, I hope lawns will too. Xeriscaping is easier for everyone!



The Chinese Lantern Festival in Hagley Park turned out to be way more popular than the organizers anticipated. It was the most crowded event we've been to here, and a later newspaper article said it had 30,000-50,000 people (anticipated 20,000) over the two nights it ran. We met up with our Chinese friends and I suggested some business ideas they might want to look into beyond fighting for the few spots in academia, which excited them. It was hard to see the stage from the way back where we were, but we could hear the drums and the famous Chinese rock band, and then there were fireworks at the end. The lanterns in and around the trees were cool, too.

 

 

 

Garden Update

A year later, it is probably time for an update on the garden experiment in New Zealand. It was a big learning experience, especially for someone who was largely ignorant about food cultivation. Admittedly, it was enjoyable taking care of the plants and harvesting the fruits and vegetables. I never thought I would like this activity, but I am looking forward to doing it all over again in the upcoming season!

garden all planted with the raspberry seedling and existing rhubarb in the corner

the garden earlier in the season

the garden near the end of the season

We discovered that there is a large sink at one end of the garden bed, so what happened was some of the carefully placed seeds migrated from their neat rectangular patches and grew in what was supposed to be the walking path. And the weeds loved the fresh soil and fertilizer; it was a constant battle most weekends to keep them under control. I kept it organic so no weed killer.

The rhubarb that had been left by the previous occupants grew fast with mega leaves that had to be cut back often so as not to literally overshadow that whole corner. I couldn’t see much use for it in cooking besides making something sugary, so I left it alone. Plus, I am always worried about this plant because of its poisonous nature.

The silverbeet that must have been grown by previous occupants grew up all over the patch and did very well, although again, I didn’t want it and gave it away. It is a kind of bitter green leafy plant and why people pay for it in the stores, I’m not sure! Lettuce is much pleasanter.

The strawberry plants along the fence that I found from the previous occupants did pretty well for such little things, probably each giving out 5-10 berries. When berries are so expensive, it was great to have some free fruit!

Seeds We Planted:
Peas, corn, lettuce, cauliflower, zucchini, broccoli, tomatoes, watermelon, pumpkin, spinach, carrots, cucumber, and chili peppers.

Successes:

The butter lettuce grew fast and I enjoyed being able to pick leaves for fresh salads on the spot.

The spinach also grew fast and tall and we had to put up spikes to hold it. At first there were large leaves, but then they became small and harder to use.

The zucchini was probably the best producer of all, with dozens of zucchini (some really large) over the season. Too much zucchini!

The potatoes had huge growth above ground (probably because they were in the sink and receiving lots of washed-down nutrients and water). We got several small potatoes out of the ground.

The corn grew several tall stalks, taller than me, and produced a few yummy yellow corn cobs. Other cobs were only partially developed.

The tomato plants were late starters but produced dozens of little tomatoes that fell off the vine at a touch when they turned red. These plants had to be staked and attached to the trellis as well, they got so big.

The chili pepper plant chugged out a few slim green peppers that we used in salsas. It faced constant pressure from the sprawling tomato plants.

Not-so-successes:

The raspberry seedling stayed alive but never produced any fruit. Hopefully it will this next season.

The cucumber area was overrun by weeds, but since I didn’t know that they were weeds and not the cucumber plants, I let them grow huge before asking a neighbor if they were weeds. Only one cucumber managed to grow afterwards, and it was a sad, small, spiky one.

There was a plentiful number of carrots and the green tops were quite cute. However, the orange parts were so small with so many ridges where dirt clumped that it was difficult to clean them, cut them, and have any edible area left.

The peas took off but the pods were very small and suddenly the plants all started dying so I only had a chance to eat a couple. They later came back with tons of pods but they stayed small and never finished ripening.

The broccoli never produced so I don’t know what happened there. The other plants might have crowded it out too much.

The pumpkin plant grew rapidly and tried to take over the garden; it had to be cut back frequently. There were several pumpkins but they froze before we could figure out what to do with them.

The watermelon didn’t make much progress above ground before the pumpkin quickly took over its area. 

The cauliflower only started growing at the end of the season and produced a couple small heads, but they got really dirty and didn’t have much edible portion once I cut away the brown parts.

Outside the Garden:

The parsley, basil, and mint made more than we could possibly use. The jalapeño pepper plants produced a couple dozen small and medium peppers, which made for tasty Mexican dishes and super-spicy hot sauce. We are planning on growing a much larger batch this season because they are expensive to buy and usually only available canned at the grocery store.

Overall, gardening was a success as a learning experience and for giving us something to do outside away from the computers. I would listen to TV shows or TedTalks or music, and it gave me a reason to spend time in the sunshine. The best part is seeing the transformation of little sprouts into full plants with food to eat! The miracle of nature...