Backpacker Student: May 2015

Monday 25 May 2015

Aussie-rules and wine-tasting

Following my recent weariness towards uni, week 11 went surprisingly well; I felt interested and engaged and prepared to work hard- hooray! Maybe this was in part due to the realisation that I was in my second-to-last classes for all my units, and that in fact I enjoy what I study so I might as well make the most of the last few classes. Chris and I have also been going to the gym a lot this week; as a result towards the end of the week I started crashing as soon as I got home, too worn out to study properly in the evenings. Hopefully my fitness will improve a little as a result of all my hard work on the cycling machine and my energy levels will pick up too.

This week I had my first mentoring session at a school on Mornington Peninsula, a good hour from uni. I have volunteered to participate in a mentor programme for AIME (Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience), a not-for-profit organisation that matches university student mentors with Indigenous high-school students in an attempt to curb the trend of higher drop-out rates for Indigenous students than their non-Indigenous peers. AIME encourages Indigenous students to finish high school and to pursue whatever it is they want to do afterwards, whether going into higher education, vocational training or into work, but always with a focus on aiming high and building self-confidence. I was participating in a tutor squad, in which a handful of mentors visit a school for an hour's session to give some support to a dozen or so kids, helping out with homework and maybe throwing in the odd game or two. Our group was a mixture of ages and abilities; some of the students were happy to sit and get on with their work while others needed a bit of encouragement. I sat with two kids who belonged in the latter category and asked them what they were going to work on. My worst fears were realised when they said 'Maths'. 'Okay, what year are you guys in?', I asked. They told me they were in year 7 and I relaxed a bit- I should be able to handle this! I was a bit taken aback therefore when I read their questions and had no idea what categorical, discrete and continuous data was. However, the textbook explained it at the front and although the kids realised I had no clue and probably found it pretty funny, I demonstrated that if I could work out how to answer the questions then they could too. It took quite some time, some blank faces and several sketches on a piece of scrap paper but eventually they got the hang of the three types of data and we got through the first couple of questions in their textbook. Not a huge amount in an hour but I was really pleased that they learnt something in that time and I wondered if, and how, they would normally get their maths homework done.

The rest of the week went by without much out of the ordinary happening. This weekend me and Chris had a nice time having a couple of new experiences. I'd managed to get us some free AFL (Aussie rules football) tickets to see St. Kilda play West Coast Eagles; St. Kilda are currently somewhere at the bottom of the league and have begun offering free tickets to Monash students in a bid to build up their fan base and fill some of the empty seats at small daytime matches such as this one. Needless to say, the atmosphere was hardly electric; we were mostly surrounded by families, with kids kicking the back of our seats and the unmistakable smell of tuna sandwiches wafting overhead. But I'd been keen to have a quintessential Melbourne experience (AFL is the main religion here), even if it meant doing it on the cheap and routing for the city's crappiest team. Incidentally, they lost. It took a little while to get my head around what was going on; there are 18 players per side on a large oval pitch. With three to four umpires, a couple of physios and water-carriers coming on and off the pitch, there were a lot of people. Four goal posts stand at either end; a goal between the middle two scores 6 points, and between the outer two, 3 points (or 2, I dunno to be honest). The game has elements of rugby, football and basketball; the ball can be kicked or bumped with a fist to pass, it must touch the ground every 15 metres or so, and if a player catches the ball before it bounces they win a free kick. There are four quarters of half an hour and it is a pretty fast-paced game with a lot of goals. By the last quarter we were all sat looking at our phones and talking about what we're up to next weekend.

The game finally finished and Chris and I took a tram to St. Kilda, which seemed an appropriate way to finish our day. We headed to Monarch Cakes, our favourite cake shop on account of their wonderful cherry crumble slices- mmmmmm- and enjoyed our favourite treat. Today we took off out of the city and went to the Yarra Valley wine region with our housemates to see the hilly autumnal scenery and more importantly, drink wine for free. We visited several wineries and were treated very nicely, even when it was obvious we didn't know anything about wine and weren't going to spend any money. In fact, we did end up spending more money than we had accounted for- must have been all those free tasters going to our heads! We had lunch in pretty Healesville in a lovely cafe called Mocha & Lime, where a great three-piece band played folk songs and a wall was lined with books on sale. I had a ploughman's lunch as I am so English and all the countryside was making me feel very pastoral. Next we went on to Innocent Bystander, a very trendy winery and bakery, and left with a lovely bottle of Moscato and a sourdough loaf, plus a six-pack of ales from the brilliant White Rabbit brewery next door. At the end of the day we went to the Yarra Valley Dairy to stock up on cheese, and left feeling very satisfied. We had a relaxing Sunday evening, and I am gearing myself up for the last week of the semester, an upcoming exam and a couple more days with Sally, who is coming back to Melbourne tomorrow.

Not quite the MCG, but the Etihad Stadium will do

With Carlos and Fernanda in the Yarra Valley

'You can't buy happiness, but you can buy beer and that's pretty much the same thing'- We agree with you, White Rabbit Brewery

Lovely colours at one of the vineyards

A delicious lunch at Mocha & Lime in Healesville

Back home, happy with our loot

Sunday 17 May 2015

Sally comes to visit

Tomorrow I'll be into my final two weeks of uni at Monash, and frankly I can't wait to have it all over with and to begin something new. My exchange has begun to feel dangerously close to hard work and I want it to feel like a holiday again. I've had chances to do some nice things in between preparing assignments and doing readings for my classes; one weekend we took a river cruise from the city to Williamstown, which was far colder and greyer than when I last visited back in March! Another weekend, we took a brief trip around Philip Island where we visited a koala sanctuary. This week has certainly been the most fun as my wonderful friend Sally from back home came to visit me. She arrived early last Sunday and I was full of excited energy as Chris drove us to the airport, despite the fact it was early in the morning. Our first day together was spent having brunch and wandering along the Yarra and through the city and getting used to seeing such a familiar face in a completely new setting.

On Monday we had a very interesting day. I skipped my lectures (well, they're semi-optional here anyway!) and went with Sally to see the beach huts at Brighton, a posh bayside suburb with colourfully painted huts along the beach that always feature in Melbourne photography. Next we headed into the city and to the state library, where we met Bas, a family friend of Sally's. Bas used to teach Sally's dad at secondary school in Grimsby, and he happens to be the son of Australia's most well-known historian, the late Manning Clark. As a history student I was interested to meet him. After introductions over coffee at the library's cafe, Bas took us around the beautiful library building and then on to Melbourne University in the stylish northern suburbs on a cultural tour that left me with serious university envy. He showed us the spot where his parents first met, and told us about being in the student theatre with Germaine Greer, along with sharing some pretty rude stories about the professors whose plaques lined the pavement on campus. Later he took us to an impressively cool grungy bar in Fitzroy, where his son's band Graveyard Train often plays. Sally and I exchanged looks of surprise at what an interesting bloke he is. At the end of the day, as the sky turned dark and Sally and I ran down to the last of our energy (Bas was still sprightly), we walked down Lygon Street where hipsters dined on the pavements outside gourmet pasta restaurants and went into Readings, a bookshop highly recommended by Bas. When we left Bas had a paper bag under his arm, and as we said goodbye and boarded our tram he passed it to us, telling us there were two things in there and that we could fight over them. Inside was his father's book, A Short History of Australia, and a copy of his son's record. We left feeling greatly touched, and intrigued about the fascinating character we'd spent the day with.

The week flew by. On Tuesday we joined a trip to some hot springs on Mornington Peninsula, a good hours' drive but worth it to spend an evening under the stars in steaming hot pools, which we appreciated even more for the cold night air that had us dancing and hopping to get to the next pool. It was so cold, in fact, that we were caught under a brief spurt of hailstones as we dashed to the bus afterwards, and by the time we got home we were well and truly worn out. I said goodbye to Sally for a few days while I worked on a tedious essay for a tedious class, but rejoined her for a night out in the city on Friday and a day spent recovering with a bit of hair of the dog at a chilled-out rooftop bar on Saturday, the first good weather of the week and the only time Sally saw the sun in Melbourne. It was sad to say goodbye to her as I saw her off at Southern Cross station that afternoon, but nice to think of the wonderful time I'm sure she'll have in Sydney and Cairns before I see her again for a few days at the tail end of her trip.

The good weather lasted into today so Chris and I went out to make the most of it. We discovered the one advantage of living in a dead-end suburb in the middle of nowhere; that it's really quick to get into the outdoors, with the Dandenong Ranges a sweet twenty minute drive away. We enjoyed a walk through the forest under the sunshine, before heading to a village called Emerald which appealed to me mostly because of the name, where we looked around their monthly craft and deli market and finished the day by the lake, where families rode peddlos and the historic Puffing Billy steam train whooped its way past.

The weekends never last long enough, and the weeks fly by pretty quickly too. Both Chris and I look forward to moving out of our poky apartment and chasing the sun a bit. I still love Melbourne; the city manages to be just as beautiful on a rainy day as when the sun shines, but I still have so much to see. In my literature class about travel and travel writing we have been studying the American road narrative over the past few weeks, which has included reading Kerouac's On the Road and watching classics such as Thelma & Louise and Easy Rider. As these influences have come together and I have become increasingly restless with the shortening days and the repetitiveness of studying I am keen to get back on the road again myself.