Backpacker Student: 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.