Posted on November 2, 2010 - by Jennifer

Melbourne Diaries, Week Two: Balloons?

So, Week Two has been more eventful than Week One.¬† I guess that’s to be expected, right?¬† Today I learned what it is like to experience a massive rainstorm when your apartment is basically sheets of glass on the 17th floor of a high rise.¬† Observation: it is really f***ing loud!¬† I awoke in the early hours to pounding rain and howling winds that sounded as if they were coming from all sides.¬† When you are not being awakened by this weather phenomenon, it is actually pretty cool to watch a storm roll in from this high up.¬† But, when you are awakened and your brain is kind of working things out, there is definitely a moment when you’re thinking, “Can this rain get me?” Anyway, it didn’t.¬† Myself and the apartment are still standing‚Ķ

Another kind of sky/weather related phenomenon I’ve noticed here in Melbourne, especially being up this high, is that I see a surprising number of hot air balloons. Not really sure why?¬† Our first weekend here, we woke up on the Saturday to see several hot air balloons drifting over Albert Park Lake.¬† I guessed that maybe they were taking aerial shots for the broadcast of the AFL grand final replay here in Melbourne (sort of like the blimps over football stadiums at home). But, yesterday morning I again awoke to balloons, this time floating over towards the bay. ¬† Is this some sort of “eye in the sky”?¬† Should I be worried? Or is it just common for people to go hot-air ballooning here?¬† I’m going to need to investigate‚Ķ

This week we made several important discoveries.¬† The first two were food-related.¬† On our second trip to Ikea which is in a suburb called Richmond, we discovered that Richmond is home to Little Vietnam.¬† And that means lots and lots of Pho!¬† There is basically several blocks of little, mostly casual, family-owned restaurants serving Vietnamese food.¬† Many have carcasses hanging in the windows. It is, perhaps, not a vegetarian’s dream but I think we are going to be spending some time in Richmond eating dishes we’ve never heard of and hoping (in my case) that they do not secretly include pork.¬† We also saw some Indian restaurants a few blocks away so we definitely think more culinary delights await us in this neighborhood.¬† Which, speaking of, was our second discovery.¬† We found good, cheap Indian food right in the city center!¬† We figured we were going to have to go further away from the city to find real Indian food, particularly south indian food, particularly dosai (a very delicious south indian crepe-like pile of deliciousness that, if you have never tasted, you should immediately figure out some way to make it happen.¬† I’m serious.¬† Stop reading this and go make it happen)¬† Anyway, should you come to visit us one of our stops will be at Flora which is one of the most touristy parts of town.¬† We found online reviews that said it was the real deal and that it was mostly Indians and Sri Lankan’s that frequented the place but we were skeptical.¬† However, it’s right on the tram line and we figured it was worth a shot.¬† We walked in and, sure enough, it was all Indian and Sri Lankan families and a few Brits. The food is ordered and served without ceremony but it is warm and fragrant and tasty and cheap and you can watch clips from Bollywood movies as you stuff your face.

We did do other things besides eating this week.¬† I made a an important discovery that I think all newcomers to Melbourne need to know about, yet I do not see it any of the helpful online guides to living in Melbourne.¬† There’s a famous street in Melbourne called Chapel street and it’s very long and leads up the Yarra River which runs right through the city.¬† And Chapel is just loads and loads of shops.¬† But what’s cool about it is that it’s a mix of super cool, trendy boutiques (many up and coming designers have stores here) and pricey cafes and restaurants but it’s also home to secondhand shops and, most importantly, the Asian “supa” store.¬† When I discovered the Asian “supa” store, I was furious that I got suckered into paying retail for household goods during my first week and vowed never to do it again!¬† Basically these stores are like old fashioned five and dime stores with a little bit of everything.¬† There really is one called “Supa Store” and I loved it so much that I now just call all of them that.¬† Everything in the stores are, of course, made in China. ¬† So, for example, you can buy a dish-drying rack made by the chinese “King of Wood”. This evokes a great image in my mind of a dignified, older chinese man with a round belly and a wise countenance. He sits on a wooden throne and gestures widely to show the expanse of his kingdom (of wood). ¬† Anyway, you have to comparison shop amongst all the supa stores to find the best deals.¬† I learned this because I shop there on weekday afternoons with the little old Asian ladies and¬† older Eastern European couples, who comparison shop with a keen eye. The other thing I learned from the Asians and the Eastern Europeans is that if you’re going to shop via public transportation or on foot, you need a little four-wheeled shopping cart.¬† Yup.¬† Gotta have it.¬† Otherwise your arms get laden with all your purchases and your shoulders ache.¬† There’s just no use trying to be cool- if you’re going to buy that buddha statue and that dish-drying rack you need plus fresh fruit and veg and that handmade Italian pasta from the Prahran Market, you need a little shopping cart.¬† So, Akhil and I embraced our inner little old lady and bought one (after comparing prices at all the “supa” stores, of course!)¬† We wheel it around with pride because that’s just how we roll here in Melbourne.

Lest you think we spent the entire week slumming it here in Melbourne, we actually did spend some time seeing how the other half lives.¬† Our friend Kylie is friend’s with a winemaker in Geelong and invited us to a “release party” at this very posh place called the Press Club.¬† So, it was a lot of important people with extensive knowledge of the Australian wine industry who were very excited about the release of these 2010 wines‚Ķand us.¬† The winery hosting the dinner is called Lethbridge and they are a small, 5-star winery in Geelong that, from what I could tell, have a cult following amongst Australian critics and serious wine drinkers. They produce small batches of their signature wines and they release them and the critics rave and the wines sell out.¬† I don’t think they sell any of their wines outside of Australia, which is unfortunate for all of you ¬† As an aside, Australians are very proud of their wines.¬† And, frankly, rightfully so.¬† They kind of resent that the rest of the world doesn’t know and respect their wines.¬† They don’t like being represented in the U.S. by Yellowtail.¬† And nothing gets a real Australian wine enthusiast going like innocently remarking that you like New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs.¬† Do not make this mistake!¬† Well, if you’re at a boring dinner party in Australia and you want to get the conversation going, do it.¬† But, if you want to make friends, say something like, ” I know the market is flooded with these overrated New Zealand Sauv Blancs but I think the Sauv Blancs coming out of Australia are so much more refined on the palette. “¬† This statement will win you friends.¬† Anyway, attending a dinner hosted by Lethbridge is super hip and cool and we drank a lot of good wine and ended up ordering some.¬† Our small supply will be gone by the time any of you come to visit but Geelong is actually really close by and we’ve been told we can just come down to the vineyard and have lunch.¬† Oh, I should mention that the owners and winemakers Ray and Maree are the most charming, down to earth, lovely people who produce these really amazing wines and clearly take the process quite seriously but don’t take themselves that seriously.¬† And, probably the most amusing moment of the night was at the end when we met Ray and learned that he is from south India!¬† Amazing to live in a world where borders are so fluid that a south Indian married to an American moves to Australia for work and meets a south Indian married to an Australian who has become the darling of the Australian wine industry.

Somewhere between highbrow and lowbrow, I also made myself attend a “newcomers network” function this week.¬† I was not looking forward to it because at the last minute Akhil had to go to Sydney so I had to fly solo to this bar and they tell you in the online description of the event that you are going to have to wear a name tag and I pictured myself, all alone, walking into a crowded bar and finding this group of “newcomers” and having to walk up to strangers and introduce myself and I sort of envisioned that there might be some skeevy, older men who go to these functions trying to prey upon vulnerable newcomers‚Ķanyway, let’s just say I wasn’t really looking forward to it and I nearly didn’t go but at the last minute I jumped on a tram and headed to the bar.¬† And I’m really glad I went because it was nothing like I pictured (mostly).¬† The bar was quiet and old and elegant and when I walked into the room, I saw to my right a small group of people, seated comfortably and chatting and they welcomed me right into the circle. They did make me wear a name tag and introduce myself but after that it was just nice conversation with a pretty eclectic bunch of people.¬† There was one skeevy middle-aged guy who showed up after me but he was largely ignored and left.¬† I was the only American (which was okay by me) and I met a lovely Finnish woman and a nice Swiss guy and a gregarious Canadian woman who had been living in Amsterdam before moving here. Several of us ended up heading out to dinner afterwards at a burger joint in one of Melbourne’s famous little laneways.¬† Australians like their red meat so I wasn’t sure how i would fare at this place but ( I heart Australia) they had three different types of veggie burgers on the menu!¬† I mean, I cannot think of a burger place in the U.S. where you can get more than some half-ass, pre-made veggie patty.¬† So, pleasant surprise.¬† Food aside, it was great to meet some people experiencing the same challenges and adjustments and I exchanged numbers with several people so today I actually got to text with friends, which sounds really lame but the only calls and texts I get here (other than from my husband) are related to furniture deliveries so it’s just a really nice thing to get a text from a new friend inviting you to coffee.

Which brings me to my last subject which is that this week I was finally reunited with the iPhone. For reasons I won’t bore most of you with, you are not supposed to be able to take a phone from the U.S. and bring it to Australia and use it.¬† But, nobody likes that rule because it is stupid and iPhones are so much more expensive here than in the U.S. that naturally smart people went to work on a way to “unlock” U.S. iPhones so that you can use them here.¬† Basically, you take your phone to a chinese lady and she works some magic and now you can use it here. Problem is that Akhil had gifted me with the latest iPhone and, as of last week, the superheroes who figure out how to unlock these phones (and then tell the chinese ladies) have not figured out how to unlock the iPhone 4. So, I spent a miserable week trying to use a $30 Nokia phone that just SUCKS.¬† It sucks.¬† It is cruel and unusual punishment to use one of these phones.¬† The worst part is that everyone here texts.¬† And trying to text with the stupid “T9″ function and the tiny little buttons and god forbid you want to insert a number or a piece of punctuation.¬† I would start to type a text and then get so frustrated that I would throw the phone at Akhil (who has an unlocked iPhone) and sigh tragically and say, “You type.¬† I simply cannot go on this way”.¬† I think Akhil¬† was getting bit weary of his angry wife hurling phones at him so he came up with the genius idea of unlocking my old iPhone (the original, old school iPhone that they cracked the code on long ago).¬† So, I am reunited with the iPhone and, seriously, I never want to be parted again.¬† You can mock me if you want.¬† But, then you will come to Australia to visit and I will make you use my $30 Nokia phone and you will cry and hurl it at people and ask them to text for you‚ĶI promise‚Ķ

Last thing for the week – Aussie slang.¬† People, at least in Melbourne, do not say “G’day mate”.¬† I’m actually not sure that anyone other than Crocodile Dundee does that.¬† Instead of “How are you?” or “What’s up?” they say, “How’re you going?”¬† And, my most favorite slang so far, instead of saying “Just show up” they say, “Just rock up”.¬† So, for example, when I was talking to a girl about joining a women’s ultimate team she said, “You can got to the website to sign up for a team or just rock up on the night”.¬† It makes everything you do sound so much cooler.¬† I’m not just coming, I’m rocking up.¬† If that doesn’t put some swagger in your step, I don’t know what will.

Oh, and I nearly forgot, many of you have suggested that if we are going to keep bragging about our amazing views, we should share some pictures.¬† We are still using prepaid mobile broadband (for a variety of frustrating reasons involving bank accounts, needed equipment, and Akhil’s recent travel schedule) so I can’t upload much as mobile broadband here is painfully slow.¬† But, I’ve got an album¬† with a few pictures of the apartment on Picasa Web and here’s the link http://picasaweb.google.com/jencrescenzo/EarlyDaysInMelbourneAustralia#