Week 5: Mamma Mia!

Here we go again, my my, oh how much I've missed you.

Hello hello! How is it already mid-February? Time is flying.

This week was pretty relaxing. I spent my morning and afternoon commutes reading Beloved by Toni Morrison. Morrison is definitely one of my favourite authours- and her most famous book did not disappoint.

At work I have been working away at the Reconciliation Action Plan performance report. I got to attend Gama-dij which is orientation for Indigenous students. It was a blast! I tested out my bowling skills and made some new connections with students here at RMIT.

On Thursday evening I discovered the EARLs of Melbourne. There's a place called Asian Beer Cafe (ABC as the cool kids call it) and it has amaaaaaazing happy hour prices and great vegan food. The atmosphere is similar to Earls, and it has a balcony!

On Saturday I went to a travel expo in the city, read some more at the State Library, and watched some amazing works at ACMI (Australia's Centre for the Moving Image). I'm a sucker for artsy films and film production. They had all kinds of interactive exhibits and best of all it is FREE. My favourite exhibit was one called The Clock by Christian Marclay. He curated a film filled with short clips from famous movies, all with references to the time. The time in the movie, is the same as real life- and the film is 24 hours long!!!!

On Sunday, I went on a day trip with a group called Fun Addicts. I woke up reaaaally early to meet the group downtown by 7:45am (eek).

We drove for three hours to the most Southern area of mainland Australia, called Wilson's Promontory. My pictures will not do this place justice! If you have the chance to go here while you are in Melbourne it is my top recommendation.

The park is 505 squared km, so I only saw a fraction of it. We climbed up to the summit of Mount Oberon to find a bunch of clouds blocking our view. We sat at the top for a few minutes and suddenly the clouds cleared away and we were able to see the beautiful beach below.

After this we had lunch, where I was greeted by a greedy parrot that had not heard of personal space.

We walked another 45 minutes down the side of the mountain. The water was a beautiful clear bright blue and I felt like I was in Greece or Mamma Mia. I walked down the hill humming "I have a dream" and was honestly just in awe the whole time. At the bottom, we were greeted by the most beautiful view I have ever seen. Again, pictures cannot do it justice but I tried.

The beach in the background is called Squeaky Beach. When you kick the sand it sounds like basketball shoes on a newly waxed court! So cool. On our trip home we stopped to see some grazing kangaroos and of course, stopped for a bite at Macca's (Mcdonalds).

This upcoming week, I am looking forward to welcoming Mauri students to our campus and celebrating with my colleagues.

Until then,

xoxo

Lisa