Oh, Queen Victoria, how well you feed me. A trip to the city must always involve fruit. Yummy fruit. Yummy mostly cheap fruit. I like when they yell at eachother. You're selling your bananas for 1 dollar? Oh yeah? Well then mine are 50 cents. Excellent. I win again. I ate a banana then a pear...then another pear. Goodbye fruit.
After my less-than-stellar experience at the City Museum, my coworkers raved about the Melbourne Museum and how amazing it was and how it was waaaay better than the other and that I just HAD to go. I'm a sheep, so I went.
Well, let's just say that after having spent countless hours over the last few months at the Smithsonians, I need to let my standards down, just a weeeee bit. No, wait, a lot.
Yes, it was a thousand times better than the City Museum (booo- City Museum!), but...well, uh.... Never been to the Smithsonians? Okay then, this place might just work for you!
I started in the Aboriginal section, which actually was really good (probably only because they don't have this one in DC. haha). There were countless stories about the half-Aboriginal children who were stolen at random from their families and taken to be 're-educated.' This happened into the 70's. We're talking NINETEEN 70's. Wow. Very sad. There were other bits about being taken from their native lands and having their artwork and stories taken from them. The irony? I took a picture of that artwork....is that wrong? All around worthwhile section.
Most of the next sections I just moved quickly through (in some cases out of fear). Next up was natural history, bugs, bones, blah blah blah...Sea life? Been there, done that. Bugs? Move on. Then we come to the part where I peed my pants....Spiders. Live ones. The kinds that are probably crawling under my bed as I type this...eeeeep. Don't worry though, because they've now developed anti-venoms-as long as I can get myself to a hospital. Well that's comforting.
After spending much too much time gasping and squealing and after many stares from passers-by (who didn't seem as petrified), I moved on to the body. Had I not seen BodyWorks, then this could have been cool. ...maybe. As a mostly typical squeamish American, I get a little weirded out about public nudity. To teach about the natural process of human growth, they decided it would be a good idea to take full frontal shots of people from age 10 to 50. Awkward. Nudie granny? Uh, no thanks.
Moved quickly onto the digestion system. It showed me all the way from whole foods to slurry to almost clear liquid to poop! I love poop. This part was fun. Sam, you would have giggled like a little school girl. Then on to the Miiiind. This section had some cool interactive tools, but I was a little shy this time about pushing kids out of the way so I could play. Those pushy Americans. Maybe next time when I've perfected my Aussie accent.
Last up, the story of Melbourne! This was fun. But mostly I just liked the exhibit about shoes through the years. It's always so funny to me how young this place is. 1901 people, 1901. My car is older than this city. Shoot, Liz's undies are older than this city.
Quick stop in the gift shop, then down to Fed Square. Free Indian fun music concert! Sweet. I danced. A little. Mostly in my head. I was hoping to get down to St. Kilda (the beach!) or to the Harbor, but it was getting late and I didn't want to get stuck anywhere, so I just spent the rest of the time wandering around the city. It all shuts down around 6pm (I know, right? Very annoying), so after a few hours of wandering around, I hopped on the bus headed back to the suburbs (note to self- move out of the suburbs!).
I'm in desperate need of friends (anybody have one for me?), so in an attempt to win friends, I went home and baked cookies to take to church (I know- I'm THAT desperate) and entice people to talk to me. Sadly, the church thing didn't work out (they knew I was coming, so they planned stake conference), so I ate four of the cookies myself. Out of spite. They were delicious, and no, they weren't gluten free. And yes, I am regretting that choice. Well, sort of- they were really good!
Well folks, that's all for this week. I'm making a massive attempt to get to the Gold Coast for some fun in the sun in the next few weeks. I'll keep you posted!
P.S. I wore shorts today and it was AWESOME. What's that? There's snow in Utah? Hahahhahaha. This swap is actually starting to work out for me!
P.P.S. America- get it together! Every time the exchange rate gets more even, my angry face gets angrier and my wallet cries a little.
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