Three Day Weekends Rock

Life goes on in Melbourne... The weather has become more like what we were told to
expect, cold (by their standards) and rainy. It is quite strange, it can be sunny one
minute and then downpour the next. My goretex jacket and waterproofed backpack are coming
in handy.

Brian working the public BBQ along the Yara.

Two weeks ago, RMIT held a student club BBQ. It was suppose to run until 2PM, but when
I arrived at 1 they were already cleaning the grill :(. I did talk with the outdoor
pursuits club, the snowski club, the underwater club, the waterski club and the parachute
club (parental note: I decided against jumping out of airplanes, it's too bloody
expensive). The outdoor pursuits people were abseiling (repelling) off building 12, so I
decided this would be a cheaper fix. It was a 47 meter drop, longest repel I've done.
Really wasn't that exciting, guess I've done it too much. In hindsight, I should have
asked Nick the instructor to set me up Australian style (face first), I'd like to learn
the proper setup.

That Saturday, the int'l program office was sponsoring a trip to a footy game
(Australian rules football). I've watched it played on the tele, I think I almost
understand what few rules there are. It can be quite violent, no protection except for a
mouth guard, and it sure seems like you can do a lot of things without the refs calling a
foul. It as Carleton versus Hawthorn, I cheered for Carleton since I live in North
Carleton. Everyone here has a favorite team, you can't just sit on the fence. Carleton
won, it wasn't very close so the crowd didn't get too intense (the drizzle didn't help
either).

Johan "helping" Jen cross a river on a hiking trip north of Melbourne.

The following week was rather uneventful, save for Johan and I started going to Aikido
classes. I've been to two classes so far. It is a very different martial art than the
Shodakan style I practice at Morris. The whole basis is that whatever the attacker does,
you simply make your body agree with theirs. Everything is done by using motion paths that
the attacker can't resist. Errr, it's kinda hard to explain. I like it, though I'm not
sure how well my two forms will complement each other.

Last weekend was full of activity. Friday, Johan, Jen (another exchange student from
Indiana), and myself decided to go to the Dandenong ranges. Due to unfortunate rail and
bus time schedules and a few mistakes on our part, it took over four hours to reach the
town of Olinda near the scenic overlooks. We hiked for several hours, visiting several
smaller overlooks, before arriving at the main Dandenong overlook. The view was big, you
could see the skyline and the urban sprawl (not exactly a sierra club calendar shot). It
was quite hazy, so we waited and watched the sunset and the lights come on from the city
and suburbs. We caught a ride back to a train station with a young aussie couple and made
it back to Melbourne in about an hour and a half.

Saturday, I went with the outdoor pursuits people, Jen and Adam (another exchange
student) to a new indoor climbing gym. The gym wasn't nearly as big or tall as the Altona
gym, but it was much closer to the city (tram'able). We spent about four hours climbing,
most of which I spent cranking the roof routes.

I was up at the brisk hour of 6am on Sunday. I had to meet at RMIT at 7am to go cross
country skiing with the pursuits club. I dragged myself to the tram stop at 6:30am only to
discover that on Sundays tram service doesn't begin until 8am. After a jog/walk to campus,
we departed for Lake Mountain. I got to drive with two aussies, Richard and Noemi. Richard
drives a 1960's era racing Porsche. Porsche + windy mountain roads = fun.

Richard, Naoemi, and I taking a little break.

Richard really knew what he was doing so I wasn't scared. Half-way up the mountain they
made everyone pull over and put chains on their tires. Seemed really silly to me, the
remaining stretch of road was just wet with a little bit of slush. I guess the chains forces
everyone to drive slow since most have no experience driving in bad conditions. It snowed
off and on all day, giving the trails a fresh coat. It was not the kind of skiing I'm use to though,
there were probably several thousand people roaming around a rather small set of trails.
We got tired of the trails so we used Richard's compass and did some cross country
orienteering. For awhile it was really fun, but eventually we got into some bush that was
too thick. We struggled back to the trails and skied in.

Until next time America...

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