Great Weekend!

We have had an absolutely wonderful weekend!

On Friday evening, the Director of Pharmacy, Ian Larmour, had us over to his house for dinner. His wife, Laurice, had prepared a wonderful meal of appetizers, roasted lamb with mint sauce and gravy, potatoes, green beans, bread, Australian cheeses, Cherry/Peach cobbler with cream, and tea. It was absolutely delicious! We had a great time getting to know Ian and his wife, in addition to their son Paul. Paul gave us a brief rundown of the rules of Australian football so we would be prepared for Saturday night! They gave us a driving tour of Melbourne at 1am and Paula and I were about konked out from all of that food.

Saturday, we slept in a little late and headed into the city for the day before the game. We went to Lygon Street, Melbourne's Little Italy for lunch (I had tortellini with salami, mushrooms, tabasco, and pork...yum!), and then to the Great Wall of China Exhibit at the Melbourne Museum. This was the first time the exhibit had been out of China. We saw representations from all of the Chinese dynasties, from 400 BCE to present. It was absolutely amazing learning about the Great Wall!

We met up with Allan Manser, the Assistant Director of Pharmacy, and the French girls for a night of football last night. It was so much fun! Allan is a VERY, VERY avid (almost fanatical) fan of the Western Bulldogs, so of course, we helped to support his team. We had Bulldogs scarves and hats to boot.

For those of you sports fans, the game was a mix of soccer, basketball, and American football. The umpire bounced the ball in the center of the field and the teams grabbed for the ball. To advance play down the field you must dribble the ball and you cannot run more than 15 meters without dribbling the ball. Another way to advance the ball is to kick it. Imagine kicking an American football that had no grip and was rounded on the end. You can also hand-pass it, which is accomplished like you hit a volleyball. To score, you have to kick it between the middle posts on the end, which earns you 6 points. If you throw it in or it touches the post, you only score 1 point. Whenever the ball goes out of bounds, the umpire does a backwards throw-in to place the ball back into play. I don't know if that makes any sense, but these are the basic rules of the game. You can see pictures below.

Unfortunately, the Bulldogs lost by a landslide and Allan almost cried. We were really sad for him!

Today, we went back into the city and finished up the Melbourne Museum, because we didn't have enough time to finish it the day before. We saw a really neat Australian and Aboriginal exhibit and also an exhibit teaching you all about the body.

We met our tour group for Philip Island at 12noon and headed on our way. Our first stop was the Maur Wildlife Park on Philip Island which was so much fun! We got to pet a wombat named Tara and then feed the kangaroos. We first started feeding the baby and then all of these other kangaroos came up for food. You would hold it out on your hand and they would eat right from your hand. I had kangaroo slobber all over me! :) The cutest one was the joey in his mother's pouch. She got jealous when he started getting the food instead of her.

We also got close to the koalas, but we were not allowed to pet them because they are endangered. We also were able to feed emus, alpacas, goats, sheep, and a donkey. The emu almost pecked off our hands! We saw some Tasmanian devils, but they were very rambunctious! It was hard to get a picture of them because they kept running around. You cannot pet them because they are carnivores and will eat your fingers.

After leaving the park, we went to Point Grant and saw some beautiful scenery and had our afternoon tea. By 6pm, we made it to the penguin colony area where the Philip Island Penguin Parade occurs every evening. We saw them come out of the ocean and waddle up onto land towards their burrows. It was about the cutest thing I have ever seen! They made little clucking sounds as they made their way onto land. They are the smallest penguins in the world and return from ocean fishing every evening right at dusk. Today has been my favorite day since we have arrived because we were able to see some much wildlife and natural beauty. I really enjoyed the Maru Wildlife Park because it was a rescue sanctuary for local animals.

A funny observation...almost no one knows we are from the US. We have been asked if we are Irish several times, English, Australian, Canadian, you name it. I guess the Southern accent sounds different to foreigners. I guess maybe it's a good thing that we aren't immediately assumed to be Americans.

Well, I'm about to crash as we just returned from our day, but I hope you enjoy looking at the pictures as much as we enjoyed seeing the animals!