When we got back to Alice Springs, the weather was not looking good. The dreary, wet weather made Alice look even more unappealing than it did before. We drove directly to the town centre to find the hotel we would be staying in for that one night before we flew to Melbourne the next day. I had booked the hotel online, and I had chosen a 4-star option that had pretty good reviews for having a good location and being an overall nice place to stay. Clearly the standards of hotels in Alice Springs are a little off, because the place we stayed was not as nice as many of the hostels I have been to. We checked in just after 2PM, but we still had to wait for someone to clean our room - that is after we finally found it! It was a little disconcerting seeing the woman cleaning our room sweeping up a ton of broken glass off of the floor...
The hotel was sparse to say the least, and we both wanted to get out of there ASAP, so we did a little research of what we could do with our time in Alice Springs. With the weather as it was, we knew it would have to be something indoors, so we juggled between going to the School of the Air or the Royal Flying Doctor Service Headquarters. We decided on the School of the Air, because it sounded a little more interesting, and it was in a part of Alice that we had not yet seen.
The School of the Air was actually a pretty interesting experience. For those who do not know what it is, the School of the Air was started in the 1950’s as a way to provide school to children who live in the middle of the Outback on cattle stations, farms, national parks, reserves, etc. Some of these kids are the only child for thousands of kilometers in radius, so there was never any organized way for them to get a proper education. What started over the radio (teachers would broadcast lessons over the airwaves) has now recently been upgraded in technology and most classes are done over the internet through webcam.
All equipment for the classes is provided by the School of the Air, including the computer and satellite for the internet as well as all books and lessons. They sustain the program through private funding (although I think they get some money from the government too) and donations from people like my mom and me. We actually purchased a book to donate to one of the students while we were there.
When we arrived at the School of the Air, there was an art class being taught by a teacher in one of the studios. It was interesting to watch the teacher being filmed by cameras, and we also had a view of what he sees on the screen. Each child’s face who is in attendance of the class appears on the screen, and he can communicate with each one of them individually or as a group. They can ask questions and hear the other students too.
It seems like a very impersonal way to go to school, but for some of these kids, it is the only interaction they have ever had with other children. Once again, I could not imagine living in such isolation as these families do, some with no neighbors in sight. The School of the Air considered this, so about 4 times a year, they invite the families to Alice Springs to meet each other and they organize special activities for the children. For a lot of these families, going to Alice is like going to a major city, and they make sure to get in all necessary appointments while they are there (doctor, dentist, etc.). The kids are encouraged to socialize with each other, and they even attend a class at a normal school to see how other children learn and interact.
The School of the Air only goes from primary school to the beginning of high school, so kids who complete the entire program must still go to boarding school to complete their education afterwards. A few of them end up going to university too, and this is actually an interesting thing in itself. Before the School of the Air, many of these kids would have just stayed in the Outback and taken over their family business, but now many of them are exposed to different things and actually decide to eventually move into the cities or overseas. The biggest challenge for many of these kids when they move away from the Outback is surprisingly not immersion with the culture or anything like that, but rather it is simply noise. Many of them complain about not being able to sleep when they live in the city, because they have gone their entire lives in isolation away from the city sounds.
These kids in the Outback are really amazing, and many of them are forced to grow up and do adult things before they are even of school age. We watched a video of a boy who could not have been older than 7 who helps his dad out on their cattle station by driving the truck around. He could not even see over the steering wheel!
The School of the Air reminds these kids that they are actually children, and they must take time each day to attend class and do homework assignments outside of class too. Each child must have a tutor to help with the lessons, and in some cases this is mom or dad, but a few also have live-in tutors as well. One of the tutors shown in the video was probably around my age, and she loves living with the family in the Outback, teaching their two sons. I could not imagine how lonely she must get sometimes...
There are some Aboriginal children who live on a reserve who also attend School of the Air even though there are a quite a few of them who live there. By Australian law, the government has to provide a school house and a teacher on Aboriginal land when there are more than a few children there. However in this case, the children are all different ages, and they only had one teacher and school between all of them. The teacher actually applied to the School of the Air because she was overwhelmed. The students are doing really well since being added to the School of the Air, and they were voted most improved this year!
Since the first School of the Air (the one in Alice) started in the 1950’s, others have opened and there are now about 15 I think across Australia. This just goes to show how many families live in the Outback, something that is still so foreign to me...
After the School of the Air, the weather was still not letting up, so we decided to drive to the mall and walk around inside. We ended up at the movie theater instead however, and we decided to go see the Social Network since it was just starting. My mom was in shock at how expensive movie tickets are in Australia, and even though she tried her usual “seniors” discount shpeal, they were not budging. They are very particular in Australia when it comes to discounts on anything. Students must have an Australian student card in most cases, and to qualify as a “senior,” you have to have pensioner status with the Australian government. The only way I am usually able to worm my way into a discount bracket is through my YHA card which shows I am a backpacker (or that I am traveling on a budget haha), but even that is rare.
We both enjoyed the movie, although I was now intrigued by the Eduardo character, Zuckerberg’s best friend at Harvard who co-founded Facebook with him. His shares in the company were diluted when Mark received additional investors without his knowing, and he ended up taking Mark to court over it which put a dent in their friendship. He was also supposedly one of the main sources behind the Ben Mezrich book (the inspiration behind the movie) until his case was settled. I did my own little research, and I am not exactly sure what he is doing these days, but he was eventually given back 5% share in Facebook and is now worth over $1 billion. If anyone knows where he is, send him my way!
After the movie, we decided to venture out from our hotel to find a place to eat dinner. We really had no idea where we were going so we ended up walking up and back the main street a few times. My mom and I were terrified as we were receiving strange looks and being catcalled, none of which was particularly a good experience. We finally found a Thai restaurant, and although it did not look great, we just wanted to go inside somewhere. The meal was decent but definitely not the best, and we were not going to be sad about leaving Alice Springs the next day. We went back to the hotel, and I actually slept inside of a sweatshirt with the hood on to avoid touching any of the hotel bedding. Yes, it was that bad!
The next morning was all packing in anticipation of flying to Melbourne, and we said goodbye to Alice Springs. We returned our rental car at the airport way over our kilometer limit and below full on gas (don’t want to know how much that ended up costing!). For the flight to Melbourne, my mom was leaving a few minutes before me on Qantas, and I had booked my flight with Tiger to save a little bit of money. Of course my mom’s flight was on-time, however Tiger was delayed because of the weather. There was no way to let my mom know, but I knew she would find out when she got to Melbourne and had to wait for me. Flying Tiger was back to reality for me, the plane was completely packed and no more lunch served for free. Also, the lady sitting next to me got ill which is always a great experience...
I had never flown Tiger before, but when you land in Melbourne, you literally collect your baggage from a shed. My mom was outside the gate of the shed waiting for me in the rain, and Renee had driven to come pick us up. The weather was so bad in Melbourne that it was difficult for Renee to see out of the windshield at some points along the drive to our apartment.
That night was actually the night before Halloween, and I was disappointed when I heard that no one really celebrates Halloween in Australia. I actually completely forgot about it, and instead Renee and I were heading to the welcome home party of Cassie and her boyfriend (I had worked with her at DraftFCB in SF). They are originally from Melbourne, but they had been living in SF for over four years and were finally returning home. When we were on the tram home from the party, there was a guy that had blood on his face. He was American, so of course the first thing I thought was, “another American giving Australians a bad impression of us!” Then Renee reminded me that it was Halloween and that was his costume! Sad but true, he was the only person I saw that was dressed up.
On actual Halloween, we had planned a brunch overlooking the beach with Peter and Joan and their daughter, Sarah, so that my mom could meet them. They were the people that picked me up from the airport and took me into their house when I first arrived in Melbourne. Of course, the place we chose for brunch would have been perfect if the weather was good, but it was still rainy, windy and freezing, so we ate inside.
After brunch, my mom and I decided to venture into the city with Renee’s car, which is always an adventure. The drivers in Melbourne are really bad, the road rules are foreign to me, and I usually end up getting lost. That being said, I think my mom handled the craziness pretty well although I could tell that she was a little terrified. On the drive, w almost got hit by a bus, the car stalled a few times, and I accidentally pulled into a parking garage that cost us $8! Not to mention how many other close calls we had! But I did manage to avoid making a hook turn (a right hand turn from the furthest left lane, makes sense, right?) which is always a challenge.
We went to the Queen Victoria Market, and of course we had to get our fill of warm jam donuts! We also bought some fresh fruit, meat and cheese, and my mom wanted to buy some souvenirs for people back home. We stayed at the market until they began packing up their stalls, and then we ventured back through the city to St. Kilda, stopping for coffee along the way. I don’t think I have drank as much coffee in my whole time in Australia than I did with my mom!
That night, I planned to go to dinner to meet Nyssa, an American girl who had been living in Sydney for the last few months. We had been introduced through one of my old coworkers from DraftFCB, and we had tried to meet up a few times, but none of them had worked. We chatted over dinner, and found out that we actually have a lot in common. She was in town for the races, so we planned to meet up again.
The next day was Monday and although most people were back at work, I still had a few more days off with my mom. The following day was the Melbourne Cup which is a public holiday in Melbourne, so everyone just works for the Monday unless they are lucky enough to get it off. The weather was slightly better on the Monday, so we decided to go wine tasting in the Yarra Valley with Peter and Sarah. We picked up Sarah at her apartment in St. Kilda then drove to meet Peter in Boronia, where he and Joan live. Thankfully, I did not have to drive any further because Peter volunteered to take us in his 4WD.
We only made it to two wineries, both of which I really enjoyed. We stopped in Healesville in between for lunch at the Healesville Hotel, and then went to go see if we could find some kangaroos in the wild. We went to the same place where I had seen my first kangaroo which is actually a reservoir. We did not have to drive for long when we saw the first kangaroo on the side of the road, and then we saw a lot more further up a hill. We got out of the car and started walking up the hill to get a closer look (of course the grass was muddy because of all of the rain lately). One of the kangaroos even had a joey in its pouch!
Joan decided not to come wine tasting with us, so she was at home slaving away and making us dinner. We went back to their house after the kangaroos, and drank one of the bottles of wine we had bought while we ate. Peter is such a nice older man and as he told us stories over dinner, I thought of how much I want to adopt him as my grandfather!
The next morning was the Melbourne Cup, “the race that stops a nation,” and we were planning to go. We had not purchased tickets ahead of time, because Renee had told us that we could just buy them at the door (but I should have known since she has said that about a few other things this year, all of which have sold out!). Renee’s friend, Kylie, was in town from Adelaide for the races, and Nyssa came over to go with us too. Renee had just finished up her job at Harris Scarfe (she was going to start her new job at Nine West on Thursday), so she had been given flowers from her coworkers wishing her well. We decided to use the fresh flowers in our hair with our fascinators, they actually looked great! We also drank a few bottles of champagne (one of which we bought when we were wine tasting the day before). We took a cab from our apartment to Flemington Racecourse around noon, and the weather was looking either like it might clear up or it might be quite rainy. We hoped for the first one...
When we got to the entrance to the races, there was no ticket window in sight, so we went up to ask where we get tickets. The guy informed my mom, Nyssa, and I that the race had sold out! Renee and Kylie had already bought tickets, so they were already inside. He told us that he had heard a rumor that they were still selling tickets over the phone or online at Ticketmaster, so we decided to try and call. I got through to someone over the phone, but when I was giving her our credit card information, the signal was dropped! I tried calling again and had just gotten through when Renee and Kylie were back outside. Apparently, they had used the men’s restroom (after a security guard had told them it was okay) only to get kicked out of the races by another security guard on their way out! They had taken their tickets and told them they could not go back in!
At this point, I was just about to book our tickets over the phone, but now we were unsure of whether we should even go in. We decided to just buy them since we were there, and then we would try and talk to the security guards about getting Renee and Kylie back in. Since we had booked them over the phone, they gave us a ticket number to show at the door as proof of purchase.
The first security guard that we talked to was just not hearing us, and we were starting to get annoyed. He stood and talked with us for like 20 minutes before he told us that he did not even have the authority to let the girls back in. At this point, one of Kylie’s old coworkers joined us (a guy in his 40’s) and we were now a group gathering attention at the gate to one of the most prestigious events in Melbourne. I mean, even Enrique Iglesias was there apparently! We asked the guard to get us someone who actually had the authority, and he said it would be about 20 minutes.
Finally, we found the head security guard, and I started to explain the situation to him. He calmly asked, “you only want to get into general admission?” It turns out that we did not even really need to buy our tickets because he just let us into one of the side doors, and that was it. So easy! We should have told him that we wanted to get into nursery (where the celebrities and rich people are), but we did not think that far ahead...
By that point, we all needed a drink, so we went to the closest bar and bought bottles of champagne for $35. Then we immediately went to go place bets on the main race. My mom bet on “Americain” (the horse from the USA), and a few of the other girls placed bets too. I decided to try the trifecta, since we had been getting tips on the race all day. In fact Jilly (think back to Port Douglas) had told us to bet on a horse called “So You Think” who was actually favored to win the race. I picked “So You Think,” “Americain,” and a third horse called “Zipping.” It did not matter which order they finished in as long as they came in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd.
Before the main race, we tried to make our way out to the track so we could actually see who won, but there were so many people in the way. It was hilarious, people were trying to do whatever they could to see. Some drunk girls in really nice dresses were on their boyfriends’ shoulders, and four or five guys were hugging each other in order to balance on a light pole stand. I could barely see the race on the screen over someone’s head, but that was the best it was going to get. It was pretty exciting since we all had a wager on the race, but in the end, “Americain” won, “Malucky Day” (some dumb Irish horse!) came in 2nd, and “So You Think” came in 3rd, I was so close! So my mom was the big winner of the day, woo!
And since gambling runs in our family, her and I decided to go bet on the next race too. We did not even know the horses in this one, but we met a guy in line that let us look at the odds in the paper. My mom randomly chose a horse to place and a horse to win (as did I), but of course hers ended up winning again!
With all of that luck, we decided it was now time to move from the races to the casino, so we finished the rest of our champagne and then went to go wait in the taxi queue. As you can imagine, the line for the taxis was extremely long, so while we were waiting, we started talking to the people around us. I think we even ate some food from the people in front of us which started some conversation with them. When we realized that we were a large enough group that we could skip the line to get a maxi cab, we invited our new friends to come with us. If everyone else was as smart as us in front of us in line, they would have grouped together too!
The cab ride to the casino felt like it was the longest in my life, as we got to know our new friends, Sydney and Hamish. Hamish was great, a really nice guy from Sydney, but Sydney his fiance was an American from Ohio living in Melbourne. Confusing I know! She had had a little too much to drink that day, but I do not blame the alcohol for her behavior. Sydney was just one of those Americans that make Americans look bad, and she kept talking about how great Hamish’s roommate was. I should mention that he was in the hospital for getting in a motorbike accident (and it sounded pretty serious!). At one point, Nyssa asked Sydney who she wanted to spend the rest of her life with, and she said Hamish’s roommates name, followed by “he is so hot!” We wished them the best of luck with their relationship, and then we got out of the cab at the Crown casino.
My mom and I wanted to play blackjack, so we went to go see the options of tables. We ended up upstairs and we were all playing at the same table for awhile. In the end, my mom ended up even (what happened to her luck?), I actually made $100 (I was gambling with my mom’s $50 and doubled it), and I think everyone else lost. We realized that we had not yet eaten dinner, so we got a quick sushi roll snack and then walked along Southbank to go catch a cab back to St. Kilda. Since it was Tuesday night, we decided to go to Republica for $10 steaks. We had a great dinner and Kylie’s old boss ended up ordering lots of wine. The weather completely turned when we were at dinner, and it was like hurricane weather when we were finished. At one point during the meal, the door blew open when someone walked in and brought in a freezing cold gust!
We called a cab to take us home even though we were within walking distance of our apartment, but when it didn’t come for awhile, we decided to hail one ourselves. My mom and I waited with Nyssa for the tram back to where she was staying, and luckily one was coming in the other direction that we could jump on. We decided to go home and hang out since my mom was leaving the next day, but the others went to a bar on Acland St.
Let’s just say that they must have all had a lot to drink, because my mom and I were woken up at like 4:30AM by some loud noises in our apartment. Renee had brought home 3 guys with her and they were not even trying to be quiet. I was annoyed because my mom had an early flight to catch the next morning, so I asked them to be quiet which did absolutely nothing. Luckily, my mom is a really deep sleeper and fell right back asleep, but I was up for the rest of the night. One funny thing though, the fire alarm started going off around 5:15AM, and Renee and the guys panicked and thought that they had done it. It wasn’t until they realized that it was going off in the entire building that they went out on the balcony and started singing the Ghostbusters theme song while the firemen arrived. I texted Renee and asked “is there really a fire?” because if there wasn’t, there was no chance I was going to get out of bed...
In a little over an hour, my mom and I woke up to get ready to go to the airport. My mom walked out of my room to find Renee and the guys all passed out on the couch haha. We made it to the airport and I only got lost once! I had packed my larger suitcase to send back with my mom, so she had a lot of baggage when I dropped her off. It was really sad to see her go, especially since I knew I would not see her again for 4 months! We had such a good time together though, so I was really glad that she was able to come. Now I knew that she would not worry as much about me, since she could see that I was doing okay here. She made it safely home, and thank goodness too, because a few days later is when Qantas started having a lot of trouble with their engines...
Sadly for me, it was back to work the next day, but the good news was I only had a little over a month left and then I was off again for the next adventure!
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