Yay Tasmania!!!

We have just gotten back from our first trip out of the state. Last thursday we flew to Tasmania with my folks for an extended weekend(meaning we skipped class!). Before we left, everyone told us, "Ohh, Tassie(pronounced Tazzie) is really cold!" After feeling what they called cold here in Sydney, we weren't expecting too much. In their defense it was chilly-especially because most buildings didn't have heat!

Our first few days were spent in Hobart, the capitol. After being in a city of 4 million for quite a while, a city(more townish) of 150,000 felt REALLY nice! It was much more laid back and with no hustle and bustle of the big city. We rented a car and my dad drove quite expertly on the left side. The turn signal and windshield wipers were on the opposite side, so left turns were signaled by our wipers. Much good seafood was eaten: clam chowder, shellfish, bluefish, fish 'n chips etc. All the food we had there was spectacular.

We first went to Salamanca market. It is a market where one can buy all different kinds of crafts, and food. There was a fresh juice stand with fresh apple cider which made some money off of us all. On our first full day, we went to Port Arthur down on the southern tip of the island. It was a old prison colony from the 19th century. The ruins of some of the buildings were still standing for people to wander through. We saw the main prison building, the insane asylum, the church, and various other buildings. The land was beautiful and so incredibly quiet that we rather enjoyed being there. IF we were to be incarcerated some day, we would much rather be in a Port Arthur prison than a Sydney one. They even had a set of leg chains you could try on. We have pictures, but the computer is moving REALLY slowly tonight so they'll come later.

The next day we headed for Cradle Mountain in the North. It was a 4hour drive but was well worth it. Along the way, my dad got a crazy notion to stop in one of the little towns to see 'character.' The three of us agreed grudgingly to humor him. It was a good thing we did. We stopped at a little tea house and had scones and hot soup for brunch. It was the most adorable little house. It looked like it was straight out of the countryside of jolly old England. There were little stone houses and old windmills and a sign to drive slow because of "Ducks, ducks."

Back on the road, I got a chance to drive on the left side. It wasn't as hard as I thought. It was a highway without much traffic so that made it easier still. I signaled with the windshield wipers, too. There was another little town we stopped at with a neat church and shops that sold wood and wool crafts. We finally got to the cabin on Cradle mountain. We had a nice two bedroom one back in the woods with a fireplace and heated mattress pads. This cabin was not heated and it was significantly colder here than in Hobart. Temps got to right around freezing. We played some cards and then went to bed. The heated mattress pads were heavenly! It felt so good to climb into a warm bed from the cold room and we felt so relaxed! The next day(and our last), we got up and went for a hike around a mountain lake. The views were spectacular! Just before in the parking lot, we saw a wallaby and a pademelon(basically a small wallaby) eating grass and scratching themselves. They seemed unconcerned as cars drove by and we stuck cameras in their face. Our next adventure was to the Tasmanian Devil ranch! Despite the loud noises they make and the misrepresentation in cartoons, they are actually quite cuddly. We learned about the ways of the Tassie Devils and the woes they are facing (and have faced). But the best part was that they picked up one of the devils(by the tail!) and let us pet them!!!! We took many pictures so there is proof, but it's on my parents camera because my batteries had died. Once we get them, we'll post some of them!

The day ended with us back at the airport-with our original suitcase this time!- and ultimately back to Sydney. We hit the ground running yesterday and have busy schedules until the end of June. This hasn't stopped us from planning our next trip to Tasmania already!!!!

~Mike

I hear Hamilton Island is a nice place to visit....

Hi all! We're back again, with another set of adventures to tell!
Mike's parents are still in this neck of the woods. They spent about 5 days in New Zealand, and then met up with us again for a long weekend in Tasmania. Mike and I were TERRIBLY excited to go, especially since we cut Woodwind Performance class on Friday. (Biggest waste of time EVER.) It's only about a 2 hour plane ride to Hobart, the capital, but we were so excited to be leaving Sydney it wouldn't have mattered how long it took to get there!
The airport in Hobart is adorable, being possibly The Smallest Airport that is still known as "International." We collected Bob and Connie's 4 suitcases...waited for ours...waited for ours...oh, crap, there are no more suitcases going around the conveyor belt!!!!!
I asked the two attendants standing there if there were any suitcases left in the back room. One of them opened the door behind him, stuck his head in and said "Nope." The other guy referred us to the service desk in the next building over.
Mr. Service Desk came to the conclusion that our bag has been mistagged and sent to Hamilton Island, off the north coast of Queensland instead of way down south to Hobart. He didn't act like it would be a big deal, took down our contact information and said he'd call us as soon as he knew anything.
About 5 minutes after we'd left the desk, he called us to let us know that maybe the bag HADN"T gone the Hamilton Island...in fact...he had no clue where it was. But he'd keep us posted.
I was relatively amused, and figured the bad was still in Sydney, and we'd have it by nightfall. Mike, however, was very unhappy. We were sharing one suitcase, and although I had quite a few of my favorite clothes in there, nothing was the end of the world. But poor Mike had packed his: bassoon harness (special order), orchestra part to Tchaik 5 (concert this Friday, replacement cost ~$1500 for entire orchestra set), Beethoven part (chamber concert we're giving in less than 2 weeks) and black dress shoes (concerts Friday, Saturday, and next weekend).
We spent most of Friday trying to find a Target in Hobart to buy crucial things like socks and toothpaste. If you remember our story about going to Target and Kmart trying to get basic supplies for our apartment, you'll have a pretty good idea of what we went through trying to get outfitted for the weekend. I'll spare you the gruesome details, just know that it wasn't pretty and it is very difficult to find things in this country!
The airlines called two or so more times to continually let us know that they had no clue where our bag was, except that they were sure it was NOT in Hamilton Island. Saturday I called them to voice my displeasure. The guy I talked to acted offended that I wanted my bag, and asked "Well, had I SEEN them put a tag for Hobart on my suitcase? Because that was MY responsibility." He also lied and told me that he himself had left two messages that morning on our cell phone. The concierge at our hotel let us know that this airlines is notoriously troublesome, and that we'd have to keep harrassing them before they'd realize that we weren't going to go away. Bob and Connie even went back to the airport to voice their complaint in person.
Sunday, still nothing. We notified the airlines that we were changing hotels but that the cell phone was staying the same, and then agreed not to worry about it at all. Didn't matter--no messages from the airlines, no messages on Monday, either. Monday evening we returned to Hobart to fly to Sydney. We went straight the service desk, both of us dreading the return to Sydney to have to replace all of our stuff and tell the orchestra manager about the lost part.
"Michael Jones? We have your bag right here! Didn't anyone call you?" The lady popped into the back and wheeled out OUR BAG. "Apparently it was mistagged for Hamilton Island," she said.
Then, as a little "We're sorry!!!!!" we got upgraded to orange boarding passes. JetStar, the airline we were flying, is the Australian equivalent to Southwest--you get sorted into groups, and you find your own seat as you board the plane. Orange boarding passes mean that we could get on with the first group--"And, with luck, you can get the exit seats!" they told us enthusiastically. Nothing about the $400 we had to spend to get new sweatshirts, socks, shampoo, etc. etc. etc. etc. But, because I think the universe owed us one, we DID get the exit aisle. Nothing like a little leg room to say "We're sorry we're completely incompetent!"

Actually, despite all of that, we had a FABULOUS time in Tasmania, and hope to return as soon as humanly possible. But I'll let Mike tell you all about it!
~Ruth Ann

Finally a new one!

We are back! We sincerely apologize to our intrepid readers for our lack of posts. We've had a busy week with my parents coming to Sydney! They stayed in Sydney for a week and are now in New Zealand. In a few days, we'll all go to Tasmania for a long weekend. Our week was spent showing them around the city interspersed with school obligations. All the sights that we have grown used to were new and exciting again when showing them to people.

They got in in the morning and were feeling fine with no feelings of jet-lag....as the afternoon wore on, they got sleepier and sleepier. Alas, they succumbed, and didn't even notice me taking this picture on the train.



After feeding them their first meal in Australia (we made kangaroo burgers!), we took them around the closer sights of Sydney at first: the opera house (this is proof they were actually here!) and the botanical gardens where my dad made a new friend. The ibises are so tame here that they will eat out of your hand....even when all we had is a crummy muffin.





In the Circular Quay area, they were thoroughly amused by the talented street performers and arguably more amused by the bad ones (we don't have any pictures of the bad ones as we didn't want to encourage them). The living statue and the dixie-land group were the best ones.




While we were in class and working, my parents went off on their own and saw the sights of greater-Sydney. They managed to come back with half a suitcase of native Australian wood and a bunch of material to take home. In the evenings, we were to go out to eat with them and see a bit more of the city. At one restaurant, we ordered (and we all-my mom included!- ate, I might add)kangaroo and crocodile skewers.

They did get to experience one incident that is the epitome of Australianisms. In the hotel they were staying in, there was a knock at the door. I opened it and who ever it was said "Oh, ah, I'm from housekeeping. We need to check the drapes. We're going to replace them and we need to see if their put on right. We won't do it now while you're here, but we need to check anyway." They went to the window and jimmied the drapes and said "Yep, these need to be replaced. We'll wait till you're gone otherwise it will be awkward with you here. Thanks, bye." They left the room, turned off the lights (with us still being there!) and closed the door. The three of us (my mom, dad and me) just looked at each other and blinked several times before the oddness of the situation passed.

We have several days of the grind until we get to go to Tasmania. We'll write more later and tell you how it was!!

~Mike

An odd day

About a week ago, I was innocently minding my own business in a practice room when some strange guy popped the door open and asked if I was using the piano. I was, in fact, because I'm learning a piece where I have to sing a countermelody while playing the flute; moreover, there were NO stands to be found anywhere, and the piano by default had become my stand. I said as much and the guy (I've named him Chump-boy) said "There are a bunch of empty rooms at the end of the hall." "Yes," I replied, "But there are no stands anywhere and I really need to be able to see my music." "Just remember that stands are moveable and pianos are not," said Chump-boy. "I'll make you a deal," I said, though irked. "If you can manage to find me a stand anywhere, I'd be happy to move." "Just keep that in mind for next time," he said with a dismissive wave and disappeared.

Haven't seen him at all since, but then I was unfortunately innocently minding my own business in a practice room again today. I heard a knock on the door and hoped it was Mike, but when I turned around, there was Chump-boy, back for round two. This time I did have a stand, and was done with the piano part, and so would have been willing to trade if he had an empty room for me. Before I could say anything, he came out with "Could you take your tuner off the keys?" "Take my what off the which?" was my elegant reply. "Your tuner...or whatever that is...It's not good for the piano keys if things touch them." This completely blew me away. The piano was a small upright with a broken pedal and coffee stains on the keys. I had a small Korg metronome and a PENCIL sitting on the keys...That's definitely much more weight one's fingers....My only response was to yank them off the keys and slam the lid shut (where the music prop promptly would have fallen On The Keys...) "Cheers!" Chump-boy said and vanished.

I can only figure that he's got it out for me since I wouldn't move the first time. Since then I've thought of a dozen snappy responses, but he takes me by such surprise that I'm left openmouthed. I almost hope he bugs me again just so I can ask him who he is and why won't he leave me the **** alone!!!

Then today we had the first tutti orchestra rehearsal for the second program this semester. I don't know how everything else went, but we ran Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony. !!!!!!!!!!!!!! If any of you were in Concert Orchestra the semester PB (names omitted to protect the innocent!) conducted, you would have thought that was the worst that a student orchestra could have played. I'm proud to annouce that we topped that today, mostly thanks to Maestro IP's conducting. He stopped conducting in the most crucial tempo changes, varied his tempi in rhythmic sections and gave us no help whatsoever for the sycopation, then would ask us why we didn't come in. I'm honestly surprised that we made it all the way to the end. Although things weren't helped by certain string players not picking up their parts until today.......Things never change, do they?

Mike has a late lesson, so it's up to me to cook dinner. Hmmm...this will be as much a surprise for me as for him! :-)

~Ruth Ann

Zeeeee

We had a startling discovery yesterday. We can see daylight through a part of our apartment that we shouldn't. It's not the walls or ceiling.....IT'S THE FLOOR!!!! Our building is built into a cliff-like hill. We're on the ground floor in the front but our floor is the third one up in the back. We are seeing the light slantways towards the back of the building. There apparently is nothing between our floor boards and the outside world!!! This explains a fair amount like why we get so much dust in our apartment(we don't know if there is nothing but dirt directly below us or not), how cold our place gets is the night and how easily the damn bugs and spiders crawl in!! Since it's Sunday, we can't heckle the leasing agent about it today, so for now there is a big heavy phone book on the crack. (We hope the industrious bugs aren't strong enough to lift it off!) Very soon they (leasing agents) will be getting deal with the problem instead of us.

I'm teaching Ruth Ann how to make bassoon reeds. I'm hoping she'll have a natural talent to it so I don't have to deal with them. She's learned how to shape it pretty well, but we'll see how she does with the scoring and if she cracks up the middle of the tube. I have high hopes as she's learned the ins and outs of making oboe reeds. When she has finished her first one, we'll post a picture of it!

We had several amusing run-ins with Australianisms regarding the alphabet. An 'h' is pronounced with an 'h' sound to it so it sounds like 'haych' but not everybody says it like that. Also in the U.S. we all learned to say the letter 'Z' as zeeeee. Here they pronounce it 'zed.' While working in the library we've gotten several confusing looks been politely corrected by patrons when we say zeeee. We asked one of our friends, Ian, about this and he said, "Yeah, I used to think the band was called Zed Zed Top!"

Cheers!

~Mike