My Australian Journey (Part 14)

DAY 14 July 1, 2010
§ Visit it or You’ll Regret It §

Dreams or illusions, call them what you will. They lift us from the commonplace of life to better things.
(Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; 1807-1882)

Today, we would have a visit to Melbourne Museum. I thought it’s gonna be like any other ordinary museums. But, from what I heard from so many people I met, Melbourne Museum was worth seeing and we would regret if we hadn’t visited it. So, yes….Melbourne Museum…here I come.
However, I still had a “homework”, that is buying souvenir for my beloved fellow teachers. Again, I dragged the trolley to Victoria market hoping that today, unlike yesterday, I was fortunate enough to get what I wanted. Here comes again the warrior of trolley, ready for a battle with folded trolley on my right hand, backpack and folded umbrella, hot cappuccino on my left hand, and of course the shopping list inside the pocket!
In short, I reached Victoria market, and yes…. Thank God that the market was open but it was a bit quiet as I arrived too early. I moved directly to where the cheapest souvenirs were. I tried to bargain with the shopkeeper because I wanted to buy almost “all” souvenirs displayed there. Indeed, the prices were quite reasonable and he still gave me bonus. As all the things in the shopping list fit into the trolley and my backpack, I hurriedly moved to the tram station in front of the market. Oh man…. It’s just like dragging a house full of its furniture…it’ so heavy…it’s about 25 kilos if I am not mistaken.
The strunggle was not over yet. I needed to walk from the last stop of the tram to Flinders….then stopped at Kooyong station…and of course I had to walk through Kooyong Park and Kooyong Lawn Tennis court…going up to Hawthorn for about 1.5 km. Thank God the weather was friendly so I was not sweating but these hands and arms felt like chopstick…. I could even bend it.
Arriving at the campus, I moved to the cafeteria because I knew it was the time for the students to have a break. After ordering some food and drink and waiting for a while, I saw the students entering the cafeteria. So I called one of them to distribute the souvenir to them to give to their class advisors (wali kelas) and dormitory advisor (wali graha). Well, I considered this done and all souvenirs were well-distributed! And it’s time for us to have Melbourne Museum visit.
The group moved and walked to Kooyong station as the departure place. This time we didn’t stop at Flinders or Melbourne Central, instead we stopped at Parliament station. Going up through a long elevator, we finally came in front of Victoria Parliament building. I was so astonished with this Roman building, depicting the grace and power all at once. What made me more astonished was that students talked about this building and their experiences there. Wait a minute….. hey guys….have you been there??? Oh man, I was thousands steps behind them….they have explored this city….I said once again…they have EXPLORED the city…. Even some of them took pictures with the guard…couple days before.
Then, we walked to the museum. Before entering the museum, we took picture in front of a majestic fountain with some statues on it. That was so beautiful. When we got to the museum, there was a Titanic artefact exhibition… but of course we wouldn’t see that as the ticket was costly.
Bret Powell and his friends guided us to enter the museum. As we explored the museum, our eyes couldn’t blink due to the beauty of this museum. This museum was equipped with some multimedia, audio and video, and some touchscreen monitors. I was with Dananjaya, who brought his camera while mine was left at Annie’s house. (What a pity). It took us one hour to explore the museum when finally we had to go home. Some students (Noni and her gang) asked permission to watch Eclipse 3D the movie. Seeing their droopy eyes hoping me to grant their request, I said yes with one condition: Call or sms once you got home!!
Some students (Singgih, Syuhudi, Dananjaya, Briston, Danang, Reynaldi) and I went back to Hawthorn campus to practice for Poco-poco because most of the students had gone with the wind! We planned to perform the dance at the closing ceremony. After we had finished practicing we went home. It was around 5.00 pm. Today was a bit tiring but surely…I enjoyed it.