I want S'more Halloween

Trick or Treat!

I'll take a treat! You may not be able to tell that is is all hallows eve way down under (due to a general lack of enthusiasm about the holiday), but we had a little Halloween fun ourselves making candy corn marshmallow s'mores.

In my limited worldly travels, I have learned that s'mores are an American delicacy. Mostly because no where else has graham crackers. Or has even heard of them.

I was generous and decided to culturally enlighten my colleagues with an afternoon tea s'more roasting session.

Due to the lack of anything graham, these s'mores were made possible by Megan, who is awesome :)

Obviously, we couldn't have a bonfire in our staff room (plus there it's fire ban season here now). So we made do with what we had: microwave, panini toaster, and toaster oven with a hot plate. All methods proved to be fruitful, once we figured out that we needed to turn the hotplate on.

And as first-timers, Kyla and Pieter, representing Australia and the Netherlands, quickly learned the skill of obtaining a perfectly warm, ooey, gooey, marshmallow for their first ever s'mores. And that's there's no way to eat a s'more without getting chocolate and marshmallow all over your fingers and face.

I think I've now completed my duty as an American. The world is now a better place.

May your Halloween be just as sweet, smiley, and safe!

Happy Halloween!!!

More than a Gateway to Everything Else

Bill Bryson referred to Canberra as "he "gateway to everything else" in Australia. I was pleasantly surprised that there were a few, at least 3, things to see.

When in a national capital, one is obliged to do some obligatory sight-seeing. We arrived a day before our work conference to a cold, windy, miserable Tuesday. Now granted, it doesn’t take much for the weather to be more miserable than sunny, delightful Perth, but it slightly dampened our walk-around-the-city plans. So we hopped on a bus. You know, one of those double decker, red, hop on hop off city tour busses.

 

Well, they didn’t even bother running the double decker in that weather, so we were in a little van. But it was still red. But it was a great tour of the city and oriented me to what would be my three sightseeing stops.

1. The Australian War Memorial

 

 

The Roll of Honour lists over 100,000 soldiers that have died in wars from World Was I onwards, up to the current conflicts. The contrasting red poppies added a certain air of solemnity and were quite beautiful.

 

Just like in Arlington, there is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, guarded by service men and women (though they're changing of the guard isn't quite as elaborate but still stoic.

 

And you can go inside the tomb, where the soldier is watched over by beautiful stained glass and painted representatives from the armed forces.

 

 

 

It was interesting learning about the wars, particularly War II from the Australian perspective. They also had a moving exhibit with video and sound recordings of soldiers and families talking about "Coming Home".

 

 

 

2. Parliament

I’m not much into American politics, so you can image how much I’ve learned about the politics of Australia being here only a year and as a foreigner who can’t vote. We jumped on a tour that was just starting and got taken to see the great hall (which you can rent out for functions!) with the tapestry that was painted in 1986 and hence has Haley’s Comet.

 

 Can you find Haley's Comet?

 

We saw one of the four copies of the Magna Carta in the world. And we got to see the House of Representatives and the Senate. Parliament is a HUGE building, so to make it a little easier, they’ve color coded the different parts of the building: green for the house, red for the senate, and blue for the prime minister section (I forget what they call that part where all the important offices are). 

Unfortunately parliament wasn’t sitting at the time so we didn’t get to witness any action, but I still think I now know about 300% more about how the Australian government works.

The building itself is pretty neat too. It’s built into a hill (so it’s not on the top fo a hill above the people) and you can actually stand on top of the building (above the government). 

Plus it’s got a great view back to Old Parliament, Mt. Ainslie and the War Memorial.

 

3.  National Museum

My sister is a museum professional, so I had to go into at least one Australian museum. Turns out, it’s very much like an American museum.

Not a bad spot for a museum

 

We were in a bit of a rush, but saw some cool things. Like a giant 6.35 kg horse heart from Phar Lap, the legendary horse of the Depression that died in America in 1932 and led to the Aussie saying "A heart as big as Phar Lap's".

 

And model trains..

 

And a bushfire sign...

And a steamboat!!!

 I think the Sabino is better :)

And a whole lot about Aboriginal culture, which is only found in Australia. But it is really cool to think that these are the oldest surviving race of people.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monumental Canberra

Do you know the capital of Australia? 

I didn't until I got here. 

It's Canberra (pronounced Canbra) which is located in the Australian Capital Territory.

And most Australians have never been there, nor do they seem to have any desire to go there. It's a tiny city of 300,000, home to government, museums, monuments, and has no coastline (hence no beaches). But the monumnets and museums more than try to compensate for the lack of beaches.

Anzac Parade is a large street through the center of the axis of Canberra, but more on that later. The street is lined with memorials and monuments with room designated for more.

 There are memorials to wars and conflicts...

The Vietnam War

 

 The Korean War

(The Australian War Memorial gets its own blog it's so big)

The Rats of Tobruk Memorial, whatever that is...

And the monuments to all the service branches...

 The aqua flag is for the air force, the white flag is for the navy, and the army has the Australia National flag.

The Australian Army.

The Royal Australian Navy

The Royal Australian Air Force

 And even the Australian Service Nurses.

And then there are memorials for other countries...

New Zealand.

Netherlands.

And the most dissapointing memorial of all. The American Australia memorial. A tall spike in the middle of office buildings. If I hadn't been looking for it, I never would have found it. And that would probably have been a good thing. There were poles for flags, a wreath and a flame, but none were in action. I hope it wasn't representative of what Australians think of America.

In a city like Canberra, you can't help but be thankful for all the men and women who have served their country for peace, freedom, and the protection of human rights, whatever country it may be.