Land of the Free and Reliable Internet Access

I have 16:43 left on my Frank Tate hall internet computer and am going to use it to bitch. It's 5:16 on a Sunday and I cannot find a computer in Melbourne to use to type a paper (due Tuesday). The VCA (my school)'s labs and library are closed on the weekends. The University of Melbourne has three places of access: the Arts and Humanities library (open until 5 on Sunday) and the Frank Tate and ERC buildings (open until 2 am on Sunday) with about, I don't know, 20 computers for the 45,000 population student body. In other words, I can't get on a computer.

It's not that I couldn't have done my paper earlier although it's not that I haven't been working on it either. It's just that I would like to keep working on it and not cram.

This morning I went to the State Library of Victoria (the state that Melbourne is in) to use its "one-hour access" computers for one hour and rocked the paper for sixty minutes.

Later, I'll tell you all about the libraries in Melbourne which have many more cute features, but I'll leave you with one of my favorite stories from my first year at the University of Wisconsin.

I had to print 7 pages in the lab which, at the rate of 7 cents a copy, would cost 49 cents. I had 50 cents, so no worries. However, the copy machine only takes copy cards which you need to purchase. The copy cards cost a dollar. I did not have a dollar but I did have an ATM card so I went to the ATM. Unfortunately, I had only $20 in my bank account which did not cover the $20 withdrawal minimum (minus the ATM fees). I did not make my copies.

Cory visiting Stacey in Australia

This is Marco and Stacey playing pool, with Angela and Cory watching. I don't know if it's an Australia thing or just this particular pub, but they don't have numbered billiard balls, just two different colors. I don't think this shot is gonna work.


Cory and I went to this place called "Healesville Sanctuary" so we could get our Australian-animal fix. They cared for many of the animal victims from the bushfires.

The Koalas were very photo-friendly, although I hear they're not so friendly in real life.


Tasmanian Devil. Definitely a highlight. There was a zoo-keeper standing nearby with a bucket of miscellaneous chicken parts.


It's hard to express how big these pelicans were, but if you can believe it, that's a normal-sized duck in front of them.


My local mixed-business milk bar.


Cory at the footy game. Footy is slang for Australian Rules Football. I guess it's a cross between soccer, American football and rugby. Cory was sold and I admit, it was pretty cool. It's like a school-yard game more than anything. And the fans are into it the whole time.


Some sort of Sydney thing. I think Katie Couric's been there.


The Anzac stairs - a Sydney tradition. There's a giant mattress at the bottom and if you jump, they give you a free boomerang.


They have these all over Melbourne and since Cory is more daring than me (I?), I made him try one. At the bottom, you get a surprise. That's all I'm saying. I'll get Alex to try one next.


At the airport, wasting time before the inevitable. Alex updates next!

Answers to Questions (part 2)

Double-posts today! This might be the last blog for a little bit. Cory will be here very soon, followed by Alex. I guess living, breathing people visiting me in Australia take priority over imaginary blog readers, and for that, I'm sorry.

Why are you in Australia?

I came to Australia to study with Donna Coleman, a piano professor who specializes in helping pianists with performance injuries (which I have). I also wanted to study abroad for at least a semester - something I've wanted to do since I started college but never got around to doing.

Haven't you had enough piano teachers?

Yes and no. I've had plenty of GREAT piano teachers, but I've never really chosen a piano teacher, or rather, looked for a teacher that would be a good fit for me. And because I am embarrassingly naive about all matters in the classical music world, or maybe about the world in general, it took me a long time to realize that most people do this.

Haven't you studied abroad enough?

Absolutely. I studied for 3 weeks in England, 3 weeks in Russia, 6 weeks in Florence and 3 weeks in Croatia. Then again, those were all sort of glorified holidays and I was more of a tourist than a resident. I really wanted to go somewhere and pay rent and go to a real school, not just a school set up for the visiting international students. I don't want to be catered to (well, not all the time) and wanted to experience a culture firsthand, but you know, without the whole, learning a new language part.

Well, is it working out like you hoped it would?

I get asked this the most. Yes, it is.

I would like to hear more about your program. Could you tell me more about it?

Really? Do you really want to hear about it? I don't think you'll find it that exciting. My days are all pretty sketchy and full of things I find fun, but I'm guessing most people would rather not do them. Here's what I've done today:

6:30 - I woke up with a headache and decided to go for a jog. The jog felt great. The headache went away.

8:00 - I made too much breakfast and wondered why we get two different GAS bills.

8:30 - I took the train and tried to look uninterested in the people around me, like everyone else.

9:00 - I called Alex and told her the stuff she had left to do for her trip, like I'm some sort of expert, and she told me about the new book, "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" which is, so far, the best thing I've heard today.

9:30-11:30 - I practiced a Beethoven sonata, a Tania Leon piece (she's a living Cuban-American composer), made some copies for teaching tomorrow, practiced learning to read alto clef (the ultimate in Stacey nerdiness).

11:30-12:30 - I read a bit on Percy Grainger, the next stop in my research on early 20th century weirdos.

12:30 - lunch: lentils with rice, "chips" and carrots

1-2:30 - I rehearsed with the percussionist of the Tania Leon piece. I play piano, the percussionist plays about 50 different instruments.

2:30-3:00 - I talked to Cory and the cat was jealous.

3-4 - piano lesson with Donna

4-5 - worked on some stuff for my "professional life" in the U.S. This consists of very, very boring things like writing my own bio for a program in June and trying to decide what conferences to apply for next.

5-6:30 - NOW. Updating blog. Doing more email junk, like "Dear Percy Grainger estate. Can I please copy of a bunch of letters for free? I'll treat them nice. The end."

7-??? Go to a friend's b-day party at a place called "Pelican's" which is "in St. Kilda." Apparently, this is enough of a direction for most people, but is pretty meaningless to me. It's like saying, you know, it's at that bar down by the river. I originally thought this place was called, "Pelican's Time" but I was misread the text that said, "Meet at Pelicans time: 7:00 pm."

10 or so - pump up the inflatable mattress and pass out

I'm already bored by my answers, which means you must not even be reading at this point. I'll get to answering other questions later, like, "Don't you know there's an economic crisis going on? How can you afford this?" and "You just turned 31. Why aren't you getting married or having kids? Cory would make a great father." Don't hold your breath for these next answers.

Pictures of Australians I paid to take pictures with me...

The guy above, Matt, is one of 6 people in my program. He's a damn good percussionist and we're playing a piece together by Tania Leon (a Cuban-American composer).

This is me and Ross, a clarinetist in the program. He's also really good.

This is Pat, a bassist (electric, not acoustic) and Chris, a violinist. They're also awesome. Interestingly enough, we recently discovered that 4 out of 6 of us have birthdays within a week of each other: Chris-March 28, Me-March 29, Naomi (not pictured)-March 30 and Pat-April 2.

All of the above pictures are from our weekly, "Tuesday-after-class-go-get-a-beer" outing. It was the first Tuesday outing actually, where 1 beer turned into many, many beers. Halfway through the night, we drunk-dialed Cory (it was 5:30 am in Madison) and I ended up walking 5 kilometers home. I'm going to read this paragraph several times before I decide to sent it to my poor mother.


These are my lovely roommates, Angela and Marco,

and my birthday present from them, including a homemade card, awww. Angela, from Melbourne, is a fabulous artist and dancer, and is currently in a masters program studying art therapy. Marco is from Brazil and finishing a doctorate in computer science.

These pictures are from my birthday when we drank a bottle of champagne, and then went and ate lots of tapas, and then came back and drank another bottle of champagne. If you didn't already know this, graduate school=drinking. We could probably make it go full circle.

graduate school=drinking
graduate school=wondering if it would be better to just get 9-5 job
9-5 job=drinking
9-5 job=wondering if it would be better to just go back to school
graduate school=drinking

I think that sums up 95% of the people reading these blog updates.