Brisbane

Brisbane
6 May
Sunny am, late afternoon clouds
7430 steps

We left the Wattle Lodge and Canberra early this morning, up in time to see a beautiful sunrise after a cresent moon. Our coach driver knocked over a sign on the way to the Canberra airport. My senior colleague believes that he wasn't used to a coach as big as the one he was driving that day.

One thing that came up while we were meeting with the good folks at the US embassy yesterday. Do you know that you -- my fellow American citizens -- pay about three times as much for sugar as the rest of the world? And that's not the just white stuff you put in your coffee; we pay too much for all the sugar we use. Ponder for a moment how much you'd save, and then tell your friends and your congressman. We should really think about this.

As we yook off from the Canberra airport today, I thought about the first time I ever flew in a plane -- for several of our students, the flights in this course are their first; that's why I started thinking about it. I was 12, and my mother and grandmother were taking me out to Long Island, where my uncle and his family lived. I remember taxiing out to the runway, thinking "This isn't so bad," and then feeling terrified when the engines throttled up and we hurtled down the runway going 'way too fast! The bumpiness suddenly smoothing out when the wheels left the ground, the turbulence as we passed through the first cloud layer, my ears popping for teh first time, my certainty that the plane was going to break apart when I heard the loud bang -- someone explained to me that it was just the landing gear, of course. And of course, there's the first view of the horizon above the clouds, and the absolute knowledge for the very first time that the earth is round and you can see its roundness and sense its life-laden blue glow.

The ground around Canberra is very dry, apart form the aggressively irrigated bits of farmland. Locals were telling us about a severe drought lasting for a few years now. It looked as if storms might be heading in, but they appeared to have broken up. Good luck for us in the course, but not so good for the citizens of ACT.

We arrived in the Brisbane airport about 10:30, and made it to the TinBilly hostel about noon. It's definitely a place for the young; my colleagues and I are very much out of place here. After we put our bags in our rooms, the students were free to explore for the rest of the day. My colleagues and I walked down to the Queen Street Mall and took a quick look at the casino -- I quickly lost $10 AUD, as usual. I do not understand my senior colleague's luck. My junior colleague is wise enough to realize that the only way to win is not to play. I returned to the hostel and read awhile, then napped.

This evening, we ate at a passable restaurant, the Pig 'n' Whistle, after which we took a stroll around the South Bank Parklands, on the opposite side of the Brisbane River. The opera season starts May 14 -- frsutrating for me, as I'd love to see an opera down here some year. The Queensland opera seaon opens with La Boheme; Puccini holds a special place in my heart. Maybe someday ... they are also doing a stage version of The Hobbit -- sounds weird. In addition the the ads for the opera, we also saw some very entertaining street acrobats -- imagine two Australians pretending to be a Russian Siegfried and Roy without the animals and with contorns and you get the idea. The tights were red, and they had yellow stars on their left bum.

This next bit is somewhat directed to my lovely wife, but you all should read it, as I suspect you may never hear about this movie otherwise. Is the movie Downfall being released in American theaters? I will go see it in a day or so, and let you know more about it. The downfall is that of Adolph Hiter, it is a tragic account of his last days. I expect it to be difficult to watch; after all, he is one of maybe three of the most wicked men of the 20th century (along with Stalin and Pol Pot), and probably among the most wicked to ever live. It's hard to be sympathetic. The reason that my lovely wife might be interested in this is that Hitler is played by Bruno Ganz. If you ware familiar with the movie Wings of Desire or its sequel Far Away, So Close, then you have seen him as the angel who becomes human.

Tomorrow, we head off to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. Many of our students are excited at the opportunity to hold a koala; many of you parents will probably see a photo of that soon. We also celebrate the first of six birthdays we will have on the trip.