Hoe hoe hoe!

Man the xmas spirit is truly amazing out here. Maybe its the weather, or rather less than American sense of decorating. I never really decorated much or any for xmas anyways. Well, I was in the research lab today, and my professor/advisor rocks in and asks if I want to come over for dinner. On Christmas Eve... SURE! So I go home with him. He and his wife made an incredible dinner, and we had some pastry's and tea and juice. They opened presents and lit the Christmas Tree... which I think got part of its glow that their son was bewildered by, due to the candles actually lighting-up part of the tree. A real tree with real candles and fire! So awesome. But when they were opening presents, they gave me some! They had two presents wrapped and labeled for me! Totally a surprise, thats the true spirit, a big surprise. I had no idea this was going to happen, he just invited me over today!

Earlier in the day I stopped by the Vic market and visited my friend Dave, my buckwheat dealer. He also sells grain and nuts and stuff. Well, I kinda feel like its making a drug deal 'cause I by the metric system, in other words, I but like a quarter-kilo. I love that I by based on the kilo metric-standard unit, like professional drug dealers. Well Dave hooked me up with more than I asked for and charged me so little, it was so humbling! Lots of mixed nuts, and lots of friendliness.

Even earlier this week I went to Pellegrini's Italian joint on Bourke near Spring Street. Matt is awesome. He pulls some great espresso, as I have been going to this Italian place the past few weeks, we recognize each other. Well I was doin' the ole fold-the-US-20-dollar bill trick so that the graphics on the bill look like 9-11 and collapsing twin-towers. Matt wanted the money, and he paid me AUD for my USD. And he even gave me and my friend, Vegan Dave free espresso. He then didn't even want us to pay! I was like... man that's so nice. What a holiday gift! I still paid him as a tip. So cool!

Last weekend I went to a friend's wedding. It was unitarian. I knew I was in the right place when I ended up chatting with a dude sporting an Amon Amarth T-Shirt. But the whole deal was so cool. There was no song or dance or any other wedding BS. Straight-up, to the point. Basically can be paraphrased... "Ok your married... lets party" Ok maybe not like a crazy party scene, it was a nice reception and then the offsite party/reception. I didn't go to the latter, but the reception at the unitarian place was nice! Congrats Lev!

So here is the deal. May the holidays bring everyone a smile. Lets forget about brain washing and religion, and just recognize the love we have inside for one another. Strip-away the social corruption, we are simply animals. We can love or hate. Love is fun, its better to smile than be pissed. We are all playing this game. Either we can make life sucky by creating enemies, or simply love each other and laugh. Love is easier.

-Matt

3lection

Wow! Election day today, and they do it on a Saturday! How much sense does that make! Seems logical to me. However, their voting is compulsory, you have to do it or you get fined! That seems kinda dirty, plus the candidates are ranked, so you have to prioritize when you vote. The latter being absolutely hilarious to me, because I feel the government of the US thinks we are all twits and completely incapable of counting beyond 5, none-the-less capable of prioritizing the candidates! You all remember the hanging-chad deal right... because, well the rest of the world, I assume, was laughing too.

I went with one of my vegan friends, this morning, to look for a house. We liked both houses, and then I went with her to vote.

This afternoon was awesome. I went in to Uni, and then the professor took me home for dinner with himself, his wife, son, and another professor, his wife, and their daughter. Amazing vegan dinner! Seriously awesome and hard-working Indian cuisine. Their son made some amazing tea, and I must say, he was incredibly intelligent, cool, and just straight-up. He acted much more mature and intelligent than I ever would have at his age, mega cool. I think he was like 10 or so, totally impressed me as being just incredibly normal and intelligent, and he loved my use of the word "awesome." After the appetizers of vegan coolness (artichoke dip and a mushroom pate), we had an awesome dinner, and watched some of the election results on tv.

Later, my advisor, his son, the other professor's daughter, and myself played the boardgame, Ticket to Ride. But of course, we played the Nordic edition, after-all my advisor is from Denmark! The professor was on my team, and we kicked serious anus! Later in the evening we went outside to visit the possums in their tree! That validated what I saw in a previous blog post. I did in fact witness a possum previously, and not a drop bear, or wombat.

Then came dessert! It was a vegan-awesomeness apple crumble with custard deal. The other professor's wife made this concoction. Amazing. It's times like this that being vegan is mega-rad.

These people are so awesome. I'm lucky to have found an advisor who is much more than an academic, rather a friend/surrogate-family member. He actually cares for me beyond school. The same dude who hooked-me up with an oil heater, and also the same wife who tried to help me find a place! Such nice people. The world needs more caring individuals as such.

!Hostel

Sooooo. The place I was drooling over when I first hopped down here. A place in the artsy-hip Fitzroy area, called me back! They needed someone to take over rent, and well I was tossing between hostel, the vegans (Fiona and Dave), and the Fitzroy place. Well since I love the vegans, and we have been trying to look for places to start, and not yet successful, I decided to accept the Fitzroy place... until me and the vegans find a house. I must say, I have been in contact with the vegans since I first arrived and even before I arrived. So, in a since, I guess this Fitzroy place is temporary. I have two rooms here, well I should have two, there is one person that is moving out, Louie. Louie is mega-cool. My other housemates, are Heath, Zoe, and Paula. All way cool! I love these people so far. My current room here is 'ok' It has a queen bed hovering on a small frame just over the floor. I dig the house, but as common in Australia, especially with way-old Victorian-styled places, it lacks heat. Which probably isn't too bad in the Summer, but now, the winter... it's pretty cool and drafty. My main quibble is the heat. Zoe did hook me up with a small portable heater. Which is 'ok' and downstairs has a oil-heater (which is pretty much cut it on when you need to). But hey, what can I say. I just wanted to find some neat people, in a neat area, and have my own room ... check, check, check! I do need a desk and chair. But that will need to wait until Louie's room becomes available.

I met up with the vegans today to look at a house. Mega-cool house, however one of the bedrooms leads directly to the bathroom, or you have to go outside to get to the bathroom. So thats probably a no-go. We all hung out at a mega-vegan friendly Vietnamese restaurant Yong Green Food, I did not partake in the foodativities, but did hangout with muh friend. We then ventured to Coles to get some grocery action on.

Anyways, that was my early afternoon. I just had some coffee with Heath in the new place here, and am planning on some vegan-friendly pizza at my friend, Paul, one of the post-grads, place. His wife is making soy-cheese pizza. So considerate!

Hah, and for all those picture-grubbing monsters. My room... yeah it doesn't look as cool as how Louie has his decorated... but hey, I arrived by taxi around 8:00 PM last night. All I wanted was some community, not that the hostel was bad.  In fact, it was a blast as I made tons of friends.  The last day there I met a guy who knew, from Vietnam, Jim Webb the VA Senator.  But I want to get established out here, and get a place where I can get things done.  Maybe things will start to smooth out :-) Also, various sizes of these pictures can be skimmed from my Picassa album or my Flickr album.

My bedroom.

The place (center house). The last picture, the mailslot, is posted on http://www.flickr.com/matt-davis



Heath and Louie.


-Matt