Thanksgiving. In Australia. With an Australian pineapple turkey.

Being on the flip side didn't stop us from having Thanksgiving, even though the holiday definitely made us miss our families (even more than usual). Australians don't have a Thanksgiving, unlike the Canadians, so us Americans have to band together.

We had two Thanksgiving dinners. The first was a vegetarian meal at our place. It went so well that we forgot to take any pictures of the actual dinner.

But here's what the table looked like after the dirty dishes were cleared:

Notice all the unused knives? To an American, this probably doesn't look weird. Except when dining in high society (or eating animals), dinner knives mostly serve for making the place settings aesthetically balanced. Aussies, on the other hand, typically eat with a knife in their right hand, and a fork in their left. So these clean knives represent a testament to American culture.

Since it's us, we did have to take pictures of what we cooked. You can see a loaf of bread above. Here, sitting in tupperware containers right before going in the fridge, is a roast root vegetable dish:

And here, from right to left, is a bulgur/lentil/feta salad, mashed potatoes with veggie gravy, green beans with almonds, and a cornbread/veggie sausage stuffing:

After stuffing ourselves, we and our guests decided to go for a walk down to the beach. It was warmish out and we made it just in time for the sunset. Thanksgiving on the beach:

Then we had the crazy idea of taking a picture with people in it. At long last: proof that we have friends...

From right to left: that's Adam, Tamar, Justin, Jenn and us.

Right next to where the above picture was taken was a small workout station, with a chin-up bar. Here is the inevitable pull-up contest:

You might not be able to tell from this, but we actually looked really cool and super buff while we were doing pull-ups. Really.

The next night we were invited over to some other friends' place for another round. We again forgot to get proper pictures. Our hosts, however, sent us this picture of the settings:

 

And that's an Australian pineapple turkey.

(All the knives in the above picture got used - this dinner was eaten Aussie-style.)

Even though we miss everyone back in the US, we feel deeply thankful for the chance to live in this beautiful place, and to have met so many kind, wonderful people.

Home-made bagels, and 24 hours in Canberra

We've been missing New York bagels. Melbourne has a lot of great food, but bagels are rare, and the ones we've had just haven't cut it. So we made some:

They worked. It takes some work to find high-gluten flour here, but Naomi did. We even did the boiling-bit, without too many burns.

On Thursday, Colin flew to Canberra to give a talk at Australia National University. As it turned out, another American was visiting Canberra around the same time. Here's his plane:

Canberra was filled with federal police in fluorescent coats, and had an (apparently unusual) Obama-related traffic jam which delayed Colin a few minutes getting to his hotel.

ANU has its own hotel:

Traffic jam aside, the hotel was easy to get to. The philosophy department, on the other hand, is hidden inside of a labyrinth. Getting through the labyrinth seems to be a test of visiting speakers. This is the entrance:

Inside are twisting hallways and spiral staircases. With luck and skill, one arrives here:

There are a ton of first-rate philosophers there, so it's well worth the expedition.

The talk itself seemed to go well. Colin at least wasn't laughed out of the room, and only one or two people nodded off. The questions from the faculty and grad students were excellent - sharp and insightful. The paper is going to be much better once Colin revises it in light of all the feedback.

We don't have pictures of any of that, though. It was a bit like being in a philosophical whirlwind.

The next morning, Colin walked around the campus a bit. Lots of space... and birds. Here are some birds:

And here's another bird:

Below is one more bird. You have to look closely - this is an Australian magpie. They make an otherwordly cooing sound, and are notorious for swooping at bikers. This one was hanging out on some chin-up bars that are carefully watched by a statue of Winston Churchill:

A short walk from campus is the artificial lake around which Canberra is built. Here is a view of Parliament House across the water.

On the side of the lake close to ANU is the National Museum of Australia. It's housed in a new, swoopy, modern building. One side:

Here's a sculpture on the other side of the building, seen over a pond at the center of the museum:

The museum is quite large. Colin only had time to see half of it.

Here are two of the more striking items in their collection. The first is a 3000 year-old mummified head of a Tasmanian Tiger (more accurately called a 'Thylacine,' since they used to live on the Australian continent as well as Tasmania). The last Thylacine died in 1936.

The second picture here is a painting from a section of the museum that focuses on the struggles of First Australians (often called 'Aborigines').
It almost feels inappropriate to just throw this in at the end of a blog post... but maybe it would be even more inappropriate not to mention anything about this at all.

For the historical background, see this.

Sun, spring, sweets and the tower of Sauron

Spring is here. Sorry, Northern Hemisphere friends and family... please just take this as an illustrated invitation to visit.

Just in case you've forgotten what we look like, here we are, sitting at the beach on one of the first hot days:

This just happens to be a good photo of us, a rare occurrence. Also, a rare moment of us  looking somewhat "cool."

Speaking of being cool:

Some animals find being cool effortless. That's the stare of a creature who has no qualms about devouring native species.

Speaking of devouring:

We prefer devouring non-native species. We picked these at a farm southeast of the city. There were a lot - some went into breakfast cereal, others are being frozen for the sake of future pancakes, and some got coated in chocolate.

Speaking of chocolate:

All tasty. The winner, however, is that little cookie ('Baci di San Remo'). It's a chocolate macaroon with hazelnut filling. The macaroon parts were sweet and delicate.

Speaking of sweet and delicate:

This rose just emerged this week in our backyard. It's on a small rosebush that sits next to the lemon tree. Out of nowhere, a sudden burst of colour.

Speaking of colour:

This is in a neighborhood we're thinking of moving to. Pink elephants make for good philosophical examples (you'd be surprised how often they're useful), so this seems like it would be a good place to find philosophical inspiration.

Speaking of philosophical inspiration:

Same neighborhood as the elephants. This was an especially good flat white at a place called Dukes, which roasts its own beans - very cool (especially in a town that prides itself on its coffee snobbery).

Not speaking of which:

This is a tower near us that has these weird eye things on top. Creepy and Tolkien-ish.

4 types of street art, 3 types of food

Melbourne seems to inspire street art and food (among other things). Here is an incomplete catalog:

Street Art Type 1: Unintentional Plant Sculpting

There are a lot of low power lines in this city (they could also be phone lines), and many of them are located right above rows of trees. To avoid conflict, the trees are trimmed into 'Y' shapes. This seems to start early, so there are rows of mature Y trees all over the place.

Street Art Type 2: Intentional Street Art

There is also a vast amount of street art in the traditional sense (according to the aesthetician Nick Riggle: art that makes material use of the street). It's everywhere. We need to devote at least one proper post to this, but the above is one especially clever (and subtle) example.

Street Art Type 3: Coffee Art

Two flat whites with feather designs that we drank sitting on Acland Street. One came out better than the other (we've heard about places with fancier stuff too, but this is pretty representative).

Street Art Type 4: Strangely Dressed Americans

Let us explain. It was a friend's birthday party, and we'd promised to bring him brownies. Our plan was to bike over, since there's not a good way to go via public transit. A storm rolled in, though, and tested our resolve. We decided to put everything in plastic bags, including ourselves. This was the result.

And yes: it stopped raining moments after we'd left the house. But by then we were running late, and didn't want to turn back. Also: Colin did put on a helmet.

Food Type 1: Homemade Vegetarian American-Style Food

This is a Reuben Sandwich. The sauerkraut is homemade (all Naomi's work). The fake meat was imitation bacon, but it was more like corned beef than like bacon. The only thing the sandwich'lacked' was thousand-island dressing...

Food Type 2: Slightly Fancier Versions of Australian Junk Food

This was called a 'Tim Tam Slice.' Naomi picked it up at a cafe in South Melbourne. Tasty even without coffee being drunk through it.

Food Type 3: Fancy-ish Desserts Brought Home on a Bike, Getting Only Slightly Squished

A 'Royale' from Brunetti's bakery in Carlton (near Melbourne Uni). Sort of a chocolate hazelnut mousse cake. Colin stayed at the university for dinner recently, but wanted to bring home a dessert.


Here are some words that will appear in upcoming posts: 'grading,' 'garden' and 'Canberra.'

Sweet summer (not pictured).

It's technically not summer here yet. But we had a couple gloriously summery days recently. Colin even broke out the shorts once this week when he went into his office (not pictured). But here's a view of Melbourne Uni campus:



We went out for ice-cream last week to a place called 'Jock's Ice Cream' in Albert Part (the neighborhood north of us). Apparently, when Obama won the election in 2008, they came up with a flavor ('flavour') called 'Obamarama' that was a smash-hit. They didn't have any of that when we went, but we did get some scoops of a flavor called 'Triple X Chocolate' (not pictured). Here's another dessert, though:



That was the packaging, promising great things. The inside looked like this:



They were profiteroles in a chocolate sauce. Not bad, but it didn't quite live up to the packaging.

There's a small lemon tree in the back yard. It has produced two lemons so far. They were both very sweet - you could pretty much eat them straight. No pictures of those, though. But here's a bee pollinating some of the new blossoms on the tree:



We're starting to think that the basic premise of Melbourne is eating and drinking outside. There are sidewalk cafes everywhere (not pictured). But here's Naomi eating vegetarian dumplings by South Melbourne market:

Bread and bottles

Yesterday we fasted for Yom Kippur. So we've been thinking about food, for a change. Here are some highlights from the past week.

This was some especially good-looking and good-tasting sourdough bread:


But what does one have on bread? Butter? Sometimes. Peanut butter? Often. Cheese? Sure. But in Australia...

Colin finally got the nerve to buy a little jar. And he's decided he likes it. Naomi, not so much. "...yet," says Colin. For those who may not know: Vegemite is a yeast-based spread, apparently a by-product of beer making. It's extremely salty and, yes, extremely yeasty. The internet tells us that it is less intense in flavor ('flavour') than the British equivalent: Marmite. We're not sure we believe this.

Speaking of products of beer making:

This is from a local brewery, from the Melbourne suburb Richmond. It's very good - better than some of our earlier Australian beer experiences. It has a lot of fruity flavors ('flavours'), but without losing its identity as beer.

Our last close-up photo for today:

We were given this by the Melbourne Lyceum Club.

The Melbourne Lyceum Club is a long-standing women's club based in central Melbourne. Several of their members run a philosophy circle, and a few months ago they decided they'd like to have someone present on Spinoza. Since Melbourne isn't exactly brimming with Spinozists ("...yet," says Colin), they were eventually directed towards Colin.

The presentation was a lot of fun. Naomi came along. The club members were a fantastic bunch, and the club itself is beautiful... quite a treat.

Returning to yesterday: we went to High Holydays (Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur) services at Kedem, a progressive, lay-led congregation. The services were lovely, and the congregation was unbelievably welcoming (as in: lots of invitations to meals at various people's homes).

Food isn't the only thing we think about. Really. We'll prove it in the next post...

Spinoza, cookies, rain and spiders

Colin recently got back from his first trip to the US. Yes, it was weird 'visiting' America. This was the occasion:




For some reason, Colin was invited to present. When he got the invitation several months ago (when we were still in New York), Hopkins was a short train-ride away. At this point, it was a somewhat longer trip - but well worth it. In a whirlwind, jet-lagged week, he heard 15 talks on Spinoza, delivered his own, caught up with some very good friends, saw a bit of Baltimore, spent an evening with Naomi's family (Naomi was able to join us for a bit on Skype), flew to Albuquerque, saw his parents for a couple nights, ate a chile relleno burrito in Madrid (Madrid, New Mexico), did a little mud stuccoing, met his mother's new cat, started a new Spinoza paper, survived a 10-hour layover in LA, and came back to Melbourne. It was hard not getting to see a lot of friends, when they were so close... but he'll be back again before long.

After the long, trans-Pacific flight, arriving home again in Melbourne was sweet. Very sweet:



Naomi made a pile of these. They're insanely tasty... orange Florentines.

There hasn't really been a consistent theme in our lives since then.

There has been a consistent amount of rain, however. Out the window, one sees this:



Just inside the window, one sees this:



We've been told the spiders have been unusually prolific this season. These types seem pretty unconcerned with us - they just want a corner to hang out in. Unfortunately, their aesthetic sensibilities (pro-cobwebs) and ours (anti-cobwebs) don't match, so we've had to usher them along...