Sydney #2

7/25/2008

Cairns

Looking at the dates of my past blog entries, it appears I’ve kept from updating you for the longest period yet on this trip, something that is going to take a while to catch up from. I’ll start where I left off.

On Tuesday of our second week, I went to see what I thought was going to be an opera at the Sydney Opera House, but turns out I was just too naïve to know the storyline. We saw “My Fair Lady,” which is obviously a musical instead of an opera. The reason I signed up for this event was because it was the only ‘opera’ that our director was offering tickets to, but I didn’t previously know what “My Fair Lady” was about. Apparently I should know it as a classic as anyone I asked about it said “The rain in Spain falls mainly in the plains…” Fortunately, I wasn’t the only kid who didn’t know anything about the story, so I didn’t feel so bad. We got all dressed up and made our way downtown, ready for my classiest experience all summer. I bought a glass of wine, only to find out that I would have to drink it in the following 4 minutes because the show was about to start and drinks weren’t allowed inside. We got a few pictures and entered the theater, which was much smaller than I imagined. I didn’t realize that inside the iconic structure, five different theaters reside inside different sections that serve different purposes. As the show started, I couldn’t convince myself that they didn’t have microphones on. We were a few rows from the back, as far away as you could get, and I could hear the actors even when they were whispering. Absolutely incredible sound - I was most interested in the music emanating from the pit, as thoughts of my visit to Citta della Pieve in Tuscany to see my cousin Troy conducting for the orchestra filled my mind. The play was satisfactorily long, a full three hours with an intermission, where I found out some of my friends were taking perhaps the most expensive nap of their lives. I kept thinking during the play about how incredibly different those actors lives’ are than mine, their specialty being delivery and accent versus logical thinking and precise calculation. It was a very enjoyable experience, almost surreal to walk out of the Opera House after a show.

The next memorable experience I had was the sunrise coast walk from Bondi Beach to Coogee. My friend Mike and I got up early one morning and made our way to the beach, arriving just as the light of the early morning allowed the surfers to enter the water. I was encouraged to see all of the exercise activity going on at that hour, as a surprising number of people were jogging, exercising on the beach, surfing, etc. Mike and I needed to be back on campus in time for class to start, so we walked quickly along the coastal walkway, stopping to take pictures as the sun rose. It was a great start to the day, I’m very glad I was able to get up for that experience.

Thursday night, most of the kids went down the street to a bar where they have “Trashyokee,” the perfect chance for people to belt out whatever song they like. They didn’t have Foreigner’s ‘Juke Box Hero,’ so I decided to save my voice for another time.

Friday, Mike and I took the train a couple hours outside Sydney to a town called Katoomba, the gateway to the Blue Mountains National Park. We were very lucky to have great weather during our two day stay; it was nice and chilly in the mornings but perfect to keep cool during a long hike. Once in town, we found a quality hostel, dropped our bags and hit the trail. We hiked from Echo Point around to the Three Sisters. The landscape here is pretty interesting, the mountains are less mountainy than the name implies. It looks like a plateau with wide, gentle canyons brimming with eucalyptus trees. There is a large precipice that runs along the top rim of the canyon as it winds its way through the area, so you can imagine a plateau that stops at a ledge, drops down a 100 ft vertical rock face, then gently slops downward to the bottom of the valley. We saw quite a few falls along the hike, got some great pictures and unsuccessfully tried to hitchhike back onto town because our trail terminated a few miles out of town. It was fun to laugh at ourselves as all the cars drove by, though. We bought groceries at the store to cook for dinner, only to find that the kitchen we were cooking in didn’t have an oven for our pizzas. Fortunately the pizzas fit into the microwave, but it wasn’t ideal by any means. We roomed with a Dutch brother and sister, in town because his car broke down again. He said that he spent $800 on the car when he got to Australia a year ago, has spent at least that much in repairs since then, and paid over $1000 in parking tickets. Yikes. The next day Mike and I went to Wentworth Falls, a short train ride away, to do some more hiking. This trail was enjoyable because there were far less people, the trail was more rustic, there were lots of falls, and the ecosystem seemed to change every 30 minutes. One second it would be rainforesty, like New Zealand, then it would change to dry skinny tall trees, then a harsh rocky environment then followed by more rainforest. I can’t accurately describe them from a scientific standpoint, but the differences were quite obvious by the sights and sounds. One more interesting thing about this hike was the presence of coal just beneath the surface. There were remnants of old mines that were phased out when national park status was given to the area, but you could see the black presences in the place of some fallen rocks.

When we returned to Sydney, Mike and I decided to be spontaneous and go down to see Beethoven’s symphony Missa Solemnis performed by the Sydney Opera in the concert hall of the Opera House. This theater was much larger than the play hall, the organ was pretty incredible sitting high above the choir loft. The playbill for the symphony describes Missa Solemnis as one of Beethoven’s greatest works, written as church music for the crowning of a prince but was far too long for church and was four years late for the deadline. Given its connection to the church, it was not only an instrumental, but had four lead opera singers backed up by a choir. This was the kind of production I was after, as everyone was dressed to the nines and the music was the main attraction. I was blown away by the way the symphony worked together to produce such music, it seems almost unnatural to me to be that in sync with the people around you. I also cannot begin to comprehend how one goes about composing a body of music like that. How can you distinguish the differences between choir, opera, strings, wind, and tympani inside your head, any then translate that into written music? I don’t know, but I can appreciate the geniuses who do. My favorite parts of the performance were the parts of music where the different sections of the symphony played in waves, so you could hear the individual instruments as they blended into the wave before them and the wave after them. I also enjoyed watching the string instruments during a really fast section, where all of the musicians seemed to be moving with fury for a few moments in such controlled motion. My least favorite parts of the show was the $100 ticket and the 1 ½ long performance. A small price to pay for a memorable experience.

Tuesday thru Sunday, Sydney hosted the largest event in the city’s history: World Youth Day. The actual day, Sunday, was preceded by a week of activities consisting of and for the half a million Christians from all over the world who descended on the city. There were concerts, reenactments, performances, etc. that took place across the city. It was an interesting atmosphere in many ways. First, I’ve never been a part of such a massive gathering of Christians before, and second, I’ve never seen such a mix of people from all over the world, especially where a display of your nationality is encouraged. Unfortunately, I didn’t participate in any of the activities during the week aside from the walk from downtown to Randwick Racecourse, and that was because the buses could run because of the blockade for this walk. The racecourse is across the street from campus, and it hosted to largest events of the week, specifically the Evening Vigil and the Mass delivered by the Pope. On Sunday morning, I woke up and decided to see if I could get into the racecourse to attend Mass, which I did. There were so many people there, it was ridiculous. Adding to the craziness of the scene, most of the people there participated in ‘Sleep Under the Stars,’ and had set up their spots the night before. Everyone was sitting or laying on the ground, most with the thin metallic emergency blankets nearby. I saw a sweatshirt that said “I slept at Randwick Racecourse, only God knows why.” There were flags from around the world being flown all over the place, I suppose to show their presence as well as provide some sort of landmark for people to navigate by. I arrived just as the procession was starting – I believe the Popemobile already arrived and the priests and other people made their way down the read carpet and onto the stage. There was some incredible music, an orchestra with full choirs, opera singers and the like all working together to produce some wonderful hymns. The sound was very clear, and I found a good place to watch the action behind one of the big screens, as I was about halfway to the back and a little to the right of the stage, so I couldn’t see much by naked eye. The camera work was amazing, it was like watching a DVD before your eyes. It was a surreal experience, I felt like the second coming could have happened any second. I thought it was also unique that I was in the same city as the Pope for the second time in a couple months, but when he came to DC in April, I couldn’t go because the tickets went fast. The feeling surrounding these Catholics seemed to be much more contemporary than I’ve experienced in my visits to Catholic churches. I was also encouraged to see so many Catholics from around the world. It reminded me what a long history the church has and how extensive its missionary efforts are/have been. The presence of nuns and monks was surprising as well, I really respect the amount of devotion they have for committing their lives to Christ in such a strong way. I found it frustrating that so many people around the city complained about the WYD people, talking about how they were making the city a mess, making noise with their songs, and clogging the streets. I think it was incredible display of faith and was glad to be a small part of it.

Tuesday, I woke up at 5:15 am and hoped on a bus to Bondi Beach to check out the big swell that the forecasts were predicting. I arrived about 15 minutes before first light, so I decided to sit and watch the waves and the first couple guys go in to make a judgment on where I should paddle out. The first guy ran by me with his board, stretched, and started his paddle. After 15 minutes of struggling against the waves, he rode back in to shore. Frustrated he ran back up by me, looked back out at the ocean, and ran home. I could see a rip on one part of the beach, taking careful note to make sure I wouldn’t get caught up in it. The southern part of Bondi has rocks on it, so the waves actually hit and bounce back towards the oncoming waves. The only reason I mention that is because of the really neat way the refracted waves move through the oncoming waves, intersecting in very linear ways and throwing up a spray of water at the point of intersection. You can feel the refracted waves as you paddle out, as you get a boost every now and again as you paddle down a wave that’s going back out to sea. I got very lucky when I decided to paddle out. I timed it just right and caught a break in the sets, allowing me to get outside just before my arms wore completely out. I could feel the strength of the swell in how much water was moving with each wave. Duck diving through the wave felt inefficient because, as I tucked under the front part of the wave, the swirling water behind it would suck me back towards shore no matter how deep I dove. The surface was pretty messy, and the waves were crumbling more than barreling, which was comforting in some respect. On the other hand, though, I was paddling into waves with a 10 foot face and kept pulling off because I wasn’t ready. One wave I pulled off, turned around, only to see this monster wave breaking another 20 meters outside of me. I tried to duck dive under it but just got destroyed, and it carried me a good 100 meters towards shore. By that time, I was inside the break zone and decided to go to shore to rest. I waited a few minutes then tried to paddle out where it was smaller, but couldn’t get out. My arms were shot and breakfast was calling, so I went back to campus. After class, I headed back out to the beach without checking the surfcam. When I got to the beach, I couldn’t see any people in the water but I could see that the sea was raging. Huge nasty waves moving incredibly amounts of water filled the bay. I got some neat pictures of the fury of the waves, and a really cool one of a crazy guy braving the waves.

It rained the next three days, so surfing wasn’t really an option and I needed to do some work on my project, so things worked out well. Our group project was a 15 page paper and a presentation titled “Overview of Net Zero Energy Residential Home Options.” The idea is to suggest options for homeowners on how to lower energy use inside a household as well as generate power on site as well. Some interesting topics we covered were low consumption appliances, power generation, energy storage, building layout, lighting, spatial conditioning, and negative crediting. I enjoyed learning about the spatial conditioning aspects of the house, focusing on geothermal heating and cooling, chilled beams, and passive down-draft cooltowers. I realize that a 10 page paper can barely scratch the surface of the options available, but I was pleased to research a topic we suggested rather than settling for one of the recommended subjects.