"Nash"-ional Lampoon's Australian Vacation

Words can't actually convey how excited Wilson and I were to see Mom, Dad, Walton, and Molly here in Sydney.  I had been counting down the days since we came back after Christmas, and they finally arrived on Friday, March 13th!  They climbed the Harbour Bridge soon after they arrived, which was ambitious considering their jet-lag, but they all agreed that it was definitely an appropriate introduction to the city.  We had a guided tour of Sydney on Saturday followed by a lovely dinner with John and Kathy Blahut.  Sunday, after a tour of the Opera House (see post below), Rob and Sue Segart were kind enough to take us all sailing in the harbour, providing an opportunity most tourists don't have to see Sydney.  We made time for a trip to Gladesville Sunday evening, which probably wasn't terribly impressive compared to the glamorous neighborhoods we toured Saturday, but Wilson and I were proud to introduce everyone to our apartment, our favorite pizza place, and the Aussie reality show "Border Security."  The four of them left for a short trip up to Port Douglas, Queensland on Monday to snorkel on the Great Barrier Reef and explore the Daintree Rainforest only to return to Sydney last Thursday afternoon.

After a picturesque dinner on the harbour, we attended the Sydney Symphony's performance of  "The Best of the West End" in the magnificent Concert Hall in the Opera House, and it was all I could do not to sing along to the scores from Phantom of the Opera, Cats, Les Miserables, Mary Poppins, etc.  We revisited the Blue Mountains Friday, and fortunately we were greeted by nicer weather this time as you can see in the photo of The Three Sisters below.  We also had the chance to stop at Featherdale Wildlife Park on our way up to the mountains, where we all had a great hands-on experience with quintessential Australian animals like kangaroos, koalas, emus, and a variety of exotic birds.  We weren't allowed to pet the wombat, pictured above, because it bites, but it is still tied with the koala as my second-favorite animal despite its aggressive tendencies (otters are my favorite).  After lunch in the lovely garden village of Leura, we rode the "steepest railway in the Southern Hemisphere," which was disappointingly short, into the Jamison Valley and then took the sky bucket back up the mountain over the tree tops.

We rode the ferry to Manly Beach on Saturday, and in the afternoon Wilson gave us a tour of the University of Sydney - from the Oxford-style Great Hall to the extremely modern law buildings, stopping by the lawn tennis courts for Molly.  We celebrated a successful trip by dining at The Summit, a revolving restaurant on the top level of Sydney's tallest buildings.  Wilson was so impressed by the food and the view that he already wants to go back!  Unfortunately, Mom, Dad, Walton, and Molly had to fly home Sunday, but it was a great week and we were glad for the opportunity to share this fantastic city with them.

The Sydney Opera House: The Spirit of Australia

This past Sunday, Callie and I (along with the rest of the Stone family who arrived on Friday morning) took a behind the scenes tour of the Sydney Opera House. Having yet been inside the architectural masterpiece that graces the southern shore of Sydney Harbour, this was a chance for us to see the Opera House in a different way- to discover the incredible difficulty associated with its construction and to appreciate the uncompromising ingenuity of its design. 

Planning for the Opera House began in the early 1950s, and 233 entries from 32 countries were submitted into the competition. The winner was a Danish architect named Utzon whose drawings were more of an aspirational idea than an architectural blueprint. Nevertheless, construction began in 1959 and 16 years later, after an estimated 102 million Australian dollars, the Sydney Opera House was opened. It is worth mentioning that construction delays, cost overruns and political imperatives ultimately led to Utzon being dismissed from the project; he never returned to see his completed work.  

Inside the Opera House, there are actually five separate performance spaces from a small experimental venue called "The Studio" to the 2,700 seat Concert Hall. In each area, however, there is a common emphasis on the harbour thanks to a tremendous amount of glass that allows multiple unique experiences with the water. And while the exterior of the Opera House is obviously beautiful, it is equally stunning on the interior. 

You know that feeling when you walk into a space and you feel instinctively that there is something special, something inexpressibly majestic, about where you are . . . well that's how you feel when you walk into the Concert Hall. It's not that it's large- although it certainly is- but it's grand and powerful in a way that is overwhelming. Like walking into the sanctuary of a gothic cathedral, the Concert Hall envelops you, it captures you from every angle. The walls and ceiling are made of special lightweight wood to carry the sound, and many performers elect not to use a microphone, which might seem a little difficult considering that the organ has 10,000 pipes! Nonetheless, the acoustics effortlessly blend the vocal and musical elements of a performance, and I can't imagine what it must be like to observe in person. (Fortunately, we will not to imagine for too long because we are planning on attending a concert with the Stones this next week.)

  
Needless to say, the Opera House is a masterpiece: it is distinctive, yet functional; it adds to the beauty of an already beautiful city and it seems to capture the essence of Australia. On our tour, we were told that the Opera House hosts a variety of activities from the fine arts like opera and ballet to more unusual performance mediums like burlesque and stand-up comedy. Luciano Pavarotti, Andre Bocceli, Sting, Coldplay, The Foo Fighters all have performed at the Opera House. It annually hosts the finals of Australian Idol and was recently home to an acrobatic circus. It is available for corporate gatherings and is used for school performances. (Imagine doing a school play on the stage of the Concert Hall!) Perhaps most unusually, it was used for the finals of the World Bodybuilding Championships in 1980, a competition that was won by now California Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger. 

When one thinks about an opera house, the image that inevitably comes to mind is a place for stodgy and elitist benefactors. It is a place for formal attire and expensive cocktails, a place where you need to know French or Italian to understand the performance, and a place where the uncultured are generally unwelcome. Except not in Sydney. Despite its reputation as a world-class performance venue, despite its World Heritage listing, despite being the most recognizable building of the 20th century, this iconic structure offers an inviting and laid-back experience where all are welcome. There is not even a dress code. The Opera House is unpretentious and accommodating, its tickets are affordable (which is unusual in Sydney), and its doors are open to those who are willing to walk through. As a result, the Sydney Opera House forms a perfect reflection of Australia: warm and hospitable, open, tolerant and gracious. And just as the Sydney Opera House has become the unique, recognizable image of Australia, so too does it capture the spirit of her people.   

Back to School

This past week, after a lengthy summer break that afforded opportunities to enjoy Australia's natural abundance, I had to start class again, and to be quite honest, it was nice to be back at work. This semester I have four classes (just like last semester), and as of now, I am taking courses in International Security, Globalization and Governance, China and the World Economy, and Development Dilemmas in Southeast Asia. Given that I have somewhat limited knowledge in several of these subject areas, I am excited about what I will learn this semester, and it was good to see classmates and friends from last year. 

Other than that, things have been pretty quiet here in Sydney. The days are getting shorter and the mornings are getting cooler, and you can tell that fall is on its way. This past weekend we did have a chance to see friends from home as Randall and Nancy Wells were in Sydney on a two week tour of Australia and New Zealand. The Wells are family friends from Highlands United Methodist Church, and we met in the city for breakfast this past Saturday. This upcoming weekend, Callie's family will arrive from Birmingham and so we are very excited to have all these familiar visitors arriving in the Great Southern Land. Before long, it will be our turn to head back home, but in the meantime and in an effort to see as much of this part of the world as possible, we are looking forward to upcoming trips to New Zealand and Canberra. More on those plans later, but for now, it's back to school.

And for me this week, it was back to cakes (thank goodness).  The gateau above is a Feuille D'automne, which translates as "leaves of autumn."  Beneath the ruffles of dark couverture chocolate are layers of rich chocolate mousse and crisp almond meringue.  The composition is very similar to that of the Gateau Concorde, so needless to say, Wilson was in love.  I'll admit that the chocolate ruffles (or flower - it's open to interpretation) were a bit of a challenge, and some of my classmates ended up with mounds of chocolate shards in the center of their cakes.

We also made a Buche de Noel this week, which is otherwise known as a Chocolate Christmas Roll/Log.  Recipes vary, but the Le Cordon Bleu version includes an almond dacquiose (sweet, moist sponge) surrounding layers of Cointreau and chocolate mousse and covered in a chocolate ganache.  It is traditionally garnished with meringue mushrooms, chocolate "bark," and a plaque reading "Joyeux Noel" as pictured here.  The dacquiose is delicious on its own, and Eddie and I managed to consume every scrap that remained during the lesson.

This week we'll be making the final preparations for the afternoon tea that our class will be serving on Wednesday, and rumors have it that Andre Cointreau, the owner of all Le Cordon Bleu schools, will be arriving on our campus this week.  Hopefully our products will be up to his standards!