Kingsbury Market

Early on I posted some pictures from the Queen Victoria Market which is by far the best and biggest market I have ever been to.  We go there regularly - it is always a great day out, sights, sounds, smells...  a symphony for your senses.  Coming back with a bag of fresh items for dinner, along with a bottle of wine, lets us bring a bit of the market into our home.

Although Queen Victoria Market is the biggest, it is far from the only market.  Melbourne is covered with markets large and small in every location.  There is food, plants, produce, art, crafts, fish, flowers, buskers, used clothing, new clothing, tools, coffee - always coffee.  The different items in the markets is endless.  We have one every Sunday (year round) on the other side of campus - the Kingsbury market.  There are more than 100 stalls with great produce and all sorts of interesting to strange items.  I'm always fascinated by the guy selling gold fish or the other selling birds.  I stand and look longingly at the fig trees, orange, lemon & lime trees being sold by a number of different farmers.  We regularly buy local potatoes, avocados, and all manner of great local fruit - the fruit here is unbelievable.  A fresh baked bread and a few meat pies round things out.  A nice cappuccino and gozleme completes our Sunday before we walk back to the apartment with our bags full.

I'll miss having a market like this down the street.

A busker entertaining the kids

Fresh cut flowers are everywhere

This guy is a character - an aboriginal elvis.

Our avacodos for the week

Even the kids are out working for a buck

I'm waiting to buy Gozleme - a Turkish bread stuffed with meat or spinach & cheese. 

Fresh & cheap produce

Fiji Time - Bula

I have to admit that you are a lucky person when you get to take a vacation from your vacation. I keep saying that our time in Australia is not a vacation.  However it certainly counts as a memorable adventure.  We did then take a "holiday" from our adventure.  That sounds a little better to me I guess.  No matter what I call it I will not deny that I am a lucky person to be able to have these experiences.

We just came back from a week in Fiji - - - Bula.  Bula is the universal greeting in Fiji and everyone is saying it to everyone all the time with great enthusiasm. I read and heard that the people in Fiji are wonderfully warm and welcoming - but of all the places we've been I have to say that the people we met in Fiji (aside from the numerous Aussie tourists) were the nicest, most pleasant and helpful we have experienced.  The greetings (BULA!!!) were genuine and heartfelt.  It's literal translation is "life" and is a wish for good health and long life.  Bula.

We were along the Coral Coast on Yanuca Island.  The small island resort was just beautiful with coconut palms, all sort of tropical flowers and a crystal clear lagoon stretching out to the reef where the large waves were breaking in the distance.  We were able to kayak, snorkel, take a bush walk on uninhabited Kaba Island across the bay, do our daily walk along the beach looking for shells and lounge by the pool sipping Fiji Bitter beer.  Graham got to turn 13 in Fiji - I don't think it gets any better than that.

This is a view of the Fijian Resort from across the bay

View of the sunset from our balcony

The flowers growing on our balcony

A view up the rocky beach along the lagoon

 

It is the coral coast, along the coral sea - so there is coral scattered all along the beach

These blue starfish (Linckia) are along the beach and easy to see in the clear water

 

The "infinity" pool right on the beach - the view from here with a glass of champagne in your hand is worth the price

 

We just love to go shelling - this orange one was my find. 

 

Happy Birthday Graham - The staff just loved him.

Kava is a traditional drink in Fiji made from the ground roots of a pepper plant

Drinking Kava - it's good for your back aches

 

We took a bush walk across this uninhabited island

Graham got to open a coconut that we picked up on the island

 

 

Papayas growing in the wild

 

Our guide - Moses

 

 

 

 

There was a beautiful flower placed on our bed every day

 

The Uni

Well, today was my last day of class activity.  I sat in on my last session of the Narrative Certificate Program.  The feedback from the students and lecturer was great.  As is a common narrative practice they did an outsider witness practice with me in relation to my participation throughout the semester.  Being in a role to witness others having a conversation about their experience of you is quite a different (and humbling) position to be in.  The most striking thing was the observation of Ron - who is the leader of the subject - he talked about being pleasantly surprised by my approach, that I did not take an expert role pushing my weight around as has been his experience of many academics.  This is so contrary to my experience of myself - I was coming in from a position of someone looking to learn and being aware of my position as an outsider.  It teachers me to be conscious of how others might perceive me rather than assuming that they will know what my sense of myself is.  At the same time I heard a lot of conversation about my quite, reassuring, calm and pleasant manner.  This was nice to hear and is affirming of my approach and efforts to take a decentered position in relationships such as this.

I finished the subjects I have had a lead on earlier in the week.  The Tuesday class (theories & techniques) was appreciative and complimentary of their experience of me - demonstrated with a little party & glass of wine at the end.  The Monday class (Contemporary Humanistic Counseling) ended on a pretty good note with an engaged discussion.  I would like to take credit for walking along with this group to a point where this could happen.  We began with a mixture of structured lecture, discussion, and experiential activity (designed to perturb their frame of reference) and moved to a point where we could engage predominantly in a critical discussion on the topic at hand.

However in all cases I encountered an attitude toward the process that just astounds me.  I have characterized this broadly as a casual approach to education.  But more specifically I have experienced it as suspicion if not downright aggression toward ideas or expectations that do not fit what they come in  with.  The assessment process is very disconnected from the learning process and is something that happens after the fact (this is somewhat inherent in the overall system here). I experienced this in spades when discussing the final essay with many overtly saying how it was a difficult task and didn't see why they should have to do that.  In a number of circumstances there was challenge and hostility toward the criteria set for the essay indicating they didn't like the criteria, shouldn't have to use them and would rather use their own.  It would be nice to say this was solely a product of the anxiety and stress produced by the end of the semester.  However I experienced this in different ways throughout.  Any new theory or idea was dismissed as either nothing different that was done long ago or characterized as rather simplistic and OK if you work with light things but wouldn't do much good with "real" issues.  I had them writing reflective notes on many of the readings and the most amazing is when identifying one thing they don't understand or would like to discuss more the issue was why the author had to use such big words and write in such a complex manner.

In all of this I run the risk of characterizing my classroom experience as a bad one.  Quite the contrary - encountering such a different response led me to allot of reflection and exploration of myself, my identity as an educator and my approaches to training.  My colleague at Bouverie suggests that this is characteristic of Australia broadly and Melbourne specifically.  That the therapy community in Melbourne is down right brutal toward any new ideas.  He shared that Michael White and David Epstein hated coming to Melbourne because the students here would attack.  I have been able to not absorb the attacks and listen from a different position, hearing the alternative story within.  I don't know that it made me much more successful with them but it has resulted in me being successful with myself.  I am inclined to think that they have been impacted by me in a useful way - if I am to believe the feedback I have been receiving.

I never understood the message in this sculpture on campus - until I spent a semester teaching here

The faculty in the Dept of Counselling & Psychological Health

The Agora - the center of the Bundoora campus on a quiet Sunday

The Agora on a normal day

The students in my Tuesday class

 

The city campus - in the CBD

The Monday night classroom

The students in my Monday class (in the city)

The Friday Narrative Practices group

 

Northcote

After living in Australia for almost 5 months we have arrived at a point where our daily experiences are increasingly familiar.  We know many neighborhoods and have many cafes, shops and streets that we like to go back to.  Much of Melbourne is opening up to us and I can see how our life would expand in some great ways if we were staying.  The difference between Melbourne and Sidney has emerged in a clear contrast.  I didn't understand all the talk of Melbourne being such a liveable city when we first arrived.  Now I can see the ease and comfort of living here.  Sydney is a beautiful city and is striking as a tourist.  Melbourne by contrast doesn't have the striking views of the harbor but it has endless neighborhoods, unique spots, cafe's, music venues, galleries, parks,...  Northcote is one of these neighborhoods.  We pass through on the tram regularly and this is where I transfer to a bus to get to Brunswick on Fridays.  We've discovered a a number of great places to step off the tram and have a pint.  It is also the home to several great music venues.

Northcote Town Hall

 

Espresso Alley - a great Turkish cafe in what appears to be an old garage

A cappuccino & latte to start the day - I will miss the coffee when I get back to the US

 

Wesley Anne House of Assembly - unique inside & a great music venue: