After a lovely weekend break in Melbourne, I am convinced that the world really is a small place! We had a great visit with our friends, Jenny and Will, and their new furry addition, Cleo. Jenny and I were lab mates in Dublin over a decade ago! She since moved to Melbourne, married a local, and became an Aussie citizen. Our last visit was in 2010, at our frosty wedding in Northampton. We had plenty to catch up on and our hosts treated us to some of their favorite sights in the city. We had a lovely walk around the Botanic Garden and visits to the Australian Center for the Moving Image and a nearby art gallery with indigenous art. We also rambled down famous alleys decorated with murals and packed with cafes and chocolate shops. We had our fill of great coffee, delicious food, and perfectly paired wines... life in Melbourne seems pretty sweet! The kids had fun getting puppy kisses from Cleo and sipping their baby-chinos. For a bit of local entertainment, we stopped by an auction for a house in the neighborhood. It was lively and quick, and looked something like this.
Another highlight of our weekend in Melbourne, was meeting the Australian exchange student my grandparents hosted over 50 years ago. Jan lived with my grandparents in Western NY and went to high school with my Aunt Judy in 1964. During her stay, she had two phone calls home to Australia and wrote lots of letters. This was my first time meeting Jan, and it was really special to hear about her experiences as an exchange student and her memories of my family before my grandparents were grandparents. She called them "AMA" (American Mom Abroad) and "ADA" (American Dad Abroad) and remembers Uncle Denny introducing himself as "Stinky." I remember Grandma and Grandpa recounting tales of Jan's visit, and even though I had never met her, I always admired her. It was a real treat to meet her and her husband Howard at the Monkey Bean cafe, over 10,000 miles from her exchange home in America.
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