School, poweroutages, and presentations

  Melbourne, Australia
Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Hello everyone,
 
It has been a busy week.  If anyone has any questions about the Ballieu Library, I'm your man...  ha ha.  Life is good, though.  I am enjoying my subjects and feel good about the essays I have been writing.  The University of Melbourne really is an amazing institution.  The campus is vibrant and full of intellectual activity. Outside of class, there are a variety of lectures, concerts, rallies, protests, theater productions, and presentations going on.  It is just a matter of staying in the 'know' and finding the time.  I met up with a few of my fellow classmates today to hear Peter Singer (a fairly renown and controversial contemporary philosopher) lecture about moral obligations in relation to poverty.

 
We also had a bit of excitement here last weekend. So... there I was.  I had gone over to a friends house to enjoy some libations and fine conversation when, all of a sudden, we found ourselves in the dark.  As it turns out, there was a massive power outage, affecting the better part of the city.  I am not kidding here.  We were over by the University and were able to get ourselves up to the top of the Ormond College clock tower, where we met up with some others and had a full view of the city.  The only lights you could see were from the backup generators at the hospitals.  It affected some 10,000 homes, covered the Carlton, Parkville and North and West Melbourne neighborhoods (that's big) and lasted eight hours. Dang.
 
I also gave a Rotary presentation at the Beachside Rotary Club last night, located in Brighton Beach.  I had met several of the club's Rotarians at the district conference and was delighted they had asked me to come and speak with them. Good people.

 
This is to be another busy, but exciting, week.  I am going to try and see some live music and I think there is a BBQ in the works for the weekend.  Yeah!
 
Keep checking back.
 
Mike