My Heart Burst With Happiness!

It seems a lot has happened since I last wrote and I wish that I wrote everything down as it occurred for the sake of remembering more of the interesting details, but alas, I got caught up in the moment. Photographs are serving as my primary record of events. In fact, I invested in a Flickr account, which can be viewed here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mjp229.

I spent one evening snooping around the internet and I stumbled upon something absolutely wonderful. The Ruby Suns and Of Montreal in Melbourne! I found out about the show the day before it happened. If I found out the day after, my heart would have certainly sank to depths at which it would have been unretrievable (dramatic, I know). I was prepared to go see them by myself, but my housemate Lauren came along and we had a ton of fun. Seeing Of Montreal live always brings a smile to my face - the most genuine, carefree, youthful smile. I was particularly thrilled to see Of Montreal because the last time I saw them in NYC, I did not quite see them at all. Roseland Ballroom is big and I am small. They even brought a horse on stage and I could not see the horse. The whole performance was rather theatrical and I missed everything. However, in Melbourne, they played at a venue called the Hi-Fi Bar and it was perfect! The show was much less theatrical, but I saw everything.

The weekend that followed, I went to the Healesville Animal Sanctuary with Jackie and Lucy. The trip to the sanctuary was quite scenic and we managed to get there entirely by public transportation. In total, it took about two hours, but it was entirely worth it. I pet the tiniest kangaroo (only two-years old) and admired the variety of animals unique to Australia: emu, koala, dingo, echidna, tasmanian devils, and wallabies. There were a number of beautiful birds as well. I should mention that lately I have been developing a certain fondness for the birds here actually due to the fact that I wake up to their songs rather frequently (they tend to be abnormally loud).

It was also around this time that I noticed the moon is different in the Southern Hemisphere. How cool! In New Jersey, I can see an abstract face in the moon. One night here, I looked up at the moon and did not see the face I usually see. Apparently, the moon is "upside down" here. Somehow it slipped my mind that the night sky would appear different in the North and South Hemispheres. There is a constellation here, which I have yet to see entirely, called the Southern Cross. The differences in the sky make me feel so very far from home! If anyone can photograph the moon from the Northern Hemisphere so that I can compare it, please do and send it my way!

I just viewed the photograph of the moon on my Flickr account, which has the photo flipped and it looks like this:

That's how the moon generally looks to me in the Northern Hemisphere. The face is there! Please tell me you can see it too.