June 8th-12th Immigration Museum & Queen's Bday

Today there were great vibes in the air. Not only was it Friday, but it was supposed to rain and barely did. That’s a win in my book. For after work drinks we had a lot of fun with a group of regulars who come in for happy hour. Since we are in the big business district of Melbourne, a lot of corporate people come in, and hey, they have to let loose a bit sometimes too, right? They opened up an $1000 bar tab, and for someone on my pay, that’s a ton of money just for drinks. The people were so fun, and as regulars I’m getting to know them more personally! We love chatting about their trips to the states and how I’m finding Australia so far. Fast forward to the nightclub where we had a special guest!! Mario performed at around 1 am. Mario is an American singer who is most famously known for his songs “Let Me Love You” and “Just a Friend” which won him two Billboard Music Awards. The performance was pretty mediocre but just being in the same room with an R&B celebrity from back in the day was pretty sweet.

After the long Friday I got home very late Saturday morning (around 4:30 am) and slept for a while. In the early afternoon I walked over to the Immigration Museum near Flinder’s street.

I walked into the museum, and got in free because of my student card from University of Illinois that doesn’t expire until 2020. Still one of the best travel hacks I know is bringing along this student card to get discounted or even free entry to cultural places. This museum takes a pretty good look at immigration to Australia as well as the current standing of immigrants in Australia’s society. I spoke with the guy at the reception desk about some other museums in Melbourne and told him I really liked the indigenous peoples exhibit at the Melbourne Museum. Turns out, he helped curate that exhibit! We had lots to talk about. Anyways- sorry, back to the Immigration Museum.

The coolest parts in the historical section (the only section I got to today) were about the anti-chinese immigration laws that Australia had in place and learning about Mahatma Gandhi who was an immigrant to England and South Africa from India. The anti-Chinese immigration laws interested me because one of my roommates and best friends in Australia is Chinese and for his sake I was learning all about his people’s history.

Many racial groups and nationalities were discriminated against in Australia's waves of immigration

The exhibit dove into many parts of Gandhi's life but I loved learning the most about his time as a lawyer, being kicked off a train in South Africa because of his race, his nonviolent civil protest (“Satyagraha”- devotion to the truth) in the movement against British rule, the salt march to challenge the British salt tax, his fasting and protests and finally his assassination and the reaction from India and the rest of the world. I cannot wait to come back to the museum at some point and finish the modern section.

(Shifting gears here...) Afterwards I got ready to meet up at Albion rooftop with Jake Stone, a DJ that Shayna (my sister) and I met in Vietnam. Jake invited me to hang out with his friends and awesome girlfriend, Eden, to celebrate his birthday. It was so nice to catch up after a whole year of not seeing him! Would highly recommend following him on instagram: stoneunknown, to see his awesome travels, drone footage, see the behind the scenes life of an emergency nurse and a DJ! A man of many talents! Hopefully I’ll get to catch Jake and Eden before they head out to Europe for the summer.

Next, I went home to meet up with the roommates and we had a few drinks before rocking up to Millhouse. "Rocking up" is an aussie phrase for "showing up to".

Ke's epic cat shirt

This is a pretty central bar, which had a really fantastic DJ. He was playing a lot of melodies I’d never heard before and we took over the dance floor. The night got pretty long, Oli came and met up with us, and before I knew it I got home at 2 am and had work early the next day!! That was a bit rough, to be honest.

Two days later the State of Victoria celebrated the Queen’s Birthday with a day off of work (Queen Elizabeth II). While the celebration happens on June 11 here, the actual birthday isn’t even that day, and in England where the queen actually resides, they don’t have a public holiday for her big day. The world is a bit strange isn’t it? Today I went to a party called Breakfast Club at a club called onesixone to celebrate! I’d heard a lot about this Monday party because it is sort of the party everyone goes to after all the other clubs close down from the weekend. Grabbed some goon (Australian franzia which tastes much better than franzia), then headed off to the club. The uber driver was quite friendly and told me he was going to be a life coach. That’s a pretty cool thing to do- give people advice and direction. Hmm, wonder if I would be cut out for that type of work! You never know.

The club ended up being really different than I expected. With a couple levels to it, and a decent sized dance floor, I soon learned that you needed to get a ticket with a number on it to go to the premium rooftop to enjoy the best parts of the club. I got my number and had hundreds of numbers before me and had no chance of getting up to the top the same day. What a bummer! I really wished I had been able to go up because it was 65 and sunny (in Melbourne winter, no less). Well, things don’t always work out folks but it is fun to know I got to see the venue, the vibe and enjoy some techno music on a Monday public holiday.