Escaping the Rain

Winter is settling upon Sydney, and that means it's cold - but not the cold we're used to back home. Cold in Sydney means the dry air whips through your layers of clothing and bites your skin, and the rain comes in spurts. It's pretty funny actually: it'll start to sprinkle gently, as though Mother Nature Down Under is warning you about what's coming, and as the drops begin to fall faster, you have just enough time to pull out your umbrella and cover your head before it starts pissing rain. It only lasts for a few minutes, then the rain ceases, and the cycle repeats.

One of my (new) favorite things to do in this sort of weather is escape to one of the many museums around the city, so today, I chose to strike the Powerhouse Museum off my to-do list. Since Rob had already finished exams as well (he studies property economics) and finished work (at a real estate company) at midday, he went with me to explore what I gathered to be "the museum of inventions."

Well, that describes a few galleries.

It was the most random museum I've ever been to: along with the Steam Revolution (trains, power and industry) and outer space/NASA galleries (pretty much everything featured American or Russian astronauts, as the space station in Canberra sends out mostly satellites), we explored...

- Cyberworlds: computers, "Girlgeeks" and robots, which also had a bunch of interactive games that Rob happily tried out while I took photos.
- EcoLogic: sustainable housing appliances and disposable clothing inspired by Japanese fashion. After taking Sustainable Enterprise, I felt much more knowledgeable about the power-saving displays and legislation-producing summits held in Europe from the 1970s.
- Lace Study Centre: 300 types of lace collected over a 100 year period - unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, this was closed.
- Chinese belt toggles: no idea.
- Yinalung Yenu: a gallery filled with Aboriginal artwork and loaned possessions. An interview with Aboriginal Australian academic (at UTS) and writer Larissa Behrendt was played in a corner room next to a glass display of her prized possessions, which ranged from a barrister robe (she was the first Aboriginal Aussie to graduate from Harvard Law School in 1994) to a pair of glittery purple stilettos (apparently she's a fan of shoes.)
- Inspired!: a really cool room featuring funky shoes by Christian Louboutin, a newspaper print evening gown (commissioned by the Weekend Australian newspaper), and a gorgeous amethyst-colored glass piece by Dale Chihuly. Another one of my favorite galleries.

On the way back, I stopped at Bar Broadway (a pub located across the street from UTS; during exam time, it's packed with students once they finish finals) to meet up with my Danish friend Soren, who'd just completed his last IT (info tech) exam. We've been friends since International Business last semester, so we talked for nearly two hours about our experiences in Australia, American politics (he likes to keep up with US affairs and sent me quite a lot of fun-poking sites about Sarah Palin before the election last year), Twitter, and how we wanted to visit each other's countries. Good to know I have somewhere to stay in Aarhus!

• SIDENOTE: According to my mother, I've been to the Powerhouse before - when I was four. Evidence of me, Katie and my cousin Jason is below...