Australia Update

Greetings from Melbourne, Australia! I met up with A.-J. here on Thursday, and I'm staying with her and a small group of nuns, the Sisters of Our Lady of Sion, in Box Hill, a suburb about an hour east of downtown Melbourne. Last night, I attended A.-J.'s talk on anti-Judaism in Christian biblical scholarship at a local synagogue, the Leo Baeck Centre. Earlier in the day, we drove out to a very picturesque riverside restaurant, the Studley Park Cafe. A.-J. and I and Sister Margaret, our host, had a beautiful lunch. In the park outside, I even saw two parrots squawking in the trees!

Tomorrow, we're off on a day-long tour: the Penguin Parade at Phillip Island. Along with penguins, we're supposed to be able to feed kangaroos and see koala bears. The penguins we will see are little blue penguins (like the ones in Christchurch), but this time they're in the wild. At sunset, the penguins run up from the water and burrow into the sand for the night. It's this sunset display that we'll be watching.

I've got lots of pictures, but limited internet access here. I'll post images from A.-J.'s talk, a pair of parrots, wine with the sisters, and the Penguin Parade as soon as I get back to Christchurch (late Sunday night). It's supposed to be really cold out on Phillip Island, and A.-J. and I both have new hats to wear. Stay tuned to see if she actually wears the very warm (but also very ridiculous) hat I picked up for her today!