1. gaining knowledgable insight into the city’s coffee culture.

upon completion of a masters barista course, i will never take another cup of coffee – good coffee – for granted.  over the past three months i’ve come to realize that canadians do not know anything about or appreciate quality espresso.  or perhaps its just that our commercial dependency on tim hortons and starbucks is a reflection of our consumer-based culture.

nevertheless, in melbourne coffee is important.  extracts even a bit of snobbery – and rightfully so.  being a barista is a highly respected skills.  milk frothing, timing and pouring the espresso, coordinate compaction all packaged into a delicious brew.  it’s an experience, its something to slow down for – to savour.  this is a pat of melbourne that i have been enjoying but not learning enough about.  no wonder caffeine is considered an addictive brew.  definitely a part of the culture here that you need to drink enough of in order to discover.

2. the illustrious pride that this city promotes itself with.

from a thatsmelbourne.com.au weekly e-bulletin:

“we’ve just heard that the state library of victoria is letting an artist fling 10,000 paper planes from its balconies.  in any other city, such antics might seem out-of-place within a stately institution.  but hey, our police museum is all about ned kelly.  right now, our city library is also a live music venue, and at our old melbourne gaol, visitors are queuing to get thrown in the slammer.  what is it with us and messing with convention?  try to explain it and can probably only come up with one explanation: that’s melbourne!”

and that is why this city is brilliant – in a country that is still pretty conservative in terms of western standards, melboure is so anti-mainstream.  so unconventional.  so originally charismatic.  or in my description: such feist.