Chapter 1: It Begins

Sydney, Australia, October 23-26

We began our trip with a five hour wait in the San Francisco airport, a good omen if there ever was one. In reality, our wait wasn’t caused by any delays or cancelled flights, but the logistics of getting from Aromas to SFO. My parents were flying out to Indiana on the same day that we were flying to Sydney. We spent several hours waiting for our check in counter to open, then we were on our way. We had two easy flights and an easy connection, and then we arrived in Sydney! Al’s Auntie Poonam was kind enough to come pick us up. We had a low-key and delicious dinner at home with Yash Uncle, Madhu Auntie and Auntie Poonam. We discussed some plans for the week then headed to bed.

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Wednesday, October 25, 2023

We woke up fairly easily in the morning and got on the train into the Sydney. We spent some time looking at MAKE awards exhibit in the Australian Design Center, which had some really beautiful pieces. We ate lunch at Joe’s Table, a one-man operation with amazing food.

Al downloaded an app called Timeshifter, which advises on when to do different behaviors in order to reduce jet lag. It sends notifications of when to nap, when to drink or avoid caffeine and when to avoid and seek light exposure. I thought it seemed a little silly, but it seems to have worked — we fared quite well!

Since we knew this was likely going to be our one day in Sydney with great weather, we headed straight down to the Opera House. It really is an incredible building — the tiles are almost iridescent close up, and it’s magnificent from every angle. We got espresso martinis to improve (worsen??) our jet lag. Then we walked around the botanical gardens listening to a podcast about the disaster that was the process of building the Opera House.

We took the bus back to Auntie Poonam’s house, where we got to eat her delicious bolognese with her and Al’s cousin Saachi.

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Thursday, October 26, 2023

It was a rainy day, so we took our time getting into the city. We ate lunch at a very groovy-chic Asian restaurant called MuMu. We spent some time walking around Circular Quay during a break in the rain before heading into the Museum of Contemporary Art.

We spent a lot of time in that museum — they showcase exactly the kind of art we like to spend time with, including lots from Indigenous artists. One particularly poignant piece was entitled Maria’s Garden, by Simryn Gill. She used a nature printing technique to catalogue the garden of her late neighbor Maria. It made Al cry.

I also loved the photography work of Tracey Moffett, a Brisbane-born artist. Her work had a sense of humor, like one collection of photos of all the fourth-place athletes at the Olympics, or the ‘First Jobs’ collection, where she photoshopped herself into images of the settings of the first jobs she and her friends had in the 1970s and 80s (think movie theater, diner, etc).

After the art museum we went back to Poonam’s house for tea before a barbecue with the family at Uncle Sonny’s house. In attendance were Yash Uncle, Madhu Auntie, Auntie Poonam and her kids Saachi and Saahil and of course our amazing hosts Uncle Sonny and Khush and their wonderful kids Arya and Ashwin. It was an amazing night, getting to spend time with the family and eat some excellent Australian barbecue classics (although the weather didn’t agree with us — we had to eat inside since it was cold and rainy). We had only gotten to spend limited time with this part of the family in the past, so we really cherish the opportunity to get to know everybody better.