Flat Stanley 2019

Flat Stanley here, reporting on my fabulous adventure in Melbourne Australia.

Melbourne is the capital of the state of Victoria, home to about 4.5 million people. That's about 200 times more people than Roseburg, Oregon. For every person in Roseburg, if you took 200 extra people, then the city would be as big as Melbourne.

But if there were 200 more people for everyone in your class, how would they all possibly fit in Mrs Lomica's classroom?

In Melbourne, they fit into tall buildings like the ones you see here.

One of the first things I learned in Melbourne was how to say the word "Melbourne".

You don't say "Mell - BURN." You say "Mell - BUN."  Bun and not Burn. If you get that wrong, you might end up in the wrong city.

Even though it was spring in Oregon, it was autumn in Melbourne when I visited. See the pretty autumn leaves?

Melbourne is on the opposite side of the earth from Oregon, so when it is spring in Oregon, it is autumn in Melbourne. When it is summer in Oregon, it is winter in Melbourne. And when it is winter in Oregon, it is summer in Melbourne.

In Melbourne, they get Christmas in the summer! People go to the beach on Christmas.

But I didn't get to do that, because I visited in the autumn. 

Australia is home to some of the strangest animals in the world, so of course one of the first things I did was take a trip to the zoo to see some animals.

Here is a picture of me with three rainbow lorikeets.

Rainbow lorikeets are a kind of parrot, and they just fly around the city here. It's hard to tell from the picture, but the rainbow lorikeet and I are actually wearing the same outfit.

Here's a better picture (from Wikipedia):

See how we match?

Some other weird things:  The swans in Australia are black instead of white. Here I am with some black swans.

And penguins. Penguins live in Australia. This little guy is called a "Little penguin." Really, that's what it is called. Little penguins live at St Kilda beach right near the city.

Can you think of some other animals that live only in Australia?

...

Well, can you?

...

How about the koala?

(Photo from Wikipedia)

And a kangaroo?

(Photo from Wikipedia)

Flat Stanley, you are saying, those are nice pictures of a koala and a kangaroo, but why aren't you in the picture with them? Well, friends, I tried to be in the picture. The koala would not come out of its tree to get its picture taken with me. Boo.

And I asked the kangaroo to please come closer, so I could show it to Mrs Lomica's class. But it ignored me and went to sleep. Stupid kangaroo.

Have you ever heard of a platypus? A platypus is an animal that lives in Australia. It has the beak of a duck, but a soft furry body, and it swims around in ponds at night.

There is a platypus in the zoo, and I took its picture. It looked like this:

Ok. The picture didn't work, because it was dark in the platypus house, because the platypus only comes out at night. Here is a platypus statue, though, so you can see what it looks like.

When the first Europeans landed in Australia, they tried to describe a platypus to their friends back home. The friends didn't believe that there was really a furry animal with a duck beak. They thought it was made up.

But I know it isn't, because I saw a platypus.

The platypuses in the gift shop let me take their picture. 

So did the kangaroos and koalas.

Ahem. Where were we? Animals.

Did anyone think of snakes? The three most venomous land snakes in the world live in Australia. Here I am posing with a Coastal taipan, the third most venomous snake in the world. If this snake bites you, you had better get some anti-venom immediately!

What about butterflies? One of the largest butterflies in the world lives in Australia: the Cairns birdwing. They had birdwings in the butterfly house. Come here, butterflies, so I can take your picture.

No, come here.

 Yikes! There is a butterfly on my leg! Get it off!

Even the caterpillars that turn into birdwings are huge. It's like the size of my arm!

You can learn very interesting things at the Melbourne zoo. Like things about animal poo.

For example, did you know that wombats poo in cubes? Cubical poo doesn't roll around, so wombats can use their poo to mark their territory. Here is a picture of me with a heap of sleeping wombats.

My mother told me that I am not allowed to mark my territory with my poo.

I learned a little about trees in Australia, too. They have fat trees with trunks that act like bottles to store up water in the desert. This is called a bottle tree.

They also have fern trees in the rainforests. There are both deserts and rainforests in Australia. (And I saw them both in the Melbourne botanic gardens!)

The most common trees in Australia are called eucalyptus trees. Koalas live in eucalyptus trees, and so do big squawky birds called cockatoos.

But in Australia, some people chop down all the beautiful trees and animal houses and turn them into toilet paper.

Toilet paper?

How would you feel if someone turned your house into toilet paper?

The people at the zoo don't want animal houses made into toilet paper, so they ask you to please use toilet paper that is made out of recycled paper. They have signs all over reminding you about toilet paper.

And a giant toilet paper roll. Here I am with a giant roll of toilet paper! I am probably the only Flat Stanley who got his picture taken with a giant roll of toilet paper. So lucky!

My trip to see Australian animals was fun.

But the animals in Australia aren't the only strange thing. The people in Australia play their own sports and games that are different from the sports everywhere else in the world.

For example, they play Australian football, which is nothing like football in Oregon. In Australia, they call it "footy."

After watching a footy game on TV,

I got to go to the huge football stadium in Melbourne, called the MCG:

And see a real live footy game.

Do you see how the footy field is round? It's also almost four times bigger than a US football field. And those footy players run around the field nonstop for about 80 minutes during a game, except for a 20 minute half time break where the fans get up and buy Australian meat pies. Yum.

Anyway, I really enjoyed my visit to Australia.

 I hope that my good friend Sophia can visit Australia too, sometime soon.

Goodbye, Melbourne!