getting into the swing of things

2.25 I thought clouds were illegal…? Today was the first day of bad weather that we had, just when we thought that clouds were illegal, we woke up to a dreary day. But Eva was ready to go and had some activities in mind to keep us busy and exploring despite this, so Eva, Monica, and I headed to the New South Wales Museum.

Before we headed to the museum, we stopped at Doughnut Time to get famous Nutella Donuts. One of my roommates, Eva, is a total foodie, so she always has some cool places on her list to try and we are all lucky enough to reap the benefits of her research. The doughnuts were literally to die for, so amazing, but we could literally feel the donut (probably 1000 calories) sitting in our stomachs the rest of the day, but it was soooooo worth it.

Next stop was the museum. We started the trip with me giving Monica a quick lesson in manual photography, I was shocked with my ability to explain all the concepts in a cohesive way, but she understood, woo! The first exhibition was 17th and 18th century Australian and European artworks, so your typical nude sculptures and large scenic paintings that feature like 20 people or some triumphant war scene. The next exhibit was a Japanese art exhibit that feature works that were more technology and digitally based using projectors. This area was super cool, there were multiple TV monitors lined up to show digitally generated waves and flower scenes that responded to how many people were viewing the piece.

The next exhibit was contemporary and modern artwork, and at this point our friend Bashon joined us at the exhibit and boy oh boy was he not enjoying the modern art. Every time we looked at him, he was just shaking his head asking how the hell these pieces made it in the museum and wondering how much money people were making. It was absolutely hilarious. We ended our museum trip with the Aboriginal Art exhibit, which was also really interesting.

At this point we were ready to head back home and get a quick nap in before we went out for the evening. At home, we brainstormed some places to go out that night, especially since we had taken a break the night before, we were all ready to go on this Saturday night, and we even got Eva to come out with us! That night after a little pre drinks, we went to El Tapo, it’s a rooftop bar/restaurant/club with a (clearly) Mexican theme. It ended up being a really fun night, as a bunch of other American kids from our program (the ones we like and get along with) came as well!

2.26 a school night

Today was the last day of this vacation as classes were starting the next day. I spent the day mostly a little hungover, but my roommates and I all needed some sustenance, so we all got brunch together! We found a little small place around the corner from our apartment called “Nelson’s Tuck Shop” where I got a breakfast toastie (aka a cuter name for a sandwich).

It was a lazy day as we got ready to start classes, but it was also one of our friend, Sara’s, 21st birthday, so we all ended up rallying and heading out to Sara’s apartment to celebrate. The thought of ingesting alcohol after the previous night made me nauseous, so I had a sober good time with all my roommates. We had cake and a pregame before we headed to Coogee Pavilion, a rooftop bar. At the bar Sara (the birthday girl) wanted a picture of herself enjoying a drink, so I was deemed her personal photographer and took, I kid you not, about 100 pictures around the bar, but I was loving it and she was having a great time.

2.27 school?

Just when you thought I wasn’t going to go to school, the first day is finally here! Shockingly, I woke up an hour early, and then got to class too early, because that’s what I need to do to feel good.

My first class is Color. I was expecting the class Color class that they offer back home, where you talk about color theory and get swatches of color and basically make color compositions throughout the semester. But no, this is a color through painting class. I had a minor panic attack at first, thinking why the hell am I in this fine arts class when design is my focus. But then, as the instructor kept talking, I realized how chill and cool the class actually was. We basically will be making multiple paintings throughout the semester, utilizing different aspects of color and I’m really excited to be reunited with painting, since after all, that is where my art career started.

Our teacher was so cool that she ended up taking us on a field trip, but this field trip included a one mile walk in the 80 degree heat to a museum. Not so cool. Luckily I bonded with two girls Nat and Lulu, and ended up getting lunch with Nat after class and we talked about different Australian things that I should do and bars to go to.

At night, no one wanted to just sit and hang at home, so we decided to go out and get dessert at Choc Pot. But I just made a huge dinner, so Monica and I went the healthy route (shocking) and got an ice cream cone! Go us! Ended the day on a healthy note woo

2.28 beach b4 class

Today I didn’t have class until 6 at night, so I had all day free! It was great, I started the day off doing a workout with Monica in the gym in our apartments basement, it was my first time doing a hard core workout in a while and that felt so good. Then Monica and I decided to hit up the beach for a while, so we headed to Bondi. Since it was a weekday, it wasn’t too crowded, but I’m definitely ready to explore a new beach….

Class that night was really cool, I was expecting a graphic design class and it was more about visual communication as a whole, so our first project is a photo assignment on a community (the americans in australia) and using those photos we will make a mixed media collage book. Overall, very cool open ended assignments that I'm excited to get started on!

3.1 exhaustion

Today I had class from 9-11, 12-1, then 2-5, so by the end of the day I was done. My first class was history of computers, brains, and mind which sounds like it is going to be really interesting. But of course I sat down and started talking to the kid next to me, and he was an American who also goes to Michigan and is in my program. This is not the goal. I wanna make some more aussie friends!

Then I had class from 2-5 which is a photography class that looks like it will be really informational as the first project has to be a film photography project. Not exactly what I wanted to be doing, but Im excited to learn a new camera technique.

3.2 thurs-yay

No classes today! So I had a free day to catch up and run errands. I started my morning at the mall and then headed to the beach in the afternoon with Stef. Even though I said I was going to start exploring a new beach, we went to Bondi, purely out of convenience that it is the closest beach. Stef decided to rent a surf board, and I decided to get an acai smoothie bowl and lay on the beach and chill. The acai bowl was literally beautiful and it was a cheap-o acai bowl, it was a win win.

That night, we hosted a lil pre game in our apartment to go to the upscale bar called The Ivy again. I only knew about half the people in the apartment, but it was still a good time before we all headed out. The weather was absolutely gross and it was pouring rain, which wasn’t exactly ideal for the Ivy because its an open air/multi level bar. But, towards the end of the night, everyone was outside on the dance floor in the pouring rain dancing, so we all headed to the dance floor for maybe the most fun night of dancing ever. The music was great, it was pouring rain, we were all drenched but we did not care, we just kept dancing through the torrential downpour and it was amazing.

It was a fun first week of classes, and this current week Tommy and Mitch are here, so get ready for the next post, which is bound to be HILARIOUS, about my weekend with "Dad" (mitch) and the "fun uncle" (Tommy).