Melbourne.

Remaining days in Sydney

I know...it's been a while.

Internet hasn't been available for a while so sorry for the lack of updates.  We wrapped up our last week in Sydney and had an unbelievable final presentation. We had people come to our presentation and give us feedback that were some of the most respected artists and architects in Sydney, even Australia. We all kind of sat there with our eyes wide open and mouths dropped realizing how important these people were to their respected fields. Someone even commented that the artists we had in the room would be the equivalent of some of the most well known, prominent artists in the US. It was so touching to realize these people took time out of their day to give advice and feedback to this group of ten American kids trying desperately to be just as respected in our field as they. We spent our last weekend in Sydney exploring the city and some of its markets. I spent over two hours just riding the ferry one of the days because the weather was so nice I just wanted to be completely surrounded by water. An early morning rise on Monday and we headed to the airport to fly to Melbourne, our second city stop on our trip. We had the rest of the day free in Melbourne once we landed so we all headed out to grab lunch/dinner. Emily, Gina, Carmen and I found this incredibly cafe and had an amazing lunch. We headed to the beach after that to watch the sunset over the water in the background of sailboats lined up on the dock. I could pretty much spend every day like that...good food and the water, what more do you need? We took a tour of the city and architecture, met with the head of DesignInc. (a large firm in Melbourne who actually maintains a strong social responsibility stance while maintaining a large popularity and firm size), visited Monash University for some presentations, visted a prominent Melbourne artist's studio, discussion of public architecture with well known architects in Australia, met with Sean Godsell, met with an architect from LAB architects who designed Federation Square, Adrian's book discussion, gourmet to-die for desserts at Brunetti's, Koorie Cultural Center, more architectural sites around Melbourne, Queen Victoria Market (unblievable amounts of fresh, locally grown produce and meat), WINE TOUR in the Yarra Valley!, birthday celebration...to quickly list a few of Melbourne's activities. 

Off to Brisbane! also known as The Bris, or Bris-Vegas

What a weather difference! 75 degrees and absolutely clear skies all the time. Pretty much the ideal weather, and yeah it's winter here so people were walking around in sweaters, jeans, and boots and here we Americans are walking around in flip-flops and tank tops. Took another architecture/city tour with some people from the firm Donovan Hill which is like THE firm in Brisbane, met with Timothy Hill (one of the partners of the firm), dinner out with the group, Paul Memmot lecture (prominent writer and researcher for Aboriginal studies in Australia), theory with Adrian, North Stradbroke Island (quite possibly paradise) and now in the library finally using the internet and getting some research done.

I have finalized plans for my travels after classes:

Tuesday myself, Emily, and Carmen will be flying to Alice Springs (middle of Australia, desert, outback) to spend five days or so there. We will be taking a tour Wednesday through Friday of the area around Alice Springs which includes three days of exploring and hiking and two days camping outside..and I am so excited beyond belief to camp outside in Australia! Then myself and Emily head up to Cairns for a few days of beach relaxation and snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef. Home Thursday August 13th. Until then, ciao!