Ferries and BBQs

The BBQ was Awesome. We had to take a bus to Circular Quay and then a ferry to the island his house was on. Gina, Dan, Emily, and I were running a bit late and we tried to catch a bus. As we were stuck in traffic on the bus, trying to head downtown, we realized that we'd probably miss the Ferry so Dan and I sprinted off the bus to try and catch it. We arrived at the Dock that we were told to be at and no one was there. It took us a few but we realized that we were told the wrong dock, meaning that we could have made it--but we didn't. So we took the next one! No worries, everyone was waiting for us when we arrived at our ferry stop. We trekked up (and then back down) the hill towards Brian Zulaikha's house.

Brian showed us around his house telling us about all of the details and design decisions. The first thing I noticed, after taking my shoes off, was that my feet were super warm on the heated concrete floor. Of course, on the day we are asked to take off our shoes, I chose to wear different color socks (lazy I know). That got a good laugh out of everyone (I'm always glad to entertain). He reused most of the structure and so the project is technically a renovation. He said a bit inspiration for him was the Japanese screen and most every exterior wall or window slid away to open up the house to the outdoors. With a great view of Darling Harbor, who wouldn't want to just be outside all day.

The food was the most incredible 'picnic' foods you couldn't imagine. No red meat; just fish, cheese, and bread. Everything was incredibly gourmet and delicious. We had a tour or two and simply hung out for a few hours in the afternoon.

This week is a little crazy since our studio finals are on Thursday, so I probably won't be doing too much posting, but I will try.... Back to work

Big

More often than not I relate my life to movies... maybe I should cut back.

Sometimes when I'm in large cities at night I think of the movie Big (you know, the Tom Hanks movie). That first night after he's left home and he gets this run down cheap room in a motel on the wrong side of town, and he can't sleep because of the gunshots and angry yelling. He lies on the bed freaking out about everything that's just happened to him and he's just a kid afraid of the future. Now just for clarification I haven't been falling asleep to any sounds of violence; just for some reason I can relate to that feeling of being only one point in a sea of people. In many ways I'm used to it and if anything I've learned to thrive on new opportunities. I've lived all over the world now (fine only three places), and I can't help but feel humbled by all of the things I've been blessed with. I've grown a lot in the last year and everyday I am here I think about how lucky I am. I'm excited to keep going.

(on a completely unrelated note: avocados at the farmer's market in chinatown are only 3 for 2.50 aka DIRT CHEAP)

:)

BBQ

Today we have a pretty easy day, we're going to a BBQ at Brian Zulaikha's house. This is awesome for a multiple of reasons:

A. We get to take a ferry from the harbour.

B. His house (which he designed) was featured in an issue of Dwell magazine.

C. BBQs are always fun

D. I got to sleep in today

We've been working on our studio projects, and monday we met with an artist (Rebecca from 'Bill and George') to review our work. We had tea and chatted for like five hours. good times...

Tuesday we went to an Art gallery and then a group of us went to get library cards/access at the Library of New South Wales. It's kinda weird, you look up a book; then fill out a request form for it; then you wait for them to get it for you; and you go pick it up about ten minutes later. It's the history library so we were all doing research on Aboriginal culture for our paper for Adrian's class.

Words can not describe...

This weekend was one of the best weekends I have ever had...

Thursday we did a cliff/beach walk from Bondi Beach to Coogee which was breathtaking. I went swimming in the ocean (that's right... in winter) and we had fish and chips and class sitting outside.

Friday we trekked up to the blue mountains. They are a little bit like the Appalachian mountains in many ways. We met a man named Evan Yanna Muru at the station after an hour and a half train ride and we had an amazingly enlightening cultural experience. He led us on a traditional Aboriginal Walkabout tour of the Blue Mountain area that his people lived in before the invasion of the Europeans. We saw some amazing cultural and ancient sites and learned an unbelievable amount about who they were and how they lived. I won't go into a bunch of detail here but feel free to ask me about it! The whole tour was one of the most physically enduring hikes I've been on. There wasn't really a trail for a majority of the trek and at times we were even scaling some pretty intense cliffs.

Most of us stayed up in the mountains all weekend. The Katoomba YHA (youth hostel association) was really nice. We did some hiking around on the local trails, we played Monopoly (I won, of course).

On Sunday, the 7 of us who stayed took the train a little bit down the mountain to meet up with Nick (the architect we met earlier at Constructive Dialogue). He had invited us over for breakfast to his weekend cabin he built for his parents. He met us at the station with his really cute 2-3 year old son Toby, and we trekked through the bush (aka, took the scenic route) to the house. He gave us the tour and we all were really impressed. A large majority of the walls and windows slide completely away from the frames. We sat on the back porch talking about current events and drinking tea. We met his wife and children (Toby, and 2 month old twin daughters) which was a very nice opportunity to see a professional architect being a normal person.

As for pictures... be sure to check out Dan's blog: ausi09.blogspot.com and Dannielle's blog: australianewzealand2009.blogspot.com They seem to post more images, and you can also see other sides of things that we do.

so.... back to writing out my outline for Adrian's Class. Have a great Tuesday in the States everyone!

Sitting on my floor on a Sunday Night

I know, I know, I know. You've ALL been frantically checking multiple times per day to see if I've posted anything new; and until NOW you've been disappointed. Well this update will have to be a text only update (as it will take forever to upload all the photos at the hostel) but I will strive to be as interesting as I can.

The word for the past week has been 'flexible'. Our schedules (if you can call them that) change almost instantaneously and each time is some incredible mini-adventure waiting to happen.

Tuesday and Thursday we were given incredible tours of the Architecture and history of Sydney by Eoghan. Everyone was impressed with his knowledge of the area.

Wednesday, we had class and then went to this great vietnamese restaurant with our professors, some local (and famous) artists, Brian Zulaikha (of Tonkin Zulaikha Greer Architects) and Paul Pholeros an architect (more on him later). It was pretty incredible.

Friday, we had twin artists, a group called matchbox, talk to us about ARIs (Artist Run Initiatives). And as was true to the flexible nature of the week, they took us around on a mini tour of the area to see some local ARIs. They were so nice and really excited about our project. We're going to a tour that they're giving next Saturday.

Saturday we were given a tour of Paddington Reservoir by the head architect of the project, Tim Greer, of Tonkin Zulaikha Greer Architects (they really are a cool firm, and such nice people). Tim was very generous with his time, especially on a Saturday and we learned a lot of really great behind-the-scenes info about the project.

Today (Sunday) a group of us went and did some exploring. We saw Darlington Harbor, Hyde Park (and people playing chess), and the botanical Gardens. The weather was great all day but right as it was getting dark we saw some amazingly cool storm clouds roll in from the west (complete with huge rainbow). We were up on the hill and it started pouring so we took shelter under some huge fig trees, while watching the sun set over the harbor (complete of course with the Opera House and Bridge). It was pretty cool; once the rain died down we made our way back to the Train Station and came back to Newtown.

I guess that's enough of an update for now... Pictures to come soon I promise.

oh right... I almost forgot to say how awesome Paul Pholeros is. He is an architect that started healthabitat. A group that fixes up houses in central Australia for people living well below the poverty line. He sits on a board that deals with public housing in the national government. AND he designs some really amazing projects in China and Nepal, as well as his own house. He was really inspiring for all of us and it was great that he came to talk to us.

Tomorrow we're meeting at Constructive Dialogue (a local Architecture Firm) and then doing a design Charrette to start off our studio projects! Then later this week we're going to some art galleries and I think a book opening of Adrian's. We were going to go to the Blue Mountains this next weekend but that is getting pushed back so we can go on the ARI tour (flexibility)

anywho, I should get back to reading... have a good sunday everyone!

A4 Paper

so this short post is dedicated to Lindsey Meyer who first told me about A4 paper.

Of course, as Americans, we do things our own way. We use miles, they use kilometers; we drive on the right side of the road, they drive on the left. And so, as we have been given various papers over the last few days, we have learned that while WE use 8-1/2" x 11" sized paper, THEY use A4 size paper. While A4 paper has the same area, it is longer and skinnier, and just cool. The height is an even 12".

Caroline takes us through Redfern

This Saturday we had a special tour with a woman named Caroline. Her (an architect) along with the city planner for Sydney (and former planner for Melbourne) took us on a really great walking tour of Redfern (the area directly east of Newtown). Sydney is famous for its terrace houses. And Redfern has the largest single row of terrace houses in Sydney. The terrace houses are a direct response to the weather; they shelter from Sun and Rain very effectively.

It also rained ALL DAY. We were wet but it was fun.

(these ones aren't terrace houses)

This picture is from the Duck & Swan--A pub in Newtown that we all went to after the tour. We all had a great discussion with the local professionals about things like the economy, consumerism in America, and the weather to name a few.

Some Pictures

This is the view from outside the door to my room. As you can see the room opens straight onto a covered walk. Those stairs head down to the kitchen area. Yes I live in a tropical paradise...if only it would stop raining.

This the view of the Kitchen, the door to the right is to the courtyard. We all get our own bins for food and such.

This is only one of the MANY awesome buildings on Sydney Uni's campus. Notice the really cool pedestrian walk signs.

This is the really great overlook from the Law building on Sydney Uni's campus. In front is this really awesome park with some huge trees and in the back there is Downtown Sydney. You can see Sydney tower on the left. The harbor is in the back (you can't see it from here).

Food and Other Such Minutia

I thought I'd update you all on a few minor things relating to my daily life...

Food is KINDA expensive here, so we are all planning on eating in a lot. The hostel has pots and pans and other such items to cook with, and we all get our own buckets to keep food in the communal kitchen. They also give us small buckets with a plate, bowl, cup, fork, spoon, knife. This morning I had Corn Flakes.

Baggage issues: WELL so I may be a bit in trouble when it comes to flying Qantas airlines within Australia. The baggage requirements are a bit confusing and it seems that I may have to pay because I'm not going to be within the weight limits. Michael said there is a chance they won't actually weigh mine...so we'll see. The issue was that I was under the impression that I could check up to two bags at 50lbs each but after further review the real requirement is two bags with a total weight of no more than 50lbs. So I'll keep you posted.

The final two member of our group are getting here today. Gretchen is here already and Jul is coming later today.

We received our transportation passes yesterday which means of course we went to the harbor yesterday. More on that to come soon.

Sydney Uni Rocks

The University of Sydney, or 'Sydney Uni' is really, really cool. We spent the morning wandering as we waited for our rooms to be ready, and we spent a good deal of the time at this university. I shall post pictures sometime in the future...

Also, we are staying in the suburb/district of Sydney called Newtown. Newtown has sort of an artsy, hippie, college town vibe and is a perfect place for us to stay. We actually enter our Hostel complex through a gate and garage on the ground floor of this really cool narrow street. and again I promise to post some pictures soon.

Poo Tickets

Just so you all are aware, Toilet Paper is occasionally referred to as 'poo tickets.' We had just read about that in a guide book when one of the male flight attendants actually said it. It's a real thing, I think it's awesome and I thought you'd like to know.

Plane Rides

On a typical Tuesday afternoon in Cincinnati Ohio...

My ride, Emily Craig's wonderful parents, pulled into the driveway around 12:35 on Tuesday June 16th--and of course, I was still not ready to go. So I stuffed my face with the wonderful and nutritious Ham and Cheese grilled sandwich my father made for me and through the final things together. Long story short...we were on our way to Dayton, OH. About halfway there I realized that I had forgotten my Australian money at home, so I was not off to a good start. As it turned out, there was a 5/3 atm at Dayton Airport and a nice lady at a currency exchange booth in Chicago O'Hare that saved the day. So crises averted.

We were lucky enough to have an Australian Flight Attendant on our flight from Dayton to Chicago. She was really cool and very jealous that we got to go and she had to fly to Seattle. We got a lot of stories and advice from her and I was feeling pretty pumped. We were pretty disappointed that not one of our other flight attendants from Chicago to LA or from LA to Sydney was an Aussie.

There was only one real speed bump on the road/airway to Sydney... DUE to the AMAZING (and please note the sarcasm) AMAZING weather in Chicago they were only using two runways and our captain notified us that he couldn't even see how many planes were ahead of us to take off. It turns out our plane was delayed about 1.5 hours and we were scheduled to land in LA around 10:10PM west coast time and by the time we taxied to the gate it was 10:30. This caused a problem because our flight to Sydney was expected to leave at 10:30. We were very lucky, apparently the Sydney airport doesn't allow planes to arrive before 6 AM and so our flight was delayed which gave us just enough time to meet up with our friends in LA and board our plane.

There were six (of the ten) of us on our flight out of LA. We had planned our seats so that there was a clump of us within a few rows. I was sitting next to my friend Jenna. The 14 hour flight seemed to fly by, we watched a few awful movies, had two meals and a snack that were actually pretty good, and tried to do some reading for school. The goal was to try and spread out the amount of time sleeping so that we weren't so jet-lagged the next day. As I said earlier the plane left at 10:30 LA time, which was 1:30 Ohio time, so we were already pretty tired from a day of traveling. We flew in over the harbor and landed at 6AM thursday, Sydney Time or 4PM Wednesday Ohio Time (getting the hang of this yet?). We were pretty delirious. We got off the plane, grabbed our checked luggage, made it through customs, and crammed into a large taxi-van to take us to our hostel, Billabong Gardens (google them to see pictures of where I'm staying)

sorry this post was so long and boring, I promise I'll get better.

Traveling Down Under

G'Day Mates! It is currently about 3:30 pm Australian time (Thursday) in Sydney. Which means yes I am coming to you from 14 hours in the future.

so....I'll be using this blog to post pictures and travel stories (and perhaps some quips and fun anecdotes) to record my travels throughout Australia this summer. Please feel free to follow along and see just exactly what it is I'm doing on the other side of the world!