Sydney Opera House

Nearing the end of our LONG day Friday, we went to the Opera House to see the Sydney Symphony in the main concert hall. What an experience! Everyone on the trip with me can attest that I was on a serious high after the show. I was blown away! The first piece was Shostakovich's Cello Concerto No. 1 (in E-flat, Op. 107). Very exciting piece with incredible writing for solo cello. The second piece was Symphony No. 3 (in C-minor, Op 78) - called the Organ Symphony for its use of the pipe organ. I had never heard this piece before and it was especially moving, as it started softly and reflectively before working it's way to a climactic thunderous finale. Check it out if you haven't heard it already!



We had seats behind the orchestra and I tried to take a short video during the Shoshtakovich concerto but my battery died! I need to prepare better for these things........ Here's that short clip-- sorry it's not the best view because I was trying to be discreet, just listen closely!



After the intermission (they call it "interval" here) a few of us slipped into the $90+ seats in the front-middle section. My excuse was that it sounded better acoustically for us to hear the organ, but they were amazing seats, regardless!

Manly Beach

The sun was hiding again at this point, but still thoroughly enjoyed this afternoon. Manly actually reminded me of many beach areas around LA.



Apparently the word of the day was "beautiful". Sorry, i didn't realize i was using the same word so frequently! I promise I usually make use of a larger vocabulary, which includes more than one adjective, in normal conversation.





WARNING: the next video contains language that may be unsuitable for young children or others. I'm including it so you can really see how much i loved this beach. sorry you had to hear that, mom <3

Sydney Harbour*

*note the "u." If it hadn't been made it clear already, I'm not in the US anymore. The novelty never wears off, haha!



The sun was hiding behind the clouds during the ride, but you still get a good idea of what it's like to take a ferry through the Sydney Harbour. We took the ferry early Friday afternoon to Manly beach (no, i'm not trying to sound more gay. it's just the name of the beach) and spent the rest of our sunny day walking the beach and soaking in the sights!

Here's another view from the ferry ride:

Sydney

This video was taken around 8 in the morning after our early morning flight from Melb on Friday Aug 21.

Gorgeous weather in Sydney with warm temps in the low 70's. We stayed in the middle of downtown for 3 days so crammed in lots of sights and had an incredible weekend! Plenty of video documentation-

Chinese Gardens:

To my fellow Ormondians,

This is Picken A, B, and C with the Picken Lawn in the foreground. What a beautiful area for students to hang out! I may have said some misguided comments in an earlier video about the residential halls other than Main Building. This recording is my response:

Also- If it isn't obvious already, i made a note at the beginning about how I appear to others while I take these videos. Let's just say I don't look cool.




geeeeeez the thumbnail always captures an awkward facial expression....

Another AFL game

Sorry for the delay everyone! The internet comes and goes at Ormond, unfortunately, so I was disconnected from the world last weekend. It's nice to be back......

Here's a couple shots from a game at the MCG. I have another short clip from the beginning of the blog when I visited the cricket grounds during welcome week; take a look how different it looks full during a game at night! Student tickets are in the nose-bleeds but cheap so I hope to catch a few more games before the season ends








I'll try to stop using the zoom so much. Clearly not effective!

View from the Athletics fields

Here is another video showing you Ormond and the north side of Uni Melb campus where all the residential colleges are located. It's a bit boring but gives you another idea of what things look like around here!

School is in full-swing by now as we just started our 3rd week. Keeping busy but still loving it here!