Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Princes and Shenanigans

Dear All,

I am sorry to tell you I did not have the pleasure of meeting Prince William. I guess it is just not my destiny to become a royal. Prince William did a tour of Queensland this past weekend to show his support in the efforts to clean up the mess left behind from the massive flooding in January. He went to a fundraising event in South Bank, where I live, and I was 10 minutes too late in seeing him leave. He left 20 minutes early and when he walked out he took the time to shake everyones hand that was waiting outside. So mad!

In other news, I did quite a few exciting things this weekend that I would like to share with you.


I went BOWLING! Yes, that is right. The field you see in this picture is for a type of bowling. It's kind of like Boci ball but I just like to call it Scottish bowling because the first time I saw it was at Silvana's school, University of Glasgow. The object of the game is to roll a medium size ball down the pitch and have it get as close to a golf ball as possible. The reason it is difficult is that the ball is weighted differently on each side so it skews around to the left or right depending on the way you're holding it. It's weight also makes you need to throw it gentle enough so that it doesnt go too far and go in the gutter.

My action shot. I wasn't that bad at it which made me quite excited! You can see the size of the ball in this picture, too.




I also went to the Gallery of Modern Art in Southbank on Saturday, better known as the GoMa. For anyone who has been following my adventures, I went to the MoMa in London and didn't like it all that much. I didn't think modern art was really that special. That was until I came to Australia. After all, everything is better in Oz!

The picture above is of me at an exhibit called the wishing wall. The artist made the exhibit interactive by getting wishes from the people who go to the exhibit and then create ribbon bracelets with certain wishes on them. Some examples:

"I wish to be a famous ballerina touring the world"
"I wish to remain curious"
"I wish I knew what I wanted"
"I wish to be more like my older brother"

You are allowed to take one of the ribbon wishes and then you write down your own wish and put it in the wall, like I am doing in the picture. I LOVED the concept.

Right behind me is another exhibit that is also interactive. There are thousands of white lego pieces and everyone is supposed to create part of the piece so they become the art. Another great concept.



ANOTHER one of my favorite parts of the museum was this room that was created to look like a typical Japanese convenient store. Everything that you would find in the store in Japan was in the fake store in the museum but the wrappers were filled with air. I LOVED it.

There is also a massive slide you can go down if you don't want to use the stairs. At the far end you can see the wishing wall and then the table full of the white legos. 

Uni is starting to actually ask me to do work, which is HIGHLY unexpected. I came to Australia to have fun, not to actually study (haha). But in all honesty, it's difficult getting back into the swing of things after really not needing to apply myself in London. I have 2 small papers due this week, along with a quiz and I have to read the entire Odyssey by tomorrow. I have tons of papers and presentations coming up in the next few weeks, right after I get back from HONG KONG!

Alright, enough blogging. I gotta get back to work!

Righteous!!!!!
Mimi