Ugh

I still have so much to do.

One last wave of postcards, closing my student banking account, swinging by the study abroad office, finish the paintings, study for my last exam, preparing for a road trip...

And then there's this blog :[

It's times like this that I wonder why I give myself so much work. Am I a work-a-holic? Do I enjoy being stressed and tied up all the time??

Lets all just get together for the Grant Park movie Tuesdays and chill out when I get back.

I'll try to update the blog with a real post before I call it a night if I have leftover time...

The Royal Botanical Gardens and Bats

...or more appropriately, the Royal Botanical Gardens and Bats and Bats and even more Bats (oh my goodness!)

Warning, the first part of this post deals with the garden. Skip to the second half for BATS.

THE GARDENS. They're pretty much on the side of the city, and stuff. Not much to say, besides it was quaint. Tis the dead of the Australian winter, so it wasn't particularly colorful. Pretty massive for what it was, it stretched along the harbour for a good run.


Also, they had a Wollemi pine, which was thought to had been extinct for 200 million years until they found one in a gorge. They used to keep it in a cage, for the purposes of theft prevention or, much more realistically, the hopes that it would not be able to run away.


Do not play with the cycads.


There was also bamboo, into which declarations of love were carved. What, the Wollomi pine wasn't good enough for you?


Ok thats enough plants, BATS.


THERE WERE SO MANY BATS. It was crazy, apparently they just chill in the gardens until nightfall. It reminds me of my irrational childhood love of bats. There are some bats that chill around the tree outside of my window at night, but I mean SHIT LOOK AT ALL THESE BATS.

I MEAN LOOK AT ALL THESE BATS. I want to ride upon a giant fig driven by hundreds of bats tied to it!


I CAN stop here, because Australia is BAT COUNTRY.

Buskers

...busker?

It sounds like a type of migrant field worker. There's alot of stupid words in the big book of American linguistics, but 'busker'? Really?

The following buskette was singing "Rock and Roll All Nite", but from the five minutes a friend and I were watching her sing, it seemed that all she knew was the chorus.

Essentially, her performance was,

"I wanna rock and roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all nite and party every day"

(Sorry about the weak post, I spent 15 hours today doing paintings for my exhibition and I'm tirrrrrrrrrrrrrred)

Things Australians Say Wrong #5

Ah, I seem to have not covered the Opera House yet.

Well, I'm not going to do one of their extremely overpriced tours, but I think I have way too many photos of the damn building anyway. I mean, somehow everytime I travel through downtown Sydney, I end up near the Opera House.

On that note, here is another list of things Australians say wrong.

Central Business District (CBD) = Downtown
Busk = Street Performing (Apparently a real word?? I refuse to believe this!)
Uni = University (I've actually taken a liking to saying uni)
Jumper = Hoodie
Goon = Box Wine
Piss = Grog = Alcohol
Pissed = Drunk = Angry
Piss Off = GTFO
Colour = Color
Labourer = Laborer
Harbour = Harbor
Aluminium = Aluminum

To all the Australians reading this blog: One of you said that it sounds like I'm just bashing Australians, but I'm not. I'm just providing a humorous perspective to your backwards nonsense ways to my filthy American friends and family members.

AT ANY RATE, HERE ARE A MILLION PHOTOS I TOOK OF THE OPERA HOUSE.

This is a view from the Harbour Bridge


This IS the Harbour Bridge


and THIS is the Opera House lit up for the VIVID festival going on in Sydney. Its a big event with big concerts, art shows, and the like.



The images changed every five minutes, and the images were projected from this huge thing from all across the bay.


Cooler than the projections on the antennas of the Sears Tower. But only a little bit cooler...

Lets see, I still have to cover the Chinese Gardens, the waterfront, the Harbour Bridge, and a whole bunch of other shizzz.

Sydney Graffiti

7 days to make 12 paintings! D-do you think I can do it??

I named my exhibition "You Smell Nice", since its a line used in one of my paintings and I couldn't think of anything else. Was that a bad idea? :<

Taking a Break!

No more posts this weekend!

I've got to study for an exam on Monday and try to figure out how the hell I'm going to get all my paintings done in time for the exhibition...

Until then, enjoy watching this clever seal doing this marvelous trick.

The Zoo!

Yes, the zoo.

But before that, here's a notice to all the Australians reading this blog!

The World Bar at King's Cross will be hosting my artwork in an opening exhibition on the 24th! Keep your calenders open! It should be a blast! If you have your Club VIP card, entry should be free and your Pokit Pals should also save you money on drinks. I think champagne will be served to gallery visitors as well! Just get really drunk and buy my art OK?

ANYWAY. THE ZOO.

Taronga Zoo was across the bay from the Opera House, but ferries traversed the watery path. Tributes must be made to Sydney's guardian, the Fish Bishop, lest you incur his wrath upon your vessel.


One of the cool things about the zoo was that to get into the park after coming ashore, you had to take this weird lift up which gave you a cool arial view of the whole park.


HERE'S WHAT I SAW.









Oh, did I mention I saw KANGAROOS? It was the first time I saw a living kangaroo (with wallabies present as well). Every other kangaroo I saw was either made into a hat, on a pizza, or in two pieces on the side of the road. You can feel the sheer intensity of the moment in the next immediate photo.



I'll finish this off with some interesting educational displays I saw.