After arriving in Melbourne and checking into the Hotel, we walked to the convention center where there was an art installment called The Lume. Which focuses on multiple painters, hence was described with "Monet and friends", and their different artworks and the meaning they carried showcasing their art. This facility also included a room where you could learn about each individual artist mentioned in the exhibit and it even had a tutorial video of how to draw a specific landscape that you could follow. Lastly not only was there a cafe but there was another room called the Waterlily Room, photo included below, which was very relaxing and the room had multi-colored lighting. All in all, although I was completely exhausted the second half of the day, I still had a great time and this was a really cool way to start off the trip.

Even before I left the hotel, the first thing I did this day was lathered myself in sunscreen. As I knew we were going to be outside and not in much shade so I absolutely could NOT risk getting burned this early on in the trip. Well after we got through the safety briefing and learned just how to kayak we took off. The guided tour was very interesting as we got to hear about the history of Melbourne more specifically around the river as we were seeing it in real-time. One funny thing that happened was as we were paddling down the river we happened upon a helipad that had a helicopter on it, and before turning around to go back down the river, we had to cross to the other side of the river. This is because if we were too close to the helicopter as it took off, we would capsize in our kayaks. We then went back to the hotel to clean off, and then we were off to a puppetry workshop. Here we taught about different types of puppetry and the differences between them. Then we finally created our own puppets and created a short skit with a group of 6 that we performed to the rest of our group.

We spend most of day 5 at the Healesville sanctuary, it first started with about an hour and a half drive to get out there.  Once we got there we split up into groups according to what people wanted to see and started walking around. My group started off to go see the dingos and wetland birds. We then of course had to see the kangaroos, koalas, and platypuses since we are in Australia after all. Then finally one of my favorite enclosures to see is the reptile house, and although this one was small there were many cool reptiles. Lastly, we stopped at the aviary and saw cockatoos and multiple parakeets, then we were off to see the bird show. We learned about the different birds and how they live in the wild, and they were even swooping fairly close to our heads. It was a lot of fun coming here and seeing certain animals, and having these experiences I wouldn't have otherwise. Then after this, we took a stop at. scenic location and stepped out to take a couple of pictures.  Lastly, we stopped at a chocolate shop, which is the view on the left, and had the chance to walk around outside, get ice cream, or buy other chocolate items.

We started off our day going to a workshop where our group of thirty was split into two, and we took a workshop at NIDA choosing between costume design and improv. After this workshop, we then went to a small art gallery called Blindside. This gallery is special because it rotates the artists every couple of months, and where the artist pay for the exposure. We talked with the gallery curators and she let us know some behind the scenes about how art shows and work for their business.  Then finally we ended the day with going to Moonlight Cinema, which is an outdoor theatre in a park in Melbourne, and we saw the new Avatar movie!