Day 1

We arrived in Melbourne at around 6 am. I like many others could not get any sleep on the plane, after landing in Melbourne we got through arrival immigration and collected our baggage.  From there we got on a half hour bus ride to our hotel, the suprising thing I noticed on the ride was how empty the streets were. It was early in the morning but at 6 am in Singapore, there would be many cars on the street. We then arrived at the hotel where after 15 minutes, we headed off to the Lume. The lume was an intearactive art show displaying work from Monet and other french Impressionists. The main room of this showcase had many different projections on every surface of it. These projections showed french impressionist art, since the floor also had a projection on it you could sit in the art. There were different projections on different surfaces so if you looked in a different direction, you would see a different painting. The basic lesson from this show was that Monet and his friends were revolutionaries because they chose to paint people in cafes and restaurants and capture their culture and energy while other artists were fixated on potraits of posing models. Due to these revolutionaires, we now have a better understanding of the culture of that time.

Day 2 

After I woke up, got ready and had breakfast we left on a short walk to our graffiti art tour location.  We were divided into two groups according to our the number our passport was assigned to. Then we got started on the grafiti tour, the first thing our guide showed us was a sculpture of a nokia phone next to a traffic light. We then went across the street and moved forward with the tour. We saw more graffiti pieces and the guide told us about the importance of grafiti. Even though it wasn't exactly appreciated by everyone, it was still part of culture and culture is why we live our lives. It's why we wake up every morning, so we can enjoy some TV or a good book at night. Just like TV or books, graffiti is there for us to enjoy. Below are pictures of some notable graffiti I saw. After this we went to a graffiti workshop where we learnt to make graffiti using stencils. We had to draw the stencil in, cut it out and then put it on a piece of cardboard and spray paint it on. I choose Gastly, a popular pokemon due to his very simplistic design and large features. This made the drawing very easy however the cutting was still difficult. The spray painting was the most fun part though I may have gotten a little a carried away, this led to the final product looking a bit messy. After this workshop we went to St Kilda Fair. Which was a very fun music festival, there I had some lemonade and rode the ferris wheel. We also passed by some music shows of small bands and artists which looked very interesting.

 

Day 3 

After I woke up, I went down to have my usual breakfast which was the same for the entire trip, Coco pops and milk. We then went for a short walk down the pier which had many cafes and restaurants. We then arrived at the location of our next activity, kayaking. We were once again split into two groups and divided ourselves into partners. I was with my roomate, Jerry. We then went kayaking down the river for a little while and then back around. The kayaking was very easy due to each kayak having pedals to steer it, with these pedals you would not have to worry about manually steering the kayak. The first time we passed under a bridge, I noticed there were bottles on the little ledges under the bridge. It looked like an interesting mini tradition to me.  It was fun to kayak quickly and feel the breeze, the scenery was very beatiful too. The guide stopped us occasionally to tell us about certain historical monuments but most of the time we were too far away or too preocupied with stooping our kayak from bumping into another one. After this we went on a prison tour which was quite interesting to hear about. We went to a large prison where inmates were ranked by how badly they were sentenced with different floors holding prisoners with different sentences. The yard area was also interesting to stroll through.  We heard about different prisoners such as Ned Kelly, who was like a Robin Hood to the poor. After this we went to a photography worksop, where we learnt about different teqhniques to take photos with our phone. We strollled for a while taking photos of interesting texures. We then moved on to taking potraits of a partner, I was once more with my roomate. After this, we were given miniuature figures to take photos of, shortly after the trip ended. Below are various photos of mine from this photography worksop,

Day 4

After getting ready and having my usual breakfast. We went to a theatre tour. Most of the theatres were underground so they were completely soundproof to traffic. The first theater we saw was geared towards music and had incredibly good acoustics. The guide also told us about the huge number of pianos they stored for artists, all from premium brands. The artists were given their pick and the piano was tuned before the show. She also told us a story about a pianist who wanted a different pian during the show so the show was stopped and there was a 30 minute break to switch the pianos and tune the new one. Due to this a rule prohibiting piano swapping during shows was implemented.  After this tour we went over to a puppetry workshop just next door. After some warm up excercies, we were told to make a paper mache puppet and put on a play with it. Our( Me, Tanay, Ryan, Anthony, Binqing and Jerry) play was simple, Tanay would act as a reporter who would insult our very muscular puupet. The puppet would then beat up Tanay in his rage, the left hand and waist of the puppet was controlled by me, the right hand and head was controlled by Binqing and both the legs were controlled by Anthony. We then moved on to a Alexander Mcqueen fashion show. The dresses were very extravegent but quite impractical, if someone were to actually wear them, they would have to have a proffesional weight lifter's body to hold up all that weight and have perfect balance on top off somehow being slim enough to fit into the actual dress. Below are some notable photos of the fashion show I took. 

Day 5

Once more, I woke up and had my breakafest. After this, we went to Healsville sanctuary which was not the absolute best experience for me since the animals roamed pretty much freely and I am not fond of being within reach of wild animals. I with Ryan, Antony and Tanay, explored the sanctuary.

Day 6

Once we were ready, we went to victoria market. Where there were many small shops of all kinds. There was a shop full of scrolls with japenses designs such as dragons and cherry blossoms. Ryan and Anthony bought scrolls from this shop. There was also a store with a australian themed bommerang, we browsed some shops which sold shirts and shoes, then we spent a considerable amount of time at a store which sold good luck charms. I bought a small skull shaped charm to put on my desk. We then roamed around looking for something to eat and while there were many exotic and exciting options, we settled on Mcdonalds and had our lunch there. Binqin also bought this stress ball squishy thing which had a interesting texture. We then went to the national gallery of Victoria, where our guide took us on a tour. We first saw this hall with a roof made of different colored pieces of glass, then we moved on to see some historical pieces. One intresting one was a painting of a war scene in Japan.  We then moved on and a saw a very small sculpture of ivory which the museum received back when buying ivory items was legal. After that we saw some classic paintings by Monet. After this tour we went on to see Mary Poppins, a musical. We went to the theater and watched the show. I loved it, the music and dancing were brilliant but the surprisingly good part was the special effects from a giant toy which was bigger than the stage to Mary Poppins flying, all the effects were brilliant.

Day 7

The first activity of Day 7 was a worksop session, after a short travel. We were divided into two groups, one group was doing the improv workshop another the costume one. I was placed in the costumegroup. To start off we did a warm up excercise, where we went around the room introducing ourself and explaining what clothing attire would we be if we could be any. I choose wacth so I can nver lose the time, then the instructor ran through a slide show and at the end we watched an example of good costume design in the lion king musical. After this we were given a poem to read and then were given the task of designing costume for any character in the poem. It was easy since the poem was very descriptive of the characters.  We did this for the rest of the workshop. Next was the blindside exhibition, we walked a short distance to it. The exhibition was for small artists who wanted to show their work, the basic system was that the artists would pay to have their work shown and that's how the space would be maintened. The artists would pay rent for however long they wanted to display their piece. Using this system smaller artists could have a space for their work to be shown and people could witness the work of many small artists very rapidly since the works were switched out frequently. Below is a work which I took a photo of.  After this we went for the moonlight cinema showing of avatar, the walk there was long and quite difficult. Thankfully it was starting to get darker and cooler so we weren't tired and hot. After the walk, we arrived at the park where the cinema was. The park reminded me of Botanical Gardens but without the chickens, we were lead to the entrance of the cinema and given VIP passes which I was very impressed by with, we got to bypass the long queue to the cinema. There were beanbags for us VIP's to sit on, they were very comfortable. However, I had forget to bring snacks and I had seen the movie a week before the trip so I was both bored and starving. I could have gotten up and bought something but it seemed that they were only selling ice cream which I had no want to eat in the cold. After the movie we thankfully took a bus to the hotel.

Day 8

After our last morning of interim, we went to the airport and got through immigration.  My group and I had some lunch, I had noodles which were mediocre at best. We then got on the plane, on which I watched Bonnie and Clyde a classic movie, among some others and did not get a lick of sleep. I arrived at singapore and my parents were there to pick me up. We booked a cab and went home. The experience was incredibly fun for me while I had been to Australia only slightly before the trip, certain parts of it such as Mary Poppins were truly amazing and I also enjoyed interacting with new people.