Exhibition.

Well.... to say the least, I know I picked the right profession.  As we were getting ready for our exhibit, one of my friends said I looked like such a teacher.  I was thrilled.  As everyone else was decked out in their wacky exhibition outfits, I wore my teacher clothes.  Haha.  I also know I picked the right profession because I don't think I ever want to be a part of a gallery again...  It was a great experience, and I wouldn't trade it for the world, butttt I am not sure it was meant for me.  I don't like having my work displayed for everyone and their brother and sister to see (and critique).  Alas, I am hoping it might sell.  Our work will be up for the next week, and maybe I have a chance at getting some extra mula!

A few of us spent the night in together, and I couldn't have made a better choice.  I'm pretty sure that I'm getting sick... and it sucks to be sick when all I want to do is go out and celebrate, but oh well.

Today we are going to go to a gem shop for a few hours, and then head back for our last night in Mildura.  We are probably going to hit the town for one last night.  It is so sad thinking of leaving all of these awesome friends I've made.  I am excited that I will have connections across the US when I get home :)  We keep on saying that we are going to meet up in the middle of all of our homes, which would be Nebraska!  Abby lives in Nebraska and has plenty of room for us all!!  That would be a blast.  I am also going to hall my cookies all the way to LA to visit all of the Cali girls that I've met!  Leaving is sad, but we will have a blast when we get to see each other again!!

I probably wont have internet for the next few days, so I will probably not post again until I am home again!  After the trek back to Melbourne tomorrow morning (6am!!), we will have the afternoon to run around the city!  We are gong to an Australian football game (which is like a mix of rugby, soccer, team hand ball, and football - essentially a smorgasbord).  We will probably hit the town in Melbourne as well, and then I will be headed back to the States early Sunday morning.  Whew... I have my work cut out for me!

I cannot wait to see all of your purdyyy faces, and share everything that I've done (or bought haha).  I love each of you dearly and will see you each soon!

Wrapping up

Needless to say, the morning after the 4th of July was a bit rough.  We finished editting all of my portfolio images and the image for my exhibition!  I am so excited to be done.  We had half a day at the university, and then I went to the offices in the city for some internet.  After class we all had leftovers from last night, and did some shopping! 

Everything has been wrapping up quite nicely the past few days!  We had the morning off the following day (yesterday), so Abby and I wondered around the city to grab some breakfast and headed to the offices to steal some Internet!  I got to talk my mom and dad for the first time since I've been here!  YAYY!!  After hanging out for the offices for awhile, we grabbed some lunch and a few souvenirs (which I cannot say what they are haha).

We headed back to the place right next door to the offices, Stefanos, where we are having our exhibition.  I got to see my exhibition image in print form for the first time!  It looks okay, but I am going to try and sell it.  Hopefully it will pay for the dinner I had that night!  We ate at Stephanos.  I payed more for a meal than I will ever pay again in my entire life!  We had a five course meal with three bottles of wine split between the seven of us, and it was absolutely delicious!  I am hoping to get a copy of the menu one of us got with our ticket.   After dinner (four hours later - woah), we headed back to our hostel to hang out a bit and head to bed. 

The following morning we had to write a blurb about the program and pick a photo for one of our assignments.  I am so glad to be completely DONE with everything, except for the assignment I have to do for Meredith.  I am not sure when I am going to get those done.  I suppose I should do them soon, while I have people I can talk to about them here.  Ugh.

Next we are heading to go get Abby a tatoo!!!!  I would totally get one, if I didn't tell Kamron that I would get my first one with him.  So far we have five people getting tattoos.  The instructor from last year bet our instructors that he would have more tattoo getters, but we are winning!!  YAY!

Well, that is pretty much it for now.  We have our exhibition tonight, and tomorrow we are heading to Woodsies Shop.  They have a bunch of jems and such.  We are done with all of our assignments for the course though!!

I send my love and pray for my exhibiton tonight!

Proud to be an Amuerican!!!

Today we headed back to the university to edit our images some more based off of the feedback we got at our critique (the little I actually received).  I am ready to pull out my hair with freakin’ Photoshop!  I think I am almost done with most of my images, but we will see.  I cannot wait to bring my portfolio back and show everyone!  Maybe I will hang some of them up in the living room!!  Haha, Joycey and Sam, hopefully y’all won’t mind!

After the university, we ran around the city some, and picked up some groceries for our cook out!!! We celebrated 4th of July American style in Australia!!!  We are having hamburgers, hot dogs (with ONLY American condiments), salad, chips & dip, potato salad, brownie sundaes, an American mix CD, and beer.  Nothing better!  Oh – and sparklers with poppers!  And the fun began!!  Woot woot!
I lost track of the number of drinks I had, but I slept soundly!!!  We have some crazy pictures and videos, but it's always good to have documentation of the evening.  The food was great, and the company was even better!  It will not be the same without everyone next year!  I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th at home!

Road to recovery

Luckily we had the day off on Sunday.  It was a perfect day for relaxation.  It was raining,  We wondered around the city a bit, spent some more money, and learned how to play footy, Australia’s football, from one of our instructors.  We spent the rest of the day watching American classic movies, and I crocheted like a grandma (Haha, Melbug) :)  I headed to bed kind of late, because of all of our movie watching, but oh well!

Critiquing

Traumatizing…yet once again.  We each had five image that we had to present to our instructors in front of everyone in the program.  I don’t know how awesome my photos were, because no one really sad anything.  I suppose that isn’t too bad, right?  At least it wasn’t too harsh.  We finished up pretty late, so we went back to the hostel for dinner and drank a bit and went out to celebrate!  Nothing’s better than a Saturday night out on the town!  We went to a couple of bars, and we ended up at a club.  I have never done shots out in public before, and I did three… two tequilas and one jam donut.  The. End.  Haha. 

Photoshop overload

After hanging out and running errands most of Thursday, we had a half day of work.  We uploaded all of our images to the desktops at the university and started processing our images.  We had to decide on ten images to work on and five out of the ten to have critiqued the following day.  I’ve decided that my brain doesn’t like Photoshop.  I need to work on that a bit, especially if I want to be able to pass this course.  After my brain was on overload, we headed back to the hostel to grab lunch.  I headed to the university offices in the city, so I could talk to one of my instructors about writing blog for one of the local new stations.  Of course I took it on.  I just don’t know how to say no.

While at the offices I was able to upload the rest of my images and update my blog (as you could see).  Now it is time to update everything, again!  I was planning on staying in fore the night to relax a bit more, but I went out instead.  We spent the night bar hopping.  We also found this alley with some neat graffiti on our way to play bumper cars.  We were able to ride multiple times… the guy noticed that we were all a bit buzzed, so he just went along with it.  We decided to walk around a bit, and then I headed to bed!

Holy Gi-moly!

I know I've said this before, but dang!  I just spent FOREVER typing up my blog from the past few days, and editing what I already had finished.  I am ready to chuck my laptop out the window!  AHH!!  Please forgive me for any spelling or grammar errors or anything that might not make sense.  I am heading towards delirium, but I am FINALLY done!  Yay!  I will keep everyone posted as the week goes on.  I still have no internet where I am staying, but at least I have it at the university and local cafes now!

My trip was a blast, and I hope you enjoy my posts and check out some of my photos at my shutterfly account.

I send oodles and oodles of love!