February Week 9 2015

Another fun week! I’ll start with the not so fun: I’m slowly being eaten alive by some kind of biting bugs. I wake up every morning with more bites than when I went to sleep, and go to sleep every night with more bites then when I woke up. It’s depressing, but at least Michael’s not getting bitten at all! I’m totally 100% happy for him and 0% jealous/bitter.

We were able to watch the Oscars with help from my family and the free wifi at the public library (how great was Eddie Redmayne?!). Speaking of wifi, we finally have our very own! That’s right, wifi in our apartment that I can use any time I want. It’s a good thing too because I’ve received ten emails from my MFA program advisor since Friday. Apparently, artists aren’t always the most organized or concise people. I had orientation on Thursday and let me just tell you, it was weird. It’s been a while since I went to a new school. It was intimidating but also exciting. A few art students at Elam (my school) have told me that they focus much more on concept and research. I’m very familiar with both of these things, especially after studying philosophy for undergrad, but I’ve never focused on research in accompaniment with a photography project. I’m curious to see how that’ll play out, but at least I already have a few ideas! In celebration of the Chinese New Year, there’s a huge lantern festival in Albert Park (right in the city center next to campus). The festival runs all weekend but Michael and I went Friday night. There we found sheep, pandas, sushi, and everything in between all in the form of lanterns. Luckily, we also found some non-lantern food at the festival along with thousands (seriously!) of non-lantern people.

Saturday was finally the day of the World Cup Cricket match that we had tickets to. The New Zealand Black Caps vs. the Australian [insert color and clothing item here]. What. A. Match. Obviously there’s a huge rivalry between New Zealand and Australia and the game was amazingly exciting (I was literally amazed that I felt any level of excitement at a cricket match). I don’t want to bore you, but do yourself a favor and look up the highlights on Google. Or, you can just watch the whole game. It was only five and a half hours long (on the short side for cricket)! Spoiler alert: NZ won by one wicket!! Last but not least, today my Grandma came into town! It’s been great to see her and receive several necessities that she brought us from the states (our Denver Broncos snuggie being the most noteworthy).