#if y'all look at your siblings that are within your age group with THIS level of heart eyes know that im actually concerned

[nartml]

Saw a comment describe killugon as 'born to be brothers, forced to be best friends'.

And I just have to say that, out of all the things that have never happened, that has never happened the most.

[buckner-in-australia]

Day 24: June 19, 2017

HAPPY FREAKING BIRTHDAY ASHLEY!

This morning is one of the mornings I've been looking forward to in Australia: our tour of the Sydney Opera House!

As a former performer, I had always dreamt of seeing the opera house in person, and now this dream is finally coming to fruition! Before knowing much about the opera house, I assumed that it just contained one huge concert hall with beautiful architecture and acoustics. Little did I know that I was both right and wrong. The SOH is an architectural master piece in every way. Taking inspiration from ancient Mayan temples in Mexico, Jorn Utzon used the staircases as the foundation for his masterpiece. By incorporating the sails, waves, and shell shapes the harbor produces, Utzon found this to be the ultimate visual icon for a country yearning for an emblem to  be recognizable on a global scale. Y'all I learned so much about this building, I absolutely love it! And what better way to express ones love for something than investing in it?! Guess who got tickets for their show Hot Brown Honey on Thursday! The last show I saw was Wicked last year so it is due time for another. Also who all can say they saw a show at the opera house?! And say that it features Aboriginal women?? Not many at all lol!

After the SOH tour we went to The Rocks Centre to learn more about the indigenous peoples of this region known as the Rocks.  I appreciate all museums but I especially appreciate museums that showcase Aboriginal culture. As many minority groups, Aboriginal peoples are usually clumped together as if there are no distinctions between any of the tribes/clans. I loved this museum because it showed how the harbor shaped the lives of the natives and how the environment was shaped by them. I could've stayed in that museum for hours even though it was much smaller than the others we've visited.

Once we were finished touring the museum we broke for lunch then met up for an Aboriginal Heritage Walking Tour of the Rocks Area. I absolutely love activities like this. I learned so much about their way of life and how the colonists devastated all arenas of their live. The two biggest points of the conversation that struck me were our guides way of speech and just how much the Aboriginal people of the area shaped the land. Before we started the tour, our tour guide gave reverence to the elders past and present, and for the female elder that relayed all her knowledge to them. Everything was as if she was speaking through him. Everything was an elaborate story of interconnectedness and dependence.  The story never ended nor did I want it to. I wanted to know everything. As we wondered throughout the area our guide acknowledged just how long his people have been on this land comparing it to western civilizations. It's literally like from the Great migration from Africa the Aboriginal people stayed down here and molded the land into what they needed it to be. For instance he made a connection how the culture of the harbor is that during a certain time of year they would pat the waters where the dolphins would come in as a form of communication between them. He expressed how after generations of this culture evolving there were also generations of dolphins who now had this knowledge engraved into their conscious. This knowledge allowed for connectivity and dependence on levels imaginable. Breathtaking isn't it?

It was also interesting seeing actually Australian ochre because tribes of Africa use ochre as well. For those who do not know, ochre is a natural substance that can range from yellow, reds, oranges, to white that is used for its pigments. It was also interesting thinking about how the middins, sacred Aboriginal collections of seashells from centuries, were demolished by convicts to make the cement to hold the building of The Rocks aka Old Sydney together. Could you imagine that day? I know there was great mourning and would've been a spectacular sight if it was still present today.

Even though the tour was amazing, afterwards your girl had to take a nap. Even though Sydney is not as fast pace as Melbourne, being on the ground easily wears down on your energy levels. After the nap, Ash, Morgan, Kayla, and I headed to Darling Harbor for a nice dinner looking onto the harbor. At dinner Kayla had kangaroo for the first time. I was debating it but they said that it is only its best prepared at medium rare. I'm just like I might as well just bite into the kangaroo if that's the case lol. Since that won't be happening anytime soon, I just took a nice photo of her dish and lived vicariously through her lol. After dinner, y'all know what the business was. We headed back and did some homework and then were soon floating in the clouds of our dreams.

Things I've learned - SOH built in 60s and opened in 1973 - The "Spherical Solution" - Cultural image recognizable on a global level like the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty - Competition in 1956, winning number 218 - Evokes cliffs and sails - Foundation imitates the base of the Mayan Yuccan temples - Took 20 years and 10,000 workers and absolutely no deaths even without safety harnesses - Initially 3 years, 7 million then 16 years and 102 million -  left in 1966 because the new government wanted to demote him to an advisor because construction took too long. He left after the sails and foundation was complete - Will Harry Potter movies in the concert hall and have a symphony playing the sound track live - 10,000 organ pipes behind the visible 200   - They close down concert halls for 18 months for renovations which will coast 220 million will be the Concert Hall, Drama Theater, Corridors - Playhouse first acted as a space to play surfing movies - 1000 rooms and 300 corridors - Current Sydney winter weather is Germany's summer - Utzon's son and daughter are both architects and are both still active in the renovations and building process of the SOH - 2,000 shows and over 2 million visitors 

Things I’ve learned pt 2 - An elder taught them what to say everything is revered and had to be perfect - Boundaries are natural land formations like rivers and mountains - The rainbow serpent shed his scales to gives us colors - Different totems plants or animals. Must know everything about the totem and then informs their siblings of such - No left or right you move toward the water or toward the land. By doing that you'll never get lost - Tribal names reflect the region and what they are known for padigal from the padigal river etc. - Pattern of weaving is found discretely within the plant itself. It's inherent - Dolphins would recognize the sounds bc for generations people would whack the water and for those generations the dolphins became in tune to the noise at that time of the year - Connectivity - 120,000 years ago continuous uninterrupted culture of the indigenous people of Australia - Tribal, men, women totems - Dots are desert people, lines and hatches are water people - Rock carvings are still present in Sydney one is a giant whale bc whales would come into the other harbor. South of Bondi there's a shark. The markings reveal knowledge about the land the food plants animals breeding areas   - Air condition in SOH comes directly from the ocean and the ocean stays the same temp year round - Know totem and it's interaction - Australia gets more snow than Switzerland because the mountain range is so expansive - The importance of sandstone - Sacred area where shells were collected for centuries were ground into mortar for old Sydney - Harbor is a flooded mountain range from the ice age - The culture of the people resonates throughout the environment, the landscape is shaped by the people. Some rivers will not form without the bush fires etc