Midterm Break Part 2

So the second part of midterm break.  Absolutely Incredible.

Kaikoura. Two nights. A coastal town on the east coast in between Christchurch and Picton, on a peninsula, with huge mountains right along the ocean.  We walked around town, went whale watching and saw two huge sperm whales.  They are beautiful creatures, and also pretty mysterious - they surface for about 10 minutes, so it was quite the race once we spotted them in the boat 2 miles away to get to them before the dive deep down in the ocean for about an hour to find food, or at least we think that's what they do.  We saw seals bathing and playing and yawning  and slouching/lounging around of course, what they are best at!  We saw albatross dancing and gliding over the ocean.  Drawing cows in the middle of their pasture, where they would stop to look at us for about 5 minutes, wondering who we were and what we were doing - but they made the best models!  Going to the local bar and hearing live, low key music - so much nicer and different than a usual Friday night at school of pop songs.  Walking along the beach.  Making our own food.  The best chocolate chip banana muffins.  And of course, drawing A TON!!!  And the most incredible sunset I have ever seen in my entire life - that stretched from over the golden hills to the ocean on the other side.

Okay - well you are basically all caught up now!! After midterm break, we came to Melbourne, Australia.  We are here now for two weeks.  We are doing printmaking at this real artist's workshop - it is beautiful.  Melbourne is an amazing city - with so many museums and art galleries and art festivals going on, and so many parks and a river and on the ocean, and, the most perfect thing for me while I'm here: the library has an Australian picture books exhibit, and another museum has an exhibit on Disney fairytales - how perfect is that!!!