April 23

I can see the light! The busyness is almost over. Tomorrow is the performance of Seven Deadly Sins and then I have one big paper to research and write this weekend. This weekend is also a long weekend – Sunday is Anzac Day and Australia has adopted Monday as a public holiday. Hopefully I can fit some fun things in over the weekend, or just plain old rest. I’ve been putting in some incredibly long days this week and dragging my violin all over the place. I’ve just returned from the dress rehearsal for the opera and everything went well. The difficult music has gotten much easier, though I only had 2 hours of practice on my own this whole time – hopefully I won’t make any mistakes too loud.

Anzac Day commemorates the triumphant defeat of the Anzac Army at Gallipoli in World War II. Anzac stands for the Australia New Zealand Army Corps. There are going to be memorial services in churches all over the city and a parade through the city on Sunday. I’m going to try to make it down there to see it.

Today in our Indigenous Cultures class we visited the art gallery of NSW and the Australian Museum. The trip opened my eyes to a whole new side of Sydney I’ve been meaning to visit. I’ve been to the Art Gallery before, but all along the street it is on is Hyde Park, which extends over B city blocks with lots of grass, trees, fountains and statues. It’s akin to New York’s Central Park or Chicago’s Millennium Park. Sometime I’m going to have to explore up that side of the city.