Look2U

Woodward Theatre is one of the Drama teaching spaces at QUT Kelvin Grove campus. I had my first physical theatre lecture over there and there were over a hundred people enrolled in that unit. Sigh! How I wished we had those numbers back in Singapore. And the unit coordinator smacked my butt before I left the theatre. *shivers*

Anyway, I went to the University of Queensland (UQ) with Joseph (also known as ah-boy) yesterday. Yeah, he studies there and I thought that it might be worthwhile to go to have a look at the State University of Queensland and it was huge. Not to mention that the CityCat ride was awesome! The CityCat is Brisbane’s public transport system in the Brisbane river. Of course, pictures included in this entry so no worries!

The CDB from the CityCat

The CDB from the CityCat (another view)

The CDB from the CityCat (another view)

An awesome sight must be captured with the lead actor

South Bank

Check out those beautiful clouds as well

They sure are beautiful!

The Pier

Pier again

Residences

UQ’s majestic Great Court

UQ’s Art’s Faculty building

Ah-boy reading

So hardworking…

One of the lawns in UQ

Komodo Dragon

UQ Lake

A duck

The duck again

UQ Lake again

The duo…

…or couple heh!

I love the UQ Lake

Some birds

Family

Family again

Houses

Can you see the dining table? Isn’t that awesome?

South Bank once again…

I swear that most (if not all) of my NIE mates would loathe AAM204 Computational Mathematics because of some lecturer who speaks like a robot and is not clear with his explanations.

I just went for my first lecture on MAB220 Computational Mathematics 1 conducted by Dr. Timothy Moroney today and he revived the interest in me for that particular area of Mathematics. He was so concise and clear with his explanations and tried to support each aspect with examples. But, what made me impressed was the fact that he managed to convince me on why numerical/computational methods is so useful in life and the fact that we should study it. I’m very sure that lecturers back in NIE don’t even bother to reason that with us. Well, you have to study it because you have to! Bummer…

Anyway, here’s another update on the photos that I took while in Brisbane:

A advertisement found in Central station…what a way to start the photo roll…

Indooroopilly Shopping Centre

Indooroopilly station (pretty dilapidated…I won’t be surprised to find syringes there…)

Railway track

The train (finally!) after an hour

Victoria Street (to get to CCC Westside)

Montague Road (to get to CCC Westside also)

City Hall

Anyway I went to Brisbane Powerhouse this afternoon and it was just awesome! So many breathtaking views and interesting sights!

And in case you are wondering, Brisbane Powerhouse is one of the arts and cultural hubs located in the suburb of New Farm.

The signboard says it all

The Brisbane Powerhouse

What’s On?

Another view of Brisbane Powerhouse

Another view of Brisbane Powerhouse (wide shot)

Another view of Brisbane Powerhouse (close-up)

Another angle

Another angle (with myself in the shot)

Closer view

The performance that I have to watch for KTB204

The Performance Lawn Signboard (the ‘r’ is missing though…)

The Performance Lawn

Interesting Signboard

Yet another interesting signboard

Park next to Brisbane Powerhouse

Park next to Brisbane Powerhouse (with myself in the shot)

Another view of the park

Brisbane River Bank

Brisbane River Bank II

Residences along the river bank

How can I not take a photo here?

River Bank (again)

Residences (again)

Decided to take a shot of the Brisbane River from another view

Birds in the Performance Lawn

The river runs…

Never ending…

Another view of the residences

With the river again

Wider shot

Another park but that particular area’s a playground (can’t imagine eh…)

Another part of the playground (why don’t we have these in Singapore?)

Interestingly, my first lecture at QUT wasn’t on Mathematics but on Performance studies. I finally got to meet Dr. Sandra Gattenhof, who happen to teach KTB204 Understanding Performance, after an extended period of conversing with her through email.

KTB204 is a matching unit for AAU232 Technology, Media and Theatre. Incidentally, AAU232 isn’t offered in NIE due to the “lack of expertise” and “basically not as important as AAU231 Traditional Asian Theatre forms as it’s currently not in the syllabus”. And it so happens that I’m interested in the field that AAU232 covers so taking KTB204 is a big plus. But anyways, AAU231 isn’t offered in QUT so I don’t really have much of a choice!

The mates in the class are just amazing. They are so willing to interact with the lecturer and the whole lecture was just so interactive. Sigh! How I wish the secondary school kids were like them.

But Dr. Sandra just amazes me. I admire her for her ability to theorise such a difficult topic and make it readily accessible to students like us. That alone just blows me away. However, that being said, it’s back to the questions on what is drama, theatre, performance, theatrical, performative. Darn!

However, I trust God for a HD or D grade for this unit and the remaining three units that I’m taking.

A couple of us decided to venture into the unknown depths of Fortitude Valley which is, in my opinion, one of the more sleazy and dodgy suburbs in Brisbane. (Not surprisingly) Chinatown is located in the middle of Fortitude Valley.

So, we took a free bus to Central station and took a train to Brunswick St station.

Anyway, people who went include myself, Joseph, Melissa, Sarah, Kai Chieh, Jackie, Joann and Jan-Erik. We had dinner at some expensive Vietnamese eatery. I had beef noodles and it was pretty salty but still bearable. And, Jan-Erick actually managed to use the chopsticks for the first time. Awesome! I actually have a video of that but it’s way too huge to upload it to my server. So, if you want it, just come over to my apartment and I’ll pass it to you = )

Interestingly, we found this supermarket that sells Asian stuff and most of us just rushed in and we were pretty glad to see familiar stuff like Yeos, dumplings, Pokka and durians. Well, I didn’t get anything because it was flipping expensive and I’m seriously not missing these things at the moment so I gave them a pass.

Took some interesting pictures and group photos:

Barry McGuire came to CCC Westside to minister to us on Sunday 6pm. Yeah, that’s why I was out practically most of Sunday. I had to go for 2 services or else I wouldn’t be able to catch Barry McGuire and most surprisingly, I found what he said very encouraging and meaningful.

He’s definitely an unfamiliar name to most of us but was extremely popular and active in the contemporary Christian music scene in the 1960s. At the age of 72, he’s actively serving the LORD by using his life story and music as a testimony to God’s goodness in his life. I really respect that and what he said really encourages me.

Interestingly, he reminded me of the song ‘God of my Forever’ that CHC always sings from time to time. Truely, God is the God of our forever. He remains faithful to all our us and when we look back, we can really see the joy of walking with Him.

For more information on Barry McGuire, here’s a quick link that describes him: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_mcguire

Anyway, here are another 2 photos. The 1st is taken at Kelvin Grove suburb while the other is taken from my window: