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My first vsco journal was In and around ANU and I quite enjoyed putting it together. So I decided to do a second part and call the series The Boring Exchanger.
I don't have photos of Monday night laughs or my solo run to Gold Coast or me jamming with a ping pong ball maracas in the airbnb I stayed in. Almost a year after leaving for exchange and losing many exciting photos and videos to a corrupt memory card, the photos I recollect and share here are literally of benches and bins and windows, and shops I walked into as I spent months in Canberra. Like ANU, these were the places I spent a lot of time in. (Just to clarify I do not spend my time in bins, just places that have them.) So here's presenting Braddon, Dickson, and Fenner.
Okay sorry, I did not spend a lot of time on Mount Ainslie, but it was right behind us. That one day things got a little frosty also happened to be the day a bunch of us went for a walk up, so we had a nice dose of snow!
This was the place I spent tonnes of time in, my HQ, Fenner Hall in Braddon. People make jokes about leaking pipes and holes in ceilings? Wieww.
Where are the nearest Asian grocery stores from Fenner? Dickson. The first time I walked my way there, I wasn't sure whether I was in the right suburb or not. But then I saw this statue of Confucius.
So that's how I found Dickson, that sweet place where I could get santan kara and belacan, although I'm not sure my neighbours would agree that belacan is anything near 'sweet'.
Trash as promised
Walking the other way from Fenner, I'd end up on Lonsdale Street, the supposedly hip and happening street around Braddon. I just went there for coffee and walks.
Near the start of the street is Moxom + Whitney, the nicest florist around. When I walked in and introduced myself saying I'm new around here, they said I could come in whenever and chat. "We're here all day." And they let me browse their dizzying array of flowers and plants for really long and I got to see one of them do up a bouquet for a customer on the spot.
Not far from Mox and Whitney is Hive, that shop with stuff you never knew you needed. Butterfly posters, space sloth plates, and guaranteed good soap tested on staff.
Walking back to Fenner from Lonsdale
Abandoned feels
And of course, I spent a lot of time sitting around my room. This was my bed before I got a blanket. Survived without one till mid-semester, sleeping in a big fluffy Timberland hoodie. But then I fell sick, and it looked like a good time to have a blanket. I was gonna head to Target or something to get one, but then my neighbour found out that I didn't have a blanket that whole time, and he kind of flipped and stormed into his room to get his spare winter doona to lend me for the rest of the semester. And, my neighbour used to knock on the other side of that wall from inside her room to wake me up in the morning. Lucky!
Many good bits of sun around the building. A lot of times the best conversations seemed to happen somewhere on the floor, right outside our rooms, right when I had an essay due.
The N7 kitchenette had great evening sun and also hosted many conversations. I remember a very important demonstration of how to use a tampon applicator and me trying to recite Yeats in an extreme Singaporean-Singlish accent (very tough business). Lots of gold surrounding us as we sat around munching or microwaving or making tea and coffee. Slowly the gold would fade and the conversations would continue into the night.
And finally retiring back to my room. This was the view during sunset. Doesn't the building opposite look like a dipped biscuit? I'd probably be in my hoodie, with a cup of fresh milk and milo, a combination I once considered an abomination (the only milo I knew was with condensed milk).
And I guess that's it? The Boring Exchanger, ending things with a milo, yes. (Looking at the amount of milo I had, my neighbour asked me if I was 5.) I did have a lot of interesting experiences, but I don't think much of what I say or show can testify to them. I do hope it's clear that the people around me most often eventually made the biggest impression on me, like my neighbours!
I'm starting to think vsco journals might be a good publishing platform, so maybe there will be more of these coming up. But until then,
