Writing exercise for uni

We had to do this exercise called "Places and Faces" in my Print Features class the other day, this is the product of that exercise. PlaceMitchell Library“In books lies the soul of the whole past”This statement is etched in to the marble wall in the foyer of the state library. However the place itself contradicts this idea; the floors and walls tell unwritten stories in scratches, fingerprints and well worn armrests. In a building so old, history can be found everywhere, even in a space as small as an elevator. Through heavy wooden doors stained a dark mahogany, one can peer through two small glass windows in to the lift. The view is obscured by crisscrossed metal bars, but after a moment of hesitation, the doors lurch open with heaving effort and reveal a room the size of a refrigerator box. My first instinct after boarding the lift is to run my fingers over the scars on the timber walls. The lift is so battered and worn, I can tell it has carried many people before me. I wonder who made some of the bigger scratches… especially some of the mysterious marks on the roof. Maybe it was a careless librarian with a trolley load of books… maybe it was key rings on the zippers of schoolchildren’s bags being bashed against the walls.The Scaffolding and Lifts Act of 1912-1948 is printed on yellowing paper making clear in a bold typeface that the safe working load of the lift is 1500 lbs. I wonder what that weight is in kilograms. The lift starts with a whirring sound, then a loud clunk. Clattering and thudding, breaking the silence of the library, it climbs upward. The ride is much smoother than it sounds, but I almost expect one of the librarians to come and tell the elevator to hush. FacesOn a rainy Sydney day Hyde Park is quite deserted, but a colourful ant trail of school children visiting the war memorial stand out with their yellow raincoats and bright umbrellas. One girl is wearing a checkered blue school dress while most of the other kids are in blue polo shirts with shorts. She is probably about eight years old, and someone has carefully put her brown hair in to pigtails this morning.She has an umbrella with blue flowers that matches her uniform and ribbons. Her black shoes seem about two sizes too big, but I guess someone wanted her to have “growing room”. One white sock is pulled up, but the other one has fallen down. She walks with a skip every few steps to keep up with her friend who is taller. They are having an animated discussion, and giggle every now and then. They seem very excited by their reprieve from the daily routine of the classroom, despite the dreary weather.