28 July (Wednesday):
We had a CIEE meeting at 10:30 and we met in the office beforehand. They have a whole bunch of stuff left over from previous semesters and I got a hair dryer and straightener for free. We then had a meeting in another classroom, where I have class on Mondays. We discussed some things about culture and he talked about a seminar that he will be teaching this semester for CIEE students on Living and Learning in Australia. It's going to be 1 or 2 US credits and I think it'll be a good opportunity to learn more, so I'm taking it.
After the meeting I went back to my room, and that's when my charger blew up. I tried it in different outlets, to see if the outlet just blew, but it was my charger. Corin, Carrie, and I were going to Perth later, so I was just going to look there, but that proved to not work. I went to a electronics store, but they didn't sell Dell chargers or chargers that worked on Dells and said that no one sells just the chargers. He said I'd have to go to Dell.com to get one shipped to me. When I got back and it seemed like a reasonable time to call my dad, because of the time difference, I called him and had him look for places online or figure out what I could do.
Meanwhile, when we were in Perth, we went shopping and just walking around the city. It's a very nice city, except when we stopped for dinner at a food court and saw some kind of animal crawl into the escalator. When we decided to go back to Murdoch, we were walking toward the train station when Corin and I saw an aboriginal art store. We decided to look around. There was a lot of cool art and I bought an opal ring. The opal is blue and green and looks kind of like mountains during a sunrise or sunset.
29 July (Thursday):
Corin, Carrie, and I went to Cole's to go grocery shopping in the morning before our CIEE student village orientation. I bought chicken, but they didn't have any orange sauce or cayenne pepper sauce, so I got apricot chicken sauce and some other type of hot sauce. The other hot sauce isn't bad, but I definitely miss Frank's Redhot! The apricot chicken sauce is called "I feel like... Chicken Tonight." It made me laugh a lot (it's a family joke)
At 10:30, we had the village meeting since we were going on a trip that weekend and the orientation for everyone in the village was supposed to be on Friday. Afterward we had lunch there, but picky me just at the meet off of a sandwich and some fruit.
Later I went to Carrie's room because she let me charge my computer since she has a dell too. I checked my email and my dad sent me an email of a place near Perth that fixes Dells, so I called them to see if they had chargers. They said they could mail one out to me the next day. It was a generic universal charger, or I could spend more money and wait a week for an actual Dell charger, so I just ordered the universal one. Carrie and I then decided to get our books. First we went to the CIEE office to see if they had them that we could get for free, but they didn't have ones that I needed. I did get a Perth and Western Australia guidebook, though. Next, I tried the guildshop for cheaper second hand books, but they didn't have them either, so I had to go to the bookstore. I bought my books (only one was over $20!) and a Murdoch Uni sweatshirt. One of my classes doesn't have the books yet, though. We walked around campus to try to find all of our classes and then came back to the village. I read some of the guidebook, and read the first lab in my biology class, which doesn't start until next week. I then went to bed early to get ready for our trip.
30 July (Friday):
I woke up at 5:25 to check my email and get ready for my weekend trip with CIEE to a city called Denmark, about 5 or so hours south of Murdoch. The trip was amazing! We left at 6:30 in a big bus and stopped at a gas station for breakfast, I just got a pack of starburst fruitfuls (my new favorite lolly) and ate an apple that I brought. There was also a bull on the loose next to the gas station, which was quite weird. We drove a little further to an aboriginal center called Kojonup. The guy told us about the aborigine history, but he was hard to understand. He also made us billy tea (tea made in a billy can over the fire) and we walked through the rose maze, which I'm sure would have been much prettier when there were actually flowers!
After another drive, we stopped at a local farm to eat our lunch. The view was amazing and there were mountains along the horizon. They also had one of the cutest puppies I have ever seen! I'm not sure what breed it was, but the lady said that the breed is part dingo and they are bred to herd sheep.
We drove some more and got to The Cove, which was an awesome cabin-type place that we were staying at. It was beautiful and the guy and his family built it out of trees that they found that had fallen. We dropped off our stuff and went to Green's pool. I was smart enough to know that it was too cold to go swimming, but most of the crazy people in our group did go in. I put my feet in the water, though, to walk around the giant rocks. The view was again amazing and at the end of our time there, it started raining, and we saw a double rainbow!
After the beach, we went to an alpaca farm and got to feed kangaroos and other animals. The highlight of the trip for me, though, was petting the koalas. It definitely made my life and Paul bought us all a postcard.
We came back and had dinner on the barbie. It was really good, and we got to try kangaroo meat! It was really good, but I didn't notice much of a difference from beef. Afterwards, we all just sat around the fire, played games, or just relaxed until we went to bed.
31 July (Saturday):
We woke up and ate cereal for breakfast. After we had a long hike up a mountain. It was really hard, and I had to stop a lot, but I did make it to all of the places and didn't even hurt myself. (Except my muscles the next day) There were some really beautiful views and I am very proud of myself for making it all the way there and back and going the extra walk back, instead of taking the bus. I took a few pictures at the places where we stopped, but they can never do justice to the actual view.
For lunch, we walked back to the Cove and ate sandwiches. At about 2, we drove a while to go to the Valley of Giants. They had giant old eucalyptus trees and a cool bridge that was suspended at the top of the tree line. It even swung as if you were in the trees, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, however I did wear my motion sick bands. The bridge was also cool because it was very sturdy and designed to move, yet it was put together like a giant K'nex because they couldn't fit helicopters or cranes in without removing trees. After the tree top part of the walk, we went through the ancient part of the park. It is where they have the oldest trees and some are hollow inside, and we could go in. At the beginning, the lady who works there told us about the history, and she said that people used to live in there or even park cars in old trees. One of them was big enough that we took a group picture in it!
When we were on our way back to the Cove, we stopped to see the world's largest barometer. Everyone faked enthusiasm, but the science nerd in me actually thought it was cool! When we got back, we relaxed until dinner, which was spaghetti. After dinner, Illya (the owner of the Cove) taught us how to play speed scrabble, which was a lot of fun, but I'm bad at it. Then we all got around the dinner table and played speed pictionary as two teams. My team lost the first round, but we won the other two. Later that night, some of the guys went outside and came in to tell us all how amazing the stars were, so we all went out to the water/beach area and went stargazing. It was amazingly beautiful. A lot of people saw shooting stars and we could even see the milky way!
1st August (Sunday):
I woke up early because I had to set up breakfast, but I went back to bed since I was still tired. I ate when I set up, so when I did get out of bed, I just sat by the fire until we left, since it was cold. We left the Cove around 9:00 and drove until we stopped for gas, and I bought more Starburst fruitfuls :) We drove further and he gave us a quiz about what we did over the weekend. He gave us each a question in turn, most of which I didn't know the answer, and when he got to me, he asked if I was ready and I said no, so he asked Corin the next question, which of course I actually knew that one! It was what year was the Cove built, and the questions were multiple choice and I read on the ceiling many times that weekend that the ceiling was done in 1976, so the answer was 1975. I was Corin's phone-a-friend. I got my question next, and surprisingly I got it right, too. I was about whose idea it was to build the giant barometer and the answer was Bert something We then stopped at a park for lunch, but I didn't like the sandwiches, so instead I just ate an orange and some of my lollies. After lunch, we finished our drive back to Murdoch.
We got back a little after 2:30, and I unpacked and went to Carrie's room to charge my laptop some more. At 4:45, we went to get our village courtyard t-shirts. My courtyard is the Melaleuca Mammoths, then we went back to her room to check my computer. I went back to my room and did a survey called Intercultural Development Inventory for Paul's seminar on Living and Learning in Australia. At 7:00, there was a welcome barbecue for the whole student village, but you had to wear you village t-shirt. It was really boring and the food was gross. I mainly sat with different people and watched the volleyball game. It was really boring and I was still tired from the weekend, so I went back to the flat to turn in early because classes started the next day.
2nd August (Monday):
Classes started and I had Contemporary Indigenous Issues at 9:30. On the way there, I found out that Corin is in my class, along with some other CIEE students. The lecturer (you don't call them professor here), Dr. Michelle Carey, just talked about course objectives/aims and gave us the unit guide, which is a package with syllabus information and a schedule. Our tutorial (like a discussion; also called a tute) was cancelled this week, so that was my only class.
After class, I went to the administration building to get $1 coins for the laundry. It is so expensive here, $3 for the washer and $3 for the dryer! I also cooked chicken for lunch and tried my new hot sauce. I read my unit reader and then took a nap after lunch.
Later, I watched some tv with my flatmates, and I know them all now. They are Olivia, Scott, Brendan, and Josh. At 7:45, we had the courtyard RAs come over for a flat meeting and they gave us giant calendars of the semester 2 village events. After the meeting we just watched some more tv.
3rd August (Tuesday):
Today I had my biology class at 8:30 and that went alright. The lecturer told us about the class and that the unit reader isn't out yet, but we can read it online. Then at 9:30, I had my other indigenous studies class and the lecturer told us about aboriginal history and the class. He also played the didgeridoo for us, and apparently you aren't supposed to clap afterwards because it scares away the good spirits that the playing brings. The class was 2 hours, followed by an hour tute for that class. In the tute, we watch a video about a famous aboriginal painter who pained watercolors and taught his sons. The class was very long, especially since it goes until lunchtime, when I'm hungry! When I came back, one of my flatmates got the mail, and I got a slip saying that I got a package, so I went to pick it up, and I cannot explain the joy I felt when I got my charger!!! I was so hungry during class, but when I got my charger, I was just so excited that I didn't eat for another hour! haha I also started uploading my pictures to flickr at that time, and it is still uploading now, about 6 1/2 hours later! At 3:30, I went to Paul's seminar and there are only four people in that class! He's not sure yet if it will still go on, or if it's going to be one or two credits. I hope it still goes on, though, since I think it'll provide a good experience. Since class, I've just been catching up on e-mail, this blog, and other things online that I haven't been able to do in the past few days.
1 comment:
I was excited to get your new POSTS when I went on line tonight. So I quickly said my prayers with Ralph and got right back to the computer so I could read all your POSTS. Sounds like expensive WASH DAY with the prices they charge. Maybe you and a friend could put your loads together and save some money that way. Or do like Ralph did when he lived alone----EVERYTHING IN ONE LOAD NO MATTER WHAT COLOR. Well I gotta get to bed--it's neariing the WHITCHING HOUR. Take care. LUV YA---GRAM ROTH
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