"I feel like Dory trying to speak whale!" - Katie

I woke up around 9 and played with the Tinney's dog and we all talked during breakfast. The bus came to pick us up at around 10. We had turned the wrong way and gotten lost, so it was taking forever! I had a headache, but listened to Glee, which cures all headaches. :P (Although I doubt it would have cured my brain tumour induced ones...)

When we got to the Edwards house we decided to all walk to the city centre. I walked with Katie, another Caitlin, Liz, and some other girls. We ate at the food court again, and of course I had KFC for the third day in a row. We also did some shopping around town. We went to Big W because I needed to get more flip flops, aka thongs. I ended up getting a white and a black pair because they were only $1 each. I also got some candy and when I was checking out I noticed some play-doh, so I bought that too. We then all went to the café in Borders and talked for a while. Everyone left except Katie and I, so we walked around the city a bit before going back to the Edwards' house. We went to a souvenir store, and I bought some koala slippers!

We then went back to the Edwards' house to just relax and some of the guys were watching the big Cricket game on tv. I just relaxed and played with my play-doh. When we were getting ready for dinner, Katie, Rohan, and I were playing with my play-doh. We made a few things, such as a Christmas scene and a bunch of fruit. Then it was dinner time, and we had stir fry. They also had some leftover ice cream, but I only got like half of a scoop, which was sad.

My surgery created a love of brains

As if Play-doh wasn't nerdy enough...
I made DNA!

After dinner, we took the bus back to the Tinneys' and we were the first ones off again! On the bus, Nathalie and Katie were practicing their Aussie accents. They couldn't get the hang of saying 'No' in an Aussie accent and it was hilarious. I didn't even try because I don't need to do anything else to embarrass myself, haha. This caused Katie to say the title. When we got back I repacked all of my stuff because my suitcase became a mess over the bus trip and the last few days, plus we were going to NTE the next day.

The guys decided to go to a waffle place before coming back, so it was just the girls. We had a big heart to heart that night and the three of them cried. Katie was making fun of me because I was the only one not crying, but I'm pretty sure I have a psychological block from my years of depression that prevents me from crying. Also, I didn't have any deep down things to share because I don't hide my past at all. (As you can tell from one of my previous posts explaining my life story, haha)

When the boys came back, they had bought this tea flower thingy that we all wanted to see. Apparently it is a bunch of tea leaves that are tied together and supposed to 'bloom' when placed in water. It then makes tea or something. We all expected it to be really cool and were gathered around the teapot on the table. It took forever and I don't think it ever fully bloomed. It was rather anti-climatic. We then all wrote a Thank You card for the Tinneys to go with the present of chocolate and tea that we had bought them.

For Narnia!

I woke up at 9:15 today. We then got picked up and went to the Edwards' house where we broke into groups for what we wanted to do that day. We were in the group that wanted to go to the art museum. Since it was the largest group, we took Gemma. We walked around a bit. Katie and I got separated and I walked around with Amanda. Neither of us really understood a lot of the art, so we had funny commentary. A few of us had gone down some stairs and we could see to the garden area outside. There was no door there, but somehow Katie was out there. Rohan decided that we should all wave at her until she noticed. When we later caught up with her she told us that the door was at another part of the gallery.

Photo courtesy of Jon Wan

After the art gallery, we went to the Canberra shopping centre for lunch. I again had KFC. Katie and I then decided to do some shopping before going back for dinner. We shopped for about two hours. I got sunnies that have snakes on them to wear during Quidditch. I'm a total Slytherin! We then met up with Rohan, Tom, and Scott because Katie and I didn't know how to get back to the Edwards' house. It actually wasn't far and easy to get to from the shopping centre.

'Slytherin' sunnies and my pi shirt!

Nativity scene in the Canberra shopping
centre

Dinner was at around 5, but since we had just eaten not too long ago, I just ate some garlic bread. It was really good, though. We had dinner early because Nathan, who had organised the bus and Questacon tickets, had organised for us to all go to see the new Narnia movie. We had to take two bus loads, and I was in the second group. We left around 6:15. It was a really good movie. Katie had actually cried at the end because it talks about leaving Narnia which reminded her of the fact we are going home. Most people were waiting for the bus, but we (Katie, Rohan, Tom, and I) decided to walk back. Everyone ended up walking back, but we got there way faster because we decided to from the beginning. When we got back to the Edwards we got ice cream!

We then took the bus back to the Tinneys' house and this time we were finally the first stop! Every other time we were the last ones dropped off or the first ones picked up! When I took a shower that night, I found a slug on the shower wall. Showering with a slug was definitely a first! The eight of us talked again before going to bed.

I went to Australia and got the Black Plague!

Today was the first day of summer in Australia. I woke up at about 9:30. Gemma came around to the different billets' houses and picked us all up to go to the Edwards' house. We then decided where people were going to go so that we could go to places in groups. We all ended up going downtown to start with. We went to the shopping centre in the middle of Canberra and all ate lunch at the food court. I got some KFC. I don't know if it is because of what I ordered, but it was better than what they have in America. At the KFCs in America, it seems like it is just breaded chicken bones with a little meat but this actually had some white meat chicken! It was still no Chicken Treat quality, though.

We then decided to split into groups to go different places. Katie and I joined the group of people going to Questacon. It is like a hands-on science museum and was a lot of fun. Nathan, a different one than before, organized us to get a cheaper rate when we got on the bus and for Questacon, which was nice. They don't acknowledge student IDs from other states in Australia, for some reason, so it was good he could organize a cheaper rate. They had a bunch of different science things, optical illusions, and even a roller coaster simulator that I went on after some convincing. I was happy that I didn't get sick despite not having my motion sickness wristbands with me. At the giftshop, I decided to get a pi shirt that has the pi symbol made out of some of the digits of pi and a plush microbe of the Black Plague. It was hard to decide which microbe to buy, but I wanted to say that I went to Australia and got ______, so the Black Plague sounded like a good choice.

We then went back to the Edwards' for dinner. We had pasta again. I then talked with Katie, Ruby, and Rohan. Somehow we got on the topic of Disney and ended up singing Disney songs! We also randomly got on the topic that cute actually means 'ugly but interesting.' Katie and I had never heard of this definition before, and now I've looked it up and that is not one of the definitions...maybe it is an Australian definition...?

After dinner we took the bus back to the Tinney's. The eight of us all talked again and we laughed at the guys obsession with tea. They were so in to it and were trying to make Ben understand by making him tea. (He wasn't much of a tea drinker before.)

The side view of Einstein is a bird!

'Talk talk, I'm talking'- Jae

At breakfast we switched modes of transportation again and we were in cars. Katie and I were together and then the driver changed and the person in the passenger's seat changed with them. I found out when getting off the bus at breakfast that one of my flip flops, aka thongs for the Aussies, was missing. (Whenever we got on and off the bus we had to put our shoes in a bin in the front of the bus to stop some of the spread of dirt.) Luckily, I had packed my shower shoes in my bag for the bus as well. I was especially glad that I had another pair when we got to lunch because it was rainy.

We stopped at another park for lunch. While they were prepping the sandwiches, a few of us went on a walk around the park. It was gross and wet. When we got back we somehow to got talking about the size of Australia compared to America and the northern/southern/eastern/western-most parts. I used some of my trivia to tell them that Alaska is both the westernmost and easternmost state. Lunch was, again, sandwiches, but I ate some with just chicken and mayo.

They changed drivers when we stopped for gas, and Jae was driving. We followed the other car, which ended up going the wrong way to Canberra, but we got there. They had police set up doing random breathalyser tests on drivers. Jae got pulled over and it was a kind of breathalyser that we had never seen before. Instead of blowing into it, you talk into it. He didn't know what to say, so he just kept talking about talking, hence the title.

We got to Canberra late that night and we ate dinner at the Edwards' house. They were the main host family where a lot of people stayed. The rest of us were in billets, aka host families, of the church that they go to. We had pasta for dinner. After dinner we were supposed to get in groups of four to be placed into billet's homes. Katie and I formed a group and then added Nathalie who brought in Monica. We ended up being at the Tinney's house and they had four girls and four guys that were staying with them. The four guys were Ben, Chris, Eddie, and Nathan.

All of the people staying at billets took Henry to get dropped off. The family was nice but we didn't really get to talk to them a lot. When we got there we talked while rotating showers. We found out that Eddie and Nathan are tea connoisseurs and it was hilarious and entertained us every night. The shower ran out of hot water halfway through, that's what happens when 8 people are showering, but it was still really nice to get clean after being on a bus for about 3 days.

'I am the master of my own bladder.'- Dr. Sheldon Cooper

Kangaroo tails

We stopped at some park for breakfast, but I was too tired to actually get up and out, not to mention I don't eat breakfast. We then kept driving until lunchtime. We stopped in a small town in South Australia called Nundroo. Apparently it is the wombat capital of the world and they had some funny bumper stickers and other things in the truck stops's store. I bought some salt and vinegar crisps and a sprite so that I could have some snacks on the bus. We had sandwiches for lunch, which I don't like. I just ate some bread and butter and salt and vinegar crisps. You could also buy some kangaroo tails at the store. I guess that you can eat them, but it just looked really weird.

45 minute time difference between
WA and SA

I don't know... but Octavius is there! 

There was also a sign for the world's longest golf course. The holes are in different cities all across the Nullarbor. At lunch we had to eat as much fruit as we could because we were going to pass a fruit check in Penong, SA. They don't want to spread fruit flies and other insects across Australia, so at the fruit check all fruit has to be thrown away.













We stopped at another park for dinner. This time we were in Wirrulla, SA. They made pasta and it was actually really good and I had seconds.

We were in Gemma all day and all night. The title is because I barely ever had to use the bathroom, which Katie thought was weird. I kept using this quote from Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory. He was talking about keeping hold of a Lord of the Rings ring for a competition with his friends, whereas I just don't like public bathrooms.

Road trip Buddies

I had to get up really early this morning to finish packing and catch a cab to the Student Village at Murdoch. Steve had called me last night to say that he was going to pick up Katie and I there and take us to Tim Thorburn's house to leave. I set my alarm to 5:15, but hit snooze a few times and didn't get up until 5:35. My parents had called a cab for me yesterday because the buses did not run early enough in the morning. I got in the cab at about 6:15. The cab driver was kind of a creeper. He kept talking to me about Aussie boys and it was really weird and awkward. He also talked about how much he could tell that my parents loved me and how lucky I was. Luckily the cab ride was only about 15 minutes. I got to the village early, so I just sat at the pool deck with my stuff while I waited for Steve. Steve came and so did Katie. Then Steve told us that Nathalie was staying at his house and wasn't ready when he came to get us. We had to go back to Steve's house to pick her up.

We then went to Tim's house and got there by about 8. We waited for a long time for everyone to get their crap together, late comers to arrive, and to get everything packed and details sorted. Katie and I ended up going to the store nearby with a few girls to pass the time. They wanted to find something to use as a jump rope during our stops on the bus. They didn't find anything, though. Before we left, they also went over this complicated rotation of the buses/cars that we had and put us in groups according to our mission teams. WE had a big bus (Gemma), a small bus (Henry), and two cars. We finally ended up leaving Tim's house at 10.

Inside Gemma

Henry

I was on Gemma during the day. We had a hymn-along, which was a lot of fun. We also had to bring our lunches and eat them on the bus because we weren't stopping for lunch that day. We played some more games after lunch. For dinner we stopped at a park in Coolgardie. They made chicken curry, which I barely ate because I don't like curry, and cous cous. After dinner was the first bus switch and my group was in Henry. It was a really cold night because I had left my sleeping bag in my suitcase instead of taking it or some kind of blanket on the bus.

The title refers to Katie and me since this was our third road trip together. We went to Denmark, WA together with CIEE and the Northwest/Outback Excursion with Murdoch's study abroad program before embarking on this trip.

Bunga binga... Ugg!

Today was my last full day in the Perth area. My mom wanted to go to the E shed markets, but first I had to get something to eat. I wanted a cinnamon roll from Gloria Jean's because we went there yesterday and it was delicious. I didn't actually know the name or really where it was, so we ended up walking around Freo for a while before we found it. We didn't see cinnamon rolls anywhere else, which is why I wanted to find that place again. We went to the E shed markets which was quite bigger than we had thought.

Afterwards, we went to the Woolstores shopping centre. I don't remember what all happened because it was so long ago. (I'm writing this on Dec 15) We then were walking downtown and I saw a store with ugg boots on sale. I had finally convinced my parents that I wanted some and I should get them in Australia. We asked the lady working there about the different labels to make sure that we weren't getting a knock-off kind. She explained that the brand Ugg used to be Australian owned. They were bought by the US and are now all made in China. (go figure!) Ugg boots, the generic name, just means boots that are made of sheepskin. I ended up getting another brand that was actually Australian owned and made. (The title is a pun about the sound effects from the computer game Dino Slots.)

We continued walking around Freo and went to the Lolly shop and back to Freo markets. We also stopped at Coles so I could get some last minute things for the bus trip. We then went back to the flat to eat our leftovers for lunch. We also took a long nap until dinner time.

 I wanted to go to Little Creatures because I had still never been there and it is in every guidebook, so we went there. We were told to go to the loft, and saw that they had a comedy night that night. We had to wait for a while before the comedy part was open, so we got some drinks in the loft area. We thought they had food up there, but it ended up just being appetizers, so I got two little burgers to eat for dinner. The comedy was pretty funny. There were three guys and the MC. The first comedian wasn't very funny, but the other two were good. Some of the jokes were about Australia and the Perth area, so my parents didn't understand them. I got most of the jokes, though. The last comedian had one part where he talked about imaginary friends from when he was younger. He went around and gave out masks of famous people and they had to go up and sing some song about friendship that I don't remember any more. He gave me a mask and I had to go up. I then realized that the mask I had was actually him! It was kinda awkward. Luckily the comedy was done before the grill part of Little Creatures had closed. I had wanted to try the frits, their fries/chips, because I had heard they were amazing. They were!