Smiling Lizards

 Boy, am I getting lazy. I haven't done a post in four days. The past week has been extremely hot (90s and 100s °F) and I've been sick for the past 7 days with what may have been strep. I had an EXTREMELY sore throat and was very stuffy. It got to the point a few days in where I could take a few ibuprofen, some caffeine, and be alright for most of the day. But come 9pm I would start coughing and would cough all night and the next morning. Coughing makes trying to fall asleep a real pain in the ass, especially when it's 85-90°. Apparently Perth is consistently one of the hottest cities this time of year. It's not very pleasant.

Thursday is my best day, as I'm done at 10:30 in the morning. After a nice leisurely lunch, Jesse and I went to the beach in our speedos. En route, we met up with two of our friends who were at the bus stop. Midway to the beach, Jesse got off the bus for some Subway, which he was way too damn excited about. Jesse... LOVES Subway. It makes him the happiest person ever. On several occasions I've been talking about Subway to someone and Jesse's ears perked up.

My friends (Sarin & Crystal) and I played in the sand and water for about 40 minutes before Jesse caught up after stopping and eating at Subway. The tide coming in was really strong and climbed really far up the beach. We had to move our towels three or four times. Because the tide was really strong, I saw several dead sea creatures such as a crustacean and an echinoderm. Sarin said she saw a cnidarian of some sorts, but I didn't see it. Additionally, a ton of sea shells were being washed up which made entering and leaving the water very painful.

We came back after a little while and decided to go food shopping, but not until we had showered because the sun and salt just gets too much, even after only being at the beach for a short time. Thursday's the best day to go shopping because Coles, my favorite supermarket, is open until 9! It's pretty exciting. Australia closes everything extremely early and it's really annoying. Except for Thursdays. The load of us got a fair amount of groceries and it was quite interesting getting it all together to get the bus back to campus (which took it's sweet time getting to our stop to pick us up). It was so damn hot I just made several nutella and peanut butter sandwiches rather than cook.

After finally falling asleep through the coughing and heat, it cooled down. Mixing of cool and warm air creates thunderstorms. We got one.

Holy Baby Jesus was the thunderstorm loud! It was the loudest storm I'm ever experienced. I think it was right outside my window, because one of the lightning strikes was so damn loud I was almost scared to death. I think we got some hail and a bit of rain, but I'm not sure. Something made plenty of noise on the roof top. I went out on my balcony during the storm and it was so cool temperature wise. It was a nice change.

I woke up nice and early Friday to find my computer lacking internet access. It sucked. Apparently one of the lighting strikes hit the next flat over or another one nearby. Either way, I was without internet. You know, the really crappy internet I pay too much for? I mean seriously Australia, HOW HARD IS IT TO HAVE DECENT INTERNET? It's extremely annoying. This isn't a great start to my Friday, which is my least favorite day of the week because it's so damn long. I have two lectures (3 hours total) and then a long lab (2-3+ hours). My lab this week was no exception. Not only is it being heavily graded, but there's just so much I had to do and still have to do before I hand it in by Thursday. I'm dreading Fridays because I hate this lab so much. I just want to be done and get the hell out of there, but my professor just expects us to do so much damn stuff. It's freaking ridiculous.

After taking a very quick dip in the pool with Jesse because it was so damn hot, the entire CIEE group (in several waves) all went into Freo to meet up with Paul. Because it was a little early still, a few of us went into a microbrewery. After getting some samples, I got a tall glass of strong beer. Because it was so hot (and I was dehydrated) and I had a small lunch 6 hours before that, I'm embarrassed to say that drink hit me ESPECIALLY hard. It was quick comical even. Jesse was in the same boat as me, but my drink was at least 1.5x the size of his.

We got dinner as a group at this foot court styled place, so Paul stood in the middle of us passing out cash. It was quite interesting to see. Very buzzed and very hungry, I sifted through loads of people looking around at the different places (there were about 8 of them, 5 of them Asian cuisine) before I got some fried rice and some spring rolls. It was pretty cheap and good. Good enough to fill my belly.

After dinner, our group went to the Fremantle Prison, which was notorious for its horrible living conditions and such. It's extremely haunted and we went for a night tour. I was a little scared going in, but it was quite fun. We were told we might get pictures of weird things, such as orbs (which might be paranormal energy), but I'm not sure I really got anything good. A little ways in, in one of the main wings where the prisoners were kept, we discussed the presence of a safety net between the rows of cells to prevent people from committing suicide. Not 3 seconds after I asked the tour guide what the most common ways to commit suicide in the prison were, some asshat dropped a body from the top of the prison on top of us, following a very loud scream. I mean, yeah, the prison is haunted enough and kinda scary, but I think intentionally scaring people is stupid. We heard some good ghost stories, but after a while I wasn't scared with the exception of people jumping out at us which was unnecessary.

Paul who was meeting up with an old student during the prison tour got us all gelato which was very tasty. Most of us went back after, and I spent the evening with Greg and Jesse (and a few others here and there) drinking our wine and listening to awesome American music outside of Greg's flat. It was a really fun night to say the least.

On Saturday, I slept in a little late and got up feeling pretty crappy like usual these days. Jesse and I went into a different Target to look for stuff for my trip next week. This Target was horribly laid out and they didn't have anything I needed, so I was pretty damn disappointed. It was a total waste of time. I did however have a very good lunch of pasta and garlic toast after which kinda made up for it. Jesse and I then went to the beach by ourselves and it was a good visit. We spent most of the time in the water throwing my mini vortex football, which was filled with miraculous diving catches (but you wouldn't expect any less of me!).

I cleaned my room when I got back because it was getting a little out of hand, and I made some vegetarian pasties. I think Monday night I'm going to spend about 2 hours cooking a whole bunch of them to get me through the week when I only have a short time for lunch. Saturday night proved to be pretty disappointing because I had only 2 glasses of wine, and over the course of an entire night panned out to be a big bummer. Two glasses of wine when you're really hydrated doesn't do anything. I didn't say I wanted to get SMASHED, but you know. Oh well. I couldn't go crazy anyway because I had to wake up early for the sustainability tour I went on this morning (Sunday).

I got into Freo pretty early with my fellow environmental science kids (four of us total) and we met up with Isabella, who runs our extracurricular trips. We took a bus down to South Beach where we went on a tour of this couple's house and several cottages they had made to be extremely passive and use very little energy. It was pretty cool and I learned a few things. The other 3 Americans with me were extremely giggly the whole trip, as we were talking about crazy things we used to do in the 90s. I think one of my favorite parts is when one of our tour guides found a blue tongued lizard and we got a picture with it. We're silly. The lizard's smiling. He's silly.

After the tour, we ended back up at the beach so we decided to go for a swim. We knew we were going to end up there so we came prepared with our bathers (swimming suits--these Australians have silly names for things). To the right of me is Justin (from Clark), Macy (from TCU), and Brendan (he's also from Clark and lives in Rutland, VT... he and I also went to the same Boys State back in the summer before senior year of HS.)

Yeah I know it doesn't seem like I did a lot this weekend, but I really didn't and it's kinda sad. I have so much damn work to do this week, but I won't be going to class on Friday because that's the day I leave for my grand tour of West Australia. This week's going to be extremely crazy and I don't think I'm ready for it just yet. I better go make an awesome dinner and get a head start tonight with studying. SO EXCITED TO STUDY AND WORK ON MY GROUP PROJECT.

Thursday: 7
Friday: 8
Saturday: 6.5
Sunday (Today): 6.5

Part 1: Study, Part 2: Wear a Speedo

Yesterday (Tuesday) started out with an early wake up and some decent studying. Monday night I went to the library and got a good start on my studying and I felt really accomplished. I finished most of what I had started my class time in the morning, only to get to lecture and immediately find out I really didn't need to be there because we were going of bacteria taxonomy. Not only do I know a lot about basic taxonomy already thanks to my professor and adviser Dr. Hibbett, but I had already gone over (plant) taxonomy in another lecture. Not being one to skip lectures, I stayed and made the best of it.

I had my first tutorial for my pollutants class an hour later, which ended up being mostly a discussion. I don't get the feeling often, but I felt like I knew a lot more about certain things than my TA. It makes me feel arrogant and uncomfortable. It gets to the point when I say in my head, "no, you're totally wrong." Unfortunately, it seemed like I was one of 2 or 3 who actually did the reading, and I dominated the conversation. Truth be told, I only skimmed the reading. However, it was pretty basic stuff. Nonetheless, it appears my tutorial is filled with incompetent students. I'm hoping they prepare better for the next one.

We have a paper to write for that class, and my group of two has now grown to four to my great dismay. It's going to be a cluster**** trying to get everyone on the same page. I would rather write a 2,500-3,000 word essay by myself than write a 6,000 word essay with three other people in such a short time. It's going to be awkward.

After I was done for the day, I went into Kardinya to get a few things at Kmart and Coles. Nothing extremely fun, but I had run out of bread and garlic toast makes my pasta dinners scrumptious. I'll have to go in again Thursday and get some more while I get fixings for more vegetarian pasties. After I got back, I shot hoops with Jesse, and because the hoops at 9 feet high (American ones are 10 feet), we couldn't hit any shots. It's absolutely ridiculous how hard it is. I can barely dunk but haven't tried to much on it. It's like suddenly being 6'10" and trying to make baskets. I don't care for it.

I didn't get much done in the evening which was disappointing. It was so damn hot last night, and I was really tired. I tried sleeping early (10:30) but couldn't fall asleep because it was so damn hot and I was coughing terribly. I finally did fall asleep but didn't sleep very well.

I didn't get much work done at all in the morning either, which was especially disappointing. I trudged off to my first of two lectures in a row with low morale. My two lectures weren't too too bad; my second professor showed up 22 minute late for a 50 minute long lecture. I was nearly out the door when he came in. He PLOWED through the slides of his talk such that it was impossible to take notes. He makes me laugh though (and no one else) which makes it all better. I'm not sure if a) he's not really funny b) I find him funny because I find his humor appealing c) I find him funny because I actually get his jokes d) everyone else just sucks at life.

After a speedy lunch, I went off to my Micro lab. We slowly went through what we were supposed to do (even though I already knew what we had to do) before finally getting into lab. I spent more time than I wanted to looking at my stupid bacteria cultures, but got out of lab by 3 which wasn't too bad. My friend Allie from SC, who works beside me, went to the beach right after lab with Greg (who's from Clark) which was fantastic. Yesterday I bought some spray sunscreen and I did my own back. I don't think I got burned at all which is really nice because there might be days when I go to the beach by myself (because usually I have someone else sunscreen my back).

Our bus driver was crazy. He was driving really fast, stopping really fast, and stopping 35 feet past the bus stop so people couldn't get on after he dropped people off because he was late or something. This was especially interesting when we first got on because the bus was crammed. We finally got to the beach at around 4:40, about 30 minutes later than I had hoped, but I was there so it didn't matter.

Greg and I wore out speedos (him for the first time) and it was really awesome. Jesse too some pictures of us and they make me giggle. Jesse took some PG-13 pictures using Greg's camera (and he still hasn't posted them yet) that cracked us up so bad. Greg has this crazy straw hat Paul (our program director) gave him that covers up his speedo if held infront of his crotch such that it looks like he's naked. It was a great time at the beach.

I have a lecture in the morning and then Jesse and I hope to spend most of the day at the beach. It should be a really good and hot day at the beach!

Tuesday: 6.5
Wednesday (Today): 7.5

The King of Parks

I woke up Sunday feeling pretty crudy. My sore throat remained from Saturday, and I was stuffy. Not a good start for a day when I was supposed to go to the park. I sucked it up however and took the bus to the Murdoch train station, and took the train into Perth. It was my first time in the city. I didn't spend much time in the city at at, and didn't see much, but it's pretty damn small. West Australia, three times the size of Texas, has a whopping 2.2 million people. Perth, the state's capital, has 1.65 million of those residents, so you wouldn't expect that much of Perth.

I spent the day in Kings Park, the biggest city park in the world, on the edge of the city. I didn't see much and would like to go back and explore but I liked what I saw. I had a long picnic with my local friend Angela and her friends Sam, Kally & Jarryd. It was a pretty fun visit but a little weird since I only kinda knew Angela, but I was glad I got off campus and explored a bit. We stayed for about 3 hours. The highlight was seeing Jarryd jam on his Guitar Hero-like guitar, which you can see here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6R_T3aWKD4 (it's worth seeing). Oh, and the view from where we were (just down a few paces from our picnic site) was pretty nice:

Angela drove me home in the beautifully sunny late afternoon, only for me to leave campus again about 20 minutes after I got back to go to a independent film festival with Jesse in Freo. I wasn't sure if it was going to be something I would enjoy, especially since I was feeling worse at this point, but I went anyway. We saw 16 short films and they were pretty good overall. There are 5 that I really liked, but there was as a 30 minute intermission at the midway point. The festival ended just before 10pm, and because of the 30 minute intermission, we missed the last bus back to campus by 1 minute (we saw the bus leave the station even). Silly Jesse and I didn't check to see when the last bus left the station on a Sunday, but to us 10:01 seemed kinda early. We almost walked the roughly 5 miles back to campus (we even started walking back) but took a cab a few blocks in, because the fare ended up being only $18 AUD, and split between the two of us, it wasn't bad.

I woke up today (Monday) feeling pretty crappy at an early 8 am (considering my only class started at 11:30) with the hopes of studying before class. The only thing I succeeded in doing was making tasty scrambled eggs (with some cheese in them; absolutely fantastic) and talking to my Clark friend Alicia for a few hours online. Even though I set my alarm on my cell phone, I still lost track of time and left for class a little later than I would have liked. Apparently that classroom's clock is 6-7 minutes fast, because when I got there 5 minutes before the scheduled start of class, my professor was already talking which greatly annoyed me.

Class was okay, but it's going to be a hard class to study for since I can't really take notes: he has a lot of stuff on the power point but skips a lot of it (this is also true for the reading). I'm going to try to write down the subjects we talk about in class and any notes I can spare, and then go over the reading in the library after and take notes from there too. I have to do a 4-5k word paper (with a partner) on something toxic in our society, and it looks like my partner and I are going to be investigating Red Bull (specifically the caffeine load). The highlight of class was my professor (who is very eccentric and funny) talking about children being more susceptible to toxins, because they lick and suck the floor. Good times.

After lecture I ate lunch and got ready for the beach, which I ended up going with just Jesse. We got there around 3:30, 4 which is the latest I've gotten there. I um, yeah, I wore a speedo for the first time and it was really interesting. It felt kinda cool actually, to tell the truth, but I was already getting a slight tan line from my board shorts. My arms are really tan but that's about it. I guess I'll have to work on my tan now while it's still hot. I was looking at the average temperatures for June, when it gets down to about 67°F.

We took the bus back to campus, but had to wait about 15 minutes between buses which prevented us from going to Kmart and Coles, because by the time we got to the mall, it was already 5:52pm or so, and both stores close at 6. It didn't help that our bus lost power or whatever twice en route. I'll go in tomorrow afternoon though, no worries, and get what I need.

I'm going to go make dinner now then run off to the library for a few hours to prepare for my first Pollutants (the class I had today) tutorial and do some other studying. I'll most likely spend my free time tomorrow studying so I can spend most of Thursday (when I'm done by 10:30 in the morning; Jesse has Thursday off) at the beach. Pity I have lab all afternoon on Wednesday, because it's going to be sunny and 96°F (36°C; my roommate said she heard 41°C). However, it's going to be partly cloudy and 95°F on Thursday.

Sunday: 7
Monday: 7

Surfing in the AUS!

Today, we went surfing.

A small group of us met at Paul's office, and we piled into a maxi taxi (small bus) driven by Paul (which I thought was funny). Our group was mostly Clarkies (there's another group going tomorrow) which was fun. A few beaches north of Cottesloe beach, the wind was pretty strong and the currents were especially strong. After slipping on wet suits and getting (longer) surf boards (made of a lot of foam) we trudged along the beach to find a good spot.

We started out on the beach, practicing paddling on the sand. Boy were we a strange sight. Paul, who had my camera, got some video of us looking ridiculous. I'll have to make a video to put on YouTube later. After more instruction which Justine (who was next to me in line and is from Clark) and I didn't pay much attention to because we were posing with ridiculous faces in the background as Paul was taking pictures, we went in.

Man, was it difficult. Paddling out against the waves and current was a real challenge. The currents change the sand levels a lot, so you might be walking in a step into a sudden drop off or a hole. Or you could be way far out and notice you can stand up because there's a sand bar.

Like always at the ocean, I managed to swallow a lot of sea water at first, which always really hurts. Besides a short run by Jesse, we didn't have much success as a group surfing. I feel like we didn't have enough time out there to figure it out by ourselves. I got up twice on my board, only to have the wave die out from under me. Even though we were all getting tired, I feel like if given another hour by myself I could have gotten the hang of things. I'd like to try it again sometime if given the chance.

Paul took us to this pie place for lunch, and I had two really good spinach and feta pies. Puff pastry makes everything taste good, I swear. I also tried a mocha milk shake thing (which comes in 600mL cartons and can be found anywhere in Australia) which had 20g of protein to my amazement. It was pretty good, but tasted too much like chocolate milk to me. I'll have to get their iced coffee version next.

Overall, it was a fun experience and I'm glad I went (even though I almost didn't sign up for it). Our instructors were both good, cheery, and funny blokes. Not having a car will make getting out there again a real bother, so I don't know if I'll get to have another go.


Check out the video! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vah7MDdabEw

I'm editing this post with a new YouTube link (the current one fixed the old one, which didn't load properly because my internet sucks) and discussion of this evening. Everyone's going out tonight (my American friends) to clubs and bars, mostly clubs. Not only am I extremely tired from surfing, but I find clubbing extremely juvenile. Are clubs the typical hot spots for intellectuals? You can make an argument, but I would so no, definitely not. I find no appeal in going to clubs whatsoever, and I think they're slightly detrimental to society. Why? Because they put overwhelming influence on physical appearance in the social interaction aspect of clubbing. Is this fake? Hells yes it is. The whole idea of it is fake. I understand why some people like it (it's fun, etc), but I think it's absolute rubbish. Tell me I'm no fun all you want, tell me I should be going out and having fun all you want, but I still think it's an immature way to have fun. Really.

Today: 4 (If we had gotten to surf a lot longer or if I hadn't been so damn tired, I'd be feeling better.)

Cutting Up Plants, Meh

My DYLAN #10 post was a Friday morning rant, and I felt like I should explain the rest of my day.

After going to my second lecture and a quick lunch, I went to my Marine Plant Diversity lab. I went in without a lab manual, because even though the other Plant Diversity class' lab manual said "LAB MANUAL" on its front cover in the bookshop, ours didn't, and apparently we DID have our lab manuals in stock. Therefore, everyone else had theirs which was a real bother. Our lab manual says "lab notes" on the front cover, which to me meant notes from the lab because there's a separate notebook we can buy that says "lecture notes" on it. AND, since the lab manual was encased in thick shrink wrap, I couldn't open it to see if it was the one I needed.

My lab professor, who is extremely nice, made me a copy (which happened to be from his notebook with all the answers in it) to use for the lab. I would have rather have had my manual before lab so I could have known what I was supposed to be doing, and I felt completely stupid for 2+ hours. It was an introductory lab, and since our lab is laid back, I ended up doing okay. We cut up plants and looked at them under the microscope. Very exciting. I skipped out a bit early because I didn't NEED to be there and I was in an annoyed mood. I was able to pick up the lab manual in the bookshop however, so I'll be all set for next week.

I think after this week I'll be more comfortable with things. I have a lot to catch up on though and a lot to get started on, so we'll see how it goes. Since I have an 8:30 lecture Thursday and Friday, I might work on getting up at similar hours the rest of the week and getting 2-3+ hours of studying in before my lectures start. Because I have all of Thursday late morning and afternoon off, I might make that my beach day. I hope I can get some studying done before lunch time then head over after. I'm going to have to spend a lot of time reading, studying notes and lectures, and preparing for labs and such. I think I'm going to have a big load this semester, and since our first study break is the first full week in March (which is coming right up) I'm getting nervous about exams after my first week of classes, which isn't fair.

The first study break I'll be going on the North West trip, which is a 2,500 mile tour of Western Australia, which should be a lot of fun. I'm going to be gone for a week and have too many pictures to post once I get back. It'll be ridiculous. Unfortunately, I need to drop about 100 AUD on stuff for the trip (like a sleeping bag) which is really lame. The roughly 850 AUD trip is already paid for by my student group (CIEE) so that helps a lot. I'd like to go to Bali or Queensland on one of last 2 breaks, but we'll see how that pans out. If I'm working, I'd like to work one week to save money and maybe try to go snorkeling around Perth, and then travel the other week. I should be able to do a fair amount of snorkeling on the NW trip though, and I'm STOKED for that.

The job search sucks right now, but I think I'm going to do a new round of applications on Monday in Freo. I'll take almost anything I can get right now. We'll have to see. :-\

Jesse and I watched the first episode of Lost, season 6 and were confused like everyone else. We then decided to watch a 3 hour movie about blue aliens on a planet being mined by humans because we're both huge fans of said (unnamed) movie. The soundtrack and everything is absolutely gorgeous. Makes me fall in love with it all love again!


Friday: 4.5

Organisation? What is this funny word?

DYLAN #10 - I looked up the word "organisation" in an Australian printed dictionary, only to find it didn't exist. I also looked up "organization" to no avail. Why is this? Because Australians don't have any organization at all. Yes, I'm exaggerating a bit, but still, Murdoch University sucks for organization. It's bloody terrible. "Hi, yeah, we think it's a good idea to have classes only on certain weeks, classes that change venues depending on what day it is, oh, and it's totally cool for classes to clash time slots, especially if a class may or may not be held this week." That is a direct quote, copy & pasted from their website. "Furthermore, if you want to sign up for an expensive and intensive field trip, we will post conflicting signs such as 'don't take a time ticket for this matter' and 'sign up here' (actually, we'll post two of these signs to make it doubly clear), only to ask for a time ticket (and refuse service if you don't have one, so I can sit around doing nothing for several minutes while I wait for someone with an appropriate to come up and talk to me, even though they may or may not have already left the building) and notify you later that you cannot sign up for said field trip (despite the two signs) here at all, and cannot do it until midday (when a lot of classes are)." This is also a direct quote. Just to let you know, assholes, I have classes all fucking afternoon because some asshat thinks it's a marvelous idea to have labs scheduled for Friday afternoon. Oh, I know! How about we sign up online, in order to one, make it easier to sign up, and two, reduce the amount of traffic in an already high volume area. Fucking wankers, I'm telling you. "Lastly, we will not post random lab sessions online until you have already scheduled your classes, in order to screw you over. Additionally, we won't print the appropriate amount of books or lab manuals, so you can go to your class or lab unprepared, because we don't get anything done here anyway, which is why the Americans are the leaders in the sciences year after year." Yeah, yeah, I know Americans are not the most organized individuals, but Australians bloody suck. I'm sick and tired of it already. Get you act together dammit.

In Search of Speedos

I woke up at a beautiful 7:30 this morning, as I had a 2 hour lecture at 8:30. Surprisingly, after two small cups of tea, I was relatively fine. This my was first lecture for Marine Plant Diversity. I think this might be my favorite class, but it's going to be a tough one. We're going to cover a lot of material. I think one of the reasons why I have an additional hour of lecture per week (tomorrow's lecture is also 2 hours) is because for at least one week, I don't have lecture while the regular plant diversity class (who I have most of my lectures with) focuses on their land plants, and then we'll have algae-focused lectures the following week or something or other while they don't.

Us Marine Plant kids have a separate lab from the other plant kids, but yeah, IT'S ON FRIDAY AFTERNOON. Really? Didja really have to assign a lab for Friday afternoon? So lame. I just found out about it today in lecture because it hadn't been posted. On Fridays, I have a lecture from 8:30-10:30 (Marine Plant), a lecture from 11:30-12:30, and my lab from 1:30-5:30 (but I don't expect to go the full four hours each day). Kinda totally sucks for a Friday. Additionally, it sounds like a lot of walking back and forth, unless I spent one of those intermissions reading in the library or something, which I just might do. However, I was done today (Thursday) by 10:30. After doing a few things and debating how to spend the rest of my day, I decided to go to the beach with Sarin.

We ran into two friends (Clancy & Crystal) at the bus stop, who happened to be going to the same beach and everything. That was sure nice. We ended up meeting a few more who were already at the beach, and it was a good time. We spotted another topless woman (right in front of us too... not only that, she wasn't lying down the whole time either, which was weird--turns out she was Swedish which I guess makes sense) to a few of my friend's delight. It was funny watching them (my friends, duh).

Jesse and I spent a lot of time throwing a soccer ball in the water (which was really warm) which was really fun. However, I drank a lot of really salt water for the first bit which is a real pain. Greg, Justin, Jesse and I ended our stay juggling the ball, before one of the Swedish girls joined us. I wanted to stay longer, but most of the girls already left, and they wanted us to buy Speedos because they didn't think we'd wear them.

We went into Freo on the bus and couldn't find any that fit us (even at Target) so we'll have to search else where (when I say they didn't fit I'm saying the WAIST SIZES were too big). It's going to be awesome. And yes, I'll post pictures.

Jesse and I hope to watch LOST tonight, but my internet is still crappy. We're not sure if it'll work.

Oh, if you wanna set up a Skype video sesh, lemme know and we can try to work around the awkward time frames.

Here are a few DYLANs since I haven't done any in a long time:
DYLAN #7 - Australians don't have pennies or quarters. They don't use pennies at all. In stead of quarters, like the Europeans, they have a 20 cent piece. Quarters are so much easier to use than 20 cent pieces. OH HEY LETS USE AN ODD FRACTION FOR OUR CHANGE LOL. I'm sorry, but America has it right here. On the other hand, America uses pennies which are useless. Australia rounds up or down on transaction totals, negating the need for pennies. This part is awesome. Oh, they also don't have single dollar bills, which annoys me. I hate coins. I don't spend them.

DYLAN #8 - Australians don't have bagels. Fuck Australians.

DYLAN #9 - Australians like to honk their horns (and yell at people) a lot more than Americans. I find this extremely rude.

Today: 8

Um, Yeah, I'm Totally Wearing Gloves For This Lab

I'm really glad I totally got a lot of sleep last night and don't feel incredibly tired or anything today, because that would completely suck.

Actually, I kept having horrible dreams and waking up and not being able to get back to sleep. However, I got to talk to my friend Alicia from Clark twice in the wee hours of the Australian morning which definitely made up for the lack of sleep.

Last night was Kardi night, or the night where a bunch of Murdoch students go to the bar for cheap drinks. It's every Tuesday. Yeah, um, there were no cheap drinks when Jesse and I got there. Jesse and I spent the evening before hand sipping wine and playing cards, which was fun enough for a night in its own right.

The bar was packed with kids and terrible music. Seriously, the DJ literally didn't really know what he was doing. It made me angry watching him butcher stuff since I've done some dances back at Clark. Jesse and I each got a beer and some fruity malt beverage for 12 AUD each total. Kinda pricey, but it was sorta worth it. It was a pretty crazy experience, my first bar with people in it go crazy, dancing on the pool table.

On our way back around 11 (the bar closed at 12!), Jesse, a friend of ours, and I spotted this 4'10, 80 pound girl from the bar walking back to the village by herself. She was trashed. We ended up walking her back and helping her find her flat, which is always hard because the numbering scheme sucks in the village.

Jesse and I came back to my flat for a little while longer, hanging out in the kitchen and talking about random awesome stuff which is what we usually do. I went to bed around two, and well, as I said, didn't sleep well.

I had Micro this morning at 10:30, and then my Pollutants class following that at 11:30. The lectures were fine, but I need to do a chuck of reading tonight for them both. In the avo, after a hasty lunch of a weird mac and cheese I made from American cheese and butter (and spiral pasta), I had my first Micro lab. Thankfully, I have this with Allie and were even were assigned the same bench together, but it took a while to find it which was annoying.

Unfortunately for me, I had the most annoying punk next to me who didn't have a lab manual, nor did he know what he was doing. He spent the entire 2.5 hours asking me how to do everything and generally annoying me. I was very close to taking the 70% ethanol and force feeding him some, which would have made him blind. Thankfully for him, I didn't. Yet.

We spent the lab doing stuff I've already done before: setting up cultures. They however wanted us to do it completely different than I'm used to, like using ethanol to clean instruments, even though we pass them through the Bunsen burner to clean them. Pretty sure if I'm using fire to clean something, I don't want ANY ALCOHOL near me. It's just an additional lab hazard and it's completely unnecessary. FURTHERMORE, while we had to wear lab coats, we DIDN'T have to wear gloves. We're handling bacteria. We're going to eventually use staining agents. Why WOULDN'T we use gloves? It's a simple precaution. At Clark like I've said, I only wear my prescription glasses and gloves. No goggles, no lab coat (unless I'm feeling silly). Additionally, which country is the leader in science? America. Damn straight. No Australia. This must be the reason why.

The lab overall sucked and was extremely frustrating, but, well, I got it over with. I then got back to my room, grabbed by iPod, and went shopping for a little notebook for my Micro lab (I got a Simpsons one) and a few things at Coles, including potatoes which I used to make dinner tonight. I made a lot of pasties, which I am planning to refrigerate or freeze. So far they came out well.

After dinner, I'm gonna go read in the library. Bed after most likely. :-\ I have a 2 hour lecture at 8:30 tomorrow, and if I don't have a lab (which may or may not happen--I don't know when it is yet) I'll be done at 10:30am! Either way, I hope to apply for more jobs and hopefully see a sunset in the avo tomorrow. I'm hoping tomorrow will be a better day than today.

Today: 4

P.S. - I love how my Chinese flatmates talk in English to each other. It's so cute!

Australian Science Is Serious Business

I only had one class Monday and today, Tuesday. I still have a lab to be scheduled somewhere in my week, but as it stands I only have a 2 hour lecture on Monday, an hour lecture and an hour discussion Tuesday, and a two hour class Thursday. For me, this is really good. I'm used to having 2 one hour lectures and a 4 hour lab (Wednesdays). Friday I have a 2 hour lecture and a one hour lecture. I'm assuming my last lab will be on Friday or Thursday, but I'll have to wait until then to find out I guess.

My friend Sarin and I went to our lecture together on Monday, and got there at around 11:23 for a 11:30 lecture. The class was full and a woman was talking, so I immediately thought it was the lecture before us. No, it freaking wasn't. We ended up walking in at 11:35 to see the professor I expected talking. It was still intro jargon so it didn't really matter. It still annoyed the heck outta me. My one lecture today started on time though, which was nice.

I had my Pollutants and the Human Environment class on Monday and it looks like fun, especially since there isn't a lab. Being an environmental science class, you'd expect them to be all about electronic submission of papers, right? Nope. The bastards want me to pass it into an office and get it time stamped. That's such a bitch, sorry, but it is. It's a 8 minute walk there, easily, and I don't want to print it out dammit. That's such a stupid waste of resources. DID YOU KNOW YOU CAN COMMENT ON ELECTRONIC PAPERS USING MICROSOFT WORD? Little known fact. The professor seems to be really awesome though, so I guess it should be a fun class.

Today I had my Microbiology class. ...they want me to buy a lab coat and goggles for labs. It's mandatory (or compulsory, which is the word they ALWAYS use here). I find this really lame, especially because half the things the professor mentioned we'd be doing I did last semester... on my own...and I only wore my prescription glasses and gloves. I don't think a lab coat is necessary. In fact, it isn't, unless you're a complete neophyte. The lab coat and goggles was only 40 AUD combined, plus the lab coat has the Murdoch logo and name embroidered on it, so I guess I'll bring it home with me as a souvenir. My friend Allie (from SC) is in the class with me. Hopefully will be a good time.

Monday after class and lunch, Sarin, Alice and Greg (who we picked up on the way there) went shopping. I'm still without a power converter for my camera battery, but I think one of my friends might have one. (The power adapter I have, given to me by Emily from Clark, just makes it so my computer cord can fit into the wall socket. My computer's cord automatically converts it because it's awesome.) I went for a short run after I got back which was nice enough, but my body is still out of shape and achy from this damn bed. Seriously, do Australians like rock hard beds? I guess my bed at Clark is just as bad, but my mattress pad at home/Clark is awesome. If I didn't have to buy a sleeping bag for the Northwest Trip, I'd look into getting another mattress pad.

After dinner, Sarin and Alice came over and we watched a couple of webisodes of Pokémon: The Abridged Series. Essentially, someone dubbed over everything in the episodes and makes it rather inappropriate and funny. It's good stuff.

After my class on Tuesday I had a small lunch and then went over to the CIEE office with Jesse to print off resumés for to apply for jobs. After running to catch our bus, we pretty much failed to apply for any jobs. I passed in a few resumés and applied online for Kmart, but other than that is was a fail. Jesse and I will probably go in to Freo this week/weekend and look there. A Kmart job by the way would pay at least twice here than it would at home, even with the exchange rate (which seems to be getting better recently for the Dollar).

I made dinner and gained a new appreciate for garlic toast. Now I'm kinda pansying around and not getting anything done. I might go into Kardinya (the shopping mall place) to drink at the bar. Tuesday night is Kardy night = 2 AUD beers = awesome. I'm pretty tired though now and am not sure if I will or not. I feel like I'm going to be tired all week. This is most awesome.

Monday: 6.5
Tuesday (today!): 5.5

Hanging Out With Wallabies

Yeah yeah, I know I didn't make a post for Friday, or Saturday & Sunday now. Bollocks! Friday morning consisted of boring orientation for the student village I live in. Same stuff I sat through my first year at Clark. They gave us t-shirts though (for the courtyard we live in; there are six or eight of them, and I live in Melaleuca, which is represented by a mammoth, so we're the Melaleuca Mammoths and  our shirts are purple) and lunch. I wish I could buy the other courtyards' t-shirts because they're all pretty cool. Lunch was catered Chinese food and I thought it was pretty good.

In the avo (afternoon), a few of us went to Bush Court where a bunch of clubs and organizations were tabling. I signed five or six environmental petitions and received a ream's worth of fliers. I was pleasantly surprised to see a Buddhist table (presented by some locals, not students) and I took an audio CD which I hope to listen to (basic stuff I probably am already aware of). I thought it was pretty snazzy though.

Sarin, Alice and I went to K-Mart and Coles to get a few things. Apparently I forgot my SLR battery charger needs a converter not just an adapter, but I couldn't find a converter which sucks. I guess I'll have to keep looking and hope my current charges will last me another week or two. We bought some cheap wine which we ended up mixing with mango orange juice (extremely tasty!).

I finally made my vegetarian pasties (vegetarian patties mixed with barbecue sauce and garlic wrapped in puff pastry) and they were absolutely fantastic. Sarin, Alice, and eventually Jesse  and I spent the evening drinking (responsibly even! Go team!), eating, and finding ridiculous videos on YouTube. Good times! Unfortunately, I've "used up" my internet bandwidth so I'm stuck at 64 kps speeds for the rest of the month.

On Saturday, we went to Caversham Wildlife Park, or the place in WA where you can see all the awesomely cool marsupials! Our tour wasn't too too long, but this is who I saw:

Wallabies!

Koalas!

Tasmanian devils!

Dingoes (non indigenous), emus, and foxes (non indigenous). Oh, and a kookaburra!

Oh, and a wombat...

&& KANGAS!

That was the gist of my Saturday. Our bus driver was absolutely ridiculously eccentric. He took us a long way round home. He stopped the bus so we could buy produce at a farm stand in Swan Valley (a vineyard valley). We drove through the first settlement in (Western?) Australia and he talked about how his wife wasn't a pretty site (the driver was in his 70s he said) and how she didn't wear a bra. It was a little ridiculous.

Sunday, or yesterday, was a fairly good day. I woke up at a decent hour and got a load of laundry done, and then Jesse and I roamed campus to get a general idea of where our classes are. I only have one class on Monday, about 8 minutes from my flat.

After two peanut butter and raspberry jelly sandwiches, and a lot of sunscreen application, Jesse and I went to South Beach on that hot (around 33°C) day. We saw one of our American friends on the bus, and we all talked about going to Queensland on one of our study breaks (which I would love to do if I can manage it moneywise).

Our friend Alice met us at the beach and the water was nice and warm. It made for a good time. We stayed for a few hours before going into Freo to go through the shops. I was sorta amazed at how touristy the shops were: such crappy and cheap wares. I was kinda disappointed. We then made our way to a different part of town and found the produce market, which was like a zoo. It was a real experience having people yell out prices and such (especially the Asian kids, who I don't think were yelling out in English). I bought a dozen eggs (which I'll prolly cook up soooon) but that was it. I should probably buy more next time, especially since everything gets really cheap at the end since it needs to all go.

I went for a short run when we all got back. It was an absolutely gorgeous run: slightly breezy, warm, and sunny. I do however need to get in better shape so I can go for longer runs (like to the ocean!). Later in the evening, Jesse, Sarin, Alice and I went to a student village cookout, which was fun enough. I played some basketball on a 9 foot hoop (American hoops are 10 feet). in my flip flops, which was a bad idea. It probably wasn't as bad as playing barefoot, which really hurt (ouch Charlie!). To end the night, Sarin, Alice and I watched Ferris Bueller and Talladega Nights. I was absolutely exhausted but still couldn't fall asleep right away at 2am, and then I barely slept til 9:30am.

Angels & Airwaves came out with a new album on Sunday for Valentine's Day. A&A (or AVA) is one of my favorite bands ever. I made sure to find a really awesome spot (the Zen Garden) late at night to listen to it for the first time on my iPod and good headphones. It was a really cool set up, only for the album to be absolute trash. I feel like they made it on Garage Band on one of their Macs. It's so choppy and messy. It's not cohesive and it doesn't build. This is how I felt about their previous album, and I like it well enough. I'm hoping I'll like it more later once I've gone through it more. If not, it will be one of my biggest disappointments in music.

Friday: 6.5
Saturday: 7.5
Sunday: 7

Sorry I didn't post for three days. Sorry that post was dreadfully boring. I need to get a charger for my camera, and then I feel like I'll be more driven to post more often. However, with classes starting this week, and traveling being reduced dramatically, I don't think I'll be posting as much, but I'll try!

Hanging Out With Sea Cucumbers

Wow. My oh my. My first day (yesterday) without a post means today is a double post. Yesterday and the better part of today, the American group I'm in (CIEE) went to Rottnest Island, a small little island 20km off the coast of WA, almost directly west of Cottesloe Beach. Because we did a lot and I'm rather tired, this will be a run through some highlights of the trip! (I'll post a YouTube video later too!)

First and foremost, Rottnest Island has served many purposes for Australia, including a defense post during WWII and a prison island. Named by the Dutch, they thought the quokkas they saw were large rats, and thus named it after them. Quokkas, which are all over the place where ever humans are, are not rodents but marsupials, and are quite the cute little suckers:

We first met a quokka on our walk into the island, on our way to get our bicycles. Rottnest is mostly a bicycle island, which is quite fantastic. The first day we did about a 12-15km trip around the island seeing various sites, including a large cannon used in WWII to defend the port cities of Perth and Fremantle. While it was never used, it was capable of launching a 71kg projectile 28.5km.

 

We checked into our accommodations (essentially small houses in which bunk beds were stacked inside) about 200m from one of the many beaches scattered around the island. The beach was really cute but pretty cold! After swimming about a bit, we gathered to wait for the bus to take us to the pub for dinner (I would have preferred to bike there, but a lot of people were complaining about how sore they were! Lamecakes!). A few younger kids were playing cricket in a large courtyard next to where we were waiting for the bus, and they let us bowl (pitch) and hit with them. It was wicked fun. I'm a terrible bowler, but would love to practice. Everytime I would pitch it behind the batter. It was quite dreadful. I'll get it I'm sure (video of this to be posted!).

The pub was okay, the food was decent, but the alcohol was too expensive (8-9+ AUD a drink) for me to have any. It was fun talking to everyone after dinner, but all in all, the first day was kind of a let down. Going back to our rooms I kinda wanted to teleport back to campus because I was bumming out. Because I skipped over a lot of Wednesday, it essentially consisted of biking, meeting quokkas, eating a lot of cookies during our bike stops, seeing a cannon, visiting a nice beach, playing cricket with little kids, and going to a pub for dinner.

Today was pretty cloudy in the morning as well, which was disappointing. However, today we went snorkeling. I've never been snorkeling for reals, so it was a real treat. Even though it was quite cold and overcast, it was a blast. I saw several sea cucumbers (one of them was HUGE) and even held one. It was pretty cool. I wish I could have taken pictures because it was pretty damn awesome. I saw a few small sting rays (but didn't get too close!) and tons of fish. I went of the first of two snorkeling tours (in order to get the whole group out we split into two groups) and went in again after I took pictures and warmed up with Laura (Clarkie, left in picture) and Allie (from SC, right in picture). Sadly enough, they were the only two who wanted to go out again, but the three of us felt it was really worth it and had even more fun!

After lunch, only a very small group of us went out on one last bike tour of some of the self sustainable items on the island which was pretty interesting (I'll talk more about this in my video). The bike ride was gorgeous and a good way to get out and ride with more intensity (because there were only a few us of we got to go fast :-p). After we got back, the few of us got coffees with Paul (I had a delicious iced chai) before hanging out on a different beach near the harbor. It was cold there too, but a nice enough place to hang out with everyone.

After passing our bikes back in, we hung around a little longer before taking a group picture and leaving for campus. I was really excited when Paul took such a silly picture with me.

After this trip, we won't be doing a whole lot as a group anymore which is a little sad. Tomorrow we have orientation for our student village (which sounds wicked lame), Saturday I'm going to Caversham Wildlife Park (where I should get to see some kangas!), and Sunday I'll prolly get ready for classes and go to the beach, because classes start on Monday!

I suppose the whole trip to Rottnest (Rotto) was fun overall, and I gained an appreciation for the island in the last few hours of my stay. Today certainly made up for the previous lackluster day. This trip made me want to take up biking again and snorkeling! I think they'd both be really fun things to do especially throughout my young adult life.

YouTube video! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSXCYc3W9so

Wednesday: 6

Thursday (today): 8

Beach Baby, Round 2

Eh, I didn't sleep too well last night. I heard it can take up to two weeks to fully adjust to a time change, especially one as drastic as the one I've made. We had a short meeting regarding the North West trip I plan to take in either early March or April. The North West trip is a 2,500 mile, 10 day tour of Western Australia, which is supposed to give us study abroad students a great glimpse of what WA has to offer. It's supposed to be the highlight of our stays here! I'm excited.

So yeah, with nothing else today, we decided to go to the beach again. I mean, why not, right? It was very sunny, hot, and gorgeous out. Instead of going back to Cottesloe, we went to South Beach, just south of Freo (we could see Freo very easily from the beach). We took the bus into Fremantle, and grabbed a free (orange!) bus that ended up taking us the beach (next time we'll have to be sure to get off the first bus early to cut off some of the looping routes on the orange bus that take us to the beach).

Um, so, we liked this beach even more. It was much smaller and not quite the tourist attraction Cottesloe is. Granted, it is midweek, but South Beach has a more of secluded feel. It's much smaller and the waves were not as good, but the water was really warm today. Jesse and I were guessing it was about 75-80°F. Both Jesse and I (and I'm sure all the others) would like to come here much more often. I'd particularly like to come when the moon is full!

The water looked more blue/clear than it did at Cottesloe. Oh my goodness it was so enjoyable. It was almost like bath water!

We took turns throwing each other around in the water which was a lot of fun to watch. I was a little bugger and tried sharking people (pulling them under) which actually isn't quite funny in Australia. Amy, one of us Clarkies, says she saw a dead jellyfish today, but other than a few very tiny fish and crabs on the rocks, we haven't seen any awesome marine life. I wouldn't actually mind keeping it that way. Sharks would make for a bad end to anyone's day.

Some of the kids left the beautiful beach wicked early. I wanted to stay much later, but we only stayed another twenty minutes or so more. We were clever little wankers though, and learning from our longer second bus ride (which looped all around Freo before getting us to the beach), we took the first bus on a short distance, got off it, walked two blocks or so, and got the same bus the kids who left early were on. Boy were they surprised.

Jesse, Sarin and I went into KMart to get Jesse some sunglasses for our CIEE trip tomorrow, and then over to Coles to get a few things. I was really excited to see the yummy cheese crackers I had my first day in Australia for $2 a box rather than $3. Yeah! It was hella tight. I bought 3 boxes. Word. I need to watch my food spending though. I have a nasty feeling about my finances. I need to get a job for sure! I'll start getting that stuff together once I get back from Rottnest Island.

Rottnest Island is just off the coast of Freo (I believe), and our American group is spending all of Wednesday and most of Thursday there (therefore I won't be updating tomorrow, but will have an awesomely long post on Thursday night). We're going to be biking, swimming, snorkeling, and having a grand time.

After we get back, we have some more orientation stuff on Friday (groan), the weekend off (with a welcome BBQ on Sunday night), and then classes start Monday! I'm actually kinda scared for the campus to be packed and have to be a responsible student. It's going to be overwhelming to say the least!

I haven't done any DYLANs (Distinguished Youthful Listings of Australian Nuances) recently, so here are a few:

DYLAN #5 - Australian mail boxes are absolutely ridiculous. Not only are they RED and sticking up off the ground, but they say Australia Post. As opposed to... Europe Post? Really? Yeah yeah, I know we have USPS, but still I think it's silly.

DYLAN #6 - Everything, is damn expensive. It really sucks visiting a country where the minimum wage is something ridiculously high like 18 AUD an hour. Waitresses make that much easily, and I've heard working in a warehouse you can make 30 AUD an hour. As such, everything is much more expensive. The American Dollar is not nearly strong enough to account for this. Food isn't too too bad, but a 30 case of cheap beer is... 45 AUD. Cheap box wine if you're lucky is 10 AUD for 2 litres.

I posted another video log, this one on our day at South Beach! Be jealous! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvhoOnSlCX8

Today: 7.5

When The Sun Sleeps

A few notes I'd like to highlight before today's blog:
1) I absolutely love getting comments on my blogs, and I read every one!
2) Please be sure to check my Facebook for photos! I update nearly everyday! If you don't have Facebook, you can still see them here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2025662&id=1561350045&l=c13de758ca

This morning those dying cat birds didn't bother nearly as much, even though I'm told they were as loud as ever. I hope this means I'm getting used to them! I didn't do anything in the morning which was kinda sad. Hey, actually that's not true: I did some errands.

I went into Bush Court to get some cash, put more money on my SmartRider card (for the buses and trains), bought some stamps, met my Clark friend Justine (who was here last semester) for the first time since she's been back, and swung by Paul's office to look for textbooks that previous students have left behind. I only found one for my microbiology class, but it doesn't really matter because I can get everything I need (besides lab manuals I think) in the library.

Us CIEE kids had two meetings: one for all the study abroad students (1-2 semesters at Murdoch) and another with Paul. Even though they were scheduled for two hours total, they weren't too bad. Afterwards, I wandered around Bush Court a bit with some of my mates who needed to get some errands done (nothing terribly exciting nor note worthy).

After getting back to my room, I set into action my plans to get to see the sunset over the Indian ocean. Initially, my plans were to go to Cottesloe Beach again with a few kids, but Jesse wanted to save on the fares and just watch it in Freo (Fremantle). I'm really glad that's what we ended up doing, because we had a great time!

Jesse, Sarin, Sarin's new flatmate Alice (from Tasmania), Amy (Clarkie), and Amy's neighbor Clancy (from SC) and I all took the bus into Freo in the late afternoon. We walked from the station to the nearby harbor, where Amy wanted to get a drink. I'm glad she suggested it, because the little seafood place we went to (which is basically to go) had Rockstar (energy drinks, which I love)! They had one of my favorite flavors. It was 3.90 AUD which is pricey compared to the States, but the cheapest beer they had was (not very good) 6.00 AUD (that's Australian dollars). Furthermore, I was able to greatly appreciate my Rockstar, so I feel like it was a great 3.90 spent (even though laundry is 3.00 a load, but hey, I need to appreciate things in the moment! Speaking of which, I'm trying to stretch loads as much as possible and still haven't done one yet but haven't needed to either, which is great!).

Top picture: Jesse, Clancy, Sarin; Bottom: Sarin (not actually) shoving Jesse into the wata!

After putzing around the docks, we went out to the wharf just beyond the seafood place. We got there about an hour before the sun was due to set (7:13PM today). We hung out on the rocks and had a grand old time! Here are some of my favorite pictures (go ahead and click on them to see them bigger):

Today: 9

Beach Baby Beach Baby

I woke up to the lovely sound of those damn birds. Again. They were particularly loud today.

It took everyone a while to get together today to get out and about, but we eventually did. Today was my first beach day (and the first for most of us). 13 or so of us took the bus into Fremantle. Apparently not every bus stop is a bus stop. The first one we went to at the very edge of campus isn't a usual stop. But it has a bus stop sign and a little bench and roof. Before the bus came, half of the group ran down the road without a side walk, dodging traffic to get to the stop just down the road. After a minute, I, along with the other half walked after them, only to see the bus coming round the bend, not giving us time to get down to the other stop. We eventually got on after being playfully ridiculed by the bus driver.

Once we got onto the train, it was only 4 stops along before we were able to take a bus the rest of the way there. The beach at Cottesloe isn't very pretty:

This is where I went on Thursday with my mate Angela. Gorgeous weather today too.

After sunscreening up, a lot of us went right in. I daddled a bit to let some of my sunscreen soak in more, but  I neglected my back, which I'll be sure to get next time (it's a bit overly red at the moment, but nothing too painful yet). The water was the warmest I've ever experienced before which was quite nice. However, there were plenty of rocks here and there that really should be avoided.

Several of us threw a frisbee in the water which was particularly fun. Diving all around and having a grand old time.

We only stayed about an hour and a half, two hours before we decided to go back into Fremantle. We split up so that some of the girls could try to buy cellphones (which they totally failed at) while the rest of us went to look for the pub I went to with Angela on Thursday. We found it but I didn't particularly feel like spending the money, so I ended up finding the girls again and going back into campus. The shower felt so good once I got back; I'm not a fan of sunscreen and general grossness experienced at the beach.

Last night I ended up going to the pool where a party was being thrown by some Australians. There were a lot of people there and someone was giving out free beer. I met some fun people, including a local who interns in Orange County for Blizzard, the company who makes the video game World of Warcraft (among others) that Graham and I play. Pretty small world. Bugger was supposed to add me on Facebook but he hasn't yet!

I'm dead tired but probably going across the courtyard here to hang out with some of the Americans. Nothing too crazy I don't expect. Right after dinner just now though there was a fantastic sunset. Good end to a sunny day.

I've started to record video for parts of my travels in Australia. You can follow see my Australia YouTube videos here.

My first video (from today at the beach) is here.

Today: 7.5