Thursday, February 18, 2010
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
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
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
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!
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!
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
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
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
Sunday, February 14, 2010
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!
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!
&& 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!
Thursday, February 11, 2010
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!).
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.
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 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
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
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
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).
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.
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
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