September 27, 2009

Oceania » Australia » Western Australia » Perth » Perth City
September 27th 2009

Published: September 27th 2009

Edit Blog Post

britnikress

Photo 2

Pretty flowers

Well, the last full week of September has passed and I finally have some new things to write about.

I've been going on walks through King's Park (which is huge, like 1,000 acres) and taking pictures of plants - some are really cool, others are just pretty. So I'll put those up.

Finally gotten back into school a bit. They back load their classes a lot here, which I've discovered from experience and talking with the other girls here at St. Cats. This means that there's tons of work this half of the semester that wasn't here last half, and there was no way to do any of it beforehand, so it's not my fault that I have tons of work to do (meaning it's not from procrastination or lack of work on my part.. at least not yet lol). So for Oct. 12 I have the essay (basically done), presentation (sort of done - meaning I wrote out my part but didn't practice it with the group yet), and a floral survey. This floral survey, which I was really excited for when I signed up for the class in America, is proving to be my arch nemesis. I

Photo 3

tree

finally emailed him and told him no way could I go somewhere 2 hours away to pick plants, as I don't have a car and no one in the class was keen on driving me when I asked. So he gave me this piece of bushland owned by the university that was supposed to be close. Well, close is still a half hour away, which isn't too bad, but when you're relying on buses and public transport it sucks. I spent from 1 - 5pm on Friday searching for this place. I went to the wrong place, came back, got on a bus, finally found it - - but! I never found the actual entrance. The entire bushland is surrounded by a giant fence with 3 rows of barbed wire above it (apparently they're really serious about protecting their bushland), and I hiked around the fence for about an hour and never found where you actually get in. Then on Saturdays and Sundays he told me it's gated and locked, so I can't go then. So no progress has been made on that, and I'm getting a little worried because I have to collect 15 different plants, and if I

Photo 4

collect the wrong ones I'll have to go back and recollect, dry them and mount them to paper, identify them and confirm the species with the WA herbarium (which is another hour away by bus) and then type up a report. Sooo.. hopefully it gets done. If it does I'll take pictures lol.

Then besides those things, I have 2 other essays to write and finals to study for. And so I really want to get all this stuff done so I can start studying, but right now it isn't looking good. We'll see how it ends up. Hopefully this week will be full of progress for me?

On Friday we went out dancing, which was fun. Then on Saturday during the day I got up and went into Fremantle. I took a tour of the Fremantle Prison, which is the oldest prison on this side of the country and didn't close until 1991. It's famous for having some of the smallest cells in the world (literally - they are so small!). I went on a tour and took a bunch of pictures, which I'll put up. Then I went and walked through the Fremantle Markets, got ice

Photo 6

Flower part of plant

cream, walked past the Maritime Museum (Which was about to close, so I didn't get to see much), and then went and saw the Roundhouse, which is famous for being on this limestone cliff that holds sacred meanings for the aborigines.

Now it's Sunday, and I'm just worried about getting all this work done. I only have 16 more days of actual class (because I only have class Monday - Thursday) and then 3 days of finals left. That's practically nothing at all! Then there is a lot of balancing of travel and studying for finals and then I come home! Only about 48 more days now! = )

Additional photos below

Photos: 46, Displayed: 24