Advertisement
Published: March 10th 2007
Week 2 of Classes Monday to Wednesday was nothing out of the ordinary for week 2 - went to my classes, went skating, etc. On Tuesday I signed up for the NorthWest trip, which is a trip for all exchange students up into the outback and along the west coast of Australia. I'm excited :D
The Tavern Thursday in the day I did pretty much nothing. Went skating in the morning then took a nap. Then I talked to Trista, and she told me she was going out to the Tavern, the Murdoch campus pub. So I decided to go along. I met up with her and her two housemates, Tim the American and Joanna the German, and we headed to campus. First we went over to a flat in the Student Village and met some people, then we all headed over to the Tavern. It's a pretty nice place, although we got there pretty late so all the pool tables were taken (I know my Toronto crew is sad to hear that). There was a DJ and an outdoor area. And I'm so thankful that Australia joins Canada in its anti-smoking laws. Makes everything so much more pleasant.
The fearless divers!
Trista's on the far left, in the pink and purple wetsuitAnyways, it was a really fun night, and I met a whole bunch of new people, most of whom were not Australians. It's weird, there are Australians in my classes, yet I never see them outside of that...where do THEY go??
The Tavern closed at midnight (Australians start and end drinking early...it's strange...) so we went back to Student Village. A guy there offered to give me and Trista a ride home, so we took it. Key point - he hadn't been drinking, had only had 1 beer all night. But it's amazing how accidents happen anyways. We were in a car crash. It was weird how it happened. He was driving along and Trista was giving him directions to her house and he slowed down cause he thought he was supposed to make a left (like a right turn in Canada) turn but she told him to drive on, so he kept going. However, a guy turning right (like left) saw him slow down and thought he was going to turn, so he went for his turn...And...well...
It was low speed. My only injury was bruising where the seatbelt was (I was in the middle seat) but
the Doctor said I'd be fine. I'm just so thankful I was wearing a seatbelt.
Who Killed the Electric Car? Friday night I went to see 'Who Killed the Electric Car?', a documentary I'd been wanting to see for a long time. I had seen posters up on campus, so I talked to the guy who seemed to have a stack of them. He handed me one, then proceeded to hand me TWO posters about getting troops out of Iraq. Now I'm no pro-Iraq person, but all I wanted to know about was the movie. Yet he kept trying to get me to go to this anti-Iraq protest. I just made fun of him for the fact that Australia was in Iraq, then told him I wasn't sure about going to the protest...
Anyways, Friday night I headed out for the movie. I rode the train to just north of the city centre. I was told that I would see a brothel, then a church, then this place called the 'Resistance Centre' which would be where the movie was shown. I was quite scared about what sort of a neighbourhood had a brothel, a church, and something called
a 'Resistance Centre'. But I soon met 2 other people looking for the same thing, and we set off on our mission.
The Resistance Centre is this little room in a plaza filled with quite extreme left-wing posters. I was a little uncomfortable, but felt my 4 classes in economics might be able to fend off some attackers. I went to the back for my 'cheap meal' which was a tasty but not very filling vegetarian rice pillaf. Then I sat down and waited for the movie. It's a good movie. Definitely an interesting film, and spurs many discussions and questions.
At the end, I went to talk to the guy who I had talked to on campus about how I could get home (since the trains were being closed for maintenance starting at 8pm and lasting all weekend...something I learned as I stepped OFF the train). We then somehow got to arguing and he told me that socialism is the answer to environmental problems and then I think he said that Cuba (???) was a model for environmentalism or something?? I dunno, he was clearly crazy. But he did find me a ride home. Ironically, a lot
EVIL!!
Ok, this one doesn't actually sting, but they're still evil. of people at that movie drove home in trucks. A lot of people in Australia in general drive trucks. It's that rugged 'outback' thing or something.
Clean up Australia Day! Saturday I didn't do much of anything - had a ballet class in the morning for my skating team, then kicked around the house and did some homework.
Sunday, however, was Clean up Australia Day!! So I loaded up the sunscreen and met up with the Murdoch Underwater Diver's Club (MUD) to help clean up a yacht club jetty. Since I haven't finished my certification yet, I was just helping out on shore. I mostly took pictures, which are attached to this post. The craziest things we found: 4 wheelbarrows, an unopened bottle of vodka (which some people then drank - not me, I have better taste than that), a mobile phone (looked new!), a pair of shorts...the list goes on. We ended up with a BBQ with lots of meat (mmm...meat...), salad, and WATER since I had been out in the beating sun on the docks all day. I went home totally exhausted, ready to go to bed and start another week...it's amazing how my 4 days
of weekend go by soo fast. I blame the heat, makes me very lethargic...and the slower I move, the faster time appears to move around me.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.197s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 12; qc: 27; dbt: 0.0465s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
