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Published: March 17th 2008
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Swan Bell Tower
It really rings, and it's in front of the Perth jetty. March 10-17 Expect entries to become less frequent, since I’ve just about settled in. I will still try to update regularly, of course, but I’ve never been a huge fan of daily journals and it’s probably best to just subscribe to my travelblog instead of checking for updates.
Ok, so here’s some stuff that happened in the past week. I decided I would prefer going to the Nedlands Vet Clinic Tuesdays between my morning class and my evening lab, rather than waking up really early on Monday to go.
I found and booked a guided tour going to Exmouth and back to Perth during our semester break (April 21-27). I think it’s going to be a great trip, because I’ll be seeing all the outdoorsy stuff that people think of when they think “Australia” but there will be fewer tourists. Also, it’s easier/cheaper than trying to cram in seeing the east coast of Oz in a week.
I signed up for NCSU classes for the fall semester. It’s weird that I’ve basically just started classes and I’m already signing up for next semester back home. Hopefully I’ll be able to take Mammalogy instead of Physiology. And hopefully there won’t be too
many conflicts between band, Park stuff, and being a Resident Advisor.
Speaking of classes, I’ve decided that (so far at least) the classes here at UWA are comparable or perhaps even a little easier than at NC State. It seems there are just as many homework assignments, essays, and lab reports as back home (although they’re disguised because they come from the tutorial section, not the lecture). I have a feeling by the end of the semester my zoology classes will be the easiest ones, and my Australian culture class will be the hardest (because it’s all about reading long, boring articles and thinking critically about silly things like advertisements and “experiencing culture” and all that artsy stuff you try to avoid as a science major). I will note that I seem to care about classes more than the average American exchange student- but that isn’t saying much.
Anecdote: So Thursday (March 13) I was at a BBQ for the UWA Zoology Club, and the group I was sitting with noticed two kookaburras sitting in a tree near the grill. Well, the moment the girl tending the grill moved away for a second, one of the kookaburras swooped down and
stole one of the sausages! I thought it was quite funny, but most of the Australians were non-plussed. Apparently kookaburras are quite the annoyance for BBQs or picnics.
Saturday deserves a long mention. I went with the International Student Services club (mostly Asians) to Rottnest Island. We took the ferry; the trip from the Perth jetty was roughly two hours. The day was a bit chillier than I would’ve liked, and it was cloudy in the morning. This plus the surface winds made the water quality suboptimal, so when we went on our tour of the reef and some shipwrecks in a glass-sided boat, it was hard to see the little fishes properly, let alone take good pictures. Plus the choppiness meant most of the group got seasick (but not me :-)). The afternoon part of our trip was better; we went on a walk to see quokkas - little marsupial wallaby-rat-things which were quite used to humans. We climbed along a hilly path to get a good view of some of the salt lakes of the island. We then paused for lunch, and I had a lamb and rosemary meat pie. Meat pies are probably quite fattening, but they’re
Views from the Ferry 2
An $84 million mansion. relatively cheap, a lot of them are homemade, and I like them prodigiously. Then I went with a group of girls on a bus tour of the island. Again, from where I was sitting I couldn’t get pictures, but all the bays and beaches and sand hills were picturesque. We did get off the bus at one stop, Ricey Beach, where I had just enough time for some shell-searching and photo-taking. And then we almost missed the last ferry back because the bus was late picking us up. But all’s well that end’s well, and overall I thought it was a productive (if not idyllic) day.
Sunday (March 16) we lost our softball games. Oh well. I spent the afternoon doing laundry, and I’m getting better at hanging my clothes out to dry on a clothesline. I felt like a washerwoman from the 1920s the whole time.
Today I only had one class, and then I went to Cottesloe beach. It was wonderful at first; there was a beach sculpture art festival going on and I looked at all the abstract curly metal thingys with a properly quizzical brow. I then settled in to sun a bit but got bored
and took a walk instead. Then, having exerted myself I was ready for a little sunbathing nap. I lay down to be immediately assaulted by wind-driven sand particles. Within 15 minutes the beach was nearly deserted. I tried to stick it out, but with no end to the aerial onslaught I conceded defeat. I had heard that Cottesloe could be quite windy, and now I have experienced it.
So anyhow, Happy St. Patrick’s Day to everyone. There weren’t any parades here in Perth that I know of, just an excuse to wear green and drink. As if Australians need an excuse :-).
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