I'm Moving to Denmark (just kidding)

By Denmark, I mean Denmark, Western Australia - which is where I was the whole weekend. We (the CIEE group and I) left early Friday morning and got back to campus around 3 this afternoon. It was about a 5 hr drive, but we made stops along the way. One of the places we stopped was the Kodja Place Visitor and Interpretive Centre in Kojonup. We were lead on a tour of the centre by Jack which was....interesting. Jack was a really, really nice guy and very friendly but his tour was kinda weird. The center is mainly a history of aboriginals in the area, but the tour consisted of him saying "This is a spear. This is a truck. These are cakes," telling us random stories about Japanese tourists and not telling us the significance of anything. But he made us tea at the end and gave us bread so I guess that was cool. Then we arrived at The Cove, which would be our home for the weekend. Once we settled in there we headed to Green's Pool and Elephant Rock. I was dumb and left my camera at the cabin, so I've stolen some pictures from other people...

 The view from Elephant Rock

 Green's Pool (I'm in the middle)

Green's Pool

The water at Green's Pool was freezing, but it was definitely an experience. We saw a picture of what it looks like during the summer and it is absolutely gorgeous! After Green's Pool we headed to Wildlife Park, where we played with kangaroos!!! There were also sheep, camels, goats, alpacas, koalas, etc. but the kangaroos were definitely the best part, we even got to hold a baby kangaroo!! So cute! Of course, the one person that took the picture of me with the baby hasn't put pictures up yet so that will come later, but for nowww....

After the park, we headed back to The Cove, had dinner, relaxed, and went to sleep. The next day we woke up early (again) and went on a hike. We hiked (bushwalked...haha) over Monkey Rock  which is part of the Bibbulman Track that goes from Perth to Denmark. If you were to hike the whole thing it would take about 6 weeks, but our section only took about 4 hours. Illya, who owns the cabin we were staying in (and multiple others in The Cove), led us on the hike. I haven't gone a hike in years, but doing this reminded me how much I love it and definitely gave me the desire to go on more hikes when I get home. 

 View from Elephant Rock

 Another view from somewhere along the hike

The group at the highest point!

After the hike we headed back to the cabin, had some lunch, and begged Paul to let us take a nap. 4 hours of hiking is exhausting, but Paul refused and we headed to Walpole for a Tree Top Walk, which was also amazing. We were up about 120 ft in the air on a little walkway and were, literally, at the tops of trees. 

Pretty incredible, right? I wish I had more to say about it, but it's really one of those things you need to experience. It takes your breath away.  After the Tree Top Walk we headed back to the cabin once again, had dinner, and passed out. This morning we woke up and headed home. We were welcomed back to campus with a carnival at the Student Village for all the students living on campus. Pretty fun  - free food, bull riding, sumo wrestling, and all that jazz. After that we walked around campus and found our classes. And, once again, Murdoch is BIG and super confusing, but we figured it out. Classes start for everyone tomorrow, but I have the day off because I don't have any Monday classes (yay!) but I'll be going to Kmart (again), getting lunch with some people, and going on a run. Should be a nice, relaxing day. 

Off to organize my assignment book (I'm a nerd). 

xxx

Sorry for the lack of post yesterday. I know you all anxiously await each and every one of my posts (not). Yesterday was pretty busy, so I didn't really get a chance to update you all in the evening (or morning for you). But yesterday started off with an info session on our North West Trip, which is happening in a couple of weeks. Basically, we're driving up north and visiting a bunch of places there. It's open to all the study abroad students (not just CIEE) so it'll be nice to travel with the other students. We have the option of going during 2 different semester breaks and I think the majority of the CIEE kids are thinking of going the first semester break so that we can go to Bali during the second break. Oh yeah - Mom and Dad, I'm going to Bali :) Or at least that's what we're planning now, we wanted to go to Thailand but that's a little more expensive. They also told us about a southwest trip that's happening in the middle of August where we drive south (Margaret River, Albany, and one other place) and spend the weekend there. Planning on doing that trip as well, but only if they get enough people, otherwise the price is a little ridiculous. I've also been talking to some people about traveling once the semester is over - mainly going to Sydney, the Great Barrier, Cairns, and possibly Tasmania (and Fiji may be thrown in there too). Soo my return date to the states may be pushed back a little. Might as well experience everything while I'm here, right?

After the morning session we had the afternoon off, so three CIEE girls and I took that opportunity to go to Kmart and finish our shopping. The Kmart shopping center (I think it's called Kardinya Shopping Center) lets the students take the trolleys back to the campus so that we don't have to carry 40 different bags. We got some pretty interesting looks on the way back...

Caroline (in the front) and Jocelyn on the way back from Kmart

After Kmart I organized my room a little and took a nap. Then at 6 we had an International Students Welcome Dinner. The food was pretty good (made by the people at Wok Inn at the dining hall) and I met a guy named Felix from Germany and Victoria from Sweden and two Sarahs who I think were both from the states. To be honest, I'm really glad Paul decided to only make us attend the important parts of the International Orientation week. The CIEE orientation is a mixture of things set up by Paul and things set up by Russ Braby. I'm all for meeting the other international students and moving away from my American bubble, but the way they go about it is just so frustrating. Icebreaker games and get-to-know-you games? Really? Pretty sure I'm 20 years old, not 12. When we finished eating dinner they had us play a game by tables where we made sculptures out of tinfoil that represented what Australia is all about (which in itself was pretty stupid) but then they had the orientation coordinators walking around telling us to all get involved and all take part in it and make sure we were including everyone. I know that exclusion and cliques don't go away as you get older, but we're not in high school. We've all decided to travel to a completely foreign country where we know nobody....trust me, we're not going to sit in corners and seclude ourselves from the rest of the students. We WANT to get to know other people, we WANT to be involved and have friends. I'm sorry for the little rant, but those of you that know me well know that being forced to "bond" with others is not something I enjoy. I can do it on my own, thank you.

Anyways, after the dinner there was little party by the pool and then we were planning on going to a bar that is apparently the place to be on Tuesday nights, but since school hadn't started yet the bar was closing at 10 (lame).  So we stayed by the pool for the night. I had a really good time (a full bottle of wines worth). I met some Australian guys and then hung out with Caroline and her flatmates in their flat. We introduced them to Cosmo and honey-wheat pretzels - it was a good time. By the way...the price of alcohol is ridiculous here. 30s of beer are like $50 at the cheapest and a 750ml bottle of vodka is at least $40. CRAZY! So apparently boxed wine (goon) is the way to go. My nice bottle of wine (Slippery Fish Sauvignon Blanc...don't laugh) was only $5 and, to me, was pretty good (probably because it didn't actually taste like wine). 

Today, we didn't start until 2:30 when we had an orientation session put on by the Student Village staff. Once again, we were told what is expected of us and that trouble we can get in if we don't follow the rules...blah blah blah. Then after that, I headed into Fremantle with Paul for my meeting with the mayor!! For some reason I wasn't nervous at all, which is weird because normally I would be pretty close to having a panic attack. But everything in Australia seems so much more relaxed and easy-going....I like it. Brad Pettitt, the mayor, is a pretty young guy and really nice, so I'm really excited to work with him. But I'm even more excited for the project I'm doing. It's not exactlyyy an Environmental Science internship, but I'll be working on a project called "Un-Built Fremantle." Basically what I'm doing is taking 20-30 development proposals from over the years (that never actually happened or weren't approved) and making an exhibit of them to show people what Fremantle could have been. The exhibit will be shown at the end of the semester. Development has always been a touchy topic in Fremantle. In the 1970s (I think, it might have been earlier) there was a proposal to demolish almost all of Fremantle and rebuild it, but the people who live in Fremantle came together and fought the proposal and, fortunately, it never went through. And they're still pretty strict when it comes to development in the area, I think even now they're fighting a proposal to allow multi-story buildings in Fremantle (which is almost all one or 2 stories). Brad gave me a couple of choices for my projects, but this one sounded the most interesting. One of the others was working with a tip-site south of Fremantle. It's almost like a super-fund site, lots of toxic waste and things like that. But there are no records of what has been dumped in it and he wanted me to look into how to deal with it and what to make it in the future. While I was interested in that one, the exhibit sounded more interesting to me. Doing this, I'd be able to explore Fremantle a little more and I'll be able to talk to people who worked on the proposals. Maybe I can talk about the environmental impact the proposals would have had on Fremantle to make it more "scientific." Either way, I'm super excited. I start on Tuesday at 9:30 :)

After my meeting with Brad, three of the CIEE girls (Louisa, Virginia, and Jocelyn) came into Fremantle and we had dinner at a restaurant called Monk. I had pork belly and seared scallops, which was so soooo good - definitely going back to that restaurant. After we ate we headed to Newport (the bar where we watched the footy game) and had a few drinks. Newport is apparently where all the Murodch students go on Wednesday nights, but we got there pretty early and decided we didn't feel like waiting around for everyone to get there. But of course, the second I got back to my room, Caroline texted me and told me that the bar was crazy and so much fun. Oh well. 

Oh, I also found out about my classes yesterday. I don't have any classes on Monday or Tuesday, but Tuesdays I'll be working in Fremantle all day. Wednesday I have 2 lectures and a workshop, Thursday I have a lecture and a tutorial, and Friday I have a lecture. Not gonna lie, this seems like nothing after taking 6 classes last semester. But of course, Australian teaching styles are completely different than American. So who knows, I might have thousands of pages of reading to do each week. We'll see.

Time to say hi to some people on skype before I head off to bed. I'll try to write tomorrow.

xxx

"Mum said it was funny how one day you're not famous, and the next day you are. Famous. And then you're not again."

It's 10 pm and I feel like I should have gone to bed hours ago. Jet lag sucks.

So I've had a request from my mother to talk about some of the people in my program, so I'll start by doing that. All together, there's something like 80 exchange/study abroad students at Murdoch this semester. In my CIEE program there's only 11 students (all from the states) and I think I'm the only one in the Environment and Sustainability Program. I'm really too tired to go into detail on each person, so I'm just going to give you their names and where they're from. Caroline - New York, Jocelyn - Chicago, Jade - Tennessee, Virginia - Tennessee, Mike - Maine, Louisa - Massachusetts, Zach - Maine, Kenny - Massachusetts, Parker - I can't remember, but he goes to TCU with Jade (they've been dating for a year and a half), anddd Kathryn - Maine (she's been here for a full semester already). Everyone in the group is really nice and we all get along really well already, so this semester should be lots and lots of fun :)

This morning we started with an orientation session with all the exchange students where Russ Braby (who's the coordinator or something for exchange) talked to us about the campus, classes, public transportation, and how to get a job. Seriously considering the whole job thing seeing as minimum wage is something like AU$18 and everything here is super expensive, but we'll see. After the session, Paul took us to Garden City Shopping Center where we stopped at K-Mart and Coles and did some shopping. I don't have everything I need yet, so I'll probably just walk down to the K-Mart near campus tomorrow. Thennn I found out from Paul that I'll be meeting with the mayor of Freemantle on Wednesday to discuss what I'll be doing for my internship. I also found out that I'll be giving a presentation on my internship to the Environmental/Sustainability faculty on campus anddd to the Freemantle City Council at the end of the semester. Helloooo intimidation.

After shopping, Paul and Kate took the CIEE group out Clancy's Fish Pub where we had fish and chips for dinner (and some beer). I don't know if any of you have tried the Little Creatures Pale Ale, but it's really good (and Paul has stock in it, so he'll be happy if you have some). Then we explored the new section of the Student Village which is like 10x nicer than the old village where I'm staying...bummer. And then we watched the movie "Castles" with the other exchange students because apparently every Australian has seen this movie. Honestly...it was a little weird.

Before dinner, Paul took us here. Not really sure exactly where it is, but he said it's his favorite place in Freemantle.

The CIEE group. Sorry it's blurry, blame Paul.

I think it's time for bed. This is the latest I've been up since I got here. So sad.

xxx

Freo, way to go! Hit 'em real hard, send 'em to the floor!

Today was a pretty exciting day. We started at 8:30 with a group breakfast and then had about an hour long orientation session which went over the basics of the program and what is expected of us throughout the semester. During the breakfast, I had my first encounter with vegemite. Despite what any Australian tells you, do NOT try it. It is horrible. Paul Hollick and Kate Rodger (the Sustainability and the Environment program coordinator, who is also married to Paul) told us that their kids can eat spoonfuls of vegemite at a time.Which, honestly, is probably the most disgusting thing I've heard in a long time. Poor kids...

Anyways, after the orientation session we went into the city of Perth and visited Kings Park and Botanic Garden. The drive into the city was really nice, the area we are in is absolutely gorgeous - the views, the houses, everything. The park was also pretty amazing...

King's Park

Some of Perth from the park

So we walked around the park for a little while and got to know each other a little better. Then we drove into a nice area called Cottesloe - and by nice, I mean AU$2 million a house nice. This place was superrr expensive (not that Perth/Freemantle is much cheaper), but it was right by the beach and had some really nice restaurants and shopping areas around it. We stayed on the beach for a little (the water was freezing, shocker) and then drove down the road to a little restaurant called Jester's, which served meat pies! We stopped there for lunch, and I had a Popeye meat pie and a Pavarotti meat pie. The Popeye was just feta cheese and spinach and the Pavarotti was chicken and cheese and some Italian sauce. I thought it was little weird to have a restaurant selling meat pies, but it was actually really nice. 

The beach at Cottesloe

Then we headed into Freemantle. Paul took us to the "round house" which I guess was the first prison in Perth (I can't really remember what he said) and then let us off on our own to roam around a little. So we all took that opportunity to go to the Vodafone store and get cells phones. Unfortunately, the phone my mom bought in the UK was locked so I couldn't use a different SIM card, so I bought a super cheap phone and got a pay-as-you-go plan. All in all, it cost about $65 ($29.99 for the phone, and put $35 of credit on the phone) and I have unlimited texting to any mobile in Australia and free calls to anyone with a Vodafone phone (which is everyone in the program), so that $35 should go a long way. Then we all decided to stay in Freemantle and watch the Freemantle Dockers play the West Coast Eagles in Aussie Rules Football (or footy, as everyone here calls it). I enjoyed a nice beer in the bar but, sadly, watched Freemantle lose 64-65 to West Coast - obviously, it was a really close game. After the game we headed to Hungry Jack's (the exact same thing as Burger King, just a different name) and then took the bus back to Murdoch. Everyone's pretty jet lagged, so we just went back to our rooms for the night. 

One of my other flatmates arrived today so I suppose I should go introduce myself now. Then it's off to bed. I'll write later.

xxx

Traveling: The joy, The Thrill of Getting Lost

Alright, so this is my first blog post ever (yay!). I'm not very good at writing down my thoughts, ideas, etc. so please bear with me as I try to get past the first couple awkward blogs. I've already re-written the first two sentences of this post 4 times so that should tell you how difficult this is for me. 

Anyways, as I'm sure you've figured out, I have arrived in Perth, Western Australia. After almost two days of travelling I feel like I could pass out at any second, but I'm trying to fight jet-lag and am doing my best not to go to sleep until around 10 tonight. So instead of napping, I've been unpacking and trying to get familiar with my apartment (err, flat). But before I talk about my flat, let's recap the journey. I started at Dulles Airport with about a 6 hr flight to Los Angeles, California. I made it on the plane okay and slept most of the way to L.A. - but then things got tricky.  For those of you that know me well, being in foreign places and trying to figure out where I'm supposed to be is not the easiest thing for me. I mean, let's be honest, I get lost in Virginia even when I have a GPS. So when I got to L.A I attempted to get to the international terminal, but little did I know that my international flight to Brisbane was not leaving through the international terminal (weird) and instead was leaving from Terminal 4. So after asking what seemed like dozens of people at the airport where I should be, and yelling at my mom at 1 a.m., I finally made it past security and to my gate. The flight was about 12 hrs long but, again, I slept through most of it. Then, when I arrived in Brisbane I faced multiple problems (going to international transfers instead of through customs, waiting 30 minutes to reclaim my bags, waiting in lines I wasn't supposed to be in, waiting in security lines when my flight was scheduled to leave in 10 minutes, and being pulled to the side in security so they could swab my bags), but made it onto my flight right as they did the last call. Yes, I was that person they called for over the intercom. The flight from Brisbane to Perth was another 4 and a half hours and then I finallyyyy arrived in Perth. Met Paul Hollick, the CIEE coordinator, in baggage claim and was driven to Murdoch University's student housing with one other girl in the program, Virginia. 

Murdoch is huge, at least to me. Maybe compared to some bigger colleges in the U.S. it's not, but for me it's enormous. The size is definitely going to take some getting used to. Student housing isn't very big, as most students live off-campus. I'm in the older part of student housing. It's pretty simple, a hallway with 8 bedrooms (yes, 8) and at the end there's a living area, dining table, and a kitchen. I've only met one of the people living in my flat so far, her name is Justine and she's from around Perth. All the people in my flat are from Australia (I think), so none are in my program or are other transfer students. Oh, and the flat is co-ed. Justine said that there are 3 girls and 4 boys right now, so one of the rooms is empty. Should be interesting living with 6 other people (....and 4 boys). 

I still need to put up some pictures, so hopefully it will be a little more personal/pretty once that gets done

So tonight all the people in the CIEE program are getting dinner together and I think we might be going to some shops after to get some toiletries and all that jazz. Soo I'm going to go finish unpacking and get ready for that. I'll write again later.

xxx