the tav

so on campus we have the tav short for tavern, aka a bar. it's a pretty chill place where you can play pool, meet people, and listen to live music (some nights). It's also cool because you can see the bay when you're sitting outside. so yesterday we hung out there for a while and met some cute norwegian guys. there are so many norwegians here! which i'm okay with- tall, blonde, blue eyes haha. and then we came back here and we danced in the "party room" which is just a room with chairs, couches, a tv, sink, and a sound system. it was super funny because our friends from zimabawe were teaching us to dance, and one of the guys is super tall and he was trying to teach me the girls part and it was just ridiculous. Today we're going to the beach again! woo! and then maybe out dancing tonight. should be fun!

Bar Crawl and Op Shop

So last night they had an Pub Crawl for the international students. It's basically bar hopping. We started at one bar and then they drove us on buses to three others. they gave us drinks at the first bar and then we split drinks at the others and at one bar the bartenders gave my friends and I free drinks. The last bar was a dance club, so we danced for a while and then took a taxi home. Then tonight we had an Op Shop dinner at Currie Hall. Op Shop is like a salvation army type place. So basically everyone got dressed up in these ridiculous outfits for a nice dinner. we had bread and pumpkin soup, wine, a vegetarian crepe, vegies, and a yummy dessert! then we walked around for a little bit and we got the weirdest stares haha there are some funny people we've met, especially these two guys from africa. they crack me up! and a funny gay norwegian guy and some funny australians. they are all just funny haha or i am easily amused...

Classes Today and Ultimate

So today I decided that there are a fair amount of attractive australian men, there just aren't many in my classes. In my Lit class we discussed a book called The Getting of Wisdom about a poor girl going to a wealthy school and trying to fit in during the late 1800's/early 1900's. I still need to read the book though... haha But it seems like a good book! And then I had my tutorial for my Aboriginal History class. My TA is half aboriginal and so is a boy in the class (who is not too bad looking). Other than that it is almost all Americans, almost all of whom are from Notre Dame. Then I had to go into the city for my art class. It was super awkward! We worked with the architecture class and had to discuss our feelings on the entrances of ally ways. No one really had much to say. Then we worked on perspective drawing which I'm getting a little better at, but I still need a lot of work. That lasted for a few hours and then I came back and got a quick bite to eat before I went to my first Ultimate practice. I was super nervous because I wasn't sure how good they would be/what to expect. As I should have figured, they were all really cool, as Ultimate people always are. There was also a girl there from UC Merced. We ran a lot of the same drills that we use at UCSC, but a couple were similar but just different enough to confuse me. Everyone was really nice and friendly. They all introduced themselves and were very encouraging. Oh, and it's coed which I'm not used to, but I like it. I didn't realize that they had all been doing try outs for a couple of weeks, so I don't think I'm going to be on their main team, but they have social practice Mondays 6-7:30 and on Wednesdays all the teams from the West Coast (which are only about 5 teams) play, so they said I could play on one of those teams. I'm not sure how it will work, I would like to get to know the team and hang out with them because they all seem really cool, but we will see. Then I played pool with some friends here and boy do I need some practice haha Anyway, that was my day today. I'll keep you guys posted on Ultimate! 

Beach!

Yesterday my friends and I went to the beach! it was nice out, but it's winter here so I was still cold laying out. There were a bunch of surfers and a couple of my friends went in the water to body surf without wet suits! too cold for me, but when it gets warmer I'm going in for sure. In the evening we went to a brewery and had some good beer. It was a pretty fun little place to hang out, with quite a few attractive australian guys haha Today we went for a run along the river, which was beautiful. I think I'm going to have to copy the idea from the girl from Yes Man and take some jogging photos. 

Classes

So this week was my first week of classes! I'm taking four classes, all fairly small (about 20-40 people). How it works here is there is a lecture for each class either once or twice a week for either 45 minutes or and hour and 45 minutes. So for example, in one of my classes we only have lectures on monday for 45 minutes. Lectures aren't mandatory and they are almost always online. Then there are tutorials, which are mandatory. They are like sections at UCSC and they are usually led by someone besides the lecturer. There isn't as much busy work, for my classes all I really have is reading and papers, which means that about 2 assignments, if not just 1, determine my grade. Also, grading is different here. They give you what you deserve, no curves, which mean there aren't many "A's." I think I could get a %50 and that would translate to a C in the US. So that will be interesting. I'm taking Aboriginal History, an Australian Lit class, Educational Psychology, and an Art Studio class. From the first week they all seem like they should be good classes, but we will see! oh, and i dont have classes on friday!

In other news, it's been raining here and no one wears rain boots! so i brought them all the way over here just to look like a goof. haha but it's getting sunny now, woo! i cant wait for it to be warm so i can lay out on the beaches here. :)

Fremantle

Yesterday we went to a harbor town called Fremantle. It's this cute little town with lots of shops and cafe's right on the harbor. We went there for lunch and got fish and chips! I was going to get the catch of the day, but it was about twice as expensive as their other fish, so I ended up getting some New Zealand fish. And they gave me chips (aka fries), even though i didnt ask for them, but I had to pay 30 cents for tomato sauce (aka ketchup). Then we walked around the town and shared some delicious chocolate cake at a cute cafe. Last night we were supposed to have a bbq, but it got rained out :( it's been overcast here, but it's weird because it just rains sporadically and not very hard. anyway, they need the rain so I guess it's good. 

zoo!

so today we went on a trip to the zoo! first thing we got to do was feed the kangaroos :) they were super cute and soft and they didnt mind us petting them at all. then we went and got to pet a wombat! it was surprisingly really really cute! it was like a big, fat, hairy baby. i want one, so get ready for my next pet. then we went and saw a whole bunch of other cool australian animals like emus, wallabies, cockatoos, dingos, tazmanian devils (which apparently will eat just about anything. their jaws are 5x stronger than a dog/wolf's and they can lock it), etc. thennnn we got to go pet koalas. we didnt get to hold them though, but i plan on holding one while im in australia. then we had a farm show which was super cute. they herded some sheep with cute sheep dogs, and then they showed us how they sheer them! so cool! then they showed us some other cool things like cracking a whip thing, except that its not to whip the animals but just to make a really loud noise to get there attention. they swing it around their head a few times and then quickly change directions and the very tip whips around faster than the speed of sound creating a small sonic boom. and they showed us how they make tea by boiling water in a tin pot, putting the tea leaves in, and then spinning it over their head (like they do with pails of water and the water doesnt come out) so that the tea leaves get pushed to the bottom so they can have a clean glass of tea. then they had some kids volunteer to come up and they handed them each a bottle of milk. they said they were going to race to finish it so we all thought these kids were going to have to chug a bottle of milk! but instead all these baby sheep ran in and sucked on the bottles. it was super cute. thennnn we went to a chocolate factory and we tried free chocolate. yummmy. ohh, and the bummer is that i forgot my camera today, so i dont have any pictures! but other people do, so i'm going to steal their pictures.

australian movies

so tonight we had an australian movie night. the first movie was castle, and it was pretty funny, but super unusual. it was basically making fun of australian hicks, aka bogans. i recommend you guys see it if you want to see some funny australians. the second movie was mad max with mel gibson. horrible. don't watch that unless maybe if you are a guy. oh, and my friends and i went and saw harry potter today! so good, but it was interesting watching it with guys. they thought there was too much lovey dovey stuff. 

intro to perth

it's so cold here; but it looks so warm out. very deceiving. so i just got done decorating my room with my pictures and pictures from national geographic. my room looks out into a little grass field with a tree (i'll take a picture to show you). and i have way more than enough room for my stuff. earlier today my friends and i went into perth (i'm in a suburb called crawley). it's about a 10 minute bus ride and its along a river that goes into the ocean, technically it's a bay. it is so pretty! and the city is really nice; i like it a lot. it's very clean and transportation is easy. they have a target (so weird!!) so we got some things there like shampoo and hangers.  i live on a super small hall with only one other room and a bathroom. i feel like i live in an apartment becaue right across from my room is a kitchen, and then next to that is a bathroom that only me and the girl next to me share. she's from chicago and goes to duke. the australians havent moved in yet, so i mostly just hang out with other americans, although the ones i mostly hang out with are all from the east coast. yesterday we had an orientation with all the exchange students and there are a lot from europe and america. 

arrival

Hey guys! So here goes my first blog...

So before I left, my family and I went to dinner at BJ's in San Francisco. Obviously it was delicious. My brother, sweetest brother ever, gave me a dress from Anthropologie and a cute frame with a collage. My parents gave me a book and chocolate. They know me so well. And for dessert we had pazookies. aka i left the U.S. very satisfied. Then I was off on a 14 hour flight with none other than Jake B. Omick. Naturally he tried to scare me during the turbulence, but he actually helped calm me down, so that was nice. I watched some movies, slept a lot, ate a lot.... When we got there (at 6 am!!) we met some other UC students and we all took a shuttle to our hotel. The hotel was really nice and it was super easy to walk everywhere. We decided to go get some food and explore. We went walking down a street and this guy James goes "Wow, we are definitely in the Red Light district" and this lady walking her dog by us starts laughing at us. We were all embarrassed but she actually was really nice and helped us find a nice little restaurant. We all got mochas and they were SO good. The coffee here is much better than in the US. Then we started exploring. We went to a museum that we accidently went into without paying and then went to the botanical gardens.  The craziest thing there were these huge bats hanging in the trees. They have like a 6 foot wing span and there were at least a hundred of them. We also saw cockatoos. We walked down to the harbor area, which was beautiful. I had no idea how pretty Sydney is. We walked over to the Opera House and took lots of pictures, like the tourists we were. Then we walked back to our hotel for a gathering with all the 79 other UC students. They served us appetizers and we were able to order drinks from the bar- woo! We were so jet lagged (and it was dark early cuz its winter here) that by 7 we were ready to go out clubbin. haha so we went to this cheap bar called star bar and had some drinks. then we decided to go somewhere else so we went to a gay bar for jake. a guy came up to jake and then the night began. The guy's friend bought another guy we were with a drink and then they bought us all drinks. One of the guys we were with was so homophobic and being in a gay bar was freaking him out. We danced a little with Jake's guy, and then decided to leave because we were so tired. The next day we had an orientation and then we went on a boat tour around the harbor. I fell in love with sydney about then. there were houses with their own private beaches and it was just so beautiful. We took a group picture at the opera house and then we were on our own again. we decided to pre-game this night, because drinks at the bars are so expensive, and we pulled out the quaffers. you know that means a good time. we had a lot of fun in the room just jumping on the bed and listening to jake's crazy life stories. then we went out again. this time we decided it was a night for the girls. so we met a couple people on the streets, but we found out that basically every bar has a cover charge. so we were all disappointed and the guys separated from us (we were determined to get into a bar and meet some australian guys). we finally found a bar that let girls in for free, woo! so we get in and start dancing. super awkward. the guys are so different and dance so funny. they clap and dance like a foot away from you. we then got this call from a UC guy who wanted to join us, so he met up with us and payed $20 to get into this bar, only to find out that it was not what he expected. i was like "dont worry, we'll find you some girls!" and he was like "girls? i'm gay" hahaha so we sent him off to find jake, naturally. then we danced some more, met these guys who were super excited that we were american (they took pics with us) but dancing with them was awkward and we finally decided to leave. we came back to the hotel and ordered room service and then went to sleep. the next day we had another orientation and then we went and got lunch at this great place. after i went back and said my good byes. i took a shuttle to the airport and i met a nice lady and her son. she told me about how the school system works here. on the plane i met two more, young australians, a guy and a girl. i told them about america and they told me all about perth. they were really nice, especially the guy next to me. i thought i was going to die on the flight because before we took off they said the engine wasnt working and they had to reboot it or something and then apparently it was really windy and the turbulence was terrible. i really thought i was going to die. anyway, the guy calmed me down and then i had some wine to help me calm down even more haha.  at the end the guy gave me his number in case i needed help with anything while im here, so that was really nice, although i dont know if i will ever call him lol so then i got here late and basically just unpacked and went to bed. the next day we had orientation and today we went into the city. it is such a pretty area and from the pictures i've seen of the rest of the west coast it looks amazing. i cant wait to explore!