my kangeroo friend at Caversham
Classes and things like that...
So right now we're into our 3rd Week of classes here at Curtin Uni and I must say that the lectures and tutorials here are (for better or worse) a lot less heavy on the assignments and homework like American Uni's or maybe it's just Elon....either way A LOT different.
I'm taking three classes here
Gender Studies 212....which is a lot like the Post-Modern class I took over Winter Term last year with it's looking into the stories and stuff that we read....only two papers and a presentation in that class for the semester
Politics 226: Critical Security Studies....this is basicaly Australia's version of International Terrorism except they don't really have terrorism here nor do they really have all that much to be scared of in regards to security so it really should be interesting to see how he fills a whole semester with material.....only one paper and a participation grade in this class.
Legal Framework 100.....this is the intro course for all business and law majors here (not many law but a lot of business) teaches the basics to their legal system and to law and studying law in general so this should be somewhat interesting...this one is in a lecture hall of about 500 people...so that is A LOT different than Elon....only two tests and a paper in this class.
So with those classes they take up a few hours on Monday Tuesday and Thursday with Wednesday and Friday completely open :)
We've had a lot of free time to roam around Perth and Northbridge on weekends and such here so far and I've loved it all just because it's a differente experience than the usual Lighthouse and WestEnd bars of Elon. Last week Emma Jones came to visit and we had two free dinners with her on Monday and Wednesday night and then Thursday night was her birthday so we a number of the Eloners went out with her to a club and such, that was a good time.
Wedding Crashers JUST came out here on the 11th so a few of us went to see that since it just happens to be one of the funniest movies I've ever seen. Then yesterday had to be one of the best days here so far. We paid $5 to our RA's who set up a trip to Caversham Wildlife Park and the nearby winery for the day.
Caversham is a animal park north of Perth that is home to a number of different animals including the obvious koalas, kanergoos and wallabys but the difference is the kangeroos are just roaming around where you can walk up to them and feed and pet them. It was so awesome and we got to pet koalas and hold a wombat. (Pictures to come soon). We then went to one of the more prestigious wineries in the area to do a short wine tasting and stopped by a chocolate factory on the way home to complete the trip.....all of that for $5! I'll take it.
We also planned out for first Tuition Free Week trip last week. Me and 8 wonderful Elon and Tulane ladies are headin up to Bali for 6 nights staying at the Legin Paradiso hotel. We got our flight, hotel and breakfast each morning all for $700 American dollars. That trip will be from the 29 till the 2nd of Sept. That's one small group of us going, but most, if not all, of the Eloners who are here are going to Bali or doing something awesome for the break......for those who don't know the way the schedule works here is we get 4 weeks of class then a week off, then 3 weeks of class, another week off, then 5 weeks of class, then a study week before Finals.
I haven't gotten out to the beaches or Fremantle quite yet because the weather hasn't really been that great for that....it is warm for a Winter but still not quite beach weather although we do get days here and there...but I usually have class on those days.
Coming up on a month here and a lot of the differences that I used to notice are seeming to fade away....like the whole driving on the other side of the road thing, I noticed today was one of the first times where I looked to the right first instead of the left. Finally settling in and realizing I am going to be here until Novemeber/December.
Feel free anyone to text (or if you feel like paying a little to talk to me) call my cell phone. My number is 0011-61-4-04701784 for international callers....if you put that in your phone for a text it should get to me. :)
Yanchep!
Well....after the adventures in Perth and getting somewhat settled into our rooms on Curtin's campus they shipped us all (21 Eloners) off to Yanchep National Park for three days and two nights. The school completely booked out the Yanchep Inn (www.yanchepinn.com.au) for the time we were there. The place was amazing, obviously a national park with all the koalas and kangeroos you can imagine. The kangeroos just kinda jumped around right out front of the Inn whenever they felt like it...they're more like deer over here but of course all us Americans were chasing them around tryin to get pictures and all.
When we first got there on Wed afternoon (7/27) we all walked around outside of the Inn checkin out the koalas....where we were lucky enough to witness a fight of sorts between a couple koalas atop a three in the park. It was quite a scene with all the noises they made (all of which I had no idea koalas could make) and the one tried to throw the other off of the tree....not really sure what was going on there so we moved on to quieter calmer koalas. We then walked down to the lake behind the Inn and just kinda took in the view (pictures of which you can see on my Webshots). They then fed us lunch and drove a group of us down to the Indian Ocean (about a 10 min drive) so that we could swim and see the sunset over the ocean. Yea so a few people changed into their suits or "bathers" as they call them and went swimming in the ocean (did I mention its Winter?) and then we all talked for about 3 hours till 5:30 or so when the suns set. They took us back for dinner then and a introduction of the Curtin Volunteers (CV) people who were with us on the trip as well. Then people started drinking and what not for the rest of the night...I on the other hand was still struggling to deal with the time changes so I headed off to bed...not to mention we had an 7am wake up call for Surfing!
The next morning after breakfast they drove us all up to Lancelin Beach where theirs a small surfing school to teach us all how to catch some waves. The school (and when I say school I mean a house with a shed outback that kept the surfboards and wetsuits) provided us with wet suits so we wouldnt feel the cold water and then taught us the 4 step method to learning to surf. Now it wasn't quite as easy as 4 steps but it really wasnt that hard to do. I got up the first time for a bout a split second but as I did it more actually got up a few times. We actually surfed for about 2 hours (a very tireing 2 hours) before walking back to the house to shower off and go back to the Inn for some lunch.
That same afternoon they had a couple native aboriginal Australians come in and teach us a few dances and how to play the digeridoo. The dances we learned were umm...interestinig to say the least but quite fun. We danced like kanergoos and lizards among other things....and then learning to play the Didg was fun as well....I wasn't really that good but then again I never could play musical instruments that well. We got a little down time after that before dinner...all of us were exhausted at that point yet some still managed to drink and all.....but like I said I was tired as hell before all that activity and sure wasn't about to get drunk on top of it....cause we had another early wake-up call the next morning.
Friday the 29th, our last day at Yanchep, we got another 7Am wake up call to eat before they drove us over the a nearby Camel Ranch where we had the pleasure of riding around the Outback on a Camel for 2 hours. They saddled us all up on the back of camels and lead us through the trails where we saw a ton of Kangeroo and smelled a number of scents coming from our humped companions. A couple Eloners were lucky enough to get the experience of being spit on by a camel.....so gald that wasn't me.
After the ride around the Outback we went back to Yanchep for lunch and then packed up our things to head back to Curtin. Once we rached campus we had about an hour or two to unpack before we had to be at a meeting with the US Consulate in Perth. He talked with us for a bit and then they provided us with some more snacks and alcohol before the International Student Quiz Night in the Main Cafe......Quiz Night turned into a bust cause the prizes sucked and we were all incredibly tired from our busy days at Yanchep. So that night turned into an early evneing as well to finally catch up on sleep since we had nothing specific to do on Saturday....
