Fremantle!

I finally made it and I am no longer living out of my suitcase! whoohoo. I have been here since Saturday, but wasn't able to move in until Monday. I stayed in a pretty sketchy hostel, but it was alright because I was with the 5 other guys that I have been traveling with. We definitely met some interesting people there. We finally got to move in Monday and it feels amazing! It is like 95-100 degrees here every day and it barely ever rains. The beach is about a block away from my dorm so I have been there at least twice a day every day. It is a definite must in this heat and the fact that my dorm doesn't have air conditioning. Minnesota summer has got nothing on this summer. Good thing this heat doesn't have humidity that comes along with it. I am able to sleep at night though because the nights cool down a lot. I just leave my window open and my fan blowing on me. The town is very cute and bigger than I thought it would be. Since I have been traveling around this area for about a month now, I have gotten used to the culture here. It is now instinctual to look the opposite direction when crossing the street and it has gotten easier to understand the lingo. For example, in NZ they used the word 'Choice' for the word 'Cool', so instead so saying "That's cool!" they would say "That's Choice!" Everywhere we go we hear people say either "cheers" or "no worries". Those are the two slogans people use all the time. My goal is to learn Australian by the time I head home in four months. :) I am not yet used to how expensive everything is here. For comparison, a $7 mascara in the States is $20 here and a $12 Liter of Smirnoff is $37.99 here for a .75. It is Crazy expensive!

We have had orientation for the past few days. Just listening to people talk about our classes and guiding us what to expect for the semester. Yesterday, they intimidated us pretty hard core about classes. People here take classes solely towards what they are majoring in. So in my Theology class, I will be in a class with all Theologians and only 10% of the class are allowed to obtain an 'A'. She also said that if you get an A in your class you might as well go get a PHD because it is basically impossible. I thought study abroad was supposed to boost up my GPA, not hinder it. That kind of freaked me out. Also, she said that a whole class could be based off of like one paper or one test. We will get homework to do, but it will be for our own sake and not for the sake of turning it in, so we have to motivate ourselves to get it done opposed to the motivation that a due date would give us. I am taking a Philosophy, Theology, a Fine Arts, a History, and the class I have with my CSB/SJU Prof. One class is 3 hours long and only once a week, so I get Thursday off which is nice. Also, my classes don't start until about 1:00, which is also nice. Although, I do have a 8:30 am class on Fridays, but that is with everyone here, so we all have to wake up that early every Friday. This semester will definitely be interesting as to how my grades turn out.

Last night we already had an incident. My friend Heather on the trip went down to the beach and into the water. She was stung by a fish down there and her whole leg was throbbing. She said it felt like there was shooting pains going up her leg. She couldn't sleep through the night, so they took her to the hospital this morning and she got meds for it. She is on a lot of pain killers and is doing a lot better now! It was scary when it happened. That was our excitement for the night.

Today was orientation day, or "O DAY" as everyone says here. They closed down the streets of Fremantle and we marched behind a band as we paraded around the streets of Fremantle making noise for the start of a new semester. The was a band playing and concession stands and different events every where we could sign up for. Apparently O Day is a big day in this town. We still have one more day of Orientation. They said we have a scavenger hunt ahead and something called the amazing race. We'll have to see what these consist of. Well it is extremely hot and I am sweating just sitting here, I am off to the beach.

Cheers! <3