ARRR Mateyy

This week was a footy filled week. If I didn't have footy one day, I was working out/ running. At one practice this week, one girl fractured her foot. She has to hobble around on crutches for 6 weeks! That's awful with all the upcoming activities. I also got elbowed in the face yesterday during practice and got a mouthful of blood. Footy is pretty brutal, especially without anyone wearing any pads when it comes to tackling. Also yesterday at practice, there was a 2002 graduate of St. John's there. He plays footy in the States for a boys team in Minnesota. They won a national title and he started in the program I am in now. He came back to Fremantle to coach footy here for a while. It was sweet seeing a former Johnny coming back to Fremantle later on in his lifetime. He wants us to get involved with the teams back in Minnesota. He said they have a girls team that needs more players. 

Today we proclaimed as Joe Smith day. We went out on a ship that looked like a pirate ship. It was pretty sweet. Aric brought us all out on this pirate ship for 3 hours as we sailed the sea. We got to climb the masts and even take control over the wheel. I got to learn what it takes to become a captain of a ship. Sweeeeeet. We Heeved and Hooed as we pulled the ropes to make the sails go up

 I am going to be busy this week with my research paper due on Thursday and then next week we head to Broome already. We got this big speech about Broome and it makes me excited to go now, but nervous at the same time.

This photo was on our informative sheet about Broome. I thought it was pretty funny. They warned us about crocodiles, deadly snakes, spiders, and ants. They also said that the most dangerous thing in Broome is the sun because it is extremely hot and everyone forgets about it. It is a lot hotter there than where I am now and it is also really humid there. Those are the parts I am not looking forward to, otherwise, it is going to be an experience of a lifetime.

. If you can see on this map, I am flying out of Perth into Broome. Then we are taking vans into the kimberly which is anywhere between a 4-7 hour drive depending on how much it is raining. Broome is just a town with aboriginal people and the kimberly is a separate community where we will have no electricity, and staying in tents in the outback. The sand is like a redish color and everyone there dresses very modest. The girls are not allowed to show their shoulders and are supposed to wear shots that go down to their knees. I will not be used to this especially with how hot it is going to be. We were also informed to get ready to be up at about 5:30 am because as soon as the sun comes up, we will want to be up--that is how hot it will be. Also, the climate here is extremes. Since it is the desert, it can get fairly cold at night, but extremely hot during the day.  

Footy and Aussie Animals

This weekend was an eventful weekend. Friday was our first footy practice and it was awesome. Footy is Australian rules football, but they just call it footy for short. It is kinda a combination of soccer, american football, rugby, and basketball. It is hard to describe because it is an intense sport not like any other. I was nervous at first because I didn't know what to expect. I had no idea how to play the game and also the boys had a practice before we did and they said they got their ass kicked. The practice was just for the American study abroad students that had no idea what footy is and about 20 girls showed up. It was an awesome turn out. We have also been practicing with the boys and it has been very intense. Our coach is training us so that we can help spread this sport to the states. It is HUGE here and if more people in the states knew about  it, I think it would flourish in the states. It is just as intense as American football, except in footy they don't wear any pads. It is illegal to tackle someone who does not have a ball, but when someone has a ball, basically anything goes (except head shots and going for the neck). The field is shaped as a huge oval and there are four big posts at either end of the arena. If you kick it through the middle post, that is 6 points and if you kick it through either of the sides, that is one point. I have so much fun playing, it feels good playing on an organized sport again. We were so tired from practice that we all basically passed out at 11 PM on a Friday night.

Saturday, we woke up early morning and bused to the petting zoo. It only had Australian animals and it was sweet. We got up close and personal with koalas, kangaroos, camels, deer, emus, pigs, dingos, rams, and other animals that I didn't really know what they were. It was funny because everyone that was there  was little kids petting all the animals and then us running around petting the animals. I felt like a little kid again. I had a lot of fun running around with all the animals. After the zoo, we went to the footy field to kick around the footy ball a bit. Any chance we get, we practice. All of us American students are getting really into this sport. This week, there isn't really anything too exciting going on. I have a research paper due next week already on the stolen generation of the aboriginal people. I have done a little research, but not much. It is a pretty intense topic and will be more interesting to learn about as I research some more.

Here are some photos from the Zoo, footy practice, and my room at the P&O

Reality check

The beach that is a block away from my dorm is Bathers Beach and there is a path connecting Bathers beach to a larger beach down the shore called South Beach. It is about 1.5 miles away. I went for a good run along the path tonight to South beach and then back. It was actually a perfect night for a run. You have to run either in the early morning or once the sun goes down because otherwise it is just too hot. After my run I walked the beach and just sat staring out into the ocean. It is still weird to think that I am staring out into the Indian Ocean and I am in Australia. I try to put it into my mind that I am really in Australia, but it is hard to put it into perspective to the world. I got this same feeling in my Australian history class the other day when a map of the world flashed across the slide show and my prof was pointing out places around us on the map that we should visit. It is hard to put reality into my mind that I can just go for a run on a path along the Indian Ocean. Besides this random/weird train of thought going on in my mind, nothing big is going on here. We are starting to plan out our spring break and study breaks. We are planning on either renting RV's and traveling up the west coast, or renting van's and camping up the West coast for spring break. Then for study break, we are planning on looking into going to Bali. We heard it is comparable to Cancun. We don't have anything set in stone yet except for our Broome trip which is going to be April 6th-11th. I am really looking forward to that. This saturday, we are heading to a petting zoo where we will get to pet and hold koalas and kangaroos. This should be a good time. 

School has been just as demanding as back home. Even though we only have one of each class each week, we have double the homework each week, which is bad for procrastinators like myself. It is very weird not doing math problems, but I think I actually prefer math problems over all this boring reading I have to do. I dropped my Medieval Theology class and picked up moral philosophy. This was definitely a good choice. My moral Theology class was insanely boring. Nothing against Theology, it was just the kind of theology I was doing. 

I don't know if this is a good thing or not, but I have finally been able to sleep in since I left the states. I had been waking up at around 8am-9am every morning, and for those of you that know me would find this insane for me. Now I am able to sleep in until at least 10:30. I think because I have been getting into a routine and it has cooled off at a bit. That's about it for now, I do have some photos to share.

cooking for the community dinner

The first batch didn't turn out how we wanted

The noose from the prison

The doors that opened below the noose

The inmates were allowed to paint their cells 

More paintings in the cells

A dad's message written on the wall of his cell to his children: "Julie, Megan, & Todd, I love you more than life itself. Love, Dad"

Us ladies watching the sunset

The gorgeous sunst

First day of school

Being excited about UNDA

Some of the ladies on the trip

    

Prison Break

This past week we took a field trip to the local Freo prison. No prisoners have been there for 20 years so they have opened it up to tourism. It was actually really cool walking through the prison. They shut down the prison 20 years ago because it was know to be a really cruel prison. 43 men and 1 woman died in the prison, they were hung for the bad deeds they did. The woman was hung because she filled her three kid's mouths with acid. We saw the room where they hung the people and the noose was still there too. It was actually kind of spooky being in the same room that 44 people were hung. The tour guide told us a bunch of spooky stories that happened to him while giving the night tour. One was, he was giving a tour of a group of people and a mother was on it with her 3 year old daughter. When they were in the room with the noose, the 3 year old daughter was staring at the noose the whole time and as they were turning around to leave, the daughter waved by to the noose and the empty chair sitting in the room. He said he got a shiver down his back and quickly walked out of there. I was actually hoping the prison tour was a lot more spooky then it was. Nothing else exciting has been going on. Just the beach, hanging out, and school. Just living the life in Australia:)

The Freo Doctor.

This week has been mid 80's and has felt amazing. My AU history prof said that we are witnessing the hottest summer in the history of Fremantle/Perth. The seabreeze that rolls in at night is called the Freo Doctor and he has finally made an appearance. Since we have been here, the Freo Doctor has not showed up and Perth is supposed to be the windiest city in the world. The weather now almost feels cold since I have been used to the 105 degree heat. My RS Nick told us that it usually cools off like this and then goes right back to being extremely hot. He said that March is usually the hottest Month and if it is anything like February, I don't think it can get much hotter.

We have been keeping busy. A few days ago, we met some British friends. They are here because they are teaching kite surfing and Freo is the best city for kite surfing because of how windy it gets. They have been here for about 4 months already and know the ropes around Freo, so they took us cliff diving the other day and it was awesome. The cliffs were like 10m high and really scary. (I have been trying to get used to this whole talking in meters and using the metric system.) We had to basically rock climb to get back up the cliff to jump off it again. That day was a lot of fun. It is really fun hanging out with the British people because we make fun of each others accents constantly. They constantly say 'Do you recon' or something to thay affect and they make fun of the lingo we always use. It is quite entertaining.

We went shopping in Perth on Saturday and it was EXTREMELY busy. There were so many people walking around, and it's different that everyone around here uses public trasportation. I don't see a ton of cars around here like I do at home. Everything is within walking distance or a trainride away. There is also a local bus around town called the Cat bus that is free and takes us around Fremantle. We usually get on that bus to take it down to South Beach.

Today is Labor day, or I should say LaboUr day, so I have school off. I am going to head to the beach to catch some prime sun and then hit the books for some homework. Since I am not taking any math classes, it is wierd having classes that I have constant readings for like Philosophy, theology, history, culture, and cinema instead of constantly doing math problems. I think I prefer math problems over all of this boring reading! I guess I'll take what I get.

Just some photos.

School

Finally it is the first week of school! Monday I had Natural Law which is a philosophy class, Tuesday I had Australian Cinema which is exactly as it sounds, Wednesday I had Medieval Christian and Tradition, today I have my culture class with my prof from CSB/SJU, and tomorrow I have Australian history. So far my classes have been alright. I am not liking my Theology class very much, it seems like it is going to be a lot of work. I like my philosophy class more than I thought I was going to! I am the only foreign exchange student in that class, opposed to all my other classes, so I was really nervious. Ultimately, I think that is going to be one of my favorite classes. It looks as though this semester is going to be tougher than I expected. I dislike oral speaches(hence me being a math major), and in every single one of my classes I have to give a oral presentation at some point this year. Ohh man, this semester is going to be an interesting one.

The temperature has cooled down a bit. I think it is about 90's today. It's insane to me that 90 outside feels cool! I guess I am growing accustom to this extreme heat. I don't have class until 5:30 tonight, so I am headed to the beach. Rough life when I am about 500 steps away from a beach I can go to every day.     It feels nice to settle down and get into a routine finally. We find out tomorrow when we are going to go to Broome and about all of our excursions for the rest of our stay here. Monday is labor day for Australians, or i sould say laboUr day, so we have a 3 day weekend. NICE. Saturday we may go into Perth for some shopping or go watch a Foote game at the stadium. Foote is huge here! it is Australian style football. I am going to try and get on a team here and play some foote in the next week. Life is gooood.