Saturday, March 12, 2011
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:)
Sunday, March 6, 2011
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.
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.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
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.
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.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Perth
Yesterday, we ran around Perth like chickens with their head cut off. It was the last day of orientation and the day of the "Amazing Race". There were 7 teams that were put randomly together with a leader and we went for a scavenger hunt around the city of Fremantle and Perth. It was like 103 out yesterday, so EXTREMELY hot to be running around a big city. We just have to find certain land marks in the city and take photos with them. The team that got in the fastest and most accurate would win. My team started off pretty well, but we soon fell behind when we realized that staying on the air conditioned bus was far more fun than running around a big city in extreme heat. We took a bus to a pub and got some drinks at the air conditioned pub. My team came in dead last and set a new record. You get penalities for cheating and what not and my team got so many penalities that it put our overall ending time at 12:30 tomorrow. We had the most fun though. Today is definitely a beach day all day. Anything to get out of this heat!
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
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
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
Friday, February 18, 2011
Sydney Zoo!
We made it to our last leg of our travels... SYDNEY! It is a gorgeous city and it finally hit that I was in Australia once I spotted the Sydney Opera house. One of my friends on the trip has connections and got us some free nights at the Marriot. I am living the high life. We are on the 26th floor of this super sweet hotel that overlooks the sydney harbor with the bridge and the opera house. Once we pulled up to the hotel, the doorman took our bags, brought them up to our room, and told us to go get drinks at the free bar while he stuck our stuff in the room. The room is pretty high class and sweet. I am not really sure I am liking this high life too much. Everything is too proper. haha. Yesterday I went to the Sydney zoo and spent the whole day there. It was really soo much fun. We witnessed two big gorillas getting it on. I didn't realize gorillas celebrated Valentine's Day so publicly. haha. We went to a seal show and watched the seals do some pretty sweet tricks. Tomorrow we are headed to the beach! Should be a good time.
