lacking a creative title. my apologies.

throwback photo. :)

First, good luck to everyone starting school again! Especially Zach and Gabi! We are all very proud of you and wish you the best of luck in all you do! Make us proud! xo

B400's

 

 We had our floor dinner at the beginning of this week, and it was awesome. It was really nice to go out with the people we live with as well as have a break from the not so great food at Currie Hall. I haven't really met all the people who live on my floor so it was also the perfect opportunity to meet everyone. We went to a restaurant called Santa Fe in Subiaco. It was really good Mexican food, their drinks had nothing on On the Border, but ya can't win them all. Dinner was paid for by Currie Hall and the floor outing idea is something they really push. I think it is a really beneficial program because not only do we get free food, but we also can interact with people who although they live on our floor might not have the same schedules as us so we miss out on seeing them.

balloon pets. Marsha wins.

 The other day I came back early from class and found Aleck and Matt outside my room making balloon dogs. I have no idea why, or what they are for but I am now the proud owner of 6 balloon dogs. Well less proud today since they're almost deflated but they're cool nonetheless. Sorry I ruined the surprise without meaning, but I appreciate the thought.

scoreboard. ouch.

no idea what's happening

Last night the IFSA kids went to an Australian Football League (AFL) game. Its like soccer, football, volleyball, rugby and basketball combined. It's pretty violent and no one wheres pads, just real short shorts and tight jerseys. One of the players got knocked out and was taken to the hospital, I hope he's okay. I'm not entirely sure how the game works, it was pretty confusing, really long, and I went to happy hour beforehand, which may or may not have affected my ability to understand the game. The ball is a funny shaped yellow football. And if at any point it gets kicked into the stands, the fans gladly throw it back into the game which is different than at home, because people get to keep like baseballs and things at games. But I guess a baseball is pretty different from a footy ball.

Johnny the anime bully.

Their mascot Johnny, is this terrifying anime looking character. We literally witnessed Johnny run across the field during the little tots halftime game and pick this kid up and then drop him. You can see the horror on the kid in reds face. And Johnny is just running away as if he is the strongest guy in the world. Cool Johnny I'm glad you think it is acceptable to pick on kids smaller than you...you remind me of a large ginger I know...and that Zachary is what you call blog burn. Boom roasted. Kidding love you. :)

LEGEN....wait for it...DARY.

They don't eat hotdogs at sporting events, instead they eat beef pies. I was the only one who ate one, but it was pretty delicious. More delicious after Quentin told me to put tomato sauce (they don't have ketchup here, its beyond upsetting) on it, which improved it tremendously. It was a really awkward thing to eat by hand but I managed fine. It just tasted like a pot pie that had no veggies inside, just beef. It could have been worse, I survived and recommend it to anyone going to an AFL game so they can enjoy the full experience.

roughh lifeee as a Docker

Unfortunately the Dockers played the worst game ever. They scored 2 goals in the first quarter and then didn't score again until the third quarter. They made an attempt at a comeback but by then it was just too late. The Magpies obliterated them. We didn't stay til the end of the game but we had enough of the experience at that point. Plus the people sitting around us were spitting and yelling and rude and weird. SO we bailed. But it was really fun and maybe I will go again, but first I think I would learn the rules, and maybe go sober...it could only help right?



Another week has just flown by! Hopefully exciting things happen in the next week so I can blog about them, but we have no IFSA trips or anything for a few weeks so maybe we will just have to make something happen...

I hope Irene doesn't take it too hard on any of you...stay inside and stay safe! Miss and love you all! xo

Quentin made us wear purple, Megan missed the memo though... :)

what a weeeek.

you guys rock!

Thank you Natalie and Ella for the beautiful artwork that has brightened up my little white room soo much! I was so surprised to have mail from you guys and showed it off to everyone at lunch. They were all very jealous that they didn't have such creative and caring cousins to send them mail.

Its finally the weekend for me! I love having no classes on Fridays, we're going to the beach this afternoon and I'm pretty excited since it is going to be the best weather yet! Liz and I made a deal to see who could go to the most classes this week, I went 11/11! I win. I have shin splints, a charlie horse in my calf, and my feet are killing me but I made it to every single one of my classes. Success. Totally worth the pain? Doubtful, but it happened. I should probably leave for my classes a little bit early so I don't have to super power walk to class, but that means less time to chat and enjoy crumpets at breakfast so that is highly unlikely to happen.

Cottesloe Beach

I finally made it to the beach last Friday, which is when I decided that as long as the weather is nice it is going to become a weekly thing. I didn't go in the water last week because it was cold (not nearly as cold as in Marblehead) but I'm sure eventually it will get hot enough out that I will jump right in. The boys immediately started building a sandcastle and the girls just laid around and enjoyed the sunshine. I walked to the bathroom at one point and when I was walking back I stopped and talked to some guy who goes to Trinity College. We chatted for a while about all the cool things to do in the area and then he asked where my friends were. I pointed in their general direction and said they were the ones building the sand castle and said something along the lines of them being engineers so I was expecting a really epic sand castle. It was epic alright but it was not a castle...

tryna keep it pg.

Rotto in pannorammaaa style.

Quokka

On Saturday morning the IFSA crew caught the bus to Fremantle and then we took a ferry across the ocean to Rottnest Island. It is called Rottnest because when Dutch explorers first came there they saw these animals that looked like giant rats so they thought the island was a rat's nest. The giant rats were in fact Quokkas which are animals, that sort of look like giant rats but also have wallaby similarities, and are native to the island. It is called Wadjemup by the Noongar people, meaning "place across the water", since it is only 18km from Freo.  Also, fun fact, Rottnest is antipodal to Bermuda which means if you were to dig a whole on Rotto through the core of the earth you would end up in Bermuda. One of the boys in our IFSA group lives in Bermuda and he said he was really surprised at how much Rotto reminded him of home. Perhaps its because of their antipodal linkage.

sexy helmets.

the dock

The island is 11km long and 4km at its widest point. We rented bikes from the ferry and rode all around the lower part of the island. The one group biked to the opposite side and saw seals! I unfortunately am a bum and stopped biking at a really pretty dock and just laid around with Megan til we decided to bike back. The ride there was uphill, against the wind and overall really brutal. After our little break, the last thing I wanted to do was get on a bicycle. I literally had rug burn on my butt. Not sure how that happened but it was super uncomfortable. The ride back was almost all down hill, level, and way shorter and easier than the way we took there. Gotta love shortcuts!

the prawns have eyes. horror movie title?

After the bike ride we stopped at the Rottnest Hotel for lunch. Quentin ordered us so much food. I haven't eaten that much in such a long time. He ordered prawns for the table which I obviously can't eat since I'm allergic to life, but I took a picture of them anyway because they still had eyes! So weird.







When we got back to Freo it was obviously raining because so far both times we have been to Freo it pours! A couple of our friends from Currie took the bus to Freo and we all hung out at my favorite place Little Creatures. They have the best cider! I ate dinner there even though I'm pretty sure the food from the Rottnest Hotel would have kept me satisfied for at least a week.

cider and liz. what a doll.

So that's my week in a nutshell. Its been a really really long week and I'm sort of glad its over. The time here though seems to be flying and I'm not sure how I feel about that. Hope everyone is doing well, don't forget to keep me updated on your lives! xo
Shout out to my ChiO Mom! love youuuuu!

loveeeeee.

And last but not least, the most epic photo taken on the trip so far. It might not look like much, but it took a lot of coordination and perfect timing. Props to Megan Twomey for being such a fab photographer.

how are you going?

best wally world trip ever.

First off, let me just say that I am so happy ^ this guy, is home and well. I was really worried, and am so happy to hear that Nate the Great has pulled through. Now everyone, let me say this once more, you are all supposed to be EXTRA careful and safe until I get home. So stop worrying me and listen! :) xo





Life has been pretty chill down under. Not much has really been happening. I apologize for not blogging but I was waiting til I had lots of marvelous stories to share. Currently I am enjoying a $6 can of Pringles, not a typo, they are actually $6...personally I think they taste better when they cost more....




When I go to class I enjoy them a lot, when I don't go I think about how I should listen to the classes online, but usually I don't. In one of my classes I wasn't on the roster because I had switched in to it. The professor asked what my name was and when I told him everybody laughed. Apparently my  name is just too long and awesome for Australia. :)  I'm working on getting my motivation in motion though so don't worry Mama, I'm on it. I really like school here, the campus is beautiful which might be part of the problem. I always find myself looking up into the trees to see all the pretty birdies. There are these really cool green, red and blue parrots in the trees on my way to class and they are just so pretty. Apparently people here aren't as intrigued because they don't seem interested and they also get a little bit annoyed when I bump into them because I'm not looking where I am going...sorrry! The whole traffic/walking thing has gotten a little better. Except on campus people are from all over the world so it is kind of just a mad swarm of people in all directions and you have to just weave in and out. Bikers ride where we are walking and provide just another obstacle to avoid. As you all know I have a serious problem with indecision and the other day a woman was biking towards me and I started to panic and couldn't decide what way to go, at the last minute I second guessed my decision and then she fell off her bike, awkwarddddd.

I might have put this picture up already but I just recently was informed that if you give your key to someone they will give you the key so you can climb the tower! I think I might just have to do it!
This is just one of the many distracting buildings on campus. Other than the campus being beautiful the accents of the professors are also great. Here they say compulsory instead of mandatory, and when you write papers they are assigned in terms of words as opposed to pages. Weird. They also write the date day/month/year which gets me very confused some times, but I'm sure once I'm used to it coming home and writing the date month/day/year will be equally as confusing.

the entrance

Life at Currie Hall is pretty snazzy as well. So many great people and overall just a great place to live. My room gets cleaned every Wednesday, and they change my sheets and make it all neat and tidy, so great. This Wednesday was particularly special because it was the Welcome Dinner! The theme of the dinner was a Night on the Orient and the dining hall was decorated and set up so well. The room looked amazing and the people who planned and organized it did a fabulous job! There was even 2 Chinese Dragons dancing around the room at the start of the night. There were drummers and gong players and then these dragons ran through the dinner and were jumping and dancing all around. I felt bad for the guy who was the tail of the dragon because he not only had to run around with his head down, but he also had to pick the front guy up whenever the dragon was meant to be taller. The costumes were so cool, the tail wagged, the mouth moved and the eyes even blinked and winked!

Dragon Dance Costumes

There were also several performances by other people, singing and piano playing and such. They also played a game  where 3 people had to race to put the most Cocoa Krispies into a cup in 30 seconds using chopsticks. The dinner was alright, the appetizer was fish balls (vomvomvom.com), spring rolls which were great and satay which I almost ate. Luckily I asked first and was informed that satay was covered in peanut sauce, close call. Its a dangerous place down here. I took a nap the other day and woke up with a scratch on my head. So maybe I'm just the danger. Who knows.

Anyway, I will try to post again soon, we're going to the beach today and Rottnest Island tomorrow so I'm sure I will have lots of photos and stories! Miss you all, remember to stay safe. LOVE you all. xo

my feet hurt...and its only day 2

Well, it has been an interesting 48 hours. I woke up early and did all my laundry, nothing like clean clothes to start the week off right. My first class was God, Mind & Knowledge, a philosophy class and i can already tell that it is going to hurt my brain, but in a good way. The intro class itself had me thinking more than I was prepared for. It is very different going to classes here because they are huge and there are people of all ages in every class. This class was relatively small, probably like 60 people and we have multiple lecturers who switch on and off. After philosophy I had economics which was in the business school on the other side of campus. The lecture theatre was huge and there were probably close to 200 people in the class. There was a couple people who talked the whole class and it was so rude and distracting but the professor couldn't here them and didn't do anything about it. Luckily all the lectures are recorded so I can always go back and re-listen to them in my spare time, or if I happen to miss class it isn't a huge debacle.

After lunch was geology and I have never wanted to run out of a class more in my life. There was just something about it that was absolutely awful. The professor was nice and all but the class just sounded awful and we were crammed in these little chairs with those weird tables that like swivel out and in front of you, not enough space for me at all, I was very uncomfortable. When the professor started talking about the mandatory trip we had to take over break for 5 days to look at rocks in the middle of nowhere I knew I had to get out of it. After class I asked someone in my dorm how we switched classes and they assured me it was really easily done on line. Sadly, this was not the case. This morning after going to my art and architecture class, that was in a 300 person room, that was full, people were literally sitting on the stairs, I started the process. I had to go to the administrative office, fill out a form, bring the form all the way across campus to the business school, have someone sign it there and then bring it back to the office. Apparently it is going to take 5 days to be enrolled in the class but I just go to it as if I were still in it anyway. So bizarre.

greenhouses!

On Wednesdays I have 3 back to back classes, 2 are in the business school and 1 is in the arts building, unfortunately for me the locations alternate so I will have to run across campus as fast as I can to make it to all these classes. But its okay because the greenhouses are on my route and they make me smile and feel at home. :) At least now though since I am out of geology I don't have a lab and I don't have any classes on Fridays!

This is a really boring post. Sorry Zach, I ran out of photos but wanted to make sure you guys knew what was up and that I am very happy with my classes now that they are rearranged. Even though the classes are ginormous, and everything is really different from F&M, my professors accents make it so much easier to pay attention.


That's all for now. Hopefully more exciting things start to happen, but not until my feet heal. They are covered in blisters, I've gone through like 2 boxes of bandaids already, I feel like I am 7 again.

Miss you ALL! xo