'Let's Get Physical!'

It amazes me how quickly living in Australia has become normalized! The first two weeks I spent here seemed to move so slowly and were comparable to being on vacation (everything was strange and exotic, and I had no idea what was going on around me), it didn't actually feel like I was here to stay. The next two weeks have gone by in the blink of an eye and I find myself falling into the routine of everyday life in Perth. Despite having gone by seemingly much faster than the first two weeks, the pace of living in Perth is slower than it is everywhere else. It is hard to describe; Perth is still a big city and you can find this vibrant nightlife when you go into the heart of the city, but in all of its small surrounding suburbs all the stores close by 6 and bars and clubs slow down by midnight. And then you have the beach, where life is just perfect but time just moves differently there, I think. You can sit in the sand and stare at the waves for what seems like forever and realize it's really only been half an hour. It's really amazing here, I'm glad I opted to come to WA instead of going to the Sydney. I think the lifestyle suits me better than the jam packed quickly moving lifestyle of the east.

I got sick last week and spent the weekend in bed fighting off a sore throat, migraines, and a nasty (phlegmy) cough. My friends all went out that Friday night and they had a great time at the Red Sea and I was bummed that I just wasn't up for a night out. At 10 pm everyone (and honestly I mean everyone) was in the hallway trying to work out what time they needed to leave to catch the bus or how many taxis needed to be called. The din they were creating as they attempted to work out this seemingly simple situation was impressive, loud enough to wake me up from a cold medicine induced coma. At around 10:30 when they (finally) figured out the transportation plans Jeni woke me up again banging on my door. When I answered it she told me that she was leaving, but one of our other friends was really drunk so they had put her to bed, but she had gotten back up and was currently wandering throughout the college...without pants on. Jeni didn't have time to get her back to bed before the taxis came and asked if I could be bothered to track her down and get her back to bed. I found my friend (we shall refer to her as Lola since I don't know if she wants me blogging her name to the world in this situation) walking through the hallway with a large sweatshirt and no pants on, just like Jeni had said. I asked her what she was doing out of bed and she started mumbling about not being able to find her key or her phone. I attempted to corral her back towards her room and she teetered around still muttering about her phone and how she needed it. I finally got her back to bed, and on my way back to my room I got hit with a grenade and died in the Assassin game. It was kind of a suckfest (no good deed goes unpunished in the world of Assassins), especially since as soon as I died I stared seeing my target everywhere!

During the past month I have managed to figure out the right ratio of butter to Vegemite required to make my morning toast perfectly. The first time I tried Vegemite I choked it down and applauded myself for trying the most Australian thing I could think of, but I didn't really plan on eating it again. Vegemite isn't the most delicious thing in the world. However, the food at St Cats isn't really the greatest, and breakfast is dodgy most mornings (except for waffle/pancake mornings, those are good mornings) so I've gotten into the habit of making myself toast every morning. My breakfast toast gradually expanded to include Vegemite, I don't necessarily remember it happening, and I certainly don't remember when I decided that I actually like the taste of it. But now I eat it daily and I actually kind of look forward to it in the mornings. I plan on buying a jar of it and bringing it back to the States with me. The jars are pretty big and I only use a tiny little bit for a piece of toast, so I figure the jar should last for a very long time. Plus, this way all of you lovely people can try Vegemite too! I guess while I'm on the topic of food, I'll take this opportunity to quickly expand and say that by the time I get back to the States I don't know if I will ever want to eat rice or bread again, since that is all I eat here. Honestly, I think I get white rice and buttered wheat bread for lunch and dinner pretty much every day, except for lunch on Fridays! On Fridays we get Fish and Chips and it is glorious. I think I look forward to Fridays so much partly because I know I'll have at least one delicious meal that day. Kind of sad. Apart from that, I really love St Cats. It's a fantastic place to live!

This was the end of the third week of school and I keep forgetting that I am here to go to school and not to spend all my time hanging out with friends and going to the beach. Really, going to class is the only downside of my entire experience thus far. Thankfully, 3 of my 4 classes are really interesting and I enjoy them (my women's study class makes me feel a little bit crazy and I strongly dislike it, but it's doing a good job of pushing my comfort levels and forcing me to look at life in the US compared to life elsewhere in the world). One of my classes, Introduction to Forensic Science, is absolutely the greatest class that I think I have taken in a university setting. Each lecture is taught by a different guest lecturer from the Perth Police Department or the Forensic Science Department. The lectures each focus on a different aspect of Forensic Science, so far we've looked at Crime Scene Investigation, Fingerprints, Bloodstains, and had a mock crime scene practicum. This past Thursday was Ballistics and Firearm Examination and it was so cool! The officer brought this massive case full of different guns and talked about all kinds of fabulously epic things. I also got to hold a gun in a classroom, which is something that would never happen in the US. It's also just really neat to hear about Law Enforcement in Australia and how it differs from the US approach. For instance, all of the guest lecturers we have had refer to the person of interest or the suspect as a "baddie" which is something I have never heard an officer in the US say; and none of the officers carry off duty weapons with them, which still kind of surprises me since almost all of the deputies I know carry an off duty weapon with them. In general, the officers are more laid back here, but they seem to have very little crime to deal with in Perth, especially in comparison to the US. One of the bigger club and bar scenes is in a part of the city that isn't exactly high class, but it's nothing like wandering around downtown Denver.

Lets see, do I have any good stories for y'all today? I have to think about this, trying to remember all the things that I want to write about is difficult. Something happens, and I think "Oh! This would be a great blog post! I should write about it!" And then I forget, or I run out of time to sit down and do a blog post. I should probably do this blogging deal more often. I can't really think of anything other than the "Let's Get Physical" 80s themed bar party. Each semester all of the colleges have a big inter college party, and this semester's party was Friday at the Paramount Night Club. Originally, I hadn't really planned on going and my group of 6 girls was thinking of going down towards the beach and just looking to see what kind of trouble we could stir up there instead. However, Bec was in charge of selling the Let's Get Physical tickets, and telling Bec "No" is kind of the most impossible thing anyone could try to do, so we ended up with tickets. It was actually a pretty good deal, the ticket was $10 but it covered entry, one glass of champagne, pizza, chicken, and transportation into the city from college row. Friday morning we all realized that after we bought our tickets none of us had anything to wear to the party. Jeni and Megan had class all day Friday which put Jenny, Sarah, Jess and me in charge of going out and finding outfits. We went to K-Mart and were trying to find workout clothes or something that was flashy, gaudy, and screamed 80s; it was a lot harder than any of us had expected since none of us wanted to spend much money on anything. We ended up buying 2 packs of bright socks that could be cut up and made into legwarmers and white shirts. The white shirts ended up being the best part of our outfits when we decided to buy paint and decorate them (I take full ownership of this totally awesome idea. I'm a nerd that way). We cut the shirts up when we got home and splattered them with paint on the front and put each of our hand prints on the back of the shirts. They turned out to be really cute! (Pictures are up on FB). I think the best part of making them was when we sat around and blow dried them and blotted them with paper towels because they weren't drying quickly enough and we had to get ready to go. The best part of the shirts is that the 6 of us are all going on a road trip during the mid-semester break and we'll be able to take them and look dorky on our road trip as well. Plus, now I have this awesome shirt to bring home with these fabulous memories in December.

The party was a lot of fun as well. It was great to meet a bunch of people from the other colleges, especially since St Cats is a women's college and the smallest. I met this group of exchange students from Notre Dame...I wasn't able to leave the conversation without making a couple of "Go Blue" pro-Michigan statements....whoops. Oh! I do have to say that the best part of the night was being able to wear sneakers to a club. Dancing all night is so much more fun (and so much more comfortable) when I get to wear comfy (ha, Sarah) flat soled shoes. If I could have it my way, I would wear sneakers and tennis shoes to the clubs every night.

Yesterday was B-E-A-U-TIFUL and we all went to the beach for the afternoon. I ambitiously took my homework with me, but come on, who does homework at the beach? I ended up playing in the ocean with Kiera for while and then sleeping on the beach for couple of hours. It was honestly the perfect day after staying out all night the night before. A couple of the girls went to get ice cream before we left and I stayed on towel duty, keeping an eye on all our stuff. I quickly passed the task off on to Mary, who was semi-asleep listening to her iPod and went for a walk on the beach. Walking up the coastline is probably the greatest thing I can think of doing, not only is it a good leg workout, but it's just really relaxing to walk and not really have to think about anything at all. I can't wait until the weather gets to be consistently that nice (today it's overcast and threatening to rain again...not very warm and not good beach weather at all). But I guess I shouldn't be complaining, after all, I just spent a winter day tanning at the beach. Gotta love WA! Before it gets any warmer I'm going to have to remember to go out and get some sunscreen though. I've been a lifeguard for forever and a half so I'll probably get skin cancer anyway...but might as well not take chances with the Australian (ozone-less) sunshine.

I would love to continue tellin y'all about my fabulous life in Australia, but I've got to get the not so glamorous things (like laundry and homework) done. Blah.

I guess if you're closely following my experience, then you'll being excited to know that I am planning on signing up for surfing lessons as well as classes to get my SCUBA certification! YAAAAAAY Australia. Also, we have started planning out our road trip! I think we are planning on driving north towards Monkey Mia and Exmouth, but we haven't really worked out that slight detail yet. But I figure as long as we know what direction we're headed before we leave, we should be good (gotta love my GPS!).

Well, I guess that is all for this time. I hope everything is going well for you, I miss you. Until next time, live well!

Love you long time.