Another week in Freo

Sooo it's me again!  Interesting things that have happened this week:

-Turned in my first paper here.  It was for Asia: Culture, Environment and Development and the topic I decided to concentrate on was Islam in Southeast Asia.  It was really interesting to read about, especially since I'll be taking classes on Islam for my Arabic major when I get back to ND.  but I wish I could've just read about it and not have to write about it...I hate writing papers.  That's why I love being a business major - hardly any papers.

-Had some really good food.  A bunch of us went out to an Italian restaurant Wednesday night after class and Betsy and I split salmon avocado risotto and garlic bread - sooo good.  And then we all got ice cream afterwards - Ferrero Roche with cookie dough.  Then Friday me and some of the girls went to a cafe called Dome for lunch as a reward to ourselves for finishing our papers.  I had a chicken, cheese and avocado sandwich with some really amazing fried (or chips).  I'm definitely discovering a love of avocados here.  Oh, AND Monday we got free food at a bar called the Deen in Perth.  Every Monday they give out vouchers for free sausages/salad and a free pint, so since none of us have class Tuesdays I have a feeling that will become a weekly event for us.

-Decided that we will be celebrating Christmas day (not to be confused with Christmas Day) on September 6.  A bunch of us are really missing Christmas and the season in general, so this Saturday we're going to spend the day doing Christmas-y stuff: watching Christmas movies (Muppet Christmas Carol, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Elf, and Love Actually), baking Christmas cookies, making white chocolate covered pretzels, drinking egg nog, having a Secret Santa gift exchange ($2 limit), making a Christmas dinner of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, etc.  Needless to say, I'm kind of insanely excited for it...especially since it was my idea and now it has turned into kind of a big deal.  I'm listening to Christmas music all this week to get ready :)

-Had a semi-conversation in Arabic with a native speaker!  We went to a place called Paramount in Perth on Friday night and some of my friends starting talking to this guy, but it turned out that spoke Arabic and didn't speak much English so they came and grabbed me to go talk to him.  It's been a while since I've spoken any Arabic but I was able to remember some words and he was really excited to find someone who knew Arabic.

-Sort of figured out my post-semester travel plans.  Looks like we'll be going to Cairns first for about 4 days, then Sydney for 3 days, then New Zealand - either flying into Christchurch and flying out of Auckland or vis versa so we can see both the north and the south island.  Not exactly sure when we're going to be leaving but we're aiming to fly back to LA in between the 6th through the 10th.  We're going to the Qantas office in Perth tomorrow morning to try to get the stopovers booked, so I'm pretty excited to have that all set.

I uploaded a bunch more pictures to Picasa tonight, so feel free to check them out.  There's something like 4 new albums, plus new pictures in my album of pictures taken by other people.

Ma'a salaama!  (Goodbye in Arabic) :)

Update time

It's Sunday so I guess I'll spend some time procrastinating by writing in here :)

Our work load for class has finally picked up a bit.  We have weekly reading for every class and a paper due Friday for our Asia Culture class.  And we have a midterm in Macroeconomics next week, sooo this week/weekend should be fairly busy.  

It dawned on me that I might come across as schizophrenic in a lot of these posts because I keep saying "we, us, our" as opposed to "I, me, my" which I'm sure seems kind of odd.  The reason for this is that I'm basically around all the same people (those of us from Notre Dame) all the time.  We live, cook, eat, study, go out, work out, shop, travel (you get the idea) together, so our lives (there I go again) are pretty much parallel to a certain degree.  If you've ever seen or heard of the MTV show Real World, that's pretty much what it's like, except without the sweet house and with school work.  It's sort of like being in a pressure cooker of 30 people.  In some ways it's great because we're all getting to know each other really well and really quickly, but in some ways it's not because we're around the same people ALLLLL the time.

Anyway, I guess the most exciting thing about last week was that we started footy practice!  Footy is Australian Rules Football, and there's a club called the South Fremantle Football Club that is based right here in Fremantle and practices at an oval about 10 minutes from our dorm.  Basically the study abroad students are able to sort of start up their own teams, so our girls team is made up of mostly ND girls plus some from other schools.  We're going to practice twice a week, and we'll have scrimmages against some other women's teams (I think it's the off-season for footy right now).  We'll also be running some clinics to teach little kids how to play, and then we go to a tournament in October or November.  The women's team last year actually won it, so hopefully we'll be able to do well too!  So far practice has been really fun - just learning how to handball the footy to each other and punting it to each other, stuff like that.  I'm pretty excited for it :)

Let's see, what else...I'm sad the Olympics are almost over.  We got to watch the men's indoor volleyball team beat Russia the other night, which was awesome because my friend Rose has a cousin on the team and he got a lot of on-camera time (Reid Priddy is her cousin - he's ridiculously good).  

We watched The Exorcist last night, which was gory and kind of really gross.  Oh, and the other night, me, Andria and Katie were really bored and didn't feel like watching a movie, so we decided to experiment in the kitchen.  Basically we ended up deciding to make cookies without using a recipe, which is kind of crucial in baking.  The dough was pretty good but the cookies actually tasted a lot more like cake.  They were pretty good when we added Nutella though.  That stuff is amazing. 

I'm a little behind on putting up pictures onto Picasa, but I'll put one here that I took of the sunset last night.  I walked down to the beach to get these and I think I got some good ones, but it's not hard when the subject matter is so gorgeous.

I think that's about it for now except for one more thing....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!! Love you!

Now I really am done :)

<3

After a month in Australia...

...I finally looked right-left-right instinctively before crossing the street :)

A very very select few of my pictures from Singapore

And the rest are on my Picasa page

Arab district

Skyline, sort of

View from 40th floor of the Port Authority building

Bugis Street, aka shoppers' heaven

Singapura.

I'm back from Asia!  I hardly even know where to begin...

It all began Tuesday morning at 5 AM when we got on the bus to go to the airport.  The flight was extremely uneventful (and by the way, Singapore Airlines is awesome).  We got to Singapore in the afternoon and the first thing we noticed was the INTENSE stifling humidity.  Seriously, it made Atlanta seem like nothing.  We had a little while to explore, so some of us wandered around the Arab district that was right next to our hotel.  It was awesome for me because Arabic is my second major and a lot of the signs and stuff were in Arabic, so I was loving it.  We had welcome drinks in the hotel bar at 5, and I got to try a drink called the Singapore Sling, which was really good.  For dinner we went to a little Arabic restaurant we had found earlier, and me and Erin split two really good dishes - one with chicken and one with lamb.  I LOVE their food.  And everything on the menu was written in Arabic too, so I was able to recognize some of the words.  AND we got to sit on cushions on the floor.  After dinner, me, Andria, and Alex wandered around the city for a little while and found an internet cafe.  That night we were going to go out with the group but we didn't feel like going anywhere we couldn't walk to, so several of us watched the Olympics and crashed earlyish, which was definitely needed.

Wednesday.  Really good hotel breakfast (with a lot of really interesting Asian food but I ended up with a pretty standard breakfast) then off to Deloitte (one of the Big 4 accounting firms) at 9.  They took us up to the boardroom and we listened to a couple presentations about the company and the tax code in Singapore.  Then they opened up the shades so we could see the view and it was definitely extremely impressive.  For lunch we went to a huge Asian food court type thing that made every mall food court I've seen look miniscule.  We just picked a place with a decent size line (so we could tell the food was good) and pointed at the food we wanted.  I don't know what exactly I ate, but I know it consisted of rice, meat, and vegetables and was really good.  Also got a juice drink of blended oranges and pineapple for dessert.  Yum.  After that we went to the US Embassy to listen to another presentation about Singapore and the security there was insanely tight.  That afternoon, we wandered around Little India, which was awesome.  Then me, Katie, and Erin went out to dinner with Andria and her uncle, who lives in Singapore.  We ate at an Indian restaurant and again, the food was fantastic (although pretty spicy and they couldn't bring the water enough for me!)  Wednesday night we went to a place called Clarke Quay, which was like an open air mall except with bars instead of stores.  We ended up having a ladies night because we found a bar having an actual ladies night, so only the girls could get free drinks.  It was a lot of fun and me and 3 of the girls ended up going to McDonalds afterwards for ice cream and venting.

Thursday.  Got up early to go to Sentosa Island off of Singapore.  Going there involved taking the public transportation system called the MRT as well as a ride in a cable car.  We actually couldn't get on the first train of the MRT because it was so full; I've never seen anything like it - there was literally no room to squeeze on there.  When we got to the island we basically just wandered around to see the sights and the beaches.  It was one of the most beautiful places I've ever been and I really didn't ever want to leave.  That afternoon we visited PSA (Port of Singapore Authority) to learn about how Singapore works as the biggest port in the world.  It was pretty interesting and they took us up to the 40th floor, so we were able to get some great pictures of the city afterward.  That night we went to a talk given by someone who used to work for CNBC about the herd mentality in finance, which I actually found really interesting (Mom and Dad thanks for teaching me about personal finance lol).  We ate there because they gave us some delicious Chinese food.  That night we tried to go to a bar that was on the 70th floor of a hotel and was supposed to have an amazing view of the city, but it was closed for renovation so we went to a different (really small) one for a while then came back and got room service.

Friday.  We had the entire morning free, so some of us went to a place called Bugis Street, which is the largest street shopping center in Singapore.  It's basically row and rows and rows of stalls selling all kinds of stuff (like clothes, shoes, accessories, food, etc) for really cheap.  I was like a kid in a candy store.  A bunch of us got dresses for $10 and Andria bought some of her favorite tropical fruit that you can't find in Australia or the US (she used to live in Sri Lanka) and let us try it and it was great.  That afternoon we toured the Tiger Beer brewery, which was interesting but so humid that it was hard to enjoy it.  But, the tour ended at the company tavern where we had free beer for upwards of an hour or so.  That night was a farewell dinner at a Spanish tapas restaurant, and once again, the food was sooo good (although there was way too much of it - which coming from me is really saying something lol).  Friday night pretty much the whole group went to a club called Ministry of Sound.  It's supposed to be amazing; there's only 3 in the world and some of the group reserved a booth on the upper floor so it was a lot of fun.  There was a main room with a revolving dance floor and another room with a dance floor in this huge cage thing that was just as crowded as the MRT.

Then Saturday was up early again to fly back to Perth (another uneventful flight) and we finally got back to Port Lodge around 5.  Today we went to see a real AFL footy game - Freo Dockers vs. St. Kilda Saints.  Freo got killed because they're not very good, but it was still fun.  We had second row seats, and it was actually a really big venue (34,000 people in attendance).  My friend sitting next to me actually got to catch and throw back the ball once when it flew into the stands.  It was ridiculously hot though; we were all reapplying sunscreen every quarter.  It's crazy that this is still their winter.  I can't even imagine what their summer must be like!

I think I'm done for now.  I know I'm forgetting things about Singapore, so if I think of anything else I'll add it.  Oh, and I've uploaded my Singapore pictures onto Picasa, so feel free to check them out!

<3

Tomorrow = Continent #4

9 hours from now I will be leaving for Singapore!  Asia will be the 4th continent I've been to (behind North America, Europe, and Australia).  I'm pretty lucky.  We're leaving for the airport at 5 in the morning, but I'm still super excited.  Actually, I still have to pack...

I guess I'll recap since my last post...

Friday was pretty good; we had Australian History and this week was our first week of tutorial.  Our person for tutorial is different from our lecturer, and she seems really cool.  She's Scottish, and she had us go around and introduce ourselves and tell the best thing that's ever happened to us.  I said mine was deciding to go to Notre Dame.  Super corny but I didn't even care because it's so true. Friday night we all watched some of the opening ceremony before going out, then me and some of the girls went to The Shed in Perth again (and saw Kenz and Katie and some of the other Perth 

kids, which was awesome).

Saturday was pretty lazy...pretty much just laid around and watched the Olympics, including about 3 hours watching cycling.  NOT the most thrilling of sports, but we were waiting to see if something better would come on.  For dinner our cooking group went to another fish and chips place called Sweet Lips, and I had some really good grilled Cajun fish and chips.  Later that night was some more interesting Olympics....women's indoor volleyball! AND it was the USA! AND they won!  (Not a medal match but it was still a win...) I was really glad I got to see it.

Sunday we had a field trip as part of our activity package to Caversham Wildlife Park, which was basically like a zoo except Australia style.  We got to pet koalas and kangaroos and a wombat and it was basically just really awesome.  Here's a few of the pictures (more on my Picasa site):

Momma and baby koala :)

Kangaroo!

When we got back we made a very dangerous discovery: $0.50 ice cream cones at the McDonalds that's like 100 steps away from our dorm.  Sunday night a group of us went out to dinner again to a place called Mexican Kitchen (we're sort of running out of food with Singapore coming up).  The food was great (but kind of really pricey) and we found out that they don't serve you free chips and salsa here...lame.  But the best part was definitely the giant fishbowl peach margarita that me and 3 other girls split. Soooo yummy.  The rest of the night was just more Olympics and working on my group project with my other group members.  We had a presentation today about the population and demographics of Asia (specifically China's One-Child Policy).

Today (Monday) was more Olympics, the presentation which we think went pretty well, and another McDonald's ice cream run.  Now I just have to pack and get up at the crack of dawn tomorrow!

Hope everyone's been doing well, and expect another post and a lot more pictures when I get back from Singapore!

<3

In case you're interested...

Today in Australian History and Society we learned that presently, Australia is the:

-Driest continent

-Hottest continent (on average)

-Flattest continent

-Continent with the most biological diversity

I had no idea.

What better way to procrastinate?

Right now I should probably be reading the Gospel of Matthew.  No, I definitely should.  That's our homework for Christology, which I have tomorrow at 4:30. BUT how could I possibly hope to focus on homework when there are other things I could be doing, like updating everyone?! I just couldn't.  Plus I have a good 17 hours before that has to be done, and I'm betting that the Gospel of Matthew does not take 17 hours to read.

ANYWAY.

I guess I'll just start from where I left off last time (I think it was Thursday morning when I last posted).  I'm happy to report that in our Macroeconomics class we finally found a professor (ok, lecturer. whatever.) who has a personality and doesn't seem flustered or intimidated by teaching.  He seems the most like an ND professor out of all the ones I have, probably because he used to teach at Duke.  That class is my favorite so far.  It's really nice to have a class where we're using math (ok more logic than math but still).  I miss math.  I don't remember what we did Thursday night...probably watch a movie or play Mario Kart.

Friday was our Australian History class at 8:30, which all the study abroad students have to take.  That class itself is the most ND-like in that it's in an auditorium-type room with stadium seating.  Our lecturer seems pretty decent, and 40% of our grade is a project involving a walking tour of Fremantle. Score.  Unfortunately though, it seems that between my classes and living in Port Lodge, I'll get to meet approximately 0 Australians.  I am actually really disappointed about that, but I guess I'll have to find some way to make it happen.

Friday afternoon, Katie, Erin and I went to an orientation for some volunteer work we're going to start doing at a place called the Homework Centre.  Every Tuesday (probably starting after we get back from Singapore) we'll be helping at-risk children with their homework and doing activities with them (basically like an after-school program).  It sounds like it will be a great experience, and it'll be nice to be around non-college age kids for a little while each week.  

Friday night most of us went to Perth to visit the Notre Dame students who are studying at UWA.  We ended up meeting them at this reallllly good pizza place and then going back to their dorm to hang out for a while before going out.  UWA (from what we could tell of it in the rain and the dark) seems a lot more like ND campus-wise, and their dorm is really cool because they're spread out and there are a bunch of other international students there for them to meet.  So anyway, I got to see my friends like Kenz, Katie, and Alex, which was awesome since I haven't seen them since we got to Perth.  After a little while, we all went out to one of the bars there called The Deen.  It was huge and had a lot of different rooms, and it was really a lot of fun.  A couple of us also went across the street to a place called The Shack, and the bar stamps that they gave said "G'day Mate" which we all got a kick out of.  Later we went to the train station and waited an hour for the train to Freo, then went back to Port Lodge and crashed.  It was probably the best night out I've had here so far :)

Saturday was a late morning, and I went running with a couple of the girls, which was really good because I now have a good running path right by the harbors that I've been using since.  In the afternoon a bunch of us went back to Perth to visit the city.  We went to some of the landmarks and took some fun pictures, and we tried to get to King's Park, which has some great overlooks of the city.  But we don't really have the whole public transportation thing down yet, so we ended up going in some back way only to turn around before we got to the actual park since it was almost dark.

Sunday was mainly just the markets (apples, kiwis, and avocados for $7 again...mmm) and grocery shopping.  We had a really good dinner of chicken kiev (ok so we bought it already prepared), veggies, potatoes, and chocolate cake.  Coles down here has this really amazing chocolate cake for $6.  I wasn't really expecting to eat this well down here.  Went to mass, probably watched a movie again that night.

Monday was class again, then a couple of us went to the park next to our dorm and tossed the frisbee around for a while.  Monday night we went to a really chill bar called Little Creatures, then came back and watched The Office.  Oh and I played probably the longest game of chess of my life.  And lost :(

Today is our day off, so most of us spent it doing homework, then we went down to the beach for a little while.  It's still too cold to really go in the water, but we sat around and it felt great.  Then we came back and had community dinner (salad, roll, mashed potatoes, chicken with stuffing, and apple and blackberry cobbler with ice cream).  We watched Boondock Saints tonight, which I had never seen before but everyone always raves about, and it was really good.

So yep, that's about it for now.  A week from now I'll be in Singapore (!!!), but I'll probably post again right before I go.  I hope everyone's been doing well! I miss you all.

<3