Eeeek

Is it really almost the end of my two relaxing weeks before finals?!?!  Sadly, the answer is yes.  Soon the kids in Thailand will be coming back and we'll all be freaking out about the impending week of non-stop essay-writing that is finals. Well, that might be a slight exaggeration.  But most of us DO have 4 finals next week, and all of those finals are essay finals...lovely.  I'll be so happy to go back to the business school at ND where the most you have to write is a paragraph for a group project (also possibly a slight exaggeration).  ANYWAY, I figured before I get into serious study mode today I would update y'all on how my 2 relaxing weeks have been!

Last Monday: Class for Asia Culture consisted of our lecturer Shaphan telling us how to study for the final, showing us how to make paper cranes, and taking us to the bar after class.  Andria and I were already in running clothes though, so we went for a run after class instead.  It's amazing how much nicer it is to run when there's a beach waiting for you at the other end of your route.  Also went to what would end up being our last footy practice (I'm guessing), but there were hardly any of us there so it wasn't as fun as it's been beore :(.  Monday night a bunch of us went to The Deen and we met up with some of the Perth kids.  Overall a pretty good night.

Last Tuesday: Went to the Qantas office in Perth to get some flight stuff straightened out.  That was the first time I had ever ridden the train from Freo to Perth by myself, and it was such a liberating feeling to do that and go into the city alone.  Then I realized that even the young kids here do that all the time and felt kind of silly, lol.  I guess growing up in a suburb I never really got to have that kind of experience.  Anyway, I got everything worked out, then came back to a nearly empty house.  Most of the kids went to the house of some other study abroad kids for Beer Olympics, but I just didn't feel like drinking my weight in beer so me and a couple others stayed back.  Then later that night we went to the Cottesloe Hotel (a bar, not a hotel) for the night.  We ended up having to sprint from Port Lodge to the train station to catch the train there (not the best idea...ugh) and when we got to the train we had a good 60 seconds to spare.  Oh well.  It was definitely an interesting start to what ended up being a really fun/entertaining night.

Tired faces after sprinting to the train station

Waiting at the train station to go back to Freo

Last Wednesday:  Again, class (Business in Asia) was cut wayyy short and really just consisted of telling us how to study for the final.  I don't really remember what I did during the day besides maybe go on another run with Andria.  We had our last Christology class (THANK GOD...no pun intended lol) which still went two hours because our lecturer is lame - actually wanting to teach us...who does he think he is?!  After that we all went to watch the last game of the pool tournament that the university sponsored, mostly because they promised to feed us afterwards.  Then they were having a massive ping pong tournament, and for my first game I had to play Michael, who of course is really good at ping pong so I didn't go any further than that match (sorry for tarnishing the Maloney ping pong reputation Dad, haha).  I lost 9-11 though, so it was at least close.  Going out that night consisted of staying close to home by going to the Orient.  The Perth kids were there so we 

got to see them again, which was awesome.

3 West...Australian Edition

Last Thursday: Went back to Perth to try to book the rental car for New Zealand with my voucher...didn't work but I did find some good replacement sunglasses for the ones I lost on Rotto so all-in-all not a completely wasted trip.  Our last Macro class went for the full 3 hours (boooo), BUT afterwards the university fed us again (!!!) in the form of a Halloween party with meat pies and sausage rolls.  Most of us were still pretty Halloween-ed out from the party last Thursday so we didn't dress up and just went for the food, haha.  Thursday night was frustrating because we were going to go to Claremont, which I had only been to once before but loved, but I made it all the way there before realizing I didn't have my passport with me.  THAT will definitely never happen again.  So I ended up coming back to Freo and staying in that night.  Good times.

Last Friday:  Final class of the semester - Australian History.  No more classes until mid-January!  Lunch with some of the girls at the Burger Bar (chicken sandwich with cheese and avocado...) then massive nap :)  The kids going to Thailand left that night, and those of us who were left went out to a place I had never been before called The Loft.  It was kind of lounge/bar and was more adultish than anywhere we've been so far, but it did have an amazing view of the harbour!

Freo Harbour at night

Saturday:  Slept in for a long time, then went with Katie and some of the guys to Cottesloe Beach for the afternoon.  It's the nicest beach I've been to so far in the Freo-Perth area (the sand felt AMAZING) and basically we just sat around and listened to music and read on the beach.  It wasn't warm enough to go in the water though.  Saturday night a bunch of us decided to spend the night at UWA after going out to watch the ND-Pitt game on their big projector, so me, Katie, and Tom took everyone's stuff to UWA and left for Northbridge from there.  We met up with everyone (including some of the Perth kids who we convinced to go out instead of staying in that night) at The Paramount and ended up staying there for 4 hours!  The music was really good and it was fun, but it was definitely the longest I've ever stayed at a club - basically from 10:30-2:30.

Sunday:  After The Paramount, we went back to UWA and watched the game...soooooo sad.  I managed to stay awake for the entire first half, but fell asleep during half time and didn't wake back up until the end of the 4th quarter.  Then of course I had to stay up for ALL 4 overtimes, and by the time it was over everyone was super tired and cranky.  We dragged ourselves to the UWA dining hall for breakfast and some of our group left to go back to Freo. Me, Katie and Tom decided to stay to go to the Red Bull Air Race, though, so we got changed and took the bus with a bunch of the Perth kids to the park where everyone goes to watch it.  I don't really know how we were still functioning at this point.  But we got a spot in the sand and (after copious amounts of sunscreen were applied) laid down to nap for a little while since the air race didn't actually start until 11.  I'm glad we saw it, but after the first 2 planes Katie and I were ready to leave.  So we came back to Freo, and the rest of my day went something like this: sleep. mass. sleep.

Going through the course

Me and the Katies

Monday: This was a pretty chill day - caught up on Grey's and The Office, went grocery shopping, did some planning for New Zealand, went on a run.  Monday night we went to The Orient and played cards in the back room, which ended up being really fun.

Tuesday: Let's see...I don't remember what I did during the day besides go for another run.  For dinner Katie and I went to this place called Amano Gelato that I had been wanting to try - $5.90 for a decent-sized piece of pizza and cup of gelato (white chocolate, in case you were dying of curiosity).  And that's Australian dollars, so with the exchange rate the way it's been going it was practically free! ;)  Most of us decided not to go out Tuesday, so instead we watched Thank You For Smoking, which I highly recommend if you like sarcasm and satirical humour.  It's a funny one.  Afterwards four of us lounged around on the couches in the dark trying to think of something fun to do, and three hours later we realized that it was 1 AM and we should probably go to bed.  

Wednesday: The majority of late morning/early afternoon was dedicated to watching the election coverage.  It was sort of weird because while the news stations here had some of their own coverage of it, mostly they just streamed CNN so basically it was like watching it from home.  Also, Katie (Perth/3W Katie lol) came to visit because she was getting back from Rotto that morning, so after Obama's acceptance speech we just hung out for a while until dinner (which consisted of some of the best-tasting nachos I have ever eaten...sooo good).  Wednesday night is karaoke night at the Orient, so we all went there after dinner.  After watching some inspiring performances of "You've Lost that Loving Feeling" (Mike and Kmart) and "Roll With Me" (Kim and Steph), I finally decided that almost 21 years is too long to go without ever having done karaoke, so Mike and I channeled our inner boy-bandness and sang "I Want It That Way" by the Backstreet Boys.  I always thought that I would have to be quite drunk to ever do karaoke, but I wasn't that night and it really wasn't bad!  Actually it was pretty fun :)  After that Katie (3W Katie) and I were going to sing "Livin on a Prayer" but they stopped taking requests...boo.  Maybe in two weeks after I have my last final though...  When we got back to Port Lodge Kmart had the brilliant idea to make cookie dough, and even though we definitely didn't have the right ingredients it still tasted pretty great (although most things do when you get back from a bar).

I've found my new calling...ok not really but it was fun

So that's been my study week so far.  We've been pretty bummed that the weather hasn't been nice enough for us to hang out at the beach during the day, but we've managed to have some fun anyway.  You might have noticed that study week hasn't exactly lived up to its name, but I keep telling myself that that's because I work better under pressure.  Besides, now that this post is out of the way I'll be able to sit down and focus.  Well, after dinner at least :)