Week 2: Going to Prison

Hi!

So it's Thursday morning here, and I thought I'd go ahead and write about my week so far.

Monday was the first day of class, and my class was Asia: Culture, Environment, and Development from 1:30-4:30.  It's sort of a weird class because it's actually being taught in a lab, and it's definitely not a lab-type class.  Our lecturer (they don't call them professors here) is on the younger side, working on his PhD, and seems really laid back.  I think we were all a little disappointed to find that the class is basically all the kids from Port Lodge though.  There's a kid from BC and an older French woman as well, but for all intents and purposes it's an ND class.  We're doing a group project in the class, and my group (me, Katie, and Jake) is going first on August 11, the day before we leave for Singapore.  We have to present about the demography and population of Asia.  I'm excited we'll have it done soon though.  For dinner Monday a group of us walked over to a restaurant on the harbor for fish and chips.  It was really good, but they don't give out ketchup here like in America, which was weird.  I don't specifically remember Monday night, but we probably watched a movie.  Or two.  It's been raining so much that no one wants to go out, so we've been watching a LOT of random movies.  I'm really ready for the weather to improve.

Tuesday is my day off (along with a bunch of other people), so I went with Erin, Kevin, Kevin, and Michael to see Dark Knight finally!!!  All I have to say is WOW.  What an intense movie.  I loved it and I really want to see it again, but I'm not p

aying $9 again, sorry Batman.  Tuesday night was our first community dinner, and I already know that Tuesday and Thursdays will be my favorite nights of the week.  We had salad, lasagna, bread, and chocolate cake with ice cream.  AND we had leftovers for the next day.  Tuesday night we watched She's the Man (possibly the worst movie I have ever seen) and it was horrible.  But it was fun laughing at it :)

Wednesday is my busiest day of the week.  I start with Business in Asia from 8:30 to 10:30, and then a tutorial (discussion section) for that class from 11:30 to 12:30.  But, tutorials don't start until next week.  Again, our class is dominated by ND people, although there are some other American students in there.  Hardly any Aussies though :(  Our lecturer seemed kind of nervous and was hard to follow, so I think that class is probably my least favorite so far.  He said he's going to focus more on the history of business in Asia than the actual business practices of Asia, which was also disappointing.  

After that on Wednesdays I have Christology from 4:30-7:30.  AGAIN, our class has a bunch of ND people, but besides that the other half of the class is middle aged people.  I'm really starting to doubt that there are any Aussies our age here at all!  Our lecturer has an Australian/Italian accent, which is interesting, and he seems pretty interesting.  It's sort of ironic though that the first time I've had a priest for a professor is not at ND, but in Australia.  Like all the others so far, this class is pretty heavy on the reading and light on homework-type assignments.  They pretty much all have a big paper (or two), a project, and a final.  Our lecturer let us out of class way early yesterday, so we had time to go back to the dorm and eat dinner before the night tour of the Fremantle Prison!

The tour was really cool, and really creepy.   The prison was built by convicts in the 1850's, and was a maximum security prison all the way up until 1991.  The tour was done in the dark, so we all got little souvenir flashlights.  Our tour guide was really good, and he told us about all the ghosts and creepy stories.  They also had some things designed to make you a little jumpy - people dressed up as prisoners jumping out to tell you things, and a dummy falling onto the suicide net.  I put pictures from the tour up on my Picasa site (the link is under my picture to the right), so you can check them out if you want.

So that's been my week so far.  Today I have Macroeconomics (which will be dominated by ND again) from 2:30 to 5:30.  Then Friday we all have Australian History from 8:30 to 10:30, and I have the tutorial for that class from 11:30 to 12:30, which is my last class for the week.  Katie, Erin, and I are going to a volunteer orientation on Friday for this homework help program in Fremantle, so I'm pretty excited about that.  Then Friday afternoon Kenz and Katie are coming to Fremantle, YAY!  I think we're going to go to dinner and then out possibly, and I can't wait to see them.  I actually haven't seen them since the airport in Perth :(  Saturday I think a bunch of us are planning to go into Perth so we can actually visit the city, instead of running around on a scavenger hunt in the pouring rain.  So all in all it's shaping up to be a pretty good week!

I guess that's about it for now; bye!

One Week Down

So it's Sunday night and we have officially been in Australia for a full week...now seems like a good time to catch everyone (anyone) up on how the first week went.

-The dorm: Port Lodge supposedly used to a brothel and has a ghost (apparently a girl was murdered here a long time ago?).  I haven't seen any sign of one yet, but if I do, I'll definitely let y'all know lol.  I somehow wound up with one of the bigger rooms, and I'm really happy with it.  And now that I've got pictures and maps up on the wall, it feels like my actual room for the semester.  The dorm itself isn't heated, so we've all been piling on clothes when we're inside, but overall it's not too bad.  The building is located right next to a really nice park called The Esplanade, and on the other side is a harbor with some restaurants and the Indian Ocean (!!!).  There are some really noisy birds that sound like babies/lambs that keep waking a lot of us up in the morning, but after the first day I've been sleeping through them.  We have 2 RA's, Kate and Will.  Kate seems more like the disciplinarian, but really we don't see either of them too much.  The campus (and dorm) is dry, and our dorm is just the ND group plus 4 girls from Sacred Heart.

-The town: Fremantle is a fairly small but cosmopolitan town, with a lot of cute shops and cafes/restaurants.  So far, we've seen Chinese, Mexican, seafood, and Turkish restaurants.  We also tried a place called Angel's Cafe where I had a really great salmon, avocado, and spinach sandwich...mmm.  There's also some fast food (Burger King is apparently called Hungry Jack's here) and NDA students get a 20% discount at Subway, yay.  I'm getting more comfortable with finding my way around, and I think after another week I should be pretty much set.  The nightlife is great, and what Fremantle lacks on any given night of the week is made up for by Perth or one of its suburbs.  So far we've been to Cottesloe one night and stayed in Fremantle to go to a bar called Newport and a club called Metropolis two of the other nights.  Some of the other kids have gone out a lot more, but my wallet just can't really handle that.  It's been fun though and I'm looking forward to trying more places.  We went into Perth on Wednesday for an orientation activity (a scavenger hunt) but it was pouring rain so we didn't really get to enjoy it.  Perth seems like an awesome city though and I can't wait to go back and check it out again.  The train system is great here; getting from Fremantle to Perth and the surrounding areas is easy enough.  Favorite part so far = the Fremantle Markets.  They have tons of awesome stands with souvenirs/food, and on Sundays you can get some really good deals on produce.  

- Travel/sightseeing:  A bunch of us bought a discounted sightseeing package offered through the school, which includes admission and transportation to the Fremantle Prison night tour, Caversham Wildlife Park, AQWA (Western Australia Aquarium), day trip to Rottnest Island, a Halloween dinner, and participation in the school's pool/ping-pong tournament.  The prison night tour is up first (this Wednesday) and it's supposed to be really cool and pretty scary.  We also want to book cabins for the weekend of the Rotto Island trip so we can stay longer, and we're talking about trying to get down to Margaret River for a weekend to visit the wineries and see the wildflowers that Western Australia is famous for. We're also going to try to get tickets to see the Fremantle Dockers (Freo's Australian rules football team) play St. Kilda in Perth on August 17th.  AND we're supposed to be getting vouchers for a free flight from Qantas for all the delays during our flight down here, so the plan is to use them either during mid-semester break (if our trip to Broome isn't scheduled for them) to try to get to Thailand, or to save them for traveling after the semester is over.  Oh, and we're going to Singapore on August 12th.  Whew.

- Everything else that I don't feel like putting into categories:  Australia is very laid back.  So far hardly anything has started on time, and everyone is pretty chill (except Sunday afternoons at the markets lol).  They shorten almost every word it seems like: Rottnest Island = Rotto, Australian Rules Football = Footy, Fremantle = Freo, etc.  Love love love their accents.  It looks like mass here is Sunday nights at 6, and the chapel is literally 10 steps from our dorm.  They don't get too many people going, and tonight I actually did the readings at mass for the first time in my life.  I miss Basilica and Alumni mass a lot though.  I've been getting to know the people from ND, and most of them are awesome.  I'm in a cooking group with about 5 other girls and so far we've made some pretty good dinners if I do say so myself :)  This week community dinners start though, which will be really nice.  On Tuesdays and Thursdays, we have a chef come in and make us dinner.  Apparently we're the only dorm that gets to do that, though I'm not sure why.  

I guess that's about it for now; I should probably get to bed since classes start tomorrow.  I only have once class tomorrow (Asia: Culture, Environment, and Development) and it's at 1:30, so no early Monday mornings for me :)  Most of us have Tuesdays off, and some of us are going to try to go see Dark Knight since Tuesdays are half price admission, so only $8 (oh yeah, everything's pretty much really expensive here). 

I'll probably post again soon, so bye until then!

<3

PICTURES!

Today a bunch of us just went wandering around Fremantle and I was able to actually take pictures of the town, which means that my first batch of pictures is up on my Picasa site.  Here's the link if you want to check them out:

http://picasaweb.google.com/michmash687

I'll post just a few here...

Manhattan Beach in LA

The Indian Ocean...about 5 minutes from our dorm :)

Cafes/shops in the heart of Fremantle

The Fremantle Markets...amazingness

Restaurants in the harbor

Check out the site if you want to see more!  And I promise I'll actually post more soon about how everything is going.

<3

My Address

In case anyone is interested, here is my address at school:

Michelle Maloney

28 Marine Terrace

Fremantle WA 6160

Australia

I'm Here!

Hi everyone (or anyone who reads this)

I'm finally here in Australia!  After all the delays, the flights to Sydney and Perth were actually fine.  I slept a lot on the way to Sydney, and the entertainment system kept me entertained (imagine that) the rest of the time.  When we got to Perth, our 2 RS's (Residential Supervisors) came and picked us up at the airport and we drove about 30 minutes to Fremantle.

Most of my time so far has been spent in orientation activities and sleep (I think I'm pretty much over the jet lag by now).  I've met some really nice and fun people so far in our group and we've been getting along great.  Fremantle is such a cute town; there's all these little shops and cafes everywhere and our dorm is super close to the water.  Pretty much everything is close to the water though because the town itself isn't very big.

Our dorm is decent; I actually wound up with a (relatively) bigger room, so my bed's on the floor, which is nice.  The whole building is pretty cold right now because it's still winter, but it's nothing compared to South Bend winters.

So far I haven't had a chance to experience the Fremantle nightlife yet, but I think that will probably change tonight.

I'll write more and post pictures soon, but I wanted to let everyone (even if it's only 2 lol) know that I'm actually here!

<3

Friday night and still in LA

So our trip has taken a few interesting turns...

My flight from Atlanta to LA was pretty much flawless, which should've made me suspicious from the beginning.  Once we got to LA we got our luggage and hung out with some of the other people in the group waiting for the Qantas ticket counter to open.  Well, long story short, we found out that our flight (which was supposed to be for last night at 10:30) actually got delayed 'til 10 AM this morning because of an engineers' strike in Australia.  So the airline put us up in several different hotels in LA, and me and some of the other people that got there earlier ended up at the Hilton, which was nice.

So last night we ate dinner (free from the airline) and took a shuttle to Manhattan Beach to see a little bit of LA.  All I have to say is California is gorgeous.  Smoggy, but gorgeous.  Then we went back to the hotel and crashed, since we were all pretty much still running on Eastern time.

Then this morning we got up, had a really good breakfast buffet at the hotel (also free from the airline) and went back to the airport.  We boarded on time, but then sat at the gate for about an hour and a half.  Apparently a couple of passengers had already made other arrangements and left for Sydney but had left their luggage there, which is a security problem.  So we had to de-board the plane, walk through the shut-down terminal through rows of TSA officers (I hadn't realized just how big of a security problem it was), and go back through security.  But then after we had waited at the gate for a while (giving us the chance to witness a mild bomb scare...exciting), the captain came out and told us that the situation had escalated, the FBI was now involved, and we wouldn't be able to leave until 11 PM tonight.

(UPDATE from later in the night: We just talked to a Qantas customer service manager here at the hotel and the reason for all the drama was that a foreign national called in a bomb threat for our specific flight, so that was why we were all evacuated.  BUT, we are going to get a voucher for a free flight whenever we want, as well as free room service/drinks/food here at the hotel.  Here's a link to a news article about the situation: http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local&id=6274063)

Sooo now we're in a hotel (AGAIN) until we have to go back to the airport and I am writing this on $10 wireless internet (sidenote - why is it that it seems like only the expensive hotels charge for internet???).

I just want to get there already.  And preferably not have to sit through 20 more hours of flying to do it.  But oh well.

Next time I post, I really will be in Australia.  I promise...

First Post!

Hi y'all,

So I've decided that blogging is going to be the easiest way for me to show people what I'm up to and what life is like in Aussieland.  I'll be posting in here periodically - probably more often if I get comments :)  

Right now it's Sunday evening...this time 4 days from now I'll be in LA waiting to get on the plane to Sydney at 10:30!  I've got all my stuff together, but I still have to figure out if it'll all fit in my suitcases.  I'm trying to make sure I'll have enough room to bring other stuff back, too.  

Anyway, I guess that's about it for now.  I'm just enjoying my last 4 days at home (and in the US!) and the next time I post, I'll probably be in Australia!

PS - For those of you who are confused by the title of my blog: it's a line from the show Seinfeld :)