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