Drowned Rat.

That's what I looked like by about 9:30 this morning.  When I left Port Lodge to go run this morning, I noticed the storm clouds gathering over the water but didn't think much of it because it hasn't rained that much here lately.  Well, I got literally halfway through my run - that is, a good mile or more away from the dorm - when the skies opened up and the rain and wind started up like I've never seen here before.  I was going to try to run through it, but when I turned around, the rain was pelting me in the face so hard that I couldn't see, so I ran over an area that was sort of sheltered by some trees.  Several older people were waiting there with their dogs (and raincoats) and I actually met a lady who was from Alabama but moved here years ago.  When the rain slowed down, they all left and I decided it wasn't worth waiting for it to stop, so I high-tailed it through the wind and the rain back to Port Lodge and by the time I got back, there was not a dry spot left on me.  Needless to say, a hot shower was the first order of business and I've spent the rest of the day indoors and in sweats.

Yesterday was not nearly as lazy though.  Me, Katie, and Andria decided we wanted to finally go find King's Park (since our last try was basically a failure), so we packed lunches and took the 12:15 train to Perth.  Once we got there, we just had to hop on a bus and then walk a little ways to get to the park, and it was definitely worth it.  We sat on one of the lawns overlooking the city and ate our lunch, then spent a couple of hours just walking around and taking pictures (which I am uploading to Picasa as I type).  The park is GORGEOUS - amazing views, beautiful flowers and trees, and just a really peaceful atmosphere.  Some parts of it, like the big lawn with the duck pond, really reminded me of something from a Jane Austen novel.  After a few hours of walking, we were pretty tired, so we were really relieved to find a bus stop a lot closer to the park than the one we were dropped off at.  Our reward for all our walking was McDonald's $0.50 ice cream when we got back to Perth, and we were actually on the way out the door when we were stopped in our tracks by an amazing-looking chocolate concoction called a mud muffin, which we proceeded to split.  All in all definitely a successful trip :)

Saturday night was spent watching the first Lord of the Rings with the guys in my New Zealand road trip group.  Seeing all the ridiculous scenery in that movie just made me even more excited to go there, and we're watching the second movie tonight so I'll be even more excited after that!

Friday was a great day too, actually.  In Australian History we watched an Australian movie from the 80's called Galipolli (staring a very young Mel Gibson) about Australia's role in the Gallipoli campaign in Turkey during WWI.  It was a really interesting movie, and since we didn't have tutorial I was done with class at 10:30.  After lunch I went shopping for cheap clothes and shoes for our trip to Broome (the Outback) next week during Spring Break and was able to find everything I needed, which was a relief!  But THEN, I found some other kind of cheap clothes...Katie and Andria had told me about this store that just opened that was having a huge sale and had some really cute clothes, so about half of the Port Lodge girls went to check it out that afternoon.  All I have to say is AMAZING.  This store is amazing.  It had loads of really cute shirts and almost everything was under $15.  I tried on nothing over $10 and bought two shirts for a total of $14.  I think literally all the girls now own something from there.  We're in love.

After that discovery, a few of us went to footy practice, but there was hardly anyone there so we just did a lot of kicking again.  I'm pretty proud to say I haven't missed a single practice yet.  Later that night was the Uni ball, which a lot of us decided not to go to since it was so expensive ($130...yeah it's an open bar but I think if I tried to drink $130 worth of alcohol I would die).  So, we dressed up anyway and went out to a really nice restaurant called Char Char Bull.  I got a fancy gourmet-ish pizza which was delicious, but honestly I'm happy with Pizza Hut cheese pizza so it doesn't take much to please me.  The experience was fun though.  Later we went out to the bar where the after-party for the bar was held, so we got to meet up with all the kids who went.  

Alright, well I think we're about to watch Lord of the Rings, so I better go.  Only one more week of class before Spring Break!  I'll try to post again before I leave.  Hope y'all have a great week!

<3