O Week

Hey everyone! So much has happened and it’s only been a few days! I am in the middle of “O Week” (orientation week) here at UWA, and it has been a whirlwind.

This past Monday, all of the international students met on campus for a day-long run down of logistics about school. It was a long day with lots of sitting and talking and more sitting and listening, but definitely very helpful and useful. The highlight of the day was when a UWA Professor named Martin Forsey gave a presentation on “The Australian Way”.

His hilarious presentation came complete with a lesson on how to “speak Strine" (australian for "Australian"). I’m including some pictures from his slideshow—see if you can understand what all the slang means! I had better be fluent in Strine by the time I leave here haha :)

The standard Australian greeting, and how to make small talk

The standard Australian greeting, and how to make small talk

"So I met a real Australian, studying to be a journalist, who asked me to come to her barbecue. She told me to bring some cans of beer, some repellent for the mosquitoes, and some sunglasses and a swimsuit because there is going to be a pool. I'll meet you at the university, grap a cup of coffee at the cafe, a meal from McDonald's, and a beer. Then we'll go over with my parents to the party." 

Massive organ in Winthrop Hall at UWA

Massive organ in Winthrop Hall at UWA

Winthrop Hall (UWA)

Winthrop Hall (UWA)

On Wednesday, after registering for classes (which was an absolute nightmare), we attended a “Taste of Australia” dinner hosted by Tommy (the college I am living in). The dinner offered a range of traditional Australian foods, like emu, kangaroo, alligator, and a sweet dish called pavlova for dessert. I nibbled on each of the animals, feeling incredibly guilty and sad while doing it, but I was determined to just taste each one for the experience of it. When else will I ever try emu? Know what I mean? I will say that I didn’t really like any of them, which in a way was kind of reassuring, but I was proud of myself for trying everything :)

kangaroo :(

kangaroo :( 

Pavlova--SO GOOD

After dinner, all of the Americans got a real didgeridoo lesson! The didgeridoo is an aboriginal instrument native to Western Australia, that is essentially a hollowed out log. When you blow in the log a certain way, it makes a unique, vibrating sound that is unlike anything I’ve ever heard. Our teacher explained the legend behind the invention of the didgeridoo: Once when an aboriginal group of hunters were out looking for game (using boomerangs of course), they were unlucky in finding anything so they sat down on some logs to eat the termites in the logs. The termites had hollowed out the log, so as the aboriginal men were eating the termites, the bugs crawled deeper into the log. Wanting more, the men blew into the log to try to get the termites out. When they blew into the log, they found that it made a sound…So there you have it, the invention of the didgeridoo!

didgeridoo champion

didgeridoo champion

Our didgeridoo instructor! 

Clearly, I can play the didgeridoo like a professional

Following the didgeridoo lesson, everyone living in Tommy went to local hotspot Captain Stirlings, or “Cap S”, which is a bar down the road. We spent the evening getting to know everyone on the dance floor, and lets just say that we Americans discovered that Australian cider is the best drink that has ever existed, and we are going to be the ones to indtroduce it to the rest of America when we get back in November :)

Today (Thursday) was one of the best days of O Week—all of the international students went to Caversham Wildlife Park just outside of the city. It was about a half hour drive, and as soon as we arrived, we were turned loose to go and explore the park. My favorite part of the day was playing with kangaroos there—I had never seen a kangaroo before, so this was incredible!! We got to go right into a field to play with, feed, and pet them. I had the BEST time there. There were baby kangaroos in their mom’s pouches, as well as others that were different colors and sizes. It was such a cool experience—my friends and I spent the majority of the day with the kangaroos :) In addition, we saw koalas (SO CUTE AND CUDDLY), alligators (not as cute and cuddly), dozens of species of birds I had never seen or heard of, dingos, peacocks, emus, llamas, bats, iguanas, etc. You name it, it was in the park.

the original angry bird

the original angry bird

WOMBAT my new favorite animal

WOMBAT my new favorite animal

feeding kangaroos :)

feeding kangaroos :) 

MOMMA KISSING THE BABY. Does it get any cuter?!

MOMMA KISSING THE BABY. Does it get any cuter?!

new friends

new friends

Koala!!

Melts my heart

Melts my heart

In my next life, I want to be a koala. They sleep 20 hours a day and only wake up for meals. Sounds awesome

Learning how to sheer a sheep......Good thing I'll be applying this to my everyday life back home! :)

It was another amazing day here—each day that I see more of this place, the more I love it.

Until next time! 

Cheers!

Rebecca :) 

Learning how to sheer a sheep......Good thing I'll be applying this to my everyday life back home! :)

Day 1

After 36 hours of traveling, I have finally made it to Perth!  I am here with two of my roommates, Alanna and Erica, and we are all so excited to finally be here, after so many months of planning!

The process of reaching this city was a trying one, but I know it will definitely be worth it. We flew from New York to LA, LA to Sydney, and then from Sydney to Perth, which amounted to a total of 26 hours of flying. If we include the time we lost from layovers and various flight delays, we spent a full 36 hours traveling here! Needless to say, I don’t want to get back onto a plane anytime soon :)

We all are living in St. Thomas More, or “Tommy” as it is more affectionately referred to over here. It is a residential college across the street from UWA’s campus. It is also the smallest college in the area, housing about 200 students, and consists of about 50% international students and 50% Australians. I love the college so far—I have my own room (apparently having a roommate isn’t too common here) and a balcony that overlooks the Swan River—it is absolutely gorgeous! 

St. Thomas More Residential College ("Tommy")

My Room!

My closet--its HUGE...yesssss :)

The view of Swan River from my balcony

Now that I have spent a full day over here, I figured it was appropriate to write my first post! After waking up at 5 am Saturday morning (July 20^th) Erica and I weren’t able to fall asleep and were completely restless. The Jet lag is killer. So what did Erica make me do? Go on a run with her through Perth. What better way is there to get to know the city? As soon as the sun began to rise around 7am, we threw on our running shoes, found a path that wound around Swan River, and ran along side it, watching the sun come up. The city was totally breathtaking, especially considering that this was the first time we were seeing it in real life, not from pictures on the internet.

Pictures from the morning run

Perth city skyline

After our run, we came back to Tommy to meet up with Alanna and get lunch at the dining hall on our campus. Here’s the thing—there are 3 scheduled meal times that only last for an hour or so during the day. If you miss the meal time, no food for you! Since we are used to round-the-clock service at BC, we were totally shocked when we went to the dining hall and found it locked. We were starving, so we decided to walk to the business district of Perth, or “downtown”. It was about a 45 minute walk, but it was such a beautiful day that it was wonderful being outside with the fresh air and sunshine. We walked along the path next to Swan River, which led us straight to the city. We did have to ask for directions once, and ironically the person that we ended up asking was wearing a Red Sox hat! I thought that was a good sign :)

Once we got into the city, we walked around, enjoyed lunch at an outdoor café, and continued to explore our new surroundings. Perth is a gorgeous city and very welcoming. Everyone we spoke to was outgoing and excited that we are here. There were a bunch of street performers that we watched, as well as many (expensive) stores that we perused during our day downtown. On our walk back to Tommy, we sat on a bench by the river for a bit and watched dolphins and all sorts of wildlife that I have never seen before in the river—it really is so cool and truly enlightening to see how much else is out there. I feel like in just one day I’ve had so much exposure to things I have never experienced in my life, and its so exciting!

Street Performer juggling knives while standing on 2 volunteers...Essentially my worst nightmare

Perth!

All in all, that was the gist of my first full day here in Perth. Tomorrow, all of our orientation activities begin, which will definitely be fun and helpful! I am so excited to see what this week and the next few months bring! I have met so many kind and wonderful people already, and I cant wait to see all that my future here holds!

Love you all, I’ll try to keep the blog posts coming to keep ya’ll in the loop!

Cheers! (What all the hip Australians say),

Rebecca