Blood, Sweat, and Beers

Hey Everybody! 

It's been another hectic and exciting couple weeks, and I have so much I want to tell you! 

Ok first off, last Friday was casino night! Basically everyone at Tommy got all dressed up 007-style and gambled with neon-colored money and bid on a horse race and, you know, participated in fun casino-related things like that. I have no idea how to play any games (i.e. poker, black jack, roulette) so I just walked up to a table, put $2,000 down on my lucky number (15) on the table, and next thing i know someone told me I won $20,000 and threw it into my hands--so that was cool!!! If only it were real....Nevertheless, the first time I (fake) gambled, I won! YAY!!! 

All dolled up for Casino Night!

Erin and me :) 

SO, 
Now on to the really good stuff. 
This weekend was Tommy Car Rally 2012. 

*Note to my much younger and much older audience comprised of family members: 
The following statements are chock full of immature, college-age, crude humor that you may find inappropriate. Don't worry, I'm still as innocent as can be, Australia hasn't corrupted me yet. Nevertheless, I wanted to give you guys the heads up so you're prepared, and so you don't disown me after you learn of all the atrocious things I have done. 
End of note*

Car Rally = an excuse to do ridiculous (and probably illegal) things in public for 5 hours, then go camping in the outback with your best friends. 

How Car Rally Works: 
You are divided into cars, and each car is a team. Each team has a theme, and you dress up according to that theme. Each team receives a "Task List"of things you must complete before traveling to the camping site later on in the evening. So essentially, you go on a scavenger hunt through the city and make an absolute fool of yourself, and then meet up with your friends in the middle of nowhere to have a sleepover and talk about all the stupid things you did. It's awesome. 

So, I was on a team with my friends Erica, Alanna, Sean, and Erin, and let me tell you, we took these tasks by storm. We completed almost every task we were given, which (trust me) is saying something considering the nature of the tasks. One task even got us banned from a local super market....sorry, Mom and Dad! :) 

For every task you complete, you receive a certain number of points. Also, each task requires that you have photo or video evidence of its completion. For example, some tasks that required photo evidence (which won you 100 points each) included: 
"1) Kiss another team member of the same sex
2) Whole team in a port-a-potty
3) Skinny dip or nudie run
4) Public urination
5) Sniff a dog's butt
6) Find a Lady Gaga look-a-like
7) Eskimo kiss a stranger
8) Whole team on one bed in a bedding store
9) Get a shot named after you in a bar"

A few tasks that required video evidence (300 points): 
"1) Walk into a hardware store and ask for a screw
2) Dance provocatively behind a stranger
3) Cone someone at Macca's 
4) Go into a restaurant and read the menu aloud, Shakespeare style
5) Have a checkout girl put out an announcement looking for your friend with a dirty name (this is the one that got us banned from a super market...hehehe oops!) 
6) Have a team member eat 8 cheeseburgers in 4 minutes
7) Wrap yourself in a towel, and knock on a stranger's door and ask to use their shower
8) Pile your team into a shopping cart, ride through the store, and then bail! 
9) Walk around a public area and argue with your alter-ego, that only you can see...
10) Ask a stranger for their autograph
11) Cinnamon Challenge
12) Pretend your car is broken down and push it to the nearest gas station with strangers' help"

Items to collect/do along the way:
1) get a traffic cone
2) glow sticks
3) homeless person's house
4) get a male team member to get his makeup done

As you can see, some of these tasks are pretty hilarious and absurd, and I didn't even mention the really bad ones!

Here are a few pictures of some of the teams before we startled tackling our task lists! 

Team "Balanced Meal"

Wario, Donkey Kong, and Erica

100 points if you can find what does not belong in this picture....

Wario, Princess Peach, and Donkey Kong (Team Mario Kart) 

Team Toga

I made a little video of all of our ridiculous stunts for your viewing pleasure, hopefully you giggle as much as I do when you watch it!

After everyone completed their tasks, we all drove an hour outside of the city to Mandurah, which is literally in the middle of nowhere. After 30 minutes of driving down an obscure, unlit dirt road, we came out on the top of a hill in the middle of the Australian outback--no civilization in sight, just stars as far as the eye could see. Honestly, it was so incredible. I wish I could explain what it was like there to everyone back home, but that's near impossible. I swear there are more stars just in general over here. Secondly, we weren't surrounded by any lights/signs of life while we were camping, so the entire sky was lit up with stars. There were more stars than there was sky! It was truly sublime--I also saw shooting stars throughout the course of the night, and I counted at least 10! How cool is that?!

When all the teams arrived in Mandurah, the Aussies set up the barbie (barbecue) and we had a good old fashioned cook out around a massive campfire (meanwhile, the temperature plummeted and we all got bundled up in sleeping bags and blankets). 
After that, shenanigans ensued, which I will not document here since I am doing my best to keep this G-rated :) Needless to say, it was hands down my best night here so far, and I had more fun than I can begin to explain with all of my new friends! 

I was in an incredible place with incredible people, where we all were soaking up each other's awesomeness (Mean Girls quote, hollaaa) 

I wish you all could have been there with me! It was amazing--the beauty of this place is awe inspiring! 

Love you all! 

Cheers, 
Becca :) 

TIM TAMS! And Other Less Important Things

The single most important thing I have learned about while in Australia:
THE EXISTENCE OF TIM TAMS.

Tim Tams are like Australia's favorite cookie. Like the Oreo. Except better. Seriously I am an oreo addict, and I never thought there would come a day that I could possibly taste something better.
But trust me when I say, THERE IS NOTHING LIKE A TIM TAM. I plan on bringing back suitcases full of these delectable cookies, that way I'll have about a week's supply of the stuff when I get home...

Behold. Tim Tams.

My personal favorite flavor is dark chocolate.. just so so so yummy. Tim Tams are made of two chocolate biscuit-y things with a chocolate cream filling in between them, which is then coated in chocolate. There you have it--one of the greatest things I've found on this continent so far, and one I'm going to have a lot of trouble parting with. 

So a few days ago, Tommy hosted a "Girls' Night", complete with PJ's, Truth or Dare, face masks, hair braiding, nail painting, dancing to Britney Spears...we did it all. Well, while at Girls Night I learned about the legendary "Tim Tam Slam". 
It rocked my world.

What you do: 

- get a cup of hot chocolate and/or milk
- get a tim tam
- bite the ends of the tim tam
- insert 1 end of tim tam into selected beverage
- suck on other end of tim tam (like you would a straw) until you can taste beverage
- put entire tim tam, now soaked in chosen beverage, into your mouth
- chew
- experience EUPHORIA

My first ever Tim Tam Slam. AWW HOW CUTE

So that's all I'll mention on the subject for now...although odds are I'll continue rambling about Tim Tams later on, simply because I won't be able to help myself. They really are that good. 

Soooo a little over a week ago, I went on a field trip with my science class! The class is called "Our Solar System". And yes, it is as challenging as it sounds. 

Since this was my first field trip since the age of about 7, I was prettyyyy excited about it. 150 UWA students took a 2 hour bus ride to the Gingin Chalk Beds and Observatory. To summarize the trip itinerary, we went digging for fossils, went on a "tour" of the solar system, listened to stories explaining aboriginal history/culture, and looked at an exhibit about the life span of the universe. 

I'm going to be honest, that sounds way cooler than what actually went down. When I heard we were going to get to dig for fossils, I pictured myself out in the Australian bush, surrounded by kangaroos and the like, working with all of my expert archeological digging tools, and discovering billions-of-years-old fossils left and right. What did we do? We climbed over and under barbed wire fences into the middle of a field, where there was a big hole. We climbed down into the hole, where our professor told us to explore and start digging. It was uber exciting for the first 10 minutes, but then when I realized that we were being left to our own devices to dig (a.k.a. use your hands and dig like your dog, or you're not finding anything), the excitement factor quickly faded. I really committed to digging for a long time, determined to come out of it all with an ancient souvenir, but I didn't find anything! 

Oh, and then the kid next to me found a shark tooth that was something like 37 million years old. My professor practically started hyperventilating when he saw it... That kid is definitely gonna get an A. 

Luckily, it was a BEAUTIFUL day despite the sad outcome of my hunt for fossils. So after about an hour of searching I climbed to the top of the dig site and enjoyed the scenery (which I later learned was underwater hundreds of millions of years ago!) It was so beautiful there! Another day well-spent, enjoying the outback :) 

There are fossils in there!!

The dig site

After my unsuccessful attempts at finding dinosaurs, we traveled down the road to the Gingin Observatory and Gravity Center. There, we went on a tour of a "mini" model of the solar system, that was scaled down in size so that it could be a walking tour. In class, my professor made this model sound like it would be one of the coolest things we'd ever see. He explained how it will give us a sense of how huge the universe actually is, it would help us conceptualize the size of the planets in relation to the size of the universe, etc etc. 

So there I was, thinking I was gonna get up close and personal with some planets, when we start the tour. The tour was in the bush behind the observatory, and each planet was literally a marble welded to a block. The blocks were spread out through the bush in relation to their actual distance from each other in the solar system (which was scaled down for the model, of course). So, this tour turned into one of those tours where there is a guy up front with a megaphone, wearing really thick glasses, who is yelling things about planets that you assume are important but you can't hear or see him at all because there are 100 people in front of you so your mind starts to wander, and so do you, and you start exploring the australian bush by yourself for a few minutes because you want to find wild kangaroos and eat the wild berries that those aussies were talking about............ oops (I'm also really sorry about the extent of that run on sentence. But you catch my drift. It was that bad). It was a long tour that spanned about 2 miles and lasted for an hour and a half. What did I gain? Nada. 

But its ok, because I did see 2 wild kangaroos. SO WORTH IT :)

marble + block = PLANET EARTH

Toogar Morrison, an aboriginal elder who spoke to our group later on :) He was awesome

sunset!

After the riveting solar system tour, we went into the observatory where we were given a presentation by a local Noongar aboriginal elder named Toogar Morrison, who told us the stories behind aboriginal constellations. These stories had been passed down over hundreds of thousands of years, so we were essentially getting them straight from the source :) This was my favorite part of the field trip by far, because the stories were fascinating, and Toogar essentially insulted "civilized western culture" the entire time. It was hilariously awesome. Toogar also had featured paintings in the exhibit that we went through next--he is known for his indigenous cosmology artwork, done in traditional dot-painting style. I included a few pictures of his work below--it really was incredible to see, especially after learning the stories behind each of the characters!

Here is one of the paintings of the universe as understood by Noongar aboriginals--I'll summarize what I can!
So, the woman in the top right corner, with the long hair, represents the milky way galaxy, and that is where it all begins. From her, the story moves counter clockwise around the painting. We were told that this woman stole "spirit children" from the aboriginals for her husband's dinner (the children are to the left of the woman's head). The children hid in her long hair (the milky way), trying to escape. Their escape route is long and involved (it moves counter clockwise around the painting), and basically they encounter each of the animals depicted, who are either trying to help them or hurt them along their journey. Don't worry, the story ends well--the kids make it home safe and sound!

The spirit children, trying to make it home!

After hearing the stories behind aboriginal constellations, we were left with an hour to explore an exhibit in the observatory that was about the life span of our universe. The exhibit showed some fun things, like:

A fossil shark tooth I didn't find

Ancient aboriginal cave paintings

All of the different ways the Earth will end! 

"It is predicted that in 7.6 billion years the earth will be swallowed and vaporized by the swollen red sun". Well, that's bleak. 

But really, how depressing/freaky is this

I knew I was special

So that about wraps up the field trip portion of this post :) 

In other news, here's some more Aussie slang I've been picking up on:

"Bottle-o" = liquor store
"arvo" = afternoon
"cuppa" = coffee
"Maccas" = McDonalds
"Bogan" = a hick/redneck
"Cozzie" = bathing suit
"pissed" = drunk (important to know this one.. a very common misunderstanding between Americans and Aussies) 
"spew" = puke
"Jug" = pitcher of beer
"Rock up" = to show up
"Veggo"/"Vejjo" = vegetarian

So, that's the gist of what I've experienced over the last week and a half! I learned a whole lot, I ate my first Tim Tam Slam, I didn't find fossils, I learned about aboriginal constellations, I learned that I'm a star, and I learned how to be an even cooler Aussie. Pretty solid few days! :) 

Still having the greatest time, I LOVE EVERYONE

Cheers!!
Becca :) 

The Tav, Formal Dinners, Footy, Birthdays, and More

Hey all!!

So much to tell you!

First thing to mention:
Last Wednesday, all of the students living in residential colleges in the area went to the "Tav Show" at UWA. UWA has a bar/tavern for students where many events are held. So each semester, there is a Tav Show for college students that everyone goes to. When you go, you wear your college's uniform to represent where you live. Luckily, Tommy definitely has the cutest shirts out of all the colleges, so that was good news since I wasn't allowed to choose my own outfit....tragic. Haha just kidding :)
Anyways, it was so cool meeting students from other colleges who were from all over the world! It was also awesome going out with friends from Tommy--seriously, I love everyone here. I'm so happy to be living in Tommy because everyone knows everyone, and there is zero hesitation to introduce yourself to someone new. People are eager to make friends and are incredibly outgoing, and I love it! It has made the transition here in Perth so easy, because everyone is genuinely friendly and kind.

On the way to the Tav Show, wearing our Tommy shirts :) 

Last Friday, Tommy hosted a "Formal Dinner", which meant exactly what it sounds like--everyone got really dressed up and had dinner together! It was so much fun seeing everyone all dolled up. The Aussies really know how its done! Every cocktail dress was gorgeous, every suit fit to a T. I loved it!
We had a cocktail hour outside, and then moved inside to the Tommy dining hall for a delicious dinner. Afterwards, a million and a half photo shoots took place. EVERYONE had a camera out, and EVERYONE was taking pictures. It was so funny, I don't think I've ever been photographed so much in my life. We all had a blast :)

Here are some of the gems from Formal Dinner:

The BC girls holding down the fort! 

Erin! Love her (and shes tall too yay!!)

I wore heels.....what?!

On Sunday, a bunch of the Americans went to watch a game of Australian Footy! The only way I can describe Footy is to say its a cross between rugby and football...which still isn't too accurate but its the best I can do considering my lack of sports knowledge hahaha. There is a league between the residential colleges, so Tommy has its own team! A bunch of the American guys studying here from Notre Dame are on the team, and they played really well for having just learned everything!
It was so much fun watching the guys play--the best part is, the BC girls (Erica, Alanna, and myself) were dubbed as the official team water girls. We have the crucial job of running onto field to hydrate our wonderful players. It was so funny running around, having no idea when the game was starting and stopping, but giving people water nonetheless..All things considered, I think we did a pretty good job.
Oh, and we're totally getting water girl uniforms. It doesn't get much more legit than that.

Here's a quick video of the boys playing Footy! (We score 6 points!) 

Go Tommy! 

On Monday, it was Erica's 20th birthday!!! We had sooo much fun--we went to the Deen, a club here in Perth, and had a great time! Here are a few pictures, pre-Deen festivities. Dont worry though, we ushered her into young adulthood in a completely responsible, mature manner.............
Happy birthday Erica!! Welcome to your 20s, big girl!

Just a quick side note about how people are awesome here (I just can't get over it):
Erica and I went to a few stores in town today, just for random necessities, and people were constantly stopping just to say a friendly "G'day" and talk to us. We had no idea where to find some of the things we needed, and each time we looked the slightest bit confused, someone would offer their help.
Everyone is so laid back--the energy here is so calm and relaxed, but not lazy like some may think. Everyone is just happy to be living and breathing and doing. I love it, people are so friendly and love to strike up a conversation. No one rushes anywhere, everyone smiles, and everyone says 'g'day' and 'cheers'. Its just great. Haha so that's all on that, I just had to say something because every time i stranger starts talking to me, the paranoid American in me immediately goes on the defensive, and the voice inside my head yells, "WHO IS THIS CREEP TALKING TO YOU". But the more I meet and talk to people, the more I realize it is totally standard to have a friendly conversation with someone, regardless of the fact that you will literally never see that person again. Everyone is just laid back and living in the moment, and I love that universal mentality here. Its an attitude and outlook I want to take back to the States with me, because everyone benefits :)

Ok I know I'm beginning to ramble, so I'll wrap up this post...Mostly because its past my bed time and I have to be at work at 6:00 am tomorrow which is just gonna be brutal. But I know there will be lots of cheery Aussie faces to talk to in the morning so that makes it worth it :) The paycheck doesn't hurt either.

Goodnight everyone! Til next time :) 

Cheers,
Becca

What's Up Down Under

Hey everyone!


Great news, I'M EMPLOYED!!! Maybe now I'll be able to afford a stale loaf of bread in this fine city.
Just kidding. Kind of.


But really everything is so expensive here, it hurts every time I swipe that deadly debit card of mine. The good news is, the minimum wage here is TRIPLE what I make per hour back in the states :)
I'm working at a restaurant/deli/cafe type of place called Mother's Foods, which is right down the street from Tommy. Today was my first day, which was a bit overwhelming because there's a whole lot for me to learn, but I'm sure I'll get the hang of it in a few days. The food they serve there is typical, home made Australian food.. All of which I have never eaten or heard of. So, every time someone ordered something today, I would have to have them point it out to me because I had no idea what they were talking about...oops!


Also, during one part of my shift, my boss asked me to do some food prep (i.e. chop up veggies). When he asked, he pulled out the BIGGEST KNIFE I HAVE EVER SEEN for me to use.
For those who don't know, I am petrified of large knives. TERRIFIED. I don't know why, I just am.. So any time someone is within 5 feet of me and brandishing a knife that could sever a limb, I either cry or I flee. Seeing as how it was my first day at my new job, I really didn't want to do either of those things.. When my boss held the knife out for me, I recoiled, and he nonchalantly goes, "yeh, ya look like you're the kinda girl who might slice yeh fingah on that! I'll getcha a smallah one sweetheart".
So that was very nice of him...No big blades near Rebecca, please :)


In other news, lots has happened since my last post!
At the end of "O Week" we were blessed by an aboriginal elder, as is custom at UWA. That was a super cool experience--UWA is built on Noongar land, which is a tribe here in Western Australia. UWA recognizes that it is stationed on their land, so in order to maintain the good relationship, it is traditional for elders to come and bless the students (according to my orientation leader). I took a video of the blessing to show you all, but for some reason its not uploading! :( I'll try to fix that so you can see--its really really cool!

This past weekend, we went to Fremantle, which is about a 20 minute bus ride to the coast. Fremantle is situated on the Indian Ocean, and it is so incredibly beautiful there. We all enjoyed the day walking around and visiting on the beach. It's a gorgeous town, and I know that I will continue to go there as often as I can (don't worry, we haven't seen any sharks or box jellyfish..yet)

Erica, me, Michelle, and Lauren

This took a lot of effort

Making a pyramid for a picture is clearly an international trend

One thing there is no shortage of in Perth is a club/bar/pub/place that serves alcoholic beverages. It is usual for people to go out every night other than Sunday and Tuesday...Sunday makes sense, but as for Tuesday, I'm not sure why that is. Perhaps because a day of rest is seriously necessary before kicking off a 4-nights-out-straight weekend.
The clubs here are ten times more fun than any club I've been to in America--everyone, boys and girls, have a blast. Also, there typically are more boys out than girls! That is a total 180 from what I am used to. I think for most of us college-age girls, finding nice guys at a club in the States is near impossible.


Also, there is no grinding here, which is so great. Our first few nights out, lots of Americans made the rookie mistake of grinding on the dance floor (rest assured, I was not one of them). As the American grinding continued, Aussies were driven from the dance floor, disgusted and offended. Grinding is definitely a strictly-American thing to do, and to quote my Aussie friend on the subject, "It makes me want to spew"(spew = puke).


Continuing on with the "going out" theme, I have a story for you.
There are a lot of words with double meanings when it comes to Aussie vs. American wording.
For example, Aussie "university" = American "college". Aussie "uni" = American "school". Aussie "college" = American "dorm", Aussie "thongs" = American "flip flops". Its a little confusing, but you catch on after hearing it a few times.
Needless to say, I was unfamiliar with the thongs/flip flops terminology. So, when I was out on Saturday waiting to go into a club, two people complimented my thongs. Both times I spun around checking my outfit, horrified, thinking I was somehow exposing myself to the masses. YIKES. The only good news is, I now know that I own really cute flip flops :)


Other things I want to mention:


1) There are peacocks all over UWA's campus! Pretty much the coolest thing to see when I'm walking to class :)

2) THERE IS A DIAGON ALLY IN PERTH! (Harry Potter fans everywhere you go)

3) When it rains here, it is still sunny! So many rainbows! (sadly I haven't captured a picture of one yet)


4) Hearing 90s American pop and rock songs while out and about is not unusual. Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears played back to back in the store yesterday. 90's cover bands are also quite common :)


5) Australians know the words to Sweet Home Alabama


6) There are way too many buttons on toilets that are for different amounts of water when flushing. I have yet to see any directions on which buttons are for what.


7) We learned an Aussie dance (the Tacata) from my Aussie friends, Erin and Katelin, and then we taught them the most important American dances they could ever know (The YMCA and the Cha Cha Slide obviously). The video is pretty absurd--at least we look adorable in our Tommy uniforms..

That's all that I have for you guys at the moment--I'll keep the posts coming as often as possible! There's a lot of fun stuff coming up this week, so I can't wait to tell you all about it!


Cheers,
Rebecca :)