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 :)