Then at 10:30 I started my enrolment. This was a multistep process that involved a few stops across campus, but by the end of about an hour and a half I not only was signed up for my classes, but I now have a student ID, membership in the UWA Guild, and a TransPerth SmartRider card that will get me on local buses, trains, and ferries (yes, they have ferries here! not quite as big as the ones back home, but still a familiar sight). I also stuck my head into the camous secondhand bookstore (for any UW readers, basically UWA's version of the Book Kennel except it's on campus) and bought a handy little guide to the animals of Australia and New Zealand. I can now proudly report that the mystery bird from yesterday's stroll through King's Park is a white-backed magpie.
As it stands, I'm enrolled for four classes: Australia's Wars, Sudan to Saddam (Australian history should be interesting, and let's face it, they haven't been around that long so there can't be too many wars to cover), USA since 1945 (very interested to see what the Aussies have to say about our history), Vertebrate Zoology, and Wildlife Conservation Management (hope there's a fair amount of Australian spin on this course). I find out my finalized timetable on Friday, so more about classes then.
After lunch I played a bit of casual cricket on the Currie Hall quad lawn. This was my first real intorduction to the game of cricket, which is quite the interesting sport. In some ways it's kind of like baseball, except there are no bases and the batter, as far as was explained to me, isn't under any real obligation to run at all anywhere. Instead, balls are pitched to him/her and can be hit anywhere on the field on play. It actually reminded me a little bit of the home run derby except it's more like the infield single derby because theres no real reward for hitting it higher or farther and an out can occur when the ball is caught in the air or caught with one hand after the first bounce. A ball hitting the wicket, which the batter stands in front of (we used a garbage can, and the first time I batted I basically stood beside it like you would home plate, with the result that I smashed the bat into the garbage can - I felt pretty cool) is also an out. But one out didn't necessarily seem to mean a change of batter - I'm not sure whether that's because we were just playing for fun or what the deal is. Like I said, an interesting game - with a lot more nuances than those I've just described.
Post-cricket match I decided to have another look at King's Park. I was on my own this time but I made it a bit farther. There's still a lot of the park I have yet to see, but I made it to some cool sights nonetheless. The first was the DNA observation tower, so named because there are two sets of stairs you can take to the top, each of which wraps around the central supports like a DNA double helix. From the tower you can see downtown Perth as well as a lot of King's Park. From there I traversed the park by means of a long, grassy lawn that ended at the coolest kid's playground I've seen in a long time. The whole thing was set around a central pond that had an island/playset in the middle, and a path around the pond was designed like a journey through geologic time, with periodic stops at different eras, each with a lifesize statue of an extinct creature from that time - there were dinosaurs, giant extinct crocodiles, extinct birds, and giane marsupial beavers.
A little further and I came to the edge of King's Park and the community of Subiaco, where I had a look at a bikeshop (they didn't do used bikes but they gave me the name of a place that does) and then caught the bus back to Currie Hall (I actually was having major trouble figuring out which bus to take when I bumped into the man who checked me in at enrolment this morning, and he pointed me in the right direction - #97 bus). After dinner there was another orientation activity - ice skating! It was a lot of fun and also pretty cool seeing the different talent levels of people from around the world. I managed to eat it only once so I'd consider the outing pretty successful. After we got back I went out for pizza with a big group of kids and just got back from that.
It's almost midnight here, by far the latest I've been up since arriving in Australia. Here's to the jetlag almost being gone! Uni-sponsored trip to Caversham Wildlife Park tomorrow, should be a blast. Hope all is well back in the good old U.S. of A.
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