OK, so I had my first day of class yesterday. Everything went pretty well for the most part. My Wildlife Conservation and Management class seems fun, pretty similar to things I've covered before but a lot more Australian emphasis. We also have to arrange to do at least two days of fieldwork (i.e. volunteering with a research scientist) which should be a lot of fun. I also met a girl from Vermont who's in the class, as well as my friend Tanja from Germany who I wrote about earlier and a guy from Sweden (who is in zoology with me as well).
After that lecture I rode my new bike over to the Perth Zoo, which is across the river but only about a 15 minute cycle away. Got a membership card, which was $49 but gets me unlimited access (one-time admission is $21) plus reciprocals at zoos across Australia. Had a brief look around, saw some lemurs, gibbons, cassowaries, and tree kangaroos, then had to get back to Currie for lunch and my next lecture, which was Vertebrate Zoology.
Lecture itself was pretty good, my professor has a gnarly beard that goes down to about his waist but is completely bald otherwise. But once I got done I came back out to find that the back tire on my bike was completely flat. Great.
I had to stay on campus for zoology lab (which was interesting; we were looking at lampreys, which are jawless fish that have suction cup mouths and rasping tongues they use to suck blood), but then afterwards I had to carry my bike all the way back to Currie because of my flat. Not fun. Too late to go to the bike shop (lab ended at 6) so instead I had dinner, watched a movie with some folks, and hung out playing cards (thankfully no homework...yet).
Normally on Tuesdays I have a lecture and a tutorial (essentially a discussion/quiz section) for a history class but they were canceled for today so I had a free morning to sort out some stuff with my bank and cellphone accounts. Fortunately at lunch I met up with my friend Matt (from Melbourne) who has a hired car through Monday, to help me out with my bike. With some tinkering and a wrench we borrowed from the maintenance shed we were able to get the back tire off and then take it to the bike shop. Turned out when I initially bought it, the outer tire wasn't installed properly so the innertube got punctured by the edge of the rim. Not my fault, no charge to replace it. Whew.
Getting the tire back on took a little more effort (mostly getting the brakes aligned) but fortunately Matt is a mechanical engineering guy and we got it figured out. I can now happily report it's riding like a dream. Pretty easy afternoon - got a gym membership, played some ping pong and pool, and now about to head off for dinner. 8 AM lecture tomorrow (fortunately my only one of the week) so it'll be an early night, but we have an intercollege tav party tomorrow which oughta be a good time.
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