After orientation though I was able to catch a bus into the CBD (that's the central business district - downtown Perth) and get myself a mobile (cellphone to us Americans). Played some pickup basketball when I got back to Currie and after dinner, it being Friday night and all, a group of decided to go out and get some drinks. I wasn't really sure what I wanted, so I got a sample of some different Australian beers:
(and no, mom and dad, I didn't have all those Friday night, I only had the emu bitter, which I thought was pretty good, and the Beez Neez, which was a honey wheat beer and was also pretty decent). Alcohol in Australia is damn expensive - eight bottles ran me about 28 bucks.
Next morning we had another uni-organized bus tour, this time to some areas in Perth and around. Our first stop was King's Park, this time the other end where I hadn't been before. There were some beautiful views of Perth downtown and the Swan River, and some beautiful grassy lawns where we played some frisbee (Noam, another Currie hall'er who's on exchange from Maryland, brought the frisbee).
Next we went to Cottlesloe Beach, which was maybe ten minutes from UWA and was absolutely gorgeous, despite the fact that it was a little nippy out. I waded into the surf up to about my kness and now I can proudly say that I have been in the Indian Ocean! We all played some more frisbee on the beach and then the buses took us down the road to Fremantle.
Fremantle (or Freo, as it's known here, Australians like to abbreviate stuff) was awesome. It's a small port city thats also very artsy, it actually reminded me a lot of Seattle. There was a marketplace that was sort of a mini version of Pike's Place as well as a whole bunch of shops and restaurants. Walked thorugh some of that with a group of Currie Hall exchange kids (we're sort of becoming our own little clique), plus Patrick, another exchange student from Germany who's staying off campus. After scouring the area we managed to find some decently priced fish and chips (by that I mean it was $13; this really is an expensive country - other places had it as high as 34). We also checked out this beach fort before heading back to campus:
Fremantle market building
Saturday night a group of us went out to the CBD to see the movie Inception. Luckily the movie theater was still open when we got there at 730, but pretty mcuh everywhere else except the bars and clubs was closed, parts of the shopping center felt like a ghost town. It was a real contrast to having been there on Friday (I went at about 430) when it was very busy and lively. Perth just seems to shut down early; I've heard there's a lot of old retired people that move out here (a la Florida or Arizona) so that may have something to do with it. Inception was amazing and now I'm about to go out looking for a bike. Classes start tomorrow!
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