Race results from City to Surf 2010 are up, and so I now have an official time of 1:03:42 for the 12k race. That was good enough to place me 2,863rd overall, and 2,460th in my gender division. Not awful when you take into account that there were 40,00-odd people running.
If you don't believe me, then check out the results yourself: http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/special-features/city-to-surf/city-to-surf-stats?statsbib=18802
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Monday, August 30, 2010
Twelve Kilometers of Awesome
Not an incredible amount to report since my last post, at least nothing as crazy awesome as the Margaret River trip. Had a wine-and-cheese party on Thursday, where I brought the bottle I got at Voyager Estates. Friday we had the Currie Hall Rivercruise, where they took us out on a boat on the Swan River for a few hours. That was fun - there was some sort of glo theme, so we all got painted up beforehand then we got to see ourselves glow in the blacklights they had on board - but the ceiling on the boat was also about two inches above my head which wasn't so awesome.
Fun story from Saturday, though: went to Cottlesloe Beach again and went for a run along the surf with Matt. We'd been going for maybe 10 minutes when we suddenly realized that, instead of being surrounded by happy laughing kids and beautiful women in bikinis, everyone around us was, well, old dudes who were all very, very much in the nude. Yes, we ran straight into the Perth nude beach, which had absolutely no sign or marker or demarcation - just all of a sudden everyone goes from swimsuit to birthday suit. We figured that was probably a good time to turn around. Also got to play some tennis Saturday night (they finally fixed the lights on the Currie Hall court).
Sunday, though I had signed up to be on the Currie Hall team for City to Surf, which is Perth's biggest run that is held every year for charity. Checking the website, over 40,000 people were running this year's event (the start was pretty insane, they have 5 different starting groups for the 12K alone, they also do a 4K, half marathon, and marathon). True to its name, City to Surf starts in the middle of downtown Perth and is run along a 12 kilometer course to City Beach. For those uniniated in the metric system, which I think is everyone reading this blog, 12 kilometers is about 7 1/2 miles. I'm definitely not in that great of running shape, but I made it through the race just fine - only had to stop and walk once, and that was on a steep hill close to the end, and I'm not that sore today. Hey, I even finished third among the Currie Hall team - out of three people who ran.
No idea what my official time was, it should be posted fairly soon. The winner ran 36:56, I can tell you with confidence that I was quite a bit slower than that (I think it was just a bit over an hour). Anyways, I had a ton of fun running in what by far was the biggest footrace I've ever been in, and as soon as I got back I ate two plates of pasta and meatballs, three pears, a peanut butter and nutella sandwich, and drank a jug of kool aid, then went and had a three hour nap.
One last story to leave you all with: on the bus home from City to Surf I saw a guy wearing a Seahawks hat, which got me really excited until I talked to him and he'd never actually been there (his dad sent him the hat). Still, it was kind of fun to see a sign of home in such a faroff land.
Sorry I have no pictures for this post, I'll try to do something else awesome soon so I can post pictoral evidence of it online. School is actually picking up a bit (my first actual assignment is due Friday!) so I will be a little busier for the next few weeks. Sure I'll still find some time to have fun, though. Football season starts soon - Go Huskies!
Fun story from Saturday, though: went to Cottlesloe Beach again and went for a run along the surf with Matt. We'd been going for maybe 10 minutes when we suddenly realized that, instead of being surrounded by happy laughing kids and beautiful women in bikinis, everyone around us was, well, old dudes who were all very, very much in the nude. Yes, we ran straight into the Perth nude beach, which had absolutely no sign or marker or demarcation - just all of a sudden everyone goes from swimsuit to birthday suit. We figured that was probably a good time to turn around. Also got to play some tennis Saturday night (they finally fixed the lights on the Currie Hall court).
Sunday, though I had signed up to be on the Currie Hall team for City to Surf, which is Perth's biggest run that is held every year for charity. Checking the website, over 40,000 people were running this year's event (the start was pretty insane, they have 5 different starting groups for the 12K alone, they also do a 4K, half marathon, and marathon). True to its name, City to Surf starts in the middle of downtown Perth and is run along a 12 kilometer course to City Beach. For those uniniated in the metric system, which I think is everyone reading this blog, 12 kilometers is about 7 1/2 miles. I'm definitely not in that great of running shape, but I made it through the race just fine - only had to stop and walk once, and that was on a steep hill close to the end, and I'm not that sore today. Hey, I even finished third among the Currie Hall team - out of three people who ran.
No idea what my official time was, it should be posted fairly soon. The winner ran 36:56, I can tell you with confidence that I was quite a bit slower than that (I think it was just a bit over an hour). Anyways, I had a ton of fun running in what by far was the biggest footrace I've ever been in, and as soon as I got back I ate two plates of pasta and meatballs, three pears, a peanut butter and nutella sandwich, and drank a jug of kool aid, then went and had a three hour nap.
One last story to leave you all with: on the bus home from City to Surf I saw a guy wearing a Seahawks hat, which got me really excited until I talked to him and he'd never actually been there (his dad sent him the hat). Still, it was kind of fun to see a sign of home in such a faroff land.
Sorry I have no pictures for this post, I'll try to do something else awesome soon so I can post pictoral evidence of it online. School is actually picking up a bit (my first actual assignment is due Friday!) so I will be a little busier for the next few weeks. Sure I'll still find some time to have fun, though. Football season starts soon - Go Huskies!
Monday, August 23, 2010
Bootleg Brewery Adventures
Our last stop on the Margaret River adventure
Tasting tray with the pond in the background. Also take note of the clever slogan they use.
The brewery also had one of the most fun games I've played in a while, namely a giant version of jenga. When we started playing it the tower was this high...
...but it got higher (and we all made funny faces while taking blocks out)
And then Noam lost (good thing, too, because my turn was after his)
Tasting tray with the pond in the background. Also take note of the clever slogan they use.
The brewery also had one of the most fun games I've played in a while, namely a giant version of jenga. When we started playing it the tower was this high...
...but it got higher (and we all made funny faces while taking blocks out)
And then Noam lost (good thing, too, because my turn was after his)
Margaret River, Day 2
Started off yesterday at a little more reasonable time than the day before, getting up about 8, cooking eggs at the hostel, and hitting the road about 9:30. Margaret River is known above everything else as wine country, so of course we weren't going to leave without sampling a bit of that. There's I think something like 80 official wineries in the area, so we had plenty of options. Taking a tip we decided to first visit Leeuwin Estates, which is located pretty close to where we stayed and was easy to find, plus offered a couple of wines that were named best in Australia by some American magazine (which I guess makes it pretty legit).
The estate itself was totally beautiful, as you can see in the picture above. As none of us knew anything really about wine, we relied heavily on the tasting guides, who were all very informative and eager to guides us noobs through the process. I don't have too discriminating or refined a palate, so I enjoyed almost all the wines we sampled yesterday.
After Leeuwin, we went to the next winery up the road (seriously, there's enough of them down there you could keep yourself busy for a month just tasting wine and not visit the same place twice), called Voyager Estates. The grounds here were even prettier, with rolling hills, eucalyptus trees, and some gardens that would have been really nice except none of the roses were in bloom. We did the requisite wine tasting there (yes, we did have a designated driver - thanks, Noam), and I liked the wines a little more than at Leeuwin. Actually bought a bottle of chenin blanc, which I'm planning to share on Thursday when our friend Stevie is hosting a wine-and-cheese party.
We just had sandwiches for lunch, but we had a ways to drive to get to our next destination and we needed gas, so we headed for the nearest settlement, the little hamlet of Gracetown, which was located next to this incredible beach we took an impromptu stop at:
After the beach, we hit one more winery (also very nice, although not too unique), and then went to the famous Margaret River chocolate factory. This was actually a little disappointing; we were expecting Willy Wonka and all they had was one window where you could look in at chocolate being made, without any explanation or person to answer questions:
There was, however, a sizable shop filled with just about every chocolate confection or chocolate-themed foodstuff/personal hygiene product you can imagine. As tempting as it was to buy one or two of everything, I limited myself to a dark chocolate bar and a rocky road bar, both of which I have yet to actually dig into. They also had a little cafe, and I think everyone got the chocolate brownie with a scoop of ice cream, which was indescribably good.
Our next stop was the local cheese factory, which again had no tour or anything but did have some tasty free samples and a shop, where we split the cost of some brie and crackers and ate it out in the sun. We had one last stop after that, the Bootleg Brewery, which is a very scenic local brewery located in the middle of some pastureland (there were literally cows next door) next to a small pond. Noam, Matt, and I split the sampler tray, which was a great way to wind down an awesome weekend. Not too much more to say about our time in Margaret River, other than that I won the country game in the car on the way home (everyone goes around naming countries of the world until you can't think of one in a 30-second slot). Hooray for useless knowledge!
The estate itself was totally beautiful, as you can see in the picture above. As none of us knew anything really about wine, we relied heavily on the tasting guides, who were all very informative and eager to guides us noobs through the process. I don't have too discriminating or refined a palate, so I enjoyed almost all the wines we sampled yesterday.
After Leeuwin, we went to the next winery up the road (seriously, there's enough of them down there you could keep yourself busy for a month just tasting wine and not visit the same place twice), called Voyager Estates. The grounds here were even prettier, with rolling hills, eucalyptus trees, and some gardens that would have been really nice except none of the roses were in bloom. We did the requisite wine tasting there (yes, we did have a designated driver - thanks, Noam), and I liked the wines a little more than at Leeuwin. Actually bought a bottle of chenin blanc, which I'm planning to share on Thursday when our friend Stevie is hosting a wine-and-cheese party.
We just had sandwiches for lunch, but we had a ways to drive to get to our next destination and we needed gas, so we headed for the nearest settlement, the little hamlet of Gracetown, which was located next to this incredible beach we took an impromptu stop at:
After the beach, we hit one more winery (also very nice, although not too unique), and then went to the famous Margaret River chocolate factory. This was actually a little disappointing; we were expecting Willy Wonka and all they had was one window where you could look in at chocolate being made, without any explanation or person to answer questions:
There was, however, a sizable shop filled with just about every chocolate confection or chocolate-themed foodstuff/personal hygiene product you can imagine. As tempting as it was to buy one or two of everything, I limited myself to a dark chocolate bar and a rocky road bar, both of which I have yet to actually dig into. They also had a little cafe, and I think everyone got the chocolate brownie with a scoop of ice cream, which was indescribably good.
Our next stop was the local cheese factory, which again had no tour or anything but did have some tasty free samples and a shop, where we split the cost of some brie and crackers and ate it out in the sun. We had one last stop after that, the Bootleg Brewery, which is a very scenic local brewery located in the middle of some pastureland (there were literally cows next door) next to a small pond. Noam, Matt, and I split the sampler tray, which was a great way to wind down an awesome weekend. Not too much more to say about our time in Margaret River, other than that I won the country game in the car on the way home (everyone goes around naming countries of the world until you can't think of one in a 30-second slot). Hooray for useless knowledge!
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Pictures from Cape Leeuwin
Rock formations and the lighthouse - looking south from the Southern Ocean side
Looking north from the Indian Ocean side of the cape
Looking south from the Indian Ocean side towards the lighthouse
Crazy rock formations
Lake Cave
As promised, more pictures from the excursion:
Ominous-looking descent into the cave's depths - it also had about 3 feet of headroom and two especially low-hanging rocks our guide called "headache" and "splitting headache"
The cave's most famous formation, the inverted table, which is actually a remnant of the cave floor held up by two columns. It's heard to tell but there is water that sits about two feet under the bottom of the table. It's called Lake Cave because, appropriately, there is a big lake in the middle of it, and visitors walk around the edge of it on a boardwalk. The orange lines on the columns represent past water levels; the water in the cave has dropped drastically in the last decade (they think climate change has something to do with it but they're not really sure), which isn't a good omen for the cave's future.
Our guide did a very cool light show for us, where she turned different sections of lights in the cave on and off while we watched.
Portion of the cave ceiling that has collapsed but still has formations on it.
Ominous-looking descent into the cave's depths - it also had about 3 feet of headroom and two especially low-hanging rocks our guide called "headache" and "splitting headache"
The cave's most famous formation, the inverted table, which is actually a remnant of the cave floor held up by two columns. It's heard to tell but there is water that sits about two feet under the bottom of the table. It's called Lake Cave because, appropriately, there is a big lake in the middle of it, and visitors walk around the edge of it on a boardwalk. The orange lines on the columns represent past water levels; the water in the cave has dropped drastically in the last decade (they think climate change has something to do with it but they're not really sure), which isn't a good omen for the cave's future.
Our guide did a very cool light show for us, where she turned different sections of lights in the cave on and off while we watched.
Portion of the cave ceiling that has collapsed but still has formations on it.
Margaret River - Day 1
Just got back a few hours ago from our Margaret River trip, probably my favorite thing I've done thus far in Australia (not to discount anything else, because it's all been awesome, but this weekend was especially great). Our trip started Saturday morning a little after 5 when seven of us - Noam, Matt, Alyssa, Leslie, Sindre, Cindy, and myself - all piled into the super-cool minivan we rented for the weekend and headed down south. Margaret River is a town about 300km south of Perth, which translates into about a 3 1/2 hour drive. The town itself is cool, but the region around it is really the reason to come. It's roughly situated between two points, Cape Naturaliste and Cape Leeuwin, and includes the aptly named Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park, as well as caves, forests, roughly 10 million wineries, and a myriad of other attractions.
We decided to spend our first day doing mostly outdoor stuff. The weather was iffy - mostly cloudy/rainy with a few sunbreaks - but we managed to persevere and have a wonderful time despite the hardships. We started out by hiking a portion of the Cape-to-Cape track, which is a trail that runs between the two capes of the region and takes about five days if you do the whole thing.
The scenery from the trail, which ran along the cliffs overlooking the Indian Ocean, was totally spectacular, as you can see above, but what got me the most exited was that we saw wild kangaroos for the first time ever! (Matt just sort of laughed at us for how excited we got; kangaroos are actually pretty commonplace in most areas to the point of being a pest, sort of like deer in the US). Two kangaroos, which looked like a mother and a maybe year-old baby, hopped in front of us as we were hiking; we proably disturbed them resting somewhere. Kangaroos can move pretty fast, so I was only able to get one good picture, but here it is:
We actually saw quite a few more kangaroos this weekend, including one that bounded in front of our car (and one dead on the side of the road, which unfortunately is not an uncommon occurence).
After the hike we headed down to the beach, where there were some really cool rock formations that we could scamper around on. It was also getting pretty stormy, so after not too long we headed to the car and had lunch.
At 1:30 we took a tour of Lake Cave, which is the most famous of a whole group of caves that dot the area. It wasn't especially big, but some of the formations were really spectacular and our guide was very good. The cave was located down in a pit (I forget the actual geological term) so it was quite a hike to get there and even harder to climb back up, but we managed all right.
In the afternoon, we took a scenic drive through some karri (giant eucalyptus) forest, then we went to Cape Leeuwin, the southernmost point of the cape-to-cape region. There were some very cool rock formations there and we all got some incredible pictures with the stormy sea and sunbreak-thorugh-the-clouds lighting. Cape Leeuwin is especially notable because it's the point where the Indian Ocean meets the Southern Ocean, so I can now say I've been at the mixing point of two of the world's great seas. There is a lighthouse of the tip of the cape, but it cost $15 admission to go to it and you couldn't actually go up the lighthouse we didn't make it out to the extreme edge of the cape, but it was pretty fun anyways.
After seeing Cape Leeuwin it was starting to get dark so we called it a day and drove to check into our hostel. We decided to actually go out to eat as all of us were hankering for a good meal after a constant supply of Currie food, and we found a reasonably priced tavern called Settler's that had really good food. I had house specialty "burger royale," which was the first burger I'd had since coming here, and I have to say it didn't disappoint in the slightest. We then spent the evening playing poker at the hostel with bottle caps we found in a big box in the lounge.
Day 2 of our Margaret River adventure was just as fun, filled with sensory pleasures and gorgeous scenery, but I'll have more about that later. Unfortunately I can only upload 4 pictures at a time to a post, so I'll put some more Day 1 pictures up then I need to get to bed and I'll write more tomorrow.
We decided to spend our first day doing mostly outdoor stuff. The weather was iffy - mostly cloudy/rainy with a few sunbreaks - but we managed to persevere and have a wonderful time despite the hardships. We started out by hiking a portion of the Cape-to-Cape track, which is a trail that runs between the two capes of the region and takes about five days if you do the whole thing.
The scenery from the trail, which ran along the cliffs overlooking the Indian Ocean, was totally spectacular, as you can see above, but what got me the most exited was that we saw wild kangaroos for the first time ever! (Matt just sort of laughed at us for how excited we got; kangaroos are actually pretty commonplace in most areas to the point of being a pest, sort of like deer in the US). Two kangaroos, which looked like a mother and a maybe year-old baby, hopped in front of us as we were hiking; we proably disturbed them resting somewhere. Kangaroos can move pretty fast, so I was only able to get one good picture, but here it is:
We actually saw quite a few more kangaroos this weekend, including one that bounded in front of our car (and one dead on the side of the road, which unfortunately is not an uncommon occurence).
After the hike we headed down to the beach, where there were some really cool rock formations that we could scamper around on. It was also getting pretty stormy, so after not too long we headed to the car and had lunch.
At 1:30 we took a tour of Lake Cave, which is the most famous of a whole group of caves that dot the area. It wasn't especially big, but some of the formations were really spectacular and our guide was very good. The cave was located down in a pit (I forget the actual geological term) so it was quite a hike to get there and even harder to climb back up, but we managed all right.
In the afternoon, we took a scenic drive through some karri (giant eucalyptus) forest, then we went to Cape Leeuwin, the southernmost point of the cape-to-cape region. There were some very cool rock formations there and we all got some incredible pictures with the stormy sea and sunbreak-thorugh-the-clouds lighting. Cape Leeuwin is especially notable because it's the point where the Indian Ocean meets the Southern Ocean, so I can now say I've been at the mixing point of two of the world's great seas. There is a lighthouse of the tip of the cape, but it cost $15 admission to go to it and you couldn't actually go up the lighthouse we didn't make it out to the extreme edge of the cape, but it was pretty fun anyways.
After seeing Cape Leeuwin it was starting to get dark so we called it a day and drove to check into our hostel. We decided to actually go out to eat as all of us were hankering for a good meal after a constant supply of Currie food, and we found a reasonably priced tavern called Settler's that had really good food. I had house specialty "burger royale," which was the first burger I'd had since coming here, and I have to say it didn't disappoint in the slightest. We then spent the evening playing poker at the hostel with bottle caps we found in a big box in the lounge.
Day 2 of our Margaret River adventure was just as fun, filled with sensory pleasures and gorgeous scenery, but I'll have more about that later. Unfortunately I can only upload 4 pictures at a time to a post, so I'll put some more Day 1 pictures up then I need to get to bed and I'll write more tomorrow.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Perth is Awesome
They have some pretty awesome stuff right in the middle of the city...vegetable gardens and a mini-wetland restoration that are literally 50 yards from the downtown train station. Just wanted to share that.
Museum
No class until 3 today so I decided to go to the W.A. Museum and check it out. The W.A. Museum is actually a series os museums, kinda like the Smithsonian, but spread around Western Australia, so there's the one I went to today in downtown Perth, two in Fremantle, one in Kalgoorlie (east), in Geraldton (north), and Albany (south), and maybe one or two more I'm missing, all specializing in different stuff. Anyways, I was only there for a couple hours (I had more time but the place was overrun with school groups and after a while I couldn't take any more screaming kids) but what I saw of the place was awesome. Even better, admission was free! They do have a special Pompeii exhibit you have to pay for; I didn't see that today but I want to before it leaves in September. Hopefully I can convince some people to go with me.
The Perth W.A. Museum is sort of a hydrid history and natural history museum. There were some awesome historical displays on Western Australia (including the old Perth Gaol) and Aboriginal culture but also geology/fossil/natural history collections. I especially enjoyed all the meteorites they had on display, including a bunch you can touch - it's pretty cool to think you're coming in contact with something that came from some distant reach of the solar system.
Awesome dinosaur model
They had a tapir!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I loved this penguin just cuz it looks super instense and ticked off.
Margaret River this weekend...should be a blast.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
And the Beach...
So here's some pics from Cottlesloe on Sunday
(Indian Ocean!)
(Yes, that's my head - bodysurfing is awesome)
(My current facebook profile picture, I'm howling in pain after I jumped at the wrong time and got smacked on the back by a wave)
(Indian Ocean!)
(Yes, that's my head - bodysurfing is awesome)
(My current facebook profile picture, I'm howling in pain after I jumped at the wrong time and got smacked on the back by a wave)
One Month Down Under
Well, here's the first big milestone - it's now been a month since I arrived in Australia. It's weird to think about it that way, because it feels like I've been here a long time. So far I couldn't be happier with my decision to come not only to Australia, both also to Perth and UWA, because I've really been having an awesome time. The weather is beautiful (for the most part), the people are friendly, it's easy to get places, and there's always something to do.
AND...I figured out how to get pictures uploaded a lot easier, so here's a few from Perth Zoo, respectively of a red kangaroo, a Tasmanian devil (which, contrary to popular belief I've learned, are really not that fast at all and would lose to a chicken in a footrace), and an elephant:
Tuesday morning I had a lovely bike ride. I don't have class until 11 on Tuesdays, so Noam and I started riding out of town, past the downtown area of Perth, and into some nice sort of suburb-ish areas, mostly hugging the Swan River. I got to see a couple things I hadn't seen yet, most notably wild black swans (which are W.A.'s animal emblem) in the wild, which I really enjoyed (didn't bring a camera, though - drats). Also saw the first husky I've seen here, out for a walk with its owner. Everything was going great until I got a flat tire about 4-5 miles out from campus (and the same one as my earlier flat - I mean, come on) and had to walk the whole way back, which took about two hours. I felt better that afternoon, though, at my history tutorial (their name for a discussion section) when we had an awesome academic discussion about the concept of "freedom fries."
Yesterday night was Sindre's birthday, so we went out for dinner at an Indian restaurant. The food was really good except that it came in tiny portions for how expensive it was (like $20 a dish). But anyways, happy birthday to Sindre! Our first down under birthday (there's a few coming up in September/October).
Things today were pretty uneventful; I did some errands (including taking my bike to the shop, which is a huge pain because they don't allow bikes on buses here - they don't even have racks on the front) and had my first yoga class, which I thought went fairly well. Tomorrow I am free until 3 so I think I'm going to check out the Western Australian Museum, and this weekend a group of us exhcanges are going down to Margaret River, which is about 3 hours south of Perth and is supposed to be totally spectacular. I'll have more on that later.
One story to leave you with: the Australian election is this weekend, and the last two days I've been downtown there's been a crazy lady decked out in Australian flag-themed clothing, screaming her lungs out at people about how illegal immigrants are ruining the country and we can't let the liberals take over, etc, etc. I guess the more you travel, the more things are the same.
AND...I figured out how to get pictures uploaded a lot easier, so here's a few from Perth Zoo, respectively of a red kangaroo, a Tasmanian devil (which, contrary to popular belief I've learned, are really not that fast at all and would lose to a chicken in a footrace), and an elephant:
Tuesday morning I had a lovely bike ride. I don't have class until 11 on Tuesdays, so Noam and I started riding out of town, past the downtown area of Perth, and into some nice sort of suburb-ish areas, mostly hugging the Swan River. I got to see a couple things I hadn't seen yet, most notably wild black swans (which are W.A.'s animal emblem) in the wild, which I really enjoyed (didn't bring a camera, though - drats). Also saw the first husky I've seen here, out for a walk with its owner. Everything was going great until I got a flat tire about 4-5 miles out from campus (and the same one as my earlier flat - I mean, come on) and had to walk the whole way back, which took about two hours. I felt better that afternoon, though, at my history tutorial (their name for a discussion section) when we had an awesome academic discussion about the concept of "freedom fries."
Yesterday night was Sindre's birthday, so we went out for dinner at an Indian restaurant. The food was really good except that it came in tiny portions for how expensive it was (like $20 a dish). But anyways, happy birthday to Sindre! Our first down under birthday (there's a few coming up in September/October).
Things today were pretty uneventful; I did some errands (including taking my bike to the shop, which is a huge pain because they don't allow bikes on buses here - they don't even have racks on the front) and had my first yoga class, which I thought went fairly well. Tomorrow I am free until 3 so I think I'm going to check out the Western Australian Museum, and this weekend a group of us exhcanges are going down to Margaret River, which is about 3 hours south of Perth and is supposed to be totally spectacular. I'll have more on that later.
One story to leave you with: the Australian election is this weekend, and the last two days I've been downtown there's been a crazy lady decked out in Australian flag-themed clothing, screaming her lungs out at people about how illegal immigrants are ruining the country and we can't let the liberals take over, etc, etc. I guess the more you travel, the more things are the same.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Darn Good Week
So first off: the internet here at Currie is really screwy, especially at peak hours, and the several times this week I've tried to upload photos it just hasn't worked. So what I think I'm going to do is just make a profile on a photo sharing site and upload pictures there, letting you all know when I do it. Hopefully I'll have that up and running tonight.
Now that that's out of the way, I've been having quite a good week in general, despite the weather doing its best Seattle impression (it was about 55F and cloudy/rainy for a couple days running, but we've had a nice weekend). Nothing otherworldly Monday or Tuesday. Wednesdays I have the afternoon off and nothing was going on so naturally I took the opportunity to go to the zoo, again. It wasn't very crowded at all and a lot of animals were active, including the echidna - I had never before seen an echidna move in person, whenever I've seen them they always just sit there and it might as well be a pincushion because it's not exciting at all. For those of you unfamiliar with what an echidna is, it's a very primitive mammal called a monotreme (the platypus is the only other one) that lays eggs instead of giving birth to live young. It's also adapted to eat termites so it has a long, sticky anteater-like tongue and it also has spines like a hedgehog. I also really enjoyed watching the bilby in the nocturnal house - it's a marsupial that sort of looks like a cross between a rabbit and an aardvark.
Wednesday night I finally got to go out to eat. Janan, who's one of the RA's from Singapore, took a group of about 10 of us out to a Chinese restaurant in Northbridge. It was something called steamboat, which means you have a couple pots of boiling broth in the middle of your table into which you can dump just about anything you want - meat, seafood, intestines (which I tried and actually kinda liked), veggies, etc, etc. There was a huge buffet and it was all-you-can-eat for $35, which was pricey but I think I ate well over that value worth of food. All in all, we were there for about 2 1/2 hours and all left feeling very, very full. Afterwards we got together with a big group of Currie Hall'ers and went to Captain Stirling, which is a local club/bar/hang-out spot. I didn't have much to drink but it was a good time. I left before midnight with a group of people after one of our friends, who had had a few too many drinks, decided it would be a good idea to start grinding on a security guard, which might not be one of the ten stupidest decisions ever but might merit consideration.
Friday I have a big gap in the middle of the day so I went to the gym's Body Balance class, which I did last week as well and is sort of a mix of yoga, tai chi, and some other eastern sort of exercise stuff and includes a meditation at the end. I'm not too good at it but it's pretty enjoyable. Did that with my friends Alison from Canada and Giulia from Italy (I was the only dude in about a class of thirty). Friday night was the college-sponsored Boy's and Girl's Night Out, which was basically seperate pub crawls for guys and girls where we met up at the end. I don't need to go into too much detail except to say that it was a fun, hilarious night out.
Saturday was awesome - I finally got to experience Australian Rules Football, or footy as it's generally referred to, firsthand! The game looks really confusing to an untrained eye, but it's actually pretty easy to understand. The field is a giant oval (probably about 1 2/3 American football fields) with four sets of upright sticks at each end. Players from one team advance the ball by kicking or punching (yes, punching, there's no throwing) it downfield. If you catch a ball that's been kicked it's called a mark and you get sort of a free kick. You can run with the ball, which is shaped like a more rounded and oblong American football, but you have to bounce it once every 15 meters. Scoring occurs when the ball goes through the posts. If it goes through the two middle posts, it's a goal and worth six points; if it's through either of the outside sets of posts it's a point and worth, yes, one point. There's four quarters of a half hour each, and there's actually quite a bit of scoring - our game was something like 96 to 85 at the end. Most of the players are ridiculously ripped and look like they could easily play wide receiver or tight end at a pretty high level. There's a lot of tackling and bumping involved, and no pads; it's a hardcore sport (even though they wear tiny short shorts)
There is more to the game than that, obviously, but that's the basic rules. If you want to read more about it, try wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_rules_football
The high-level footy games in Australia are in the AFL (Australian Football League). Western Australia has two teams, the West Coast Eagles and Fremantle Dockers. Traditionally, I'm told, West Coast is a much better team - they won it all a few years back - but they're really stinking it up this year and Freo is playing quite well and have a playoff spot locked up. The two teams actually play in the same stadium, the Subiaco Oval, but as we wanted to see quality footy we went to Fremantle vs the Sydney Swans, who are also challenging for a playoff spot (this was the second-to-last weekend of the regular season). It was actually pretty easy to support Freo as they're purple (and green, which kind of looks like Barney, but whatever) so I just wore a husky t-shirt. Sydney is red, so we had our own little Apple Cup. Syndey actually ended up winning, but it was a close game and it's a sport I'm actually beginning to like quite a bit.
Ten of us exchange students went to the game, and luckily we had Matt, our friend from Melbourne, to explain the rules when we got confused. It was actually pretty cool after the game they let people out on the field, so we went out and tried our hand at punching, kicking, and bouncing (which is super hard - you go try and bounce a football and see if it comes back to you) a footy ball that Matt brought.
Saturday night was quiet, most people were pretty tired, but we did start planning for a trip we want to take next weekend to Margaret River, which is a town/region about 3 hours south. This morning we had to get up early because it was intercollege volleyball. We did about as good as we did in field hockey, which means not well at all - we lost all our games, although the girls won two of theirs. The other colleges had a lot of freaking tall, athletic guys whereas we had some good players but couldn't really match up too well, even though we played well for a few stretches. What I've heard from people is the other colleges take it a bit more seriously than we do - some have formal tryouts - and also have bigger population pools to draw from. Even though we didn't do too well it was a lot of fun and a good way to spend a Sunday morning. I had one savage block to deny a set point, that was pretty fun.
It was a beautiful day today so this afternoon I managed to convince our little group of exchanges to go to the beach again. We were only there about two hours, but it was still a lot of fun - we played soccer and footy on the beach and got some bodysurfing in. Just got back from that a little while ago and I'm very hungry so I'll be heading off to dinner soon. Sorry to bore anyone with too much text, but I explained the picture situation above, I'll try to find time to set that up after dinner; if not, than sometime soon.
Take care everybody.
Now that that's out of the way, I've been having quite a good week in general, despite the weather doing its best Seattle impression (it was about 55F and cloudy/rainy for a couple days running, but we've had a nice weekend). Nothing otherworldly Monday or Tuesday. Wednesdays I have the afternoon off and nothing was going on so naturally I took the opportunity to go to the zoo, again. It wasn't very crowded at all and a lot of animals were active, including the echidna - I had never before seen an echidna move in person, whenever I've seen them they always just sit there and it might as well be a pincushion because it's not exciting at all. For those of you unfamiliar with what an echidna is, it's a very primitive mammal called a monotreme (the platypus is the only other one) that lays eggs instead of giving birth to live young. It's also adapted to eat termites so it has a long, sticky anteater-like tongue and it also has spines like a hedgehog. I also really enjoyed watching the bilby in the nocturnal house - it's a marsupial that sort of looks like a cross between a rabbit and an aardvark.
Wednesday night I finally got to go out to eat. Janan, who's one of the RA's from Singapore, took a group of about 10 of us out to a Chinese restaurant in Northbridge. It was something called steamboat, which means you have a couple pots of boiling broth in the middle of your table into which you can dump just about anything you want - meat, seafood, intestines (which I tried and actually kinda liked), veggies, etc, etc. There was a huge buffet and it was all-you-can-eat for $35, which was pricey but I think I ate well over that value worth of food. All in all, we were there for about 2 1/2 hours and all left feeling very, very full. Afterwards we got together with a big group of Currie Hall'ers and went to Captain Stirling, which is a local club/bar/hang-out spot. I didn't have much to drink but it was a good time. I left before midnight with a group of people after one of our friends, who had had a few too many drinks, decided it would be a good idea to start grinding on a security guard, which might not be one of the ten stupidest decisions ever but might merit consideration.
Friday I have a big gap in the middle of the day so I went to the gym's Body Balance class, which I did last week as well and is sort of a mix of yoga, tai chi, and some other eastern sort of exercise stuff and includes a meditation at the end. I'm not too good at it but it's pretty enjoyable. Did that with my friends Alison from Canada and Giulia from Italy (I was the only dude in about a class of thirty). Friday night was the college-sponsored Boy's and Girl's Night Out, which was basically seperate pub crawls for guys and girls where we met up at the end. I don't need to go into too much detail except to say that it was a fun, hilarious night out.
Saturday was awesome - I finally got to experience Australian Rules Football, or footy as it's generally referred to, firsthand! The game looks really confusing to an untrained eye, but it's actually pretty easy to understand. The field is a giant oval (probably about 1 2/3 American football fields) with four sets of upright sticks at each end. Players from one team advance the ball by kicking or punching (yes, punching, there's no throwing) it downfield. If you catch a ball that's been kicked it's called a mark and you get sort of a free kick. You can run with the ball, which is shaped like a more rounded and oblong American football, but you have to bounce it once every 15 meters. Scoring occurs when the ball goes through the posts. If it goes through the two middle posts, it's a goal and worth six points; if it's through either of the outside sets of posts it's a point and worth, yes, one point. There's four quarters of a half hour each, and there's actually quite a bit of scoring - our game was something like 96 to 85 at the end. Most of the players are ridiculously ripped and look like they could easily play wide receiver or tight end at a pretty high level. There's a lot of tackling and bumping involved, and no pads; it's a hardcore sport (even though they wear tiny short shorts)
There is more to the game than that, obviously, but that's the basic rules. If you want to read more about it, try wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_rules_football
The high-level footy games in Australia are in the AFL (Australian Football League). Western Australia has two teams, the West Coast Eagles and Fremantle Dockers. Traditionally, I'm told, West Coast is a much better team - they won it all a few years back - but they're really stinking it up this year and Freo is playing quite well and have a playoff spot locked up. The two teams actually play in the same stadium, the Subiaco Oval, but as we wanted to see quality footy we went to Fremantle vs the Sydney Swans, who are also challenging for a playoff spot (this was the second-to-last weekend of the regular season). It was actually pretty easy to support Freo as they're purple (and green, which kind of looks like Barney, but whatever) so I just wore a husky t-shirt. Sydney is red, so we had our own little Apple Cup. Syndey actually ended up winning, but it was a close game and it's a sport I'm actually beginning to like quite a bit.
Ten of us exchange students went to the game, and luckily we had Matt, our friend from Melbourne, to explain the rules when we got confused. It was actually pretty cool after the game they let people out on the field, so we went out and tried our hand at punching, kicking, and bouncing (which is super hard - you go try and bounce a football and see if it comes back to you) a footy ball that Matt brought.
Saturday night was quiet, most people were pretty tired, but we did start planning for a trip we want to take next weekend to Margaret River, which is a town/region about 3 hours south. This morning we had to get up early because it was intercollege volleyball. We did about as good as we did in field hockey, which means not well at all - we lost all our games, although the girls won two of theirs. The other colleges had a lot of freaking tall, athletic guys whereas we had some good players but couldn't really match up too well, even though we played well for a few stretches. What I've heard from people is the other colleges take it a bit more seriously than we do - some have formal tryouts - and also have bigger population pools to draw from. Even though we didn't do too well it was a lot of fun and a good way to spend a Sunday morning. I had one savage block to deny a set point, that was pretty fun.
It was a beautiful day today so this afternoon I managed to convince our little group of exchanges to go to the beach again. We were only there about two hours, but it was still a lot of fun - we played soccer and footy on the beach and got some bodysurfing in. Just got back from that a little while ago and I'm very hungry so I'll be heading off to dinner soon. Sorry to bore anyone with too much text, but I explained the picture situation above, I'll try to find time to set that up after dinner; if not, than sometime soon.
Take care everybody.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Update
So I guess it's been more than a week since I posted anything on here, amazing how time flies and I forget to do stuff (it's actually a lot harder to get motivated to write about yourself than you'd think). Anyways, I know I promised zoo pictures a while back but the photo uploader is not working for some reason (very likely due to the internet connection here, which isn't great at the best of times and is even worse at peak hours, which is now.
Since I last posted there hasn't been too much exciting going on in my life but I'm still enjoying Australia a whole lot. Just based on the weather, I think it's been over 70 and almost entirely sunny every day for the past week. Classes continue to go well, although they're still class and dragging myself out of bed for an 8 AM lecture is just as hard here as in Seattle.
Highlights of the past week:
Last Wednesday we had the vice chancellor's dinner, where the UWA Vice Chancellor Alan Robson came and spoke to us. It was a nice, catered dinner and a good change from the usual Currie Hall food, which despite everyone's complainings isn't actually that bad but really more just monotonous (some sort of stewed-looking meat over rice is the typical entree, with semi-changing other options). The "dress-up" theme was 50's Rock-n-Roll, which a few people managed to pull off but I didn't have the stuff for. The res hall staff did, however, manage to bust out a vintage cadillac which we could pose for photos in/next to.
Friday is never going to be the best day of classes for me, 9 AM lecture and then an afternoon wildlife lab from 2-5 (this week we analyzed scat - for the unitiated that's animal, uh, dung - not exactly the sort of activity that gets you jazzed about going to campus late on a Friday). Friday night, however, was a lot of fun. St Catherine's, which is the all-female residence college, organized a scribble party for all the res colleges. Essentially, that means everyone wears a white shirt and has some sort of permanent marker they use to write on other people - phone numbers, pictures, witty and inappropriate sayings, etc. The party was at a nightclub in Northbridge which is sort of the hip/trendy area of downtown, and while I was there I actually bumped into Patrick, a fellow exchange student from Germany who I'd met before, and I hung out with a few of his friends until the wee hours of the morning. My ears weren't very happy with me after that night but I had a really good time.
Saturday we had interhouse volleyball, which was played tournament-style between the houses in Currie Hall (there's A&B Houses, which are the big ones and actually got divided by floors, plus C - mine - D, E, and M). I am happy to say that I helped C House bring home the championship and stay undefeated, apparently, in all the sports they've been running since the start of the year (volleyball was the first interhouse sport for Semester 2)
I blogged a while back about trying field hockey. Well Sunday was part II of the intercollege field hockey tournament and I actually remembered to get up on time to play in it. I'm decidedly nothing special at hockey but I think I managed not to screw anything up too bad, although we did lose both our games. Sunday afternoon a group of exchanges went out to Cottlesloe Beach, where we'd been before as part of the uni welcome trip where we also went to Fremantle but hadn't gotten to spend much time there. It was sunny but also a tad windy at the beach (we tried playing frisbee, with hilarious results when we tried to throw into the wind). I got a little bored just sitting there and so I got everyone else to bury me in the sand (they also gave me a lovely pair of boobs) and went for a run along the beach with Noam, which got me warm enough to go swimming. There were some decent waves so I was able to get a little bit of bodysurfing in. I had a blast; everyone says I was crazy to go swimming but I say they were crazy not to.
That pretty much sums up the highlights of the past week-plus for me. I've also started planning for a spring break trip up the coast of W.A. and I bought tickets for an Australian Football game next Saturday, which we'll have a group of people going to. I do have a story from today to share: I walked into my zoology lecture and sat down next to my friend Tanja. She had her laptop open and I just glanced over at it and did a double take because her background was a picture of the Space Needle, with a little bit of the EMP to one side. I got really excited, obviously, because seeing Seattle stuff anywhere is always a treat. Tanja was confused until I explained about how the building on her desktop (which she had no idea what it was; she says she just liked the look of it) was sort of my city's iconic landmark.
Hopefully the image uploader will be working tomorrow, and hopefully I'll remember to get back on and get some pictures up for everyone to see. I've heard the weather back in Seattle isn't too nice, I'll try to send some Australian sunshine over to you all.
Since I last posted there hasn't been too much exciting going on in my life but I'm still enjoying Australia a whole lot. Just based on the weather, I think it's been over 70 and almost entirely sunny every day for the past week. Classes continue to go well, although they're still class and dragging myself out of bed for an 8 AM lecture is just as hard here as in Seattle.
Highlights of the past week:
Last Wednesday we had the vice chancellor's dinner, where the UWA Vice Chancellor Alan Robson came and spoke to us. It was a nice, catered dinner and a good change from the usual Currie Hall food, which despite everyone's complainings isn't actually that bad but really more just monotonous (some sort of stewed-looking meat over rice is the typical entree, with semi-changing other options). The "dress-up" theme was 50's Rock-n-Roll, which a few people managed to pull off but I didn't have the stuff for. The res hall staff did, however, manage to bust out a vintage cadillac which we could pose for photos in/next to.
Friday is never going to be the best day of classes for me, 9 AM lecture and then an afternoon wildlife lab from 2-5 (this week we analyzed scat - for the unitiated that's animal, uh, dung - not exactly the sort of activity that gets you jazzed about going to campus late on a Friday). Friday night, however, was a lot of fun. St Catherine's, which is the all-female residence college, organized a scribble party for all the res colleges. Essentially, that means everyone wears a white shirt and has some sort of permanent marker they use to write on other people - phone numbers, pictures, witty and inappropriate sayings, etc. The party was at a nightclub in Northbridge which is sort of the hip/trendy area of downtown, and while I was there I actually bumped into Patrick, a fellow exchange student from Germany who I'd met before, and I hung out with a few of his friends until the wee hours of the morning. My ears weren't very happy with me after that night but I had a really good time.
Saturday we had interhouse volleyball, which was played tournament-style between the houses in Currie Hall (there's A&B Houses, which are the big ones and actually got divided by floors, plus C - mine - D, E, and M). I am happy to say that I helped C House bring home the championship and stay undefeated, apparently, in all the sports they've been running since the start of the year (volleyball was the first interhouse sport for Semester 2)
I blogged a while back about trying field hockey. Well Sunday was part II of the intercollege field hockey tournament and I actually remembered to get up on time to play in it. I'm decidedly nothing special at hockey but I think I managed not to screw anything up too bad, although we did lose both our games. Sunday afternoon a group of exchanges went out to Cottlesloe Beach, where we'd been before as part of the uni welcome trip where we also went to Fremantle but hadn't gotten to spend much time there. It was sunny but also a tad windy at the beach (we tried playing frisbee, with hilarious results when we tried to throw into the wind). I got a little bored just sitting there and so I got everyone else to bury me in the sand (they also gave me a lovely pair of boobs) and went for a run along the beach with Noam, which got me warm enough to go swimming. There were some decent waves so I was able to get a little bit of bodysurfing in. I had a blast; everyone says I was crazy to go swimming but I say they were crazy not to.
That pretty much sums up the highlights of the past week-plus for me. I've also started planning for a spring break trip up the coast of W.A. and I bought tickets for an Australian Football game next Saturday, which we'll have a group of people going to. I do have a story from today to share: I walked into my zoology lecture and sat down next to my friend Tanja. She had her laptop open and I just glanced over at it and did a double take because her background was a picture of the Space Needle, with a little bit of the EMP to one side. I got really excited, obviously, because seeing Seattle stuff anywhere is always a treat. Tanja was confused until I explained about how the building on her desktop (which she had no idea what it was; she says she just liked the look of it) was sort of my city's iconic landmark.
Hopefully the image uploader will be working tomorrow, and hopefully I'll remember to get back on and get some pictures up for everyone to see. I've heard the weather back in Seattle isn't too nice, I'll try to send some Australian sunshine over to you all.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
2 Weeks!
So I haven't posted in a while, my apologies - I've just been very, very busy. But it's August now (what happened? It was just the 4th of July), and my 2 week anniversary of arriving in Australia, so I figure I ought to keep this thing updated.
I believe I left off last post with having gotten my bike fixed. Excellent work myself, Matt, and the maintenance guy who gave us the tools (need to get his name), the bike rides like a dream now. Wednesday morning I had lectures for my zoology and wildlife classes, nothing earth-shattering, and then I had the afternoon off - so, naturally, I went to the zoo.
Perth Zoo, I am happy to report, is fabulous, despite the glaring lack of a tapir exhibit. There's really four main sections - African Savannah, Asian Forest, South America, and Australia, plus a nocturnal house and a main lake (attracts wild birds - and cool ones, pelicans and such, not just ducks) with gibbon and lemur islands. The Australian section is especially good, with all sorts of animals I've heard about but never actually seen before, even at Caversham - brolgas (cranes), little blue penguins, dingoes, numbats (a marsupial anteater that looks like a striped squirrel), and the most gigantic crocodile I have ever seen in my entire life. Other exhibit highlights - very nice elephant yard, including a male elephant, which you don't see at many zoos, a gigantic orangutan complex (they're very involved with breeding and are starting reintorduction attempts), the best sun bear exhibit I've ever seen, cheetahs, a big pack of African wild dogs, and Goodfellow's tree kangaroos (never seen that particular species before; they're paired with cassowaries next to the main lake in a small "New Guinea" section).
One last note of interest: some may recognize "The Kiss", a photo of a giraffe mom and baby that's put on a lot of posters and stuff (you can see it here:http://www.allposters.com/-st/Giraffes-Photography-Posters_c56550_.htm). That was taken at Perth Zoo, which has quite the track record breeding giraffes apparently and has one that was born in My and is very cute. I'll try to put some zoo pictures up soon, probably not tonight though as the internet at Currie is being kind of slow.
OK, animal/zoo nerd stuff done. At least for a while. When I got back to Currie Hall Wednesday afternoon we had training for intercollege hockey - that's field hockey, not ice hockey - that I decided to have a go at. Field hockey is a bizarre sport. The stick is like an ice hockey stick but shorter, made of wood, and instead of a blade at the end it is curved back like a candy cane (sort of - google image it). The stick also has one flat side, which you handle the ball (the size of a tennis ball but hard like a croquet ball) with, and a round side that cannot touch the ball. Scoring only occurs from inside a semicircle around the goal. Other than that, the game is a bit of a bizarre love child of soccer, ice hockey, and lacrosse. I thought it was cool. The game against Trinity Hall was today, I didn't end up going but I heard our team got smashed. Pity.
Wednesday night was the tav party, which was a gettogether at the UWA tavern for all the residential colleges. I had a very good time, met some new people, drank a fair amount of beer, and just about killed my eardrums because there were some very loud bands playing in a very small space. Fun times. Except for Alyssa (my Californian friend) spilling a cupful of beer in my lap trying to prevent our other friend from drinking any more. Well done Alyssa.
Thursday I had my history classes for the first time! Both seem fairly interesting, and pretty laid back - each has one research paper and no final exam. I was looking forward to seeing USA Since 1945 taught from an Australian perspective, but lo and behold my prof is American so I'll have to settle for that. He's actually a very nice guy, a little more on the social history side of things than I'm used to but still a good teaching style. He's from San Francisco but has lived all over. And most of the class is Australian (as far as I can tell except for one Texan) so that should be fun to get their take on things.
Friday was another fairly chill day of classes (I normally have a lab from 2 until 5 - ick - but not the first week) and I again had the afternoon off. Played a little basketball and just relaxed. Friday night a big group of people (probably 25ish) went out to Fremantle and the Little Creatures Brewery. They made good beer there, although it was a little pricey, even for Australia ($9 a pint). The atmosphere was very laid-back, though, which I enjoyed. Eventually some of us made our way over to the Sail and Anchor, where Matt tends bar, and said hi to him. Very good beer selection there, we may have to go again. And as everyone was pretty tired from class we caught the 10:40 bus home.
Saturday was tiring - 10 AM gym for the "Body Pump" class, which was light weightlifting and core strength exercises. I'm still a little sore from it. Then in the afternoon I took a group of people - Noam, Cindy, Alyssa, Leslie, Matt, Sindre, and our friend Jayde who's from Perth - to the zoo. As only a few of us have bikes we took the bus, which actually takes about twice as long because you have to go past the bridge and then transfer. But we had nice weather, the animals were active, and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. Saturday night we had Currie Hall mocktail night - which sounds a little more fun than it actually was (could have been improved with alcohol or actually having drinks that didn't taste like pure corn syrup). Hung out with some people afterwards and again had a pretty early night.
That brings us to today, which was pretty lazy for me (get up, breakfast, read, nap, lunch) although I did get to playing tennis with some people. Tash, one of the full-time Australian students, is a member at the Uni Tennis Club so she took a group of us to their social event, which was very laid back but still a lot of fun. Basically we had our names on little magnets and got paired randomly with different partners for 30-minute doubles sessions. Very different talent levels, from quite good to just above terrible. I'm not as good as any of the Currie people that went, but luckily I play just well enough to be able to compete - sort of - with them. And the event was as I said really casual so I had a lot of fun. We also were playing on clay courts, which was a first for me. Waiting in the lounge we also caught a little bit of the Fremantle - West Coast Eagles (the two local teams) Australian Rules Football game. Most people seem to be Eagles fans around here; they're traditionally the much better team (won it all a couple years back) but are playing badly this year while Fremantle is pretty good (they won pretty easily today). Reminds me too much of what's been happening with the Seahawks. Seattle sports. ugh.
We got back from tennis around dinnertime and after dinner I played cards and watched Inglourious Basterds (as good as ever). Now I have a little bit of homework reading to do before I go to bed. Week 2 of class tomorrow! And I will try to remember to get some pictures up since I know this is a lot of text to go through with no visuals...
I believe I left off last post with having gotten my bike fixed. Excellent work myself, Matt, and the maintenance guy who gave us the tools (need to get his name), the bike rides like a dream now. Wednesday morning I had lectures for my zoology and wildlife classes, nothing earth-shattering, and then I had the afternoon off - so, naturally, I went to the zoo.
Perth Zoo, I am happy to report, is fabulous, despite the glaring lack of a tapir exhibit. There's really four main sections - African Savannah, Asian Forest, South America, and Australia, plus a nocturnal house and a main lake (attracts wild birds - and cool ones, pelicans and such, not just ducks) with gibbon and lemur islands. The Australian section is especially good, with all sorts of animals I've heard about but never actually seen before, even at Caversham - brolgas (cranes), little blue penguins, dingoes, numbats (a marsupial anteater that looks like a striped squirrel), and the most gigantic crocodile I have ever seen in my entire life. Other exhibit highlights - very nice elephant yard, including a male elephant, which you don't see at many zoos, a gigantic orangutan complex (they're very involved with breeding and are starting reintorduction attempts), the best sun bear exhibit I've ever seen, cheetahs, a big pack of African wild dogs, and Goodfellow's tree kangaroos (never seen that particular species before; they're paired with cassowaries next to the main lake in a small "New Guinea" section).
One last note of interest: some may recognize "The Kiss", a photo of a giraffe mom and baby that's put on a lot of posters and stuff (you can see it here:http://www.allposters.com/-st/Giraffes-Photography-Posters_c56550_.htm). That was taken at Perth Zoo, which has quite the track record breeding giraffes apparently and has one that was born in My and is very cute. I'll try to put some zoo pictures up soon, probably not tonight though as the internet at Currie is being kind of slow.
OK, animal/zoo nerd stuff done. At least for a while. When I got back to Currie Hall Wednesday afternoon we had training for intercollege hockey - that's field hockey, not ice hockey - that I decided to have a go at. Field hockey is a bizarre sport. The stick is like an ice hockey stick but shorter, made of wood, and instead of a blade at the end it is curved back like a candy cane (sort of - google image it). The stick also has one flat side, which you handle the ball (the size of a tennis ball but hard like a croquet ball) with, and a round side that cannot touch the ball. Scoring only occurs from inside a semicircle around the goal. Other than that, the game is a bit of a bizarre love child of soccer, ice hockey, and lacrosse. I thought it was cool. The game against Trinity Hall was today, I didn't end up going but I heard our team got smashed. Pity.
Wednesday night was the tav party, which was a gettogether at the UWA tavern for all the residential colleges. I had a very good time, met some new people, drank a fair amount of beer, and just about killed my eardrums because there were some very loud bands playing in a very small space. Fun times. Except for Alyssa (my Californian friend) spilling a cupful of beer in my lap trying to prevent our other friend from drinking any more. Well done Alyssa.
Thursday I had my history classes for the first time! Both seem fairly interesting, and pretty laid back - each has one research paper and no final exam. I was looking forward to seeing USA Since 1945 taught from an Australian perspective, but lo and behold my prof is American so I'll have to settle for that. He's actually a very nice guy, a little more on the social history side of things than I'm used to but still a good teaching style. He's from San Francisco but has lived all over. And most of the class is Australian (as far as I can tell except for one Texan) so that should be fun to get their take on things.
Friday was another fairly chill day of classes (I normally have a lab from 2 until 5 - ick - but not the first week) and I again had the afternoon off. Played a little basketball and just relaxed. Friday night a big group of people (probably 25ish) went out to Fremantle and the Little Creatures Brewery. They made good beer there, although it was a little pricey, even for Australia ($9 a pint). The atmosphere was very laid-back, though, which I enjoyed. Eventually some of us made our way over to the Sail and Anchor, where Matt tends bar, and said hi to him. Very good beer selection there, we may have to go again. And as everyone was pretty tired from class we caught the 10:40 bus home.
Saturday was tiring - 10 AM gym for the "Body Pump" class, which was light weightlifting and core strength exercises. I'm still a little sore from it. Then in the afternoon I took a group of people - Noam, Cindy, Alyssa, Leslie, Matt, Sindre, and our friend Jayde who's from Perth - to the zoo. As only a few of us have bikes we took the bus, which actually takes about twice as long because you have to go past the bridge and then transfer. But we had nice weather, the animals were active, and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. Saturday night we had Currie Hall mocktail night - which sounds a little more fun than it actually was (could have been improved with alcohol or actually having drinks that didn't taste like pure corn syrup). Hung out with some people afterwards and again had a pretty early night.
That brings us to today, which was pretty lazy for me (get up, breakfast, read, nap, lunch) although I did get to playing tennis with some people. Tash, one of the full-time Australian students, is a member at the Uni Tennis Club so she took a group of us to their social event, which was very laid back but still a lot of fun. Basically we had our names on little magnets and got paired randomly with different partners for 30-minute doubles sessions. Very different talent levels, from quite good to just above terrible. I'm not as good as any of the Currie people that went, but luckily I play just well enough to be able to compete - sort of - with them. And the event was as I said really casual so I had a lot of fun. We also were playing on clay courts, which was a first for me. Waiting in the lounge we also caught a little bit of the Fremantle - West Coast Eagles (the two local teams) Australian Rules Football game. Most people seem to be Eagles fans around here; they're traditionally the much better team (won it all a couple years back) but are playing badly this year while Fremantle is pretty good (they won pretty easily today). Reminds me too much of what's been happening with the Seahawks. Seattle sports. ugh.
We got back from tennis around dinnertime and after dinner I played cards and watched Inglourious Basterds (as good as ever). Now I have a little bit of homework reading to do before I go to bed. Week 2 of class tomorrow! And I will try to remember to get some pictures up since I know this is a lot of text to go through with no visuals...
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