Day 13 Sunday, August 11, 2013

I’ve been bad about adding to my blog so I will do a quick recap of what I remember (it’s not easy because we do so many things and go to so many places).  On Thursday we had our first Marine Biology lecture with Jennifer.  The class had interesting material, but was hard to digest as we raced through 90+ slides on PowerPoint in three hours.  It probably didn’t help that Wednesday is a big party night in Freo, and we had been our till the wee hours of the morning at Newport club on student night.  Our only class on Wednesday was with Paul where we talked about getting used to the culture and were assigned the task of making an Australian friend and interviewing them.  I slept all day Thursday and went to bed early.  Note to self, avoid cheap wine.  On Friday we woke up early to be picked up by Kate and Jennifer at the girls house and headed off to the local aquarium.  It was really neat to see all the local animals and corals, knowing we will soon be swimming amongst them ourselves.  We had to fill out a huge packet while we were there, but it really helped us learn so we all appreciated it.  After the aquarium Peyton and I went to our favorite bar/brewery, Little Creatures, and tried out another one of their signature beers.  We munched on a big basket of frites (fries) and were set.  I accidently walked out without paying and the waiter ran me down, oops.

Later that night Peyton and I had two Aussie guys over that we had met at ultimate frisbee on Monday.  We sat around the table on our back patio and shared stories and played card games.  It was fun to have a chill night with Australian friends, who are really just like us.  We headed into Freo to check out the nightlife scene, deciding the trip to Northbridge in Perth where all the best nightlife is was too big of a trek that late at night.  Besides, the buses stop at 2am on the weekends and we would have had to walk home from the train station (a 30 minute walk).  Instead we had a late night Kebab (with garlic sauce, a horrible idea) and went to Newport, which wasn’t all that exciting which surprised me considering it was supposed to be one of Freo’s best clubs.  I’m learning that the party is somewhere new every night and you either have to know what your’e doing or stumble on to a crazy night at the club’s.  I also need to remind myself that this is a port-town of 30,000 and Miami Beach.

Saturday I slept in till noon, which felt amazing.  By 1:30 I was out the door on my way to Perth to see Sam play a Footy (Australian rules football) game.  I made this journey alone which was a first and a bit nerve wracking knowing I was heading into the jaws of a big city alone (2 million population).  I made it to Perth fine on the train, but once I got there the big city swallowed me in, and the plan I had in my head went out the door and I scrambled to find the bus stop that would take me to Hamer Park where Sam was playing.  After asking directions I found what I thought was my stop, but the bus ended up taking me to the train station where I started.  After asking for help again, this time from a bus driver, I was pointed to the correct bus stop.  I still felt uneasy being completely alone and clueless in the looming unknown city, but my worries were put to rest when the bus driver said he knew exactly where Hamer Park was and he would let me know exactly when to get off.

I arrived at Sam’s game late into the 4^th quarter, but I still got to see what his level of Footy was all about.  It is a brutal game, a combination of soccer, football, and rugby, with no pads.  Sam hurt his knee and got a possible concussion, which he said is normal.  We headed to his house where I met his big family and American cousins who were living there as well.  We ordered pizza and then went out for the night.  We went to several bars, attempted to get into a couple crowded night clubs with hour long lines, and visited a couple houses.  It was a fun and crazy night to say the least, but I would expect nothing less from my crazy Australian friend

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Sunday I woke up, ate breakfast prepared by Sam’s mom, and then got dropped off at the train station.  Once I got back I showered and left for the train station again with Peyton for the Fremantle professional Footy game (AFL).  We met the girls, the Clarke kids, and Paul and his family at the stadium in Subiaco (about ¾ of the way between Fremantle and Perth).  Everyone wore purple, and Paul gave us each a purple Freo scarf and paid for our tickets.  The stadium was packed, as 30,000+ fans watched their hometown Fremantle Docker’s demolish the South Sydney Giants.  It was great to watch, and I was blown away by the accuracy of the player’s kicks and their split second decisions as they withstood bone-crushing tackles.  I treated myself to a fresh sugar donut at halftime.

After the game Peyton and I picked up some Indian food and headed back to the house for the night to do homework and prepare for the following week