We awoke at 5am on the second day to the most beautiful sunrise outside our bedroom window! We are so fortunate to not have any dorms right behind our building, like most around us. We have trees and then a little ways back is a Rec Building - TV room, study room, and public bathrooms! Its amazing how well Brian and I sleep with the window open, fresh air, and HUNDREDS of birds waking up at dawn. Speaking of birds - HOLY COW DO THE CROWS SOUND LIKE LAMBS!! I am not kidding. I have never heard of a weirder bird call then the sounds that come out of the crows here! Also to clarify - Brian and I are staying in the University Village which caters to Murdoch Uni students (our one roommate actually attends Murdoch Institute of Technology - so not everyone goes to the same university); however, they are a separate entity. They are their own business and in turn that means we have to pay for our internet (actually quite expensive), but thankfully all utilities are lumped into one rent payment (first time they are trying that). So, I may use dorms/apartment/village all interchangeably!
We had a slow start with showers, some oatmeal for breakfast out of my tin recipe box because I didn't bring any bowls! I also managed to forget my forks - I brought two spoons and two knives, but the forks magically disappeared! So if you are ever curious I dare you to eat ramen noodles with a spoon! Its quite interesting! By 9am we were off to a shopping mall that we were told was 15 minutes from the village and it was a quite enjoyable walk! Brian and I figure that it is about the same distance or a little less than what I walked from my apartment in River Falls to the grocery store, but a lot sunnier and cars driving on the opposite side. The Kardinya Shopping Mall is really quite cute - a bunch of shops that you can take one trolley into any shop you want. They have a K-Mart which is essentially the same kind of store you would expect from the states: school supplies, kitchen essentials, make-up, clothes, movies/games, camping gear, and bedding. Right next door is Coles which is the main grocery store. At K-Mart we bought two bowls, a fan, and a set of silverware. At Coles we bought more ramen noodles, a lightbulb for my Chinese lantern (nicer than having the bright overhead lights on at night) and lightbulbs are NOT cheap!, and we bought toilet paper! We put it all in our backpack and hiked home! By the time we got back it was around noon and we knew that is a bad time for us pale WI kids to be out at - even with our 100spf sunblock! I had a crazy coughing fit through shopping and by the time we made it back, my cold was killing me and jet-lag was kicking my butt so I passed out from 1pm till about 11pm to use the bathroom and back to sleep until 5am!
I will never under-estimate jet-lag from 27 hours of flight time EVER again! It seriously kicked my ass, and having a cold on top of that was just aweful. I am really glad we were able to land on the first, get housing, and REST before roommates showed up and before orientation craziness began!
Day 3 - Sunday
Woke up again at 5am and had some quality FaceTime with the parents! Then woke Brian up at 630 and our day began. We went to campus after breakfast to realize that everything really is closed on sundays and we had no idea how to connect to the campus internet. So instead we enjoyed the morning on the main campus courtyard and putting names to the buildings we saw at night on our late night stroll the first night. Again we came back to the dorms for lunch by noon so we were out of the sun! During lunch we figured out the bus routes to THE BEACH! AND FINALLY REARRANGED OUR ROOM! Now we have a king size bed again (two twins pushed together with a desk by one side so our mattresses don't push apart, and we have all our clothes and belongings in their respective cupboards and drawers. At 2:30pm we took the bus into Fremantle and the walked a BUNCH to find South Beach which conveniently named for being just south of the marina/harbor. THE BEACH WAS FANTASTIC! There was sooo many doggies there, all without leashes and so well-behaved. It was amazing to see them all playing together without any worries from the owners. We saw chihuahuas, cocker spaniels, labs, a rat terrier, a Great Dane/terrier mix, and a lot of pitbull mixes. I will stand-by what I have always said since working at Westgate Animal Hospital - "Pitbulls"/staffordshire terriers/Bulldogs are among the absolute sweetest and loyal dogs I have ever seen. YES, they can be very harmful because by genetics when they bite down, they are not meant to release; however, nurture can very easily overpower nature. I will continue to defend the "banned" breeds, and this day on the beach proved my stance ever more! Not a SINGLE incident with dogs fighting or not getting along! It was awesome! However, the walk to find the right bus stop to take us back to campus was NOT awesome! We figured it out and know better for next time and we will avoid the rashed thighs from walking FOREVER in wet shorts! :P After returning home, a refreshing shower, and luckily no sunburn Brian and I made dinner, watched Pandorum (FANTASTIC FILM), and passed out!
Monday-Thursday soon to come! :D Sorry I fell so far behind in my blog, but I SERIOUSLY underestimated how much recovery time I would need from being sick, jetlag, and Sun OVERLOAD. And SPOILER ALERT for next post - Today, Thursday I FINALLY GOT SUNBURNT SO BAD I LOOK LIKE A TOMATO!
Trees all around campus
A glimpse of Freo from our bus stop!
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