Day two.

Ok, can we just talk about the subtle differances between here and the US... clearly the driving on the opposite side, that one's obvious. But for less known differances, we'll start with our bathroom. The toilet paper looks like little tissues. As does the dispenser above the sink for hand drying. Haven't determined if this is normal for Australia or just for City Stay Apartments. Also, there are two buttons to flush the toilet. Apparently one uses less water and that means the other only needs to be used for serious flushing... ahem. lol. Also, the yield traffic signs instead say "Give Way." And the speed limit is only a black number inside a red circle. And of course, kilometers instead of miles, although that's not even written on the speed limit signs. And there's a Target in Centre Perth, except it's spelled "Target." as in Target-period. And that's definitely not normal, because no other shops had periods after their names. Anything else? Nothing that's jumping to mind.

My day: crazy. As they say, early to bed, early to rise, we woke up around 630-7am. The other two girls went to the gym while I chatted w a few people from home. There was a tour to Freemantle for international students at 12:30 that was leaving from campus and we planned on heading to the grocery store before. But it was closed. Because Sunday store hours are 12-5:30. Hah. The rest of the group apaprently went to check out campus before the tour and we were the only ones left who were planning on going. We figured out all the times and made all the busses and transfers perfectly. Until we got to campus. Because Sunday busses on drop you off at the campus shuttle hub, which is a few kilometers from the actual campus. We had 15 minutes to get to a parking lot on the other side of campus, and when we got off the Perth bus driver told us the next shuttle would be in ten minutes. Which we didn't have! So we decided to hot foot it over. And by hot-foot-it, i mean f'ing RUNNNING across the big gigantic campus. I freaking almost died! I am not a runner! hah, but surprisingly we made it with about 2 minutes to spare. Phew! Here's the picture of us crowding on to the bus, in which I am completely red-faced.

In Freemantle we split up and got some food. Some girls and I found a Mexican restaurant that although it first seemed pretty expensive (but the same price as all the other restaurants there) the servings we gigantic. And they say American servings are huge. Another differance: tipping is not that natural here.. you basically just literally tip for the service. The restuarant owner explained it. Regular service where you just get your food and that's about all doesn't need a tip, but if any waiter/ress is particularly helpful and prompt, then you leave a tip. Morgan and I had a debate on whether or not this was better than the customary 15% tip in the states, where I argued it certinaly was, but she argued that servers should get tipped a certain amount just for the basics too. Mehh. Whatevs.

From Freemantle we went to Cottesloe for the beach. Some of the guys heard it was the best beach around... it ended up being like Western Australia's version of Myrtle Beach. Not exaaactly my bag, but great if you like that kind of thing. Meaning: crowded with drunk, fashionably dressed college-aged kids. And when I say crowded I mean crowded. But whatevs. I laid out in the sun for most of the time, and thanks to some sunscreen didn't burn except for a little patch on my back where I missed a spot. Eups. But atleast I thought to lather myself! I knew if i didn't I would suffer. I knew that palepale white winter skin suddenly exposed to hot summer weather minus sunscreen=the most horrible time in Australia for weeks. So I was prepared. We bought cheap drinks at one of the less crowded places where there was cricket playing on a big screen TV and some Aussie explained to us a few of the rules.

We had to walk back to the train station (there was a free bus on the way there that only ran until 5pm), which was a freaking hike. But pretty; the main town of Cottesloe reminded me of when we went to Boca Raton to visit the Kriste. But we finally made it back here.

And now, all my joints are swollen. Hah. But I'm alright. I feel WAY better than I did most of yesterday so that's a relief. Just gotta get over this last little bit of jet lag and not think of back home and I'll be alright. I'll get too sad when I think about how I'll be away from the boyfriend for so long, so I just try my hardest to just NOT think about it. It's just what I gotta do. I got a real cute Skype message from him when I got back and I tried calling him but I knew it was like 6am there. All in all, a beautiful day. Very lovely. I'm not Myrtle beach-esque, and I defintely prefer Perth to Freemantle/Cottesloe no matter what other people say. Haha. Although Freemantle is defintely a hopping place and would be fun to check out another day when I'm not so achy.

Well alright, I'm terribly exhausted and it looks like no one's going out tonight after all (I was going to stay in and do relaxing stuff like take a long hot shower because my skin's all beachy feeling and after all that running/hiking my joints feel terribly swollen. But I could handle a slow night in too. Alright, I love you all.

<3