RE: Lack of posting.

I'm sorrrry guys!! lol. I knew this would happen too. I knew I'd get behind in updating, and then, feeling like I'd be doing something morally wrong if I skipped retelling any events, become too overwhelmed with the amount of writing that needed to be done and continue to put it off.

I never was any good at keep journals.

Maybe I can just give the brief update. I don't really know if I have the order of the days straight in my head so I'm just going to follow the pictures I have on my computer. Hahhaha.

Well, Wednesday we had some random lectures entitled: "Overview of Public Relations Theory and Practice" and "Overview of Media Industries in Australia." Both were alright, but stuff I've already heard about freshman year. Even in talking in Australian terms it wasn't much different. But it was fine.

Wednesday night, Fifty Cent, the rest of G-Unit, and Lil' John were in town. Two of our guys went to the show and said it was a riot.. tickets were AU$100.... and fifty cents!! I kid you not. After the show there was an afterparty.... THREE BLOCKS from out apartment! At Metro City, this three-story club that we had been dying to check out but that had been closed every time we went to it. ((Luckily(?) we never ended up actually going, largely because we had heard rumors of a shooting a year ago which the Australian former-captain Ben Cousins had reportedly been involved with. Ben Cousins also has been recently involved in some illegal activities. That's a whole other famous Aussie story.)) Nevertheless! Wednesday night there was some other serious drama involving the Mustang, Jenessa's ass, and some fighting boys, but we won't really get into that here. Let's just say our boys are very protective of us and I thank them profusely for that.

Anyways, Thursday was a great day. We had the morning off and then our afternoon was "Telling Indigenous Stories." Hot like whoa. Here's a picture of our professor for the day, Glen, and no, he's not joking. Let's not even talk about the kangaroo coat he's wearing (ok let's do). He calls it his "foreskin" because it's made out of four skins. Sick. But no, he was very cool and not a real sicko at all.
He lectured for about a half hour, talking in his native language. He is a large part aboriginal despite his white skin, his grandmother had been a pure blood aborigine and one of the, shall we say, "victims" of British colonialism. We ate traditional flat bread with some homemade jam, painted message sticks, and got to play with cool artifacts.

Friday was the long-awaited day of our Rottenest Island (or Rotto, as the Aussies call it) field trip. "Discovered" by the colonials in 1612, upon arrival they had seen what they thought to be was a beautiful island covered in bush forest... but infested with rats. They therefore dubbed it "Rats' Nest Island." However, the creatures turned out to be in fact the indigenous marsupial, the quokkas. Here's me petting a quokka: Sadly, in 1839, with the foundation of a British colony in Perth, came hostility between the colonialists and the natives, much like the exact situation in the Americas 200 years before. Many aborigines were taken captive and, deeming it more humane than prison, stowed them away on Rottnest Island. For the next thousand years (literally until the 1930s!) Rottnest was a prison colony, and by prison I mean a place to hold aborigines to keep them away from the "whites" of the city. It is now a holiday island and the former main prison has been turned, ironically, into a hotel. Go figure. Rotto was so freakin beautiful that words honestly can't even describe it and to get an idea of our time there it's best to just check out my webshots of that day. Because I could go on for hours about it. However, I will add one more picture of the near perfect BEACH there, just to tease you all ;) I look a little silly in it because Jeff had literally just dove into the picture, but hey. I'm in the Indian Ocean in 90 degree weather, and you're not. I deserve to be laughing. hahahahajk
After Rottnest we caught a rugby game in Subiaco (aka Subi.. the Aussies shorten all their words like that), a neigh- bor- hood of Perth. It was Western Force (the blue team, our team) against New Zealand's Chiefs. We lost pretty horribly but it was so much fun that it didn't even matter. Of course I knew nothing about rugby before going to the game, so I got the play by play explanations from Chris the whole game. The stadium was alot like what I'd imagined a Harry Potter quidditch game stadium to be like (of course, before I saw the movie and it's interpretation).

Saturday was the day we went on a surprise trip to the beach. We had been talking about going during the rugby game but in the morning it seemed no one was interested. That is, until I began posting and Chris and Jeff bounded into our apartment telling us to meet them downstairs in ten minutes so we could go to the beach. and it was glooorious! I'll just keep posting beach pictures to make you all jealous. hahaha. That night was a surprise party for Colby's 21st birthday. Cheers!

Sunday was a nothing day where I uploaded all my pictures, took a nap, and did lots of homework. Morgan, Steve, Jeff, Chris, and I played some British-style Monopoly which I completely bombed at. I had like two properties only and all the guys had all the rest. I was doomed to loose to I cut my losses and started to trade my two properties for good real-life favors. In the end I turned out to be the real winner of Monopoly that night because Steve traded me Northumberland Avenue for a home-cooked meal! Holllllerrr.


Monday was another Media Frenzy Day in which my half of the group got to do the journalism one. But, in reality, we did preeeetty much nothing because Mary-Anne was our professor for the day. We worked hard for the first hour but then had a ridiculously long lunch and gossiped most of the day. I guess Maria and I had it easier because the professor we were supposed to interview for the assignment was unavailable, so Mary-Anne just told us to make it up. Euuups, lol. But that was fun. Went grocery shopping, Steve cooked my dinner and invited my roommate along, and then people came over while he made crepes for everyone. Sooo gooood...

Almost done!

Today we only had a half day again, and in the morning we had "Documentary Theory." That was hella fun. I love all things documentary. Again, very much like my intro classes freshman year, but the professor, Martin, was amazing and brought everything to superb light whether it was old or new information. We got back and Jeff and I booked our wine tour (I had got a free one one night at the Mustang when they were giving them away) for this Saturday while half the group goes on the surfing trip. I do slightly regret not doing it, but as I haven't gotten the contacts my dad mailed to me there's not much I could do anyways if I wanted to see. Overall both a relaxing and productive day, although I desperately need to start my photo-narrative project.

Tomorrow begins our over night field trip to the South West. I would describe the itinerary but I'm tired of typing and I'm sure you're tired of reading. So I'll fill you in on the adventure when I return. Until then, au revoir, and I hope you've enjoyed.