Didgeridoo, Rottnest Island, and swimming!

I'm really adjusting to life here in Perth, where the people are chill and casual and there is essentially very little stress (or so I've been told). As of this moment, I've used up about 20% of my wifi that I am still mildly angry about having to pay for, and it's been a bummer that I've had to live without Netflix. But my adventures here definitely make up for the lack of streaming tv shows, so I'm not complaining!

Last Monday, Paul drove us into Freo (Fremantle) where there are lots of neat little shops and restaurants and cafes/bars. There, we had a half-hour-long didgeridoo lesson, where we attempted to make cool sounds by making funny faces and ridiculous noises. I was actually a little surprised at myself because there were a few moments when I made pretty decent sounds! To make the most basic drone sound on the didgeridoo, you have to put your lips together, loosely, and blow gently. Kind of like you're a baby blowing a raspberry or imitating a horse sound. Then you put the didgeridoo to your mouth to form an air seal and blow like that. It's actually that simple, yet still takes some practice. Didgeridoo isn't about having a huge lung capacity or blowing hard, it's more about controlling the amount of air you use. It also helps a lot if you know how to circular breathe, which, as a string player, is not a skill I have. To make different sounds, you can talk/sing/imitate animal noises into the didgeridoo while still vibrating your lips. You can also do rhythms by moving your tongue as you would if you were saying different vowels (but you're not actually voicing them aloud). I found it similar to playing the jaw harp in that aspect. Musical instruments always intrigue me, so I think I may go back sometime to the shop (it's called Didgeridoo Breath) and try to play more!

Lots of didgeridoos from different areas of Australia

Didgeridoos can even be made out of PVC pipes!

After the super awesome lesson, Paul walked us around Freo and showed us some neat little shops.
We also went through an old whaling tunnel, where we felt a strong breeze called the Fremantle Doctor. It's a sea breeze that really cools us down on hot days, and occurs because of the temperature difference between the land and the ocean. Once through the tunnel, we walked on to the Round House, which is a twelve-sided building originally built as a gaol (jail) in 1831 to house locals who broke the law. I took a peek inside a couple of the cells, and there were no windows. A small closet-sized cell could have housed a few people, too, so imagine being stuck there in the dark with practically nothing else but the company of other people.

View from nearby the Round House

View of Freo from inside the Round House walls

Tuesday was AMAZING. We CIEE "peeps" (Paul calls us peeps. Frequently. I've honestly had a dream where I heard him saying "all right peeps") woke up early and headed toward the ferry at 0630 to go to the one and only Rottnest Island. It was rainy, windy, and cold, but the rain stopped midway through the morning. I'm actually thankful it was a little cooler than usual because we were out and about all day in the sun, and I can't imagine what it would have been like if it was hotter than it was that day.
The ferry ride, for me, was lots of fun. For others, maybe not. It was rough and choppy out on the open ocean for the entire 30 minutes we were out there, so some people got sick and some people got wet. I was in the middle on the outside deck area, so I only got a little damp. Some of my colleagues were right in the splash zone and got soaking wet. Kudos to them for riding it out and taking it like champs!
I think everybody heard "ferry" and thought it'd be like the giant, calm ferries we're used to back home, where you can fit lots of cars on them and they move at 5 mph and there's essentially no turbulence (do they call it turbulence if it's a boat?). Instead, we were essentially on an oversized jet boat going high-speed, or as my colleague Josh said it, "running-from-the-Coast-Guard speed" (shoutout to you, Josh, if you're reading this, for being quotable)!

Splish splash!

The girls on the right were soaked by the time we got to the island.

We arrived at the island and ate some brekkie (breakfast) before hiring bikes and snorkeling gear. Then we set off on a bike trek around the island. At first I had a really tough time because we had to bike up hills and such, but after a while I got the hang of it and was perfectly fine lagging in the back, taking my sweet time. We also had to ration our water, because there weren't any potable water sources along the bike path. We stopped by a few vantage points and spotted quokkas for the first time. After months of looking at quokka pictures on the internet, I finally saw them in person and they are so ridiculously cute. They're also amazingly calm, probably because they're used to people fawning over them and taking selfies with them. It's especially important, however, to NOT feed them, because that can make them extremely sick.

We also chanced upon an osprey in its nest, so Paul excitedly "did his best Steve Irwin impression" and told us how rare it was for us to see it. Unfortunately, it was far off, and iPhone cameras can only zoom in so much before the photo quality goes to crud, so I didn't get a good picture.

The osprey in its giant nest

Eventually we made it to the lighthouse and took a few minutes to rest and take pictures. Then we headed back down the hill and fortunately the land was flatter heading toward the spot where we snorkeled. We also passed by some salt lakes, which are even saltier than the ocean and like with the Dead Sea, you could float in them, though I wouldn't want to. They stink.

This white salty foam blew around in the wind as we biked past.

We reached a spot to snorkel and I hung back a little, since I've never actually learned how to swim. After some nudging, Paul got me in the water with a couple of girls in my group who are awesome; they're certified lifeguards and were very helpful and sweet as they taught me to swim with a snorkel. I was terrified, but I knew I'd regret it if I didn't at least try. It was so neat being able to see underwater, and the fact that you can breathe even when your face isn't surrounded by air sort of blew my mind. Also, I definitely breathed/swallowed ocean water and it was gross and burned my nose, but it was worth it.

There's me practicing breathing through the snorkel with my two amazing colleagues who happen to go to PLU in Washington! Photo taken by Emily Morang.

After about 10 miles of bike riding, a very Australian lunch consisting of Subway sandwiches, and getting lost with a friend, I successfully got a selfie with a quokka! Fun fact: Rottnest Island is one of the very very few places quokkas inhabit.

Determined, I got down on the ground for this picture, but this little guy wasn't having it.

This one was eating, so it was much happier to oblige.

Overall, Rottnest Island was fantastic fun and I am so glad to have had a chance to visit. After all, how many people can say they've biked, snorkeled, and met adorable quokkas in just one day?

On Wednesday I took the day off to do laundry and do a little shopping for things I still needed. Then on Thursday, Paul took us out to Trigg beach for a surfing lesson. Since I couldn't swim, I didn't feel comfortable surfing, so Paul got me a boogie board and we tried that. It was really fun, and I caught a few good waves until I lost my balance on the board and a big wave smashed into me. I swallowed a huge gulp of seawater and inhaled some too, and decided I was calling it quits with the boogie board for the day. Besides, it was fun watching everybody else have a go at surfing.
Afterward, we had meat pies at Jester's, which I very much enjoyed. Meat pies are a great comfort food and really filled me up after our time at the beach. On the bus ride back, Sydney and Kylie, the two friends who taught me to snorkel, offered to teach me to swim properly that evening in the pool at the student village. I agreed probably less than enthusiastically, because being fully submerged water still kind of freaks me out a bit, but I was/am determined to finally learn to swim. So I spent half my evening practicing blowing bubbles and floating. I can now manage to swim comfortably with a snorkel, which may not seem like much, but at least now I'm not fully terrified of being in water.

On Friday, I took a nice train trip to my cousin Laure's house to spend the weekend. It's about an hour and a half from Murdoch by bus/train. It's funny when you think about my situation, because in the US, many people are close enough to home that they can go home for a weekend, while I'm stuck in Wisconsin. Here, where pretty much every international student is super far away from family, I can go "home" for the weekend with my relatives. I'm definitely not complaining. It's very comforting to have family that I can talk to and spend quality time with while I'm here.
It was a very relaxing weekend. I tagged along with Laure while she grocery shopped and we visited the Moore River, where the river meets the ocean and it's only separated by a little strip of sand. The colors were vibrant and starkly different. We spent a couple hours there splashing around and running along the beach a bit, then headed home.

So, my first two-ish weeks in Australia have been exciting, mind-blowing, and already a bit trying. This coming week I'll be officially starting classes, which I look forward to after about two months of no studying. I think that's the longest time I've ever gone without having classes since starting college.
Until next time!

~ JP

I'm at Murdoch!

These past few days I have learned a few things, and we haven't even started classes yet. That's a good sign, right?

One thing I've learned: I'm really dependent on internet access. Like, so dependent that when I was without wifi or a phone for about 6 hours this past Wednesday, I was really nervous. Add that to the fact that I'd just moved in and was on my own to unpack and figure out the student village. I think, sitting in my new room in my 8-person flat (which I also discovered was mixed gender. Not a problem, but I was slightly taken aback at first), that it only just then hit me: I'm going to be here for five months. In Australia, a whole different country, about as far as can be from Wisconsin. After a few minutes of freaking out, I reminded myself that UW-Madison used to be terrifying and lonely and vast too, before I settled and found friends and explored. So that gave me some measure of peace. This peace did not truly comfort me much until I finally paid for the wifi (yes, the dorms make you pay for the wifi and it's expensive!!) and messaged my mom, who reassured me I'd be fine.

The flat I'm in isn't too bad. It's like any old college dorm, except we have a common room and a decently-sized kitchen. There are two bathrooms and the sinks and toilets in there are less than great, but they're tolerable. There are also crows here, which look like American crows but bigger and...more mean-looking. They also sound like tortured goats and are VERY LOUD. How do I know this? There's a murder of them that likes to hang out next to my flat and torment us every day between the hours of 4:00 and 6:00 AM. That's right, every single morning my flatmates and are ungraciously greeted by the sound of screaming birds. It's not fun. There hasn't been a morning when I haven't been woken up by them. I'm told I'll get used to it, so here's hoping.

The laundry room at the village. Aussies dry their laundry by hanging it to dry in the sun, which makes sense because there's so much sun here.

That first day when I arrived I met most of my flatmates who had already moved in, and found that they're really cool people. We've got two Aussies, one Singaporean, two Americans, one German, and one English person. I haven't met the final person yet. I'm finding myself humbled all over again when I meet new people here, and I've met a lot!

Thursday was an entire day of orientation for international students, so it was nice to talk to people from all over and see a bit of campus, but the orientation itself didn't do much for me because it was either catered toward people who speak English as a second language, or students who are just starting uni. As a sophomore, I was a little bored by the explanations of what a lecture is like and how important it is to study. One thing I really liked about the orientation was that it allowed us international students to really get to know each other. There are many groups of people I've observed around the student village who met at the orientation and are well on their way to being great lifelong friends. Now I understand why the international students back at UW-Madison tend to keep to themselves sometimes: they've been through many similar things together and may not always share that same bond with locals. I admit I've looked at international students and felt that they didn't want to be involved with us Americans, but now that I'm the foreigner/international student, I'm starting to understand how they must feel in a new and different country with people who live vastly different lives.

Friday was the much shorter (thank goodness!) orientation for study abroad and exchange students. This was much more interesting and relevant. Plus they gave us juice boxes. Afterward, I hiked through the woods (this is mor or less an exaggeration. There's a stretch of trees and dirt/sand that we use as a shortcut to get from the student village to campus) to meet at the CIEE office with the other students in my study abroad program. CIEE is the company which is in charge of my study abroad group.

We were given lunch and had a brief orientation given to us by our program director Paul. Paul is a very friendly, sarcasm-loving man with a great sense of humor. He got bored of the orientation too and got through about half of it before turning off his PowerPoint presentation and saying "I can't be bothered." Then he drove us to the beach.

The beach was absolutely beautiful, and hot! Fortunately, the heat here is dry, which was a welcome relief for me since the last summer I experienced was in Wisconsin where it is terribly humid. Yuck.

Anyway, I stuck my feet in the water and it was much warmer than the Pacific. Props to you, Indian Ocean. Due to the fact that I can't swim and also because I'm from a family that frequently goes fishing/clamming at lakes and rivers and beaches, I did not find the hot sunny beach very impressive or entertaining after about ten minutes, and Paul had offered beforehand to drive us to Kings Park. I'd already been there, but plants and a view of Perth City were much more appealing so I went with him. I really like how well CIEE takes care of us students. Paul does his best to make us feel welcomed and comfortable, and there are only about 15 of us, so it's very nice.

After the driveby of Kings Park, I went grocery shopping at Kardiniya, which is the nearest shopping centre here, about a five minute bus ride. Kardiniya is a fairly small shopping centre, but it has the essentials: Coles (a supermarket with groceries and household supplies) and K-Mart. Yes, there's K-Mart here! I've also seen a Target at a different shopping centre up north near my cousin Laure's house.

Murdoch is its own little suburb, so there isn't much around unless you use the Transperth. The Transperth is the transportation system here and it's actually really well-organized. You can easily get to where you want to go by taking the bus or train or both. The only thing is, you have to remember to tag on and off. That means scanning your Transperth money card when you get on a bus, and again when you get off the bus. I took the train for the first time yesterday to meet up with a friend at the University of Western Australia. I took a train going in the wrong direction and realized it as soon as the train started moving, then got on the right train, where a woman collapsed and they had to stop for a while at the next station to help her. Then I finally made it to Elizabeth Quay (pronounced "key," not "kway") bus station, which is large and I got a little lost and almost got on the wrong bus. Even with all that, I can still say the system here is very nice.

Elizabeth Quay bus station, ground floor where you wait for the buses to arrive.

A view of Perth city from the bus station

Waiting for the train!

Another thing I've learned is that Aussies like to shorten pretty much everything. Fremantle, the nearby area for nightlife/restaurants, is called "Freo." Breakfast is brekkie and vegetarian is veggo. Basically you could take any word and shorten it and add -ie or -o and just go with that. I don't know how long it'll take me to fully understand everything Aussies say, but I'll tell you, it's taking me longer than a few days!

Also, I learned that it is compulsory here to install dual flush toilets. Everywhere you go around here, the toilets have a half-flush and full-flush system, so if you don't need that much water, you don't have to waste it. (Admittedly, the dual flush for a toilet in my flat is broken and only does the full flush, so I personally am not helping the cause very much. Sorry.)

So, that's been the first week of my life in the student dorms at Murdoch! Nothing too exciting, as most of it has been adjusting to the area and having to find new people to talk to. Stay tuned for some more fun stuff coming up!

~ JP

First impressions from Down Under

I'm in WA! No, not Washington...I'm in Western Australia!
After about 30 hours of being in an airport or an airplane or somewhere in between the two, I have finally arrived in Perth! The flights were long and actually kind of painful, so I'm very glad to be with family; I'm staying at my cousin's house near my uni until I get to move into the dorms.
The longest of these flights was a whopping 14 hour one, which found me sandwiched between two rather large men in the center aisle of the plane. I could've sworn I'd previously picked out my seat to be next to the window, so I'm guessing the airline changed it at some point without my knowledge. Needless to say, I was a little miffed at my situation. I did get to sleep for about 6 hours, intermittently, but after that my lower back ached so much I couldn't fall back asleep. On the bright side, I saw a couple movies I've been wanting to watch.
Upon arrival in Sydney, I found myself really disoriented due to the lack of sleep and the sudden humidity and heat. Maybe I'll also blame it on being upside down on the globe from where I normally am :) My airline got changed for some reason too, so I was told by an agent that Qantas would be taking me to my final destination of Perth. Hesitantly and blearily, I asked "...is that an airline?" to which the agent, probably for my sake, smiled broadly and nodded. Not one of my brightest moments. I later learned that Qantas is the national airline here, after being laughed at by my cousins when I told them what happened.
After my awkward moment with the agent, I followed some oddly-placed signage to the bus loading area, where a bus shuttled us to the Qantas domestic transit terminal. It was then, when I was sitting there in the 80-degree, humid bus that it struck me: they drive on the left side of the road here. Also, there's a lot of roundabouts. You can imagine my terror the first time the car veered left on a roundabout!

Another thing that struck me when I left the airport is the plant life here. The plants are really interesting to look at, and there are large succulents everywhere. We went to Kings Park in Perth City yesterday, where there is a botanic garden, and if you know me you know that I really enjoyed that! Kings Park is one of the largest inter-city parks in the world, and it has an area larger than Central Park in New York. There's also a beautiful view of Perth City and the Swan River, which is a saltwater river because the Indian Ocean flows into it.

Today, we visited the Wanneroo Cemetery to see kangaroos. It's an interesting place because there are no gravestones, only little placards and flowers where people are buried. The kangaroos and birds and people all walk around and it's like a park. Kangaroos are really weird in person; I stared at them for a while wondering how the heck those things are real because of the strange way they sit and eat grass.

The weather here has been unusual for the area, because it's been colder and wetter than normal for the summer. Apparently it's been the coldest February in a long time. Today it was about 70 degrees F and I felt perfectly happy as I walked along the coast on the nice bike path, but I saw a few Aussies with sweatshirts (jumpers, if we're trying to speak like the locals). I'm mentally preparing myself for when it gets to 40 degrees C (about 100 degrees F).

I'll be at my cousin's house in a suburb about 40 minutes from my uni until I move into the "student village" on Wednesday and start orientation, so until then I'm enjoying the nice weather, seeing what there is to see, and adjusting to the slower pace of life in Perth. It's been only two full days here and I can already say I love it here, so I'm really looking forward to seeing how this semester turns out!

~ JP