Strange happenings and the first study break

Remember when I said my flat was at full capacity with two Americans, two Australians, one German, one Singaporean, one person from England, and one person from Papua New Guinea? Well, the two Australians left, so now it's all just international students in the apartment. One of them, who was very very shy and never really spoke to any of us except to reply to our greetings and to tell us to move so he could fill his glass with water from the faucet, left with merely a message on our common room whiteboard saying "I've moved out."
The other Aussie moved out a week ago while most of us were out for study break (we get a week off every three weeks of classes!! Thanks Australia). His specific reasons for moving out are also rather mysterious, but I suspect it may have something to do with the strange occurrences that have been going on in our flat. I'm not saying he did any of this but a couple days after we reported everything that had happened to the village director, he was gone.
Since the beginning of my stay here, some people's food has gone missing without explanation. It wasn't anything major, and accidents can definitely happen when you're sharing fridge/cabinet space with a bunch of other people. Still though, I don't think any of us truly minded; we were merely slightly disturbed by the lack of honesty and communication.
A couple weeks ago, somebody found a knife in the freezer. I kind of shrugged it off as someone being really forgetful, but it was still a little funky.
One of my flatmates also got punched by another one with zero explanation. I'm told there was an explanation later, but I don't know if it's a trustworthy one.
Then, the final straw came in the form of slashed curtains. Yep, you read that right. My flatmate and I both went into the kitchen area and noticed something was wrong with the balcony curtains. They looked like they'd been slashed by a knife or something. This was deeply unsettling, so we decided to report it, if for the very least just to avoid a fine for destruction of village property.
I left the next day to go to my cousin's house for the week, and learned that the remaining Australian man had moved out. I'm still a little confused as to the culprit of all the strange happenings in our flat, but nothing's happened since I got back a couple days ago, so let's hope things are okay now.
I told Paul when the curtains got slashed and he looked both concerned and amused and said "this is certainly an interesting semester." I agree!

My first study break wasn't all that eventful, but I enjoyed it regardless. It was a semi-relaxing week spent with my family, just going about everyday life. I got to look after my six-year-old nephew (technically first cousin once removed, but honestly, who has the time to say that?) while his parents were either working or on a business trip. This involved getting him ready for school and walking him there, and then picking him up afterward. It was kind of the first time I'd ever been responsible for a child, so I was a little nervous, especially since my nephew, though sweet and adorable, is also stubborn and very temperamental. The first morning I managed to get him to dress himself and he was very happy to comply, probably because he sees me as a friendly figure rather than a parental one. We walked to school together and I was reminded of when I walked to school with my grandma as a little kid. Afterward I picked him up and he was still happy to go along with me, so I considered the first day a success.
The next couple days were tougher, because he got used to me being around and thus felt more comfortable defying my requests to dress himself and clean up after himself.  I do think it was a good experience for me though, and I'm very glad to have gotten to help my cousins out, because they are amazingly diligent and doting parents who work very hard.

Apart from taking care of my nephew, I got to go explore the Lakeside Joondalup shopping centre, which is apparently the largest shopping mall in WA. I didn't recognize any of the store brands there except H&M and Lush, so it was a small adventure seeing what the different shops had.
I spent the rest of the week studying, writing poetry, and finding new music to listen to; essentially, just taking a mental break. Since getting here it's kind of been one new experience after the next with barely any time for me to just be lazy and do nothing productive. Because that's healthy too (in great moderation, that is).

Also, I booked tickets to visit New Zealand during my third study break! I'm going with my friend Cara and we're both super duper excited about it. I've always wanted to go to New Zealand, ever since I had the idea of running away there disguised as a sheep when the going got tough in the US (I was a middle schooler during the time, so bear with me). Jokes aside, it'll be the first time I'm visiting a country where I have no relatives, and I'll truly get to explore the place on my own terms. We're staying a hostel and everything, so I really look forward to that life-altering experience.

This is a rather short blog post, I know. I'm thinking of trying something new: I started this blog partly to update people about my study abroad experience, but also in part to write about issues I care about. That way when nothing interesting happens during the weeks I can still make posts that are interesting (or at least I think they'll be interesting) and educational! At my very core I am someone who loves to teach and inform, so this will be good practice for me.
Until next time,

~ JP