Also, now I'm just ranting, but have you ever thought about the fact that some animals in Narnia can talk and some can't? I thought all of them could talk and were sentient, which would naturally mean that humans would have to be vegetarians; otherwise they'd be killing and eating sentient beings and that'd just be really messed up. Heck, even natural predators would have a hard time hunting if their prey could argue and plead for mercy, right? But according to the Narnia Wiki, Aslan the lion gave all animals the choice between having the ability to talk and not being able to talk; thus, some creatures in Narnia can and some can't. This made things a little better for me, but I was still unsatisfied with the answer, and then the rational side of me came out and I remembered it's just a fantasy children's series. It's cool. It's fine.
If you're reading this right now and getting a little concerned, I'm not intoxicated or anything, I promise. I'm just really passionate about the Chronicles of Narnia. And the power of Google.
Anyway, our second out of three study breaks happened two weeks ago and I spent it frantically doing assignments. I had an online midterm for my Spies class and let me tell you, that was Stressful (so much so that it warranted a capital S)! We were given a list of nine possible essay questions a week beforehand, and then three of those would be chosen by the professor for the actual test. This is all swell and good, except for the fact that all the questions had complicated answers which required lots of research and lots of thought and lots of pain and suffering on my part. I'm not sure how many hours I put into preparing for the exam, but I can tell you that in addition to an hour or so here and there during the week, I spent the entirety of the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday before the test opened online figuring out how I would answer the questions. When I say entirety, I mean during those three days, all I did was eat, sleep, and work on the questions. But as a result I now know a lot more than I thought I ever would about espionage and intelligence operations in the 20th century. And there's still more to learn, folks!
After I took the exam, I still wasn't done with assignments. I had a Water and Earth Science lab report to do, which required lots of data and Microsoft Excel work and in summary I don't want to hear the words "sand, silt, and clay" for a loooooong time, thank you very much. I also had a short synopsis for Indigenous Sustainability, which was easy to type out since I understood the material. This is more than I can say for some others in the class, because I overheard some people talking during class who said they didn't understand the topic at all. This put me off a little bit, but confirmed what I have said before: sometimes people have a super tough time grasping certain social issues because they really have never had to think about it since it has never actually affected them directly. And that's the definition of privilege!
On Wednesday of the study break I went on a field trip to a farm kind of in the middle of nowhere (okay, to be more specific, I'm told it was near Beverley) for Water and Earth Science, where we walked around and talked about soil, soil salinity, groundwater flow, and geological landforms. It was interesting but also hot and I was exhausted by the end. My favorite part was when we got to look at the layers of soil in the ground and describe their texture. We hopped into a big trench and waddled around trying to avoid getting our shoes wet, all while doing our work. It was quite the experience.
On Thursday and Friday I had other learning sessions I had to attend for the same class, which were frustrating because all I wanted to do was be left alone to finish my assignments in peace. But eventually they ended, I finished my assignments, and I finally got my true break from studying on Friday evening, when I took the train to my cousin Laure's house, where I hadn't been in a few weeks.
I spent time with my family until Wednesday morning, because I had no class on Monday, and Tuesday was ANZAC Day, a public holiday (ANZAC = Australian & New Zealand Army Corps) which commemorates military servicepeople. During the long weekend, we visited New Norcia, which is Australia's only monastic town. It was quiet and quaint.
On Tuesday Laure and her husband Sandy hosted a family lunch party. Sandy's relatives in the area came to visit and it was very nice to talk to people over some good food. His family is Greek and a lot of them lived in South Africa before coming to Australia, so they've all got interesting experiences and perspectives that I enjoy hearing about.
The rest of the week was spent going to classes and studying (of course), and then on Saturday, Paul invited CIEE to a rugby match. We watched the Western Force play against the Johannesburg Lions. The Lions won, to Paul's disappointment. I thought the game was interesting, even though I had no clue what was happening the entire time.
After the game, I was hungry, so my friend Larissa and I decided to go into Perth city for some food (mind you, it was nearly 10pm). This is kind of when the adventures of the night really started. On the way to the train station, she tripped on the sidewalk and fell rather gracefully, in my opinion, but emerged unscathed save for some bruises on her palms. Then once we got into the Perth underground station (which is HUGE!) a man came up to us asking for directions. Here is a comprehensive transcript of the interaction for your reading pleasure:
Man: hey I'm just wondering if you could help me, I need directions.
June: I'm not sure if we can help, we're not from the area. But we'll try--
Man: oh, you're not? I'm from New Zealand, where are you from?
June: America. So what did you need directions for?
Man, to Larissa: actually I need directions to your heart. you're gorgeous.
Larissa and June, in disbelief: !?!?!?
...and then he asked if we were going out drinking. We said no and got out of there as quickly as we could. How pathetic and gross is it that this guy was walking around the train station alone late at night trying to pick up girls?
Larissa and I continued on our quest for food by walking toward Northbridge, which is the hub for nightlife in Perth city, with clubs and bars. It was a really cool experience just walking around watching people progressively and collectively get wilder and weirder as the night went on, and we ended up eating at a place called Lucky Chan's. We got to sit up on the roof of this eclectic place. They have a laundromat theme going on, and serve interesting twists on Chinese/Japanese food. They were also blasting rap and hip-hop music, which was very incongruous to the vibe the place had, yet it seemed to work with the overall feel of the place.
After having some delicious dumplings and popcorn chicken, Larissa and I headed back down onto the street and went into an Asian convenience store where we bought some sweets before exploring Northbridge. Then at around 1am we decided to call it a night and headed toward the train station, where we found out that the train wouldn't be coming for another 48 minutes; we ended up calling an Uber.
The rest of the weekend and up until now, I've pretty much been back to studying and being kinda-sorta-very stressed about impending assignments and the fact that my semester is nearly over here. But let's not dwell on that just yet...
Until next time!
~ JP
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