That's right..today I tried kangaroo meat on the barbie (barbeque) outside in the forty degree chill. A large group of Americans, Germans, Singaporeans, Finlanders, and Danish(ers?) stood around the barbie ( a flat so called grilling surface). The two singaporeans who have been here for a semester took over the grilling and we attempted to cook pork, sausage, beef patties, chicken, wings and dan dah dah kangaroo kabobs. After fiddling with the grill that turns itself off after just so long...no wonder things were cooking so slowly, we finally cooked through all our meat. My dinner consisted of lots of meat including some kangaroo. It had a very unique taste, kind of gamey, but decent and know I can say I have eaten kangaroo. Kind of sad when just yesterday I was taking my picture with one...:/ Oh well, I hope they will understand.
Kelsey moved into my double today!! Woo hoo, know things will jus tbe easier and I won't have to keep anxiously awaiting a roommate. Plus we can skype more easily and I don't have to be worried about what I leave out in my room. That is a weight lifted off my shoulders :) Our room is so cheerful now, it makes me smile :)
We made chocolate chip cookies today...with an interesting recipe and an oven that has only two temperatures..hot and hotter. The recipe we used was one with condensed milk and too much butter...we definitely need a different recipe next time they are very crispy and extremely buttery. Certainly artery clogging! The stove is self-lighting when it wants to but the flame is open in the back and doesn't cook things very evenly or at any certain temperature. It could be interesting for our later cooking endeavors.
We were supposed to go on a prison tour tonight, but it has been moved to Friday. Probably a could thing as Kelsey had time to move in and get all set up! I got my books today for all three of my classes...178 dollars not bad compared to Boston College. My photography book was the most expensive but looks sooo interesting! We have more orientation sessions tomorrow and Friday and a couple barbeques this weekend (boy do they love their barbies).
Longer letter later love lauren
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Where are the Elephants?!?!?!
Today in one word...Elephantastic! Gosh I love the zoo! Today we went to Perth zoo and got to see kangaroos (staple animal to view while in australia...check) , koalas, tasmanian devils, numbats, a gigantic crocodile that could easily eat me whole, GIRAFFES, ELEPHANTS (my two favorites), orangutans, zebras, Tortoises that were the size of a small coffee table, and so many other cool things!! We also discovered the city of Perth and how beautiful it is! The day was gorgeous and the blue sky highlighted the ferris wheel and cool buildings in the middle of Perth. We rode the ferry across the river to South Perth which is where the zoo was located. The hours we spent at the zoo were lovely..we had just enough time to see all the animals we wished to see and we got to spend time with two girls from Germany: Isabelle and Tina (who will be in my photography class)!
Yesterday Keith, Kelsey and I attempted to make fried rice..well Keith and Kelsey did really. There was a lot of sauteing, rice cooking, defrosting, and frying of meat vegetables and rice. The finished product...good, not great. It is so fun to experiment with cooking, especially when no one really knows what they are doing. Kelsey and I have been brainstorming recipes and trying to come up with anything we can especially for dinners. Last evening we settled on having tortellini again..delicious. But this evening we decided to be a bit adventurous and made asian style quesidillas with sauted carrots and onions with chicken in an asian sesame sauce that we put over rice in a halved tortilla with cheese and salad!! We decided this recipe could be another staple of ours that can be changed up with a different sauce, meat, and vegetables.
More exciting updates..my flat mates are great! Yesterday we had a Wii tournament in our living room. I am so lucky that they are so friendly. We played tennis, bowling, and golf. I held my own in tennis and bowling taking second place...I failed in golf. But it was just so nice to feel welcome and have fun!
This place continues to bring me sun, beautiful skies, and new friends....I think I am going to like it here!
Yesterday Keith, Kelsey and I attempted to make fried rice..well Keith and Kelsey did really. There was a lot of sauteing, rice cooking, defrosting, and frying of meat vegetables and rice. The finished product...good, not great. It is so fun to experiment with cooking, especially when no one really knows what they are doing. Kelsey and I have been brainstorming recipes and trying to come up with anything we can especially for dinners. Last evening we settled on having tortellini again..delicious. But this evening we decided to be a bit adventurous and made asian style quesidillas with sauted carrots and onions with chicken in an asian sesame sauce that we put over rice in a halved tortilla with cheese and salad!! We decided this recipe could be another staple of ours that can be changed up with a different sauce, meat, and vegetables.
More exciting updates..my flat mates are great! Yesterday we had a Wii tournament in our living room. I am so lucky that they are so friendly. We played tennis, bowling, and golf. I held my own in tennis and bowling taking second place...I failed in golf. But it was just so nice to feel welcome and have fun!
This place continues to bring me sun, beautiful skies, and new friends....I think I am going to like it here!
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Sunday in Freo (Fremantle)
Back from Fremantle...a small town next to Perth with beautiful beaches, and a plethora of restaurants. We walked around today with a large group of people whom we have met from ohio, kentucky, washington, and minnesota. We had lunch at a cute cafe called the Fremantle Bakehouse. It is one of the many restaurants and cafes down the "cappuchino strip" in Fremantle. We also walked along the beach and went to Target!! Woohoo...but it is a VERY expensive version of Target...strange.
This morning I had a very lovely breakfast with Kelsey and my three guy roommates. It was very cool to sit out in our living room and chat with them and watch the Australian Today show :) They are so nice and it is cool to hear about where they have come from and what they are doing here at Murdoch.
Yesterday we went to the Murdoch International office at 10am expecting to go on a tour of Murdoch. They then told us that we were going to do a scavenger hunt "Amazing Race" style. We were broken up into teams. I was with Keith from Miami and three girls (whose names I won't even try to spell correctly) from Singapore. They were quiet at first, but once we got going on our hunt they were very sweet and we ran around Murdoch finding various buildings and doing various tasks such as making paper cranes, doing handstands, and having a conversation in our best Aussie accents. It was exhausting but very fun and at the end we were neck and neck with Kelsey's team who had a guy from South Africa who was crazy (their team ran the whole thing), but they still got third place to our second!! We then had snags on the barbie (ie sausage on the grill)..it was delicious! I met many girls from Germany during lunch and attempted a few words of German with them. One of the girls is going to be in my digital media and photo class and is very sweet!
After the hunt we went back to k-mart and the grocery and spent obscene amounts of money to get groceries...fresh food is very expensive here! I made dinner for Kelsey and Danielle (chicken stir-fry and rice..about the only meal I know how to cook) and it came out pretty good!! Then the jet lag took over and bed time was very early.
Tomorrow is Monday and there are no plans made as of know..so we shall see what sort of adventures turn up. Signing off from Australia....in all it's sunny bliss :)
This morning I had a very lovely breakfast with Kelsey and my three guy roommates. It was very cool to sit out in our living room and chat with them and watch the Australian Today show :) They are so nice and it is cool to hear about where they have come from and what they are doing here at Murdoch.
Yesterday we went to the Murdoch International office at 10am expecting to go on a tour of Murdoch. They then told us that we were going to do a scavenger hunt "Amazing Race" style. We were broken up into teams. I was with Keith from Miami and three girls (whose names I won't even try to spell correctly) from Singapore. They were quiet at first, but once we got going on our hunt they were very sweet and we ran around Murdoch finding various buildings and doing various tasks such as making paper cranes, doing handstands, and having a conversation in our best Aussie accents. It was exhausting but very fun and at the end we were neck and neck with Kelsey's team who had a guy from South Africa who was crazy (their team ran the whole thing), but they still got third place to our second!! We then had snags on the barbie (ie sausage on the grill)..it was delicious! I met many girls from Germany during lunch and attempted a few words of German with them. One of the girls is going to be in my digital media and photo class and is very sweet!
After the hunt we went back to k-mart and the grocery and spent obscene amounts of money to get groceries...fresh food is very expensive here! I made dinner for Kelsey and Danielle (chicken stir-fry and rice..about the only meal I know how to cook) and it came out pretty good!! Then the jet lag took over and bed time was very early.
Tomorrow is Monday and there are no plans made as of know..so we shall see what sort of adventures turn up. Signing off from Australia....in all it's sunny bliss :)
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Finally in Perth!!
We finally made it through our 25 hours of flying and around 36 hours of total travel time. It was exhausting, but things went pretty smoothly. Thank goodness we were told we had to get our bags in sydney and recheck in or we would have been with no bags in perth. Customs was a little stressful in the Sydney airport because we only had a two hour layover, but we got there in time to board the plane to Perth. The trip from Sydney to Perth was little painful because we were so anxious to finally get there!
Then we took a shuttle bus from the airport that dropped many people off in different places, we were on the bus for about an hour and a half driving around the city and to some suburbs and then back to murdoch. It turned me all around so i have no clue how far we are from the middle of the city. Once we finally got here we found our rooms. Kelsey is right across the courtyard from me! The apartments have a living room and kitchen and then a hallway with five rooms, two singles and three doubles and two bathrooms.
I do not currently have a direct roommate and until last evening had not met any of my suitemates. Kelsey and I went right out and bought necessities for our rooms and food. We made dinner, took showers and pretty much hit the hay. As soon as I was ready for bed with no glasses on, wet hair and pajamas one of my suitemates arrives home. So I met him for a minute..but was so exhausted I didn't catch his name and felt silly this morning when I could not remember. My other flatmate I met at 6am this morning as I walked to the bathroom to go pee and was still half asleep...how I remembered his name I'll never know!
After speaking to my family this morning on skype and chatted with ally, megan, and greg I was feeling a little lonely and missed home. But then I attended orientation all day today and made lots of friends and saw our beautiful campus and learned about the campus and all the cool places there are to see. I signed up for activities over the next week or so to go to the zoo and the city and such. I am going to make dinner at Danielle's (the other girl from BC) and then we are going to hang out with some of the people we met today from Miami, California, and Wisconsin...yeah no Australians yet due to the orientation being for international students, but hopefully soon!!
I am super excited about the next few weeks and hope I will figure out how to get around and how to do the things I want to do!
Miss you, love you, Leave you something later!
Then we took a shuttle bus from the airport that dropped many people off in different places, we were on the bus for about an hour and a half driving around the city and to some suburbs and then back to murdoch. It turned me all around so i have no clue how far we are from the middle of the city. Once we finally got here we found our rooms. Kelsey is right across the courtyard from me! The apartments have a living room and kitchen and then a hallway with five rooms, two singles and three doubles and two bathrooms.
I do not currently have a direct roommate and until last evening had not met any of my suitemates. Kelsey and I went right out and bought necessities for our rooms and food. We made dinner, took showers and pretty much hit the hay. As soon as I was ready for bed with no glasses on, wet hair and pajamas one of my suitemates arrives home. So I met him for a minute..but was so exhausted I didn't catch his name and felt silly this morning when I could not remember. My other flatmate I met at 6am this morning as I walked to the bathroom to go pee and was still half asleep...how I remembered his name I'll never know!
After speaking to my family this morning on skype and chatted with ally, megan, and greg I was feeling a little lonely and missed home. But then I attended orientation all day today and made lots of friends and saw our beautiful campus and learned about the campus and all the cool places there are to see. I signed up for activities over the next week or so to go to the zoo and the city and such. I am going to make dinner at Danielle's (the other girl from BC) and then we are going to hang out with some of the people we met today from Miami, California, and Wisconsin...yeah no Australians yet due to the orientation being for international students, but hopefully soon!!
I am super excited about the next few weeks and hope I will figure out how to get around and how to do the things I want to do!
Miss you, love you, Leave you something later!
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