W. A = Wait Awhile

Well, it's the first week of school and I am extremely overwhelmed!! The most important thing I've learned about Perth, is how fitting it's nickname is.... since Perth is in Western Australia ie- "W.A " to the locals....they all call it "Wait Awhile".....aint that the truth!!!

I'm having a hard time dealing with how sloooowwww and behind the times everything here it....here are a few examples:

all grocery stores close at 5:00 pm, and stay open "late " on Thursdays until 6:00pm

all stores close at 5:00 pm and busses reduce the frequency of their routes at that time also

they still use dialup!!!!! not everywhere, but it is still offered by most internet providers. I went to find out about getting Internet set up at my place, and they offer broadband, and the price is ridiculous!!!!! $350 just to set up.....$69/month and they have a limit on how much you use the net and how much you download. no such thing as unlimited high speed here

ummmm.....now onto how expensive everything is: regular coffee :$2.70 , bottle of water $2.50, ......you get the idea. the reason for this is their high minimum wage- $15/hr and that's for the people working in McDonalds!

ok....so it's hard to get used to the laid back slow attitude here, but other than that, everything is grrrrrrrrreat!

I have a house!!!!!! me and my friend, who is a Norwegian nursing student moved in on Saturday and the place is fantastic! During the past 3 weeks we became really good friends with the guy that runs the housing office at the university and his son. They knew how desperate we were to find a place and had a call from a guy with a house to rent....so he kept the place a secret from the rest of the students and we got to go see it!!!


The house is beautiful!!! It's owned by 4 young doctors who are hoping to turn the house in to their private podiatry practice next year. Instead of leaving the house empty until they fix it up, they decided to rent the place to us!!! They gave us a fantastic deal on rent because there will be guys fixing up the garden every now and then. they pay rent by the week here, and all my friends are paying about $130 PW....but not us!!!! only $80!!! We are sooo sooo excited and having a big housewarming party on saturday!

I'm going to attach a few pics, and there will be more to come and more updates too....I'm just really swamped with school right now....

xoxoxo! sarah




my house:

our street:



sunset at our house:

Orientation week

Orientation week.....saturday night was the welcome party at "the shed" in Northbridge (perth's equivalent to John/richmond in T.O) I met up with friends at the hostel, had some drinks then went to the party.....met lots of fantastic people and a fun time was had by all :-)

the next day we all met up to spend the day at Scarborough Beach. It was amazing!!! the waves were so huge! there were tons of people surfing, boogie boarding and body surfing. I have never been in waves so big before! so much fun....every wave that came just crashed over our heads and it was impossible to stand up. we got tired pretty quicky, it's quite a workout just trying to stand up in the water. we all left covered in sand and quite sunburned, desptite being totally covered in SPF 30 all day!

Still no where to live, but I'm searching day and night with a friend of mine....so our luck will have to change sometime. Until then, we are house hunting everyday and having lots of fun!!
waiting for beach pics from someone and will post them soon

xoxox sarah!

The future is gorgeous!

Well, i have been here a week today, and I have to say I LOVE IT. I still don't have a place to live permanently, but luckily I can stay with friends until I find a place. Australia is very much like Canada, but on the beach....and with more of a british influence. I have noticed some crazy/weird things about this place though:

• the aussies don't wear shoes...anywhere! in the grocery store, riding skateboards, in restaurants, on busses- it's gross! However, I did have a case of Aussie feet on two occasions: #1. my favourite $2 flip flops from Bangkok broke and I had to walk home from the train barefoot and #2 the next day I put on my new flip flops and had so many blisters i walked home barefoot and the sidewalk was SO HOT by the time i got home I had blisters on the soles of my feet too!....ok, enough about my gross feet...I'll spare you the picture of that :-)
  

• they call flip flops "THONGS" hehehehe. that took me a while to get used to when overhearing people talk about how uncomfortable their "thongs" are.

• there are wild parrots in the parks and on the beach! when I first saw the white ones I thought they were seagulls until further investigation I noticed it was a parrot!!! the ones on the beach are bright pink!
  

• they abreviate EVERYTHING! ie- the pink parrots are called "pink cockys", rottnest island is "rotto", fremantle (the port town here) is called Freo, of course, the "barbies" are BBQ's..... the train is "traino"...."uni" = university....which is great for me since I LOVE to abreviate (whatev....ridic...you get the idea)
  

• they have drive though liquor stores, or "bottle shops" as they call them. Looks similar to a gas station, but when you drive up, you tell them what you want ie- " a six pack of toohey tins please mate", and they bring it right up to your car, you pay and drive away. AND they also sell pre-mixed drinks like Jack Daniels and coke in bottles and cans.

• minimum wage is $15/hr and it goes up according to your age.....I've seen ads for office receptionists making $30-$40 per hour

• when you walk into a store, or ask someone a question, or meet someone, instead of saying "hi...hello....hey" they say "how ya going?" which drives me nuts cuz you always have to respond! usually i just stutter and mumble something along the lines of "uuuh ya hi".
  

• Aussie's LOVE their wine and beer! which of course I understand since the wine is FANTASTIC and sold in six packs at the bottle shops. On tuesday night I went to see a foreign film with some family friends. the film was part of the perth ats fest and was outside by the water in a huge park surrounded by trees. all the seats were like beach chairs, and the seats in the row in front of us had bottle holders....not cup holders for your drinks....but wine bottle holders! hahahaha I almost died laughing

• everything comes to a standstill at 6:00. All the shops close and the busses go from a 5 min frequency to once every 1/2 hr! Then everyone goes home, has a drink and waits for the sun to set before having dinner...about 9:00 these days (too hot when the sun is up)

ok, so those are just a few crazy things going on here....there are way more but I can't remember them just now. I put a few more pics on http://www.ballofdirt.com/members/69530.html
just click on journals.

love to all!
xo sarah

Melting in the Aussie sun

I made it!!!!

I've been here for almost a week, and I love it! It's just like Canada, but on the beach. I haven't had time to post here as well as on my ball of dirt site....so if anyone is interested in reading a bit about my time here and checking out a few pics then go to :

http://www.ballofdirt.com/members/69530.html and click on "journals"

I will blog more when I get a place to live and wireless internet :-)

love to all!

SINGAPORE!!!

i love singapore airlines, singapore airport and everything singapore! This airport is incredible!!!! i could seriously live here... movie theatres, gym, sleeping lounges, free internet, tons of shopping, food....amazing!!!

i actually think i love everything asian....Deb once told me that she thinks i'm "yellow on the inside" hahaha and i think she might be right. we stopped in tokyo for almost 2 hrs and i did not want to get back on the plane!!! i just wanted to stay in tokyo and experience everything japanese. at least on my way home i'm spending a few days in singapore and bangkok!

ok, well....just a short entry today, waiting for my boarding call....time to go to perth!!!

catch ya on the flipside!

xoxoxoxox!