Time has just flown by!

I don't want to talk about how I've been here for 6 weeks already. Holy. Kangaroo.

I received 3 letters from my father last week, two of which were birthday cards. So sweet. I’ve felt a lot better about being away from my family and friends. Some of my change of feelings has occurred through actually talking with people, but a lot of it is just pushing through it all. There is more time in the world to see them. I know this is where I am meant to be right now. The time now is for traveling and embracing Australia.

Last Friday I toured Fremantle Prison which closed down in 1991.  It has since reopened as a tourist attraction because convicts are such an important part of Australian history. The American group went for a torchlight tour at night so it was super creepy. Like a haunted house, people jumped out at you and there were special effects to scare you. It was kind of morbid because even though they were being punished, people were treated inhumanely there. Prisoners had to share tiny cells with buckets for waste management up until closing in 1991. Some people would be in there for stealing a loaf of bread. People received a hanging for a death sentence. I’m not equating committing people to jail time to the Holocaust, but it felt like I was touring concentration camps back in Germany. It was a pretty dreadful way to end the week.  The rest of the weekend was full of shopping, celebrating Baris’s (an Australian) birthday and doing homework.

The past two weeks have been almost all work. I’ve had a few powerpoint presentations and papers to complete (I got good marks on all of them!), with a few more this weekend. I’m preparing to go on tuition free week, which is a week in the middle of the semester when there’s no school. To stay on top of my schoolwork and not have to do any that week, I have to write at least 7 more essays in 3 weeks, which isn’t too bad on top of minimal reading and sightseeing.

I just don’t want to do them when the weather is so great outside! Weekend plans: (hopefully) surfing!! and relaxing at Scarborough or Cottesloe beach, visiting the WA Art Museum, shopping for fresh/local produce in Subiaco, celebrating Kzoo student Steve’s birthday, completing my homework.

Some slang I've accumulated:

Lovely, reckon, queues, meant to, wicked, gnarly, perving, fair enough, cheers, touch wood (instead of knock on wood)