abwicker's PhotoBlog

IMMUNOLOGY DOOONNNNE

2012-07-11T04:04:49Z

HELLO EVERYONE!!! ☺☺☺☺☺ I don’t think I have ever been so excited to be done with a class in my entire life; Immunology will forever taint my memory of my study abroad experience. I absolutely loathe my decision to enroll in this class, BUT I stuck it out and am now DOONNEEE! Best feeling eevver. I ended up studying for over a week for this exam (the longest I’ve ever studied for a single test) but I am sure glad that I did because it was a tough one! I don’t think I aced it but I know for a fact I didn’t come close to failing! Ha YAY! Considering how ridiculously hard this class was I would say that is an exceptional accomplishment. One final to go! Tootles!

The Beginning of the End

2012-07-11T04:04:07Z

Good Afternoon! Earlier today the Notre Dame Study Abroad Office hosted a farewell brunch for the entire international student body. I was honestly expecting some grand event but was a little disappointed to discover the food was cold and their idea of dessert was a single cake… um HELLO there are over 100 students, not including program directors and hall supervisors! Not impressed, they should understand the concept of Bennies be hungry by now… I did however enjoy the slide show presentation that they had put together; they included pictures of all three halls as well as little snippets from Shane (our History professor) and each of our hall supervisors. I think my favorite was when a member of the study abroad office shared that we will always have a home in Fremantle and that while they all wished us well in our future, that they expect us to come back for a visit ☺ The rest of my evening will be dedicated to my Immunology final tomorrow…. Yikes!

First Day of Exams

2012-07-11T04:03:01Z

Today is the very first day of exams (evidently not regarded as ‘”finals” here) and I can already say that I much prefer the way FINALS are given back home at CSB/SJU. They are just much much too spaced out, especially considering the professors give you the questions that will be on the exam. For example, my sociology professor provided nine fairly broad subjects to study and told us that we would have to answer three out of nine essay question. So I’m thinking maybe a subject won’t actually be on the exam or the questions will be much more specific… nope, each question was pretty much word for word the subject statements we were given on the last day of class, why then do we need a whole week to study for them? My conclusion: Australians are significantly dumber than Americans ☺ I also found exams here to be a lot more intimidating, they hold multiple courses in the same large lecture hall rather than just your single class like back home. Despite all the differences I feel like my Sociology exam I took today went relatively well! Wish me luck on my final three finals!

Study Week, Schmudy Week

2012-07-11T04:02:34Z

Hi, I honestly do not have anything worth reporting but I feel bad that I was so diligent about blogging at the begging of my journey… Study week has been exceptionally lame; I’ve really only gotten myself organized in preparations for finals and caught up on television shows online. All the boys are currently away traveling right now as well as a few of the girls so the P&O is on the quieter side, not to mention we’ve had rain ever single dog gone day soooooo my bed has quickly become my best friend ☺ I apologize for the lamer than lame post… Later gator

Digging with Purpose

2012-07-11T04:01:57Z

G’day! Today Anna and I along with a few other international students joined Shane Burke (our Australian History and Society Professor) at an excavation site that he is supervising for a student working on his master’s thesis. I’m not gonna lie, digging… not my thing. I don’t mind getting a little dirt under my nails but it is SO BORING. We uncovered several nails that had once held a fence together…. Oooo ahhhhh. One of the other students also found 2 separate buttons, now I’ll admit that is pretty cool but not cool enough to make up for 7 hours of shoveling around dirt. But I’m glad I did it and can cross that off my list, never to do it again ;). After we were doing excavating Shane took us all out for a drink, thanking us for all our hard work. Well lucky for us drinks turned into I think 4 rounds of beers ☺ I was definitely happy that I signed up for the excavation at that point. I ended up having so much fun with Shane, Anna, and the rest of the international students that had joined us. Nighty night!

Happy End of Semester!!

2012-07-11T03:56:32Z

Yesterday marked the official end of classes here in Australia and I could not be more excited!! Of course we all went out last night to celebrate ☺ Everyone was really able to let loose and as a result I don’t think any one of us have had that much fun in awhile. Earlier today a bunch of us girls went to the Fremantle Dockers footy game, for those of you who don’t know what footy is… think of a game that is a combination of American football and rugby but where no one wears any padding. Thankfully we had absolutely gorgeous weather, though almost to the point of being too hot, but I am definitely not complaining considering it is June! On our way to the game we all took the train and I absolutely loved the energy of everyone around us—it felt like I was back home riding The Link on the way to a Johnnie football game ☺ When we first arrived at the oval [stadium] we were shocked to see one of the players outside signing autographs, definitely don’t get that at a Twins game… The game itself was really fun though the crowd was entertaining enough all on its own, footy is a REALLY big deal here. I was able to come to the conclusion after watching the match that all footy players are ridiculously attractive, too bad I didn’t learn this earlier in the semester. Tonight I believe we are all going out again but it looks like come Monday I will actually have to start studying for finals :/ Laters! Amanda

Goodbye for Now…

2012-07-11T03:54:03Z

Hihi, Today was my last day in Australia with Chris; we decided to spend the entire day in Perth doing a little site seeing and shopping. We started by finding a place to store her luggage for a couple hours then hit up souvenir shop after souvenir shop, getting lots of gifts for everyone back home (get excited!!) We visited the Perth Mint, which I honestly didn’t even know what it was until we got there… not too impressed. I suppose it is safe to say that I am not really into that sort of thing, Chris on the other hand was keen on seeing them pore gold (which I’ll admit would’ve been kinda cool) but it cost $15 dollars to do so. We decided it was just not worth it so left to check out Kings Park and the Botanic Garden. Kings Park I would say is very comparable to that of Central Park in New York, though I’ve never actually been there… But I imagine it to be very similar, it is absolutely HUGE! We ended spending several hours there and enjoyed a drink before heading back into the center of town for dinner. Chris really wanted to try kangaroo meat so we made our way to Outback Jacks for dinner. Her wish was granted with kangaroo and crocodile skewers… I also ate both but definitely prefer roo meat to croc. I think our favorite part of dinner though was the fact that the restaurant was playing American country music, definitely something you don’t find anywhere else in Australia! Afterwards we stopped for gelato then made our way to where the shuttle was scheduled to pick her up for the airport… saying good-bye was not easy because I had loved every second of sharing my life here in Australia but thankfully it wasn’t nearly as hard as the time I did it before in January. Adios, Amanda

Whale Shark Excursion

2012-07-11T03:47:47Z

This morning we were picked up for our 3 Islands Whale Shark Snorkel Excursion, I for one have never been so excited to get into the water. We began our morning with a brief snorkel over a small reef just to get used to the water temperature. Chris and I were absolutely thrilled to see a huuuuge stingray lying in the sand; it was probably a good 5 or 6 ft. in diameter. We also were surprised by a quick visit by a White Tip Reef Shark and a rather sizable jellyfish. After we were finished the boat headed out towards where a Whale Shark had been sited! On our way the crew spotted about 5 manta rays feeding on the surface of the water. Unexpectedly the crew had us all get suited up and we got the opportunity to jump in the water and watch them hunt! It was by far one of the coolest things I have ever seen, they are such graceful swimmers and were completely unaffected by our presence. Afterwards we finally got to jump in the water with the world’s biggest fish! Our entire boat was split into two groups of ten people and luckily Chris and I were in group 1 ☺ The first Whale Shark we swam with was only a juvenile male buuutt was still over 7 feet long! The crew had us jump into the water about 30 feet in front of the Shark and as it swims closer to ensure that you are not in its natural path. It was almost kind of eerie waiting for the shark to get closer because you strain your eyes to try to see it and then all of a sudden it is right in front of you, each time their size shocks you. Following several swims with the juvenile male we all gathered back onto the boat for lunch. Perhaps I was hungrier than I had realized but the simple lunch meet and pasta salad tasted absolutely amazing. After eating we drove out to yet another whale shark that had been spotted, unfortunately but yet also very fortunately several of our group members had gotten either sea sick or were too cold to continue swimming. That left about half the original number of people that Chris and I had to attempt to swim around while in the water. Needless to say we were secretly really pleased. Our final swim of the day was with the mother of all Whale Sharks, or at least I thought so, our instructor figured that it was about 20 feet in length. Because so many people no longer wanted to swim it ended up being me and Chris on one side of the Whale Shark while one guy and our instructor were on the other. Swimming alongside that majestic giant was possibly the single greatest 6 ½ minutes of my life. After heading back into shore we returned to our hostel to shower up before returning Sherri’s car to her. Being the sweet, caring women that she is Sherri invited us to stay for dinner with her and all her neighbors and friends. Chris and I decided to stay and so enjoyed ourselves—great evening, surrounded by even greater company. Tomorrow morning we are flying back to Fremantle and plan to do a little shopping around town. Bye for now, Amanda [& Chris]

Poor Poor Joey

2012-07-11T03:42:54Z

Evening, As I mentioned yesterday we decided to spend the entire day once again soaking up as much sun as we could. We also tried out our snorkel gear but the water was a bit too cold to stay in for an extended period of time. We ended up staying until around 5:00, just as the sun was starting to set. On our way out of the national park Chris spotted her very first wild kangaroo, then we proceeded to see several more because kangaroos are most active at dusk. I warned her that we were going to have to drive extra carefully because of how many were crossing the road. Unfortunately it seemed like seconds after I had finished saying that a little baby kangaroo jumped out from the bush right in front of our borrowed car. Thank goodness the car was equipped with a special extended grill that I’m sure saved it from any damage, but we cannot say the same for the joey… We decided to stop at the Vlamingh Head Lighthouse again to watch the remainder of the sunset; it was a perfect ending to a really wonderful day. After stopping by our hostel to shower we went to Pinocchio’s Italian restaurant for pasta and gelato. Tootles

Exmouth Weekend!

2012-07-11T03:40:35Z

Yesterday (Thursday) I unfortunately had to attend my Sociology lecture and tutorial so Chris just hung out all morning. Later on our afternoon picked up as we thoroughly enjoyed a tour of the Little Creatures Brewery and complimentary tasting ☺ Afterwards we went back to the P&O to make dinner and get packed for our weekend up in Exmouth! We flew out of Perth this morning at about 6:00 a.m. and got to watch the sunrise as we were taking off! So incredibly gorgeous. God was certainly looking out for us that morning because we happen to be sitting next to the nicest, most generous lady in the entire world. Sherri shared with us all about her family, grandchildren, and living in Exmouth. When she had heard that we hadn’t arranged for a ride into town she immediately offered up her friends who were picking her up. As we continued to talk during the flight she also offered to let us borrow her car for the entire weekend, at first we both kind of nervously thanked her, definitely not taking her seriously. When we landed her two girlfriends were already there waiting for us and they immediately took us under their wing just like Sherri had. We arrived at Sherri’s house about half hour later to pick up her car and be along on our way. I decided to hop in the drivers seat since I had experience driving on the opposite side of the road, but what I did not have experience in was driving a stick shift with my left hand… not as hard as I anticipated but definitely a very strange feeling. It was too early to check into our hostel so we decided to go to Turquoise Bay located in the Cape Range National Park. We struck some more good luck as we arrived at the entrance and learned that because it was the weekend of the local Whale Shark Festival that the admission fee was waivered. We finally arrived at Turquoise Bay around 11 a.m. and it was COLD. I figured that being a Minnesotan that I could handle a day on the chillier side but I ended up curling up into a ball with my beach towel wrapped around me for at least an hour. The day ended up getting really hot, perfect for laying out and reading a good book ☺ We also decided to check out Oyster Stacks, another bay just down the road as well as the Vlamingh Head Lighthouse on our way back into town. When we finally checked into our hostel we learned that our dive scheduled for the following morning had been cancelled due to poor weather conditions. Because the dive site is completely tidal dependent and Exmouth had experienced several days of strong winds prior to our arrival, it was deemed unsafe to bring us there ☹ Later that evening we walked to Whalers restaurant and enjoyed the catch of the day. Even though we were incredibly bummed that our dive had been cancelled we decided to spend the next day at Turquoise Bay basking in the sun again. Until tomorrow,