First Week of Class

We started classes here this week. I talked to Mark and he said that BC goes on Spring Break next week. A bit odd to think that others have been in school for so long. I had my first class Tuesday morning with my advisor. My roommate and I are taking a Special Topics course on Evolution and are the only one in this “class.” So it was two hours talking about Darwin and Lamarck and how Americans can be a bit silly when it comes to evolution. I’m excited for the class and feel as though it’ll be really interesting.

I’m also in a music appreciation course that meets for three hours on Tuesday as well. We spent the class going over the names of different notes and ended with a “name that time signature” game.

On Wednesday our group has our Senior Seminar class with our advisor. Our topic is on the Vietnam War and we spent the class going over a history of the war and what the class will entail. Our advisor is a Vietnam veteran and the overall class seems as though it’ll be very interesting and pretty cool (if a class on war can be cool?).

Today I had a nice three hour course on the philosophy of religion. Classes here have three hours a week you have to go to. Most are typically split up in a two hour lecture and then a one hour tutorial. The two classes I’m taking through the university seem to be atypical and have all three hours together. Philosophy is interesting, but three straight hours at 9:30 in the morning isn’t the most fun. Maybe I just need to go to bed a bit earlier. I had a slight problem last night where I was on kitchen duty but fell asleep…my cleaning partner wasn’t too happy. In my defense though, I woke up at 3am and went downstairs and packed away some of the dishes. I’ll have to take her turn next time to make up for it I think.

But other than classes, life here has been going pretty well. The other night we went over to Hotel Cleo’s to help the ladies finish off their extra pasta and cake from their dinner. So considerate aren’t we (more like, “Free Meal! Let’s Go!”). On Wednesday my friend James and I walked up to the Roundhouse to get a tour. It is the oldest building in Fremantle and was a prison (not for the European convicts to be sent to though, just locals). It’s a very interesting building and to see some of the history around the port city was really awesome. There were some letters from a sea captain who made port here that weren’t the most favorable towards Freo. His last letter ended with “I was never so sick of a place in my life and may the curse of Christ rest on Fremantle and every son of a bitch in it. God damn them all.” Hopefully this doesn’t come true during my stay.

Underneath the prison is a tunnel called the “Whaler’s Tunnel.” It was dug out by the prisoners of the Roundhouse to ease the transport of whale oil from the beach to the city. Here I got the closest to a whale in my life – a vertebrae taken from a Southern Right Whale.

Today we went to go get our proof of age cards so that we don’t have to take our passports to the pubs when we go out. They don’t accept driver’s licenses. I have about five photo ID’s in my wallet, all with my birth date on them, but I have to get the proof of age card to go to the clubs. Awesome. Oh well.

Hope all is well in the states. This weekend we’re going up to Caversham Wildlife Park and I will finally be able to see a Kangaroo! Pictures soon to follow!

Take Care