Wow...I haven't posted anything in over a week, and I have so much to share! Maybe I should work on posting twice a week, so my posts aren't so long. This past weekend, on Friday, I went to the same Bible study group again. I was quite surprised to see one of my friend’s roommates there. It was nice having someone there that I already knew and it was good to see familiar faces from last week as well. After the bible study, I went to “Beach Bash”, which is basically a huge party at the on-campus bar, known as The Tav. For the event, the school brought in hot tubs, a lot of sand, a foam machine, and inflatable games. The night also involved a lot of music and dancing!

On Saturday, my friend Divya (who I met last weekend at the picnic) came and picked me up and we went into Perth City. She showed me around the city a bit as we walked around, and we also did some shopping. Then, we took the train to Fremantle, which is a city next to Perth. This was my second time in “Freo”, and we enjoyed a snack at one of the many cafes along the café strip. Fremantle is a really cool place to walk around, and it is also well known for its markets…which have all kinds of clothes, food, and souvenirs you can imagine. Later that night I went over to my friend’s place across campus (like a 20 minute trek) to watch a movie… The Little Mermaid. One thing about Curtin that I really don’t like is that you can’t or shouldn’t walk anywhere by yourself at night, especially across campus. During the week there is a courtesy bus that runs during the night from residence to residence, but it doesn’t run on the weekend, which is probably a time when it is needed most.

On Sunday, I went to Curtin Community Church, which is the church I was trying to find last week. As it turned out, the church met in a totally different part of campus from what I was told last week, but I managed to find it this week. It was very small, only about 50 people, which was so different from the church I attended last Sunday. The message was very good and the people there were very friendly, but it was a lot different from Life Fellowship back at Elon. It was very conservative and we sang a few hymns. It really made me miss the worship at Life Fellowship. Later on Sunday, I went into town with Livia (my roommate) and Jenn(also a student from Elon). They did a lot of shopping, but I was mostly just looking, and I didn’t buy anything. I bet each of them spent over $100 in just the two hours we were there…haha.

Monday, I don’t have classes, and I found out the Divya doesn’t either. She invited me to come over to her house just to hang out. So we ran a few errands and then headed to her place. She lives in a very nice house with her sister and a family friend. We watched a little TV (but there is hardly anything on in the middle of the day in Australia), and We actually got out the Atlas and I was telling her about different parts of the U.S. and she told me about places to visit in Australia. She even made me dinner…minced meat (like ground beef) in a tortilla with cheese, lettuce, etc. Then, because her neighborhood is situated right next to a large park, we went on an evening walk around a park trail. It was quite a nice way to spend a Monday, at least in my opinion.

My third week of classes has gone by so fast. Today, Thursday, we went on an excursion to the Western Australia Art Gallery in my Australian Studies class. Our professor gave us a brief tour of some of the aboriginal art exhibitions. It was very interesting to see the differences between traditional and contemporary aboriginal art. I also found out that Aboriginees do not consider these paintings art; instead, they consider these paintings/drawings an everyday part of life.

Tonight I actually had a babysitting job! I went over to Du Vihn and Robyn’s (my bible study leader and his wife) house for dinner, and then I watched their daughter Sophie for a couple of hours while they went to the circus. They told me the circus was really good, and I am excited because I have tickets to go in 2 weeks!