A humble attempt to document life and all its eccentricities

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Thanksgiving, Saying 'Goodbye', Sydney, More Goodbyes, Home.

Life has been moving in fast-forward for quite a few weeks now. Just a week ago I was still in Sydney, soaking up plenty of UV rays thanks to the hole in the ozone layer right above Australia. Alas, I'm now stuck back in the arctic tundra of central Illinois. It's cold, it's rainy, it's full of unprecedented amounts of Christmas cheer. I'll just give a quick recap of my last few weeks down under and my tiresome journey back to the place I call home.

As the days in Australia hit the single digits a cloud of melancholy came over the Village population. As each newly created and sustained friend boarded a plane back to their country of residence it was like a piece of my study abroad experience went with them. As corny as that sounds, it's true. However, we did manage to have one last dinner together with nearly everyone present. We had our own modest Thanksgiving dinner, put on by the Americans. Being a purely American holiday it was pretty difficult to shop for. I went to the store with some of my fellow countrymen and tried to find the staples of any good T-giving. Unfortunately, no canned pumpkin, no stuffing mix, a tiny turkey with no arms or legs was a whopping $42! Obviously, we were a disheartened bunch. But we were Americans. We come from the land of ingenuity, freedom and Pilgrims goddammit! Sarah, a resident of the great state of Maine, proclaimed that she would make a pumpkin pie from scratch. That's right, roast a whole pumpkin, scoop out the filling, blend it, mix it with ginger, cinnamon, and other spices, then bake the pies, all by herself! What a good little American! Then to the stuffing...we all agreed 'Who needs stuffing? We're gonna have pies!". Finally, the turkey. I suggested, "You know what looks like a turkey? A rotisserie chicken. Oh, and they're only $10? That sure is convenient." So with all of our forces combined, we managed to have a decent Thanksgiving in a country very opposed to the very idea. Why do Australians hate giving thanks? Beats me.

After that a couple friends and I took my flatmate Sanna to the airport to catch her flight to the east coast. Very sad indeed. It just got the ball rolling though, pretty soon everyone was loading their belongings into cab and shuttles and trekking back home or onto holiday destinations. I wasn't going home right away but spending a couple days in Sydney with friends. I think if I had gone straight home after leaving Perth it would have been a lot harder to adjust back to life in the States. Sydney was a nice little buffer between the dream world of Perth and the cold reality of Illinois.

Sydney was amazing. We did the biggest tourist-y things, but hell, we WERE tourists. The first morning I was all by myself and couldn't sleep the night before cause I was so excited. I was up at 7am and even though it was raining, I got my shoes on walked down to Circular Quay to see the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. I was so pumped. I was seeing the symbols of Australia. I met up with Bridget and Sheila (friends from Murdoch) later in the day and explored more of the city and the botanical garden. Ended up napping under a giant eucalyptus tree.

When I woke up the next day I called my good friend Amanda who was supposed to be flying in the night before. I made plans to meet her, hung up the phone and turned around only to see a good friend of mine from Perth. It was Monty! He had left the first of all of my friends to go travel by himself down the east coast of Oz for awhile. I hadn't made any plans to meet up with him, but there he was, standing in my hostel. I freaked out. He ended up getting booked into the same room as me and was leaving on the same day. We made it our job to explore the city. We met up with Amanda and Martin and went back to the harbour. Booked a package deal that included a high speed boat tour of the harbour and passes to the zoo. The jet boat was intense. The zoo was amazing. Such a good way to end my time in Australia, especially with some of my good friends.

December 3rd was the longest day of my life. Got on the plane around 11:15am in Sydney. Landed in LA at 6:30am, on the same day. I only slept one hour out of thirteen. When we got to LA, I was barely coherent. Speaking of, LAX sucks. They're renovating their international arrival terminal so I was ushered through customs in an almost comatose state. Then of course, American airport security. I had to take my flip-flops and sweatshirt off to get through the metal detector. Yes, that's right, I had a bomb in the inch of foam in my flip-flop. NO! That's my freakin' foot! Then I forgot to dump the water out of my UIS water bottle. So I had to stand there and chug my water and hold up the whole line. I was not a happy camper and I had only been in the US for a half hour. Got to Chicago and my last flight of the day (to Peoria) was delayed. They couldn't find the pilot. Then, once they found the pilot, they had to de-ice the plane. I was delayed for longer than the actual duration of the flight. Made it back to my hometown and was greeted by the smiling faces of parents and one sibling. As I was catching up with the 'rents I saw my friend Kasey strolling over by the baggage claim. I was perplexed. Wasn't sure if I was seeing things because of lack of sleep or Kasey was just randomly at the Peoria airport for some reason. Then was surprised by UIS friends Zach, Evan, and Chris who came to make sure I got back into the country alright. It was so good to see everyone and even though I was smelly, tired and irritated by airports I was still giddy to see everyone. Once we got back to my house I immediately went into first grade show and tell mode. "Look at all these cool things I have and all these neat places I've been!" So good to be back in the company of those who know me too well.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Spontaneity. It's a good thing.

Road trips. A university students idea of a holiday. Pack up a car, get a map, and drive. This past week, Brittany, Amanda, Sanna, Martin and I did just that.

After the whole Margaret River debacle (it was only a debacle because there were so many people on it. It's so hard to do fun things with a huge group that has no leadership.) we decided that another road trip was in order. This time, there were to be no plans, just a leave date and an return date. Our first day we drove down to the tourist town of Pemberton. It's a really really small town that caters mostly to backpackers coming through the region. The forests in the area are incredible. Huge karri trees surround almost the entire town. A really cool place. We camped near a creek in a caravan park. To cut costs we borrowed a tent from a friend. The tent was made for three people. We had five people in our group. We were very cozy in the tent. Also, since we were further south, the temperature was a little chillier, especially at night. We froze that first night.
The next day we drove along the coast to a town called Walpole where we got coffee which made everyone happy. Right after we made our way to the famous Tree Top Walk. It's a steel structure that takes visitors up into the tops of these massive trees. The trees weren't karri this time but tingle trees. Because of the iron ore in much of Australia's soil, the trees take on a reddish tint. The treetop talk was stunning. We were nearly 40 meters off the ground at some parts! I can officially say that I've danced in the tree tops.

After that we trekked to a place called Greens Pool where the coast is not sand but massive rocks. We climbed around on a section called Elephant Rocks. Martin and I got adventurous and climbed on some of the more dangerous sections of rocks. The rocks were very steep with rocky gorges in between. Death traps for sure. We made it out alive though. As we were walking back a massive snake slithered across the path. Then it just sat there, in the path, staring at us. An Aussie man and his daughter came up and he told us that it was an Australian Brown Snake and that it was one of the most deadly snakes in the world...and we were all barefoot. We turned back from there and found a different path to the car.
Drove to Albany after to find a place to sleep for the night. Found a great caravan park that had a pool and a hot tub and really nice facilities. It didn't take much convincing for us to decide to stay there. We quickly changed into our bathers and swam and relaxed in the hot tub. We went into Albany for dinner and a drink at local bar. After we all walked out to the beach and watched the stars. So many shooting stars. It was amazing.

The next day we decided to explore Albany. We took the drive along the cape which Albany sits on and stopped along the way. Our first stop was a look out, but we traversed through the bush to the coast. We found a perfect place for jumping into the ocean. We all took turns jumping into the amazingly blue water. Just driving down this peninsula we stopped at some of the most beautiful places in the world, one right after the other. The Southern coast is just breathtaking.
After we had our fill of amazing scenery we started our trek back. We wanted to make it to Busselton to watch the sunset. The drive back was intense. Martin was driving ridiculous fast on these winding roads. Magpies were reluctant to move for our car so we had to brake constantly and then the bugs...We must have hit right after all these insects hatched because there were thousands of them. Once we hit them with our car they stuck to the windshield. Once the sun hit the windshield covered in bug guts it became impossible to see out of. It made the drive a little scary. We made it to Busselton just before the sunset and walked out onto the jetty (supposedly the longest wooden jetty in the Southern Hemisphere. It's almost 2 kilometers long!) and watched the sun go down. There was a lightning storm going on right along the horizon so we watched that for awhile as well. Hit the road after, only stopping to get Chicken Treat for dinner. Made it back to Murdoch around 11:30. Exhausted. Fulfilled.

Monday, November 17, 2008

Margaret River, Fremantle Festival and Things I Miss from Home


My life has been in fast-forward for the past 3 weeks. Ever since Halloween, it seems like time has decided to move extra fast, as if it wasn't pushing the limit anyway. It seems like just a few days ago that I first arrived here in Australia and now my adventure here is in its last weeks. Although, while time has been flying, I've managed to make the most of it with some really great friends I've made here.

The weekend of the 8th of November some friends (17 to be exact) and I made it down to the wine-growing region of Western Australia known as Margaret River. Beautiful coastlines, massive waves and a relaxed atmosphere centered around the consumption of wine made this the perfect holiday. We rented cars and booked a huge house with ocean views right outside the town of Margaret River. Just a short drive to get groceries or petrol. We went to the beach, did some spelunking in the cave systems, did our self-guided wine and beer tour through the region, made pit stops at a chocolate factory and a cheese factory. At night, we made the most out of having a massive beach house all to ourselves. I think I could get used to this kind of lifestyle. Sanna, Brittany and I swam up the Margaret River aways. I always seem to forget I'm in Australia and dangerous things lurk around every corner. As I was swimming I couldn't get the image of crocodiles out of my head. Not to mention the giant "coastal death adder" we saw on the road on the way to the house. It was probably 5 feet long. No more walking around in bushes for me, thank you. Death adders are not my friend.


The whole region of Margaret River is breath-taking. Massive karri tree forests spring up along the road. Rolling hills are covered in grapevines and peppered with palatial mansions. Strange that such a place exists in a country known for its vast deserts and arid climate. As exams are underway here now, this trip was a sort of farewell to everyone. In the next couple weeks the people who I've grown to enjoy and treat like family will go their separate ways. Sad in a way, but all good things must end.



Today was the Fremantle Festival on the cappuccino strip in Freo. The main street was closed and stages were set up for live music and other attractions. Freo is full of energy on just a regular weekend, now the entire focus of Perth was upon the village. The parade that went through town was intense. Usually, parades are nothing more than fire trucks, the VFW, and candy-throwing. That's not how they roll in Freo. This parade was like a social justice Mardi Gras. Floats passed through the street with messages like 'Save Freo Beaches' and 'Equal Rights for All'. Such a diverse group of individuals. Aboriginal dancers began the parade strutting like the emu. So many colors in the costumes of the participants. Happiness and hopefulness radiated from the entire spectacle. Fairies frolicking, children smiling and waving, musicians playing. Such a great way to spend a day.
While Fremantle does feel like a second home now, there are so many people and things I can't wait to get back to in the States. I'll just do a short list.

-Family (immediate and extended)
-Friends (you know who you are)
-Driving (both on the right side of the road and just driving in general, I miss my car)
-Papa John's Pizza (Australian pizza is so so bad, they have Dominoe's here and they say it's the best, if you thought Dominoe's in the States is bad, the Aussie version is 10x worse)
-Homemade chocolate chip cookies (technically I could make them since I have an oven, it's just laziness)
-Seasons (Sure, it's great having sunny day after sunny day, but the leaves never change here, it never snows, plants rarely bloom. It gets old real fast. Not to mention trying to study when it's always perfect weather makes for a big distraction)
-A good gym (The Murdoch gym is like a closet compared to the TRAC)
-Having an income of some sort (It's sad to constantly see money go out of my account and never in)
-Backgammon (I didn't bring my board cause there was no room in my bag! ARGGH!)
-General Tso's Chicken (Yum)

It's such a bittersweet experience to come home cause there are countless thing I'll miss from Australia as well.

-Being able to drink legally (The age here is 18. I only have one more month once I get back until I'm 21 though)
-Soy Crisps (Best snack food in the entire world)
-Kebabs (Chicken, Tomato, Lettuce, Sweet Chili and Sour Cream...I'm in heaven)
-Playing Rummy nearly everyday (I have an addiction, luckily I found people with the same one. It's a support group)
-Having class 2 days a week (best schedule I'll ever have)
-So many cool accents in one small area
-Friends (It's sad to say it but most of them I will never see again)
-Living so close to the beach (I don't think I've ever turned down a trip to the beach if someone suggested it)
-Tim Tams (They are going to be for sale in the US, but only caramel and original. My favorites are Double Coat.)
-Always having something to do or see (Perth is an amazing city and I'm proud to have called it my home for the past few months)

So it's just a few more days and then I'm off to Sydney for a week and then back home to good old Peoria, Illinois, heart of the Midwest and ready to start another chapter in my life.

Friday, November 7, 2008

Obama-rama


Since Australia is 15 hours ahead of the US, I didn't have to stay up late the night of the 4th to witness history being made. I was still in my pajamas after committing myself to the TV for the morning and afternoon, watching election coverage. These campaigns and this election were not just for the United States, the entire world looked on with morbid fascination. Australia was no different. Three out of the five channels we receive in our flat were showing non-stop election coverage, complete with Australian experts on the American governmental system. Also, with no responsibility, and no 'Florida incident' hanging over their heads, the Aussie pundits could make outrageous comments with no fear of repercussions. The host was unapologetically in favor of Obama. They called the election for him about an hour and a half before the American media did. My flatmates and I watched the TV for hours that day, feeling the same hope as countless other Americans in the country and overseas. McCain's speech was eloquent and incredibly humble. Obama's was inspiring and moving. It gave me chills the entire time.

Once it was finalized, we Americans knew that we had to celebrate. There's a bar on campus here called The Tavern so some of us went to the bar to watch election aftermath and have a beer. There were people from all over the world at the Tav and while the election may not have affected them directly, they appreciated the historic nature. Obama is the embodiment of change, which we certainly need after 8 years of idiocy. I can't wait until January 20th to start getting our country back on the right path.

Monday, October 27, 2008

The most isolated city in the world.


Australia and I had our three month anniversary the other day. It was nice. I decided to spend it in Perth. I don't usually make the trek into Perth unless there's something big going on there or I feel like being alone. It takes about 40 minutes to get there and that's if you manage to time it right and catch the bus and train, whereas it only takes 25 minutes to get to Fremantle from campus. Perth is a great city though. All the people I've met in the city have been so nice and helpful. I think it's because of Perth's claim to fame of being 'the most isolated city in the world'. The tourism industry isn't as big here as in other places of Australia, so people here aren't sick of giving directions or answering stupid questions asked by outsiders. Usually when I talk to people I get questions like "Oh, where in the States are you from?" or "How long are you here for?". Even the cashier at Kmart will say something when he/she hears my accent. Which brings me to another thing...some people actually enjoy American accents here. Personally, I think my accent is a little bland. Plus, the people here have been hearing American accents forever, in movies, music, television, news reports. I figured they'd be tired of them by now. I met this Aussie girl in one of my classes and we got to talking about accents and she said that whenever there's Americans in her classes she can't pay attention because she just listens to them talk the entire time.

I had the last tutorial for one of my classes today. It was my Global Media class, which sucks because it was my favorite class. The class itself was a big eye opener for me. It's so fascinating to study globalization in another country, especially one so influenced by America like Australia is. The class was made up of a ton of different nationalities. About half were Aussies, but the other half were made up of myself ("token American" which I was actually referred to as during class. "Can we get the opinion of the token American?" in reference to Fox News.), Malays, and Singaporeans. I've learned so much about the world and the media in that one class. The discussions we had during tutorials were incredible.

Anyway, back to Perth. On our anniversary I decided to walk up to Kings Park by myself. It was a beautiful day and I just took my time walking through the massive park. Situated on a tall escarpment, Kings Park is a part of Perth history. It's half beautiful gardens and scenic views of the skyline and half protected bushland. You could spend an entire day following the trails in the park. I read a plaque that said that when the area was inhabited by only the Nyungar Aboriginal people, they hunted by chasing groups of kangaroos off the steep cliffs of the escarpment where Kings Park sits. Pretty clever way of hunting, no need for weapons, gravity does the work for you. After I had my fill of beauty courtesy of Kings Park I took the train back, made myself dinner and drank some coffee. Perth and I had a great day together on our anniversary. I only have a month left here so I've got to make it count.

Friday, October 17, 2008

Heaps and heaps of Aussie slang, I reckon.


I really love accents and regional slang. Ask anyone who knows me. So when I found out I was going to Australia I was so pumped because I really wanted to pick up on some slang of the land down under. Now, in the academic sense, there is little differentiation between American English and Australian English (besides a few spelling changes like 'color' to 'colour' and 'organization' to 'organisation'...speaking of I'm taking a globali(z/s)ation course here and had to write a paper on media globali(z/s)ation. I forgot to changes the Zs to Ss and got lots of red marks, oh well. Oh, one more thing, the letter Z isn't pronounced 'Zee', it's pronounced 'Zed'. How random is that?). However, some of the spoken Australian dialect can be hard to decipher, especially when they talk fast. Most of the language here seems to say 'just get on with it'. Aussies don't have time to muddle around with grammar or proper sentence structure, or even real words. Here's a quick run down of some typical words thrown out in an everyday conversation. I'll give them in a sentence too, like in a spelling bee.

Trolley: Shopping Cart "Little Billy, bring me a trolley so we can stock up on meat pies and Vegemite.'

Heaps: Tons or A lot "Oi! There's heaps of fun things to do in Perth."

Eh?, Yeah?, Hey?: Punctuation to almost any sentence "Homework sucks, hey?"

No worries: No Problem "No worries! We've got plenty of goon for this weekend!"

Goon: Boxed wine "This goon is eating away my stomach lining."

Ace!: Awesome! "This Vines concert is going to be so ace!"

Bloke: Man "Which is the men's bathroom?" "The one that says 'blokes'"

Tosser: Wanker "That (bleep)ing tosser just dumped his beer on me!"

Dobber: Tattle-tale "That stinking dobber told the lecturer I was cheating."

Knackered: Tired "After a night out in Freo all I want is a kebab and a warm bed cause I'm so knackered."

Cheers: Thank you "Nobody's every told me how much they like my smile, cheers."

Brick shit house: Badass Mo Fo "My friend walked into a biker bar and got his ass kicked by a total brick shit house."

Yonks and Yonks: Years and Years "It's been yonks and yonks since I watched a footy game."

Pom: British person "That anchor on the ABC doesn't sound Australian, he's a pom!"

Bogan: Aussie white trash "Kath and Kim is the epitome of bogan culture"

Good Onya: Job well done "You just finished your essay? Good onya!"

The overall shortening of words:

Cottesloe: Cott
Fremantle: Freo
Rottnest: Rotto
Thanks: Ta
Subiaco: Subi
University: Uni

Everyone has at least one nickname here as well. Sometimes two or three. It goes along with the whole shortening of names. Most of them end in 'zza' or the letter O. So like Jerome becomes 'Jezza' and Courtney becomes 'Courto'. Mine would be hard since my name is already one syllable, plus Luko just sounds weird.

So try and use some of these words in your everyday speech and see if anyone notices. If they do try and pull off an Aussie accent and call them 'mate'. If that doesn't work, just walk away.

Friday, October 10, 2008

I guess this is the formal introduction...

Since I was recently incorporated into the UIS Blogger club, I guess I should formally introduce myself. My name is Luke Runyon. I'm no good at this whole 'describe yourself' thing so my good friend Howard Kang has made it a tad bit easier. Here's his questions answered my me.


1) Why did you choose your major?
Well, this was actually a pretty easy decision for me. I'm terrible at Math and Science so that ruled out roughly half my choices. I've always been interested in broadcasting and mass media so Communication seemed to be the best way to explore those further.

2) What are your plans post-graduation?
I'm currently looking into public radio internships for this upcoming summer. In an ideal world I could straight into radio production or even be a presenter for awhile. However, the media industry can be a difficult field to break into so we'll see what happens.

3) What's the last non-textbook you read?
It's called 'Survivor' by Chuck Palahniuk, the same guy who wrote 'Fight Club'. It's a really great book about a man who was part of a cult who inevitably killed themselves but he stayed around for awhile to cash in in the media on being the last known survivor of this cult.

4) What's the last movie you watched?
Pulp Fiction actually. A couple of my flatmates had never seen it and I was appalled so I quickly went to this library and rented it.

5) What's the last thing you watched on TV?
It's this really trashy Australian soap opera called 'Neighbours'. We watch it mostly for the cringe-worthy acting and ridiculous story lines.

6) What's you favorite thing about being at UIS?
Well, I'm not currently at UIS but I'm looking forward to being in close proximity to all of my friends again. Plus the gym here in Australia pales in comparison to TRAC.

7) What's at the top of your iTunes playlist right now?
Technically the song I play most is 'Let's Make Love and Listen to Death from Above' by CSS. But the bands I've been playing constantly for two weeks are MGMT and Passion Pit.

8) What's one guilty pleasure you have?
80s music. I know it's not good. But it's so bad it's good.

9) Where's the best place you've ever traveled & why?


I've seen so many beautiful places since I've been here in Australia. My favorite has probably been Karijini National Park in Western Australia. It felt like I was in a dream the entire time I was there.




10) Create your own question.
I'll go the same philosophical route as Howard and pose the question: How?

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

'The best $720 I ever spent' or 'The Outback Adventures of Scragglebeard'

September 26th to October 5th were the best ten consecutive days I've ever had. The Northwest Trip into the heart of Western Australia was one of the best experiences of my life. The trip is organized and partly sponsored by Murdoch International, meaning that the only people allowed to attend are international students here at Murdoch. And since I qualified in that regard, and the price tag for a 10 day, all inclusive trip into the wild Australian outback was only a measly $720, I decided to take them up on their deal. God, I'm so glad I did.

Since it's kind of daunting task to describe every single detail about this trip I'll give you the basics and then the details from each of the days on the trip. It should be a good time for all.

So the whole trip started at Murdoch at 8am and first took us along the coast of Western Australia, mostly though coastal tourist towns. We stayed at Lynton Station, Hamelin Pool, and Coral Bay. After we got sick of regular old beach sand and beautiful clear blue water, we made our way into the heart of the West Australian outback in a region known as the Pilbara. We stayed at Karijini National Park for 2 nights and then made our way back to Perth by staying in the mining town of Newman for one night and Wogarno Sheep Farm the other. We made it back to Perth around 3pm on the last day. Now the details:

Day 1: After spending all day in the bus trying to get as far north as we could before sunset, we arrived at Lynton Station. It is an old convict camp from Australia's rough and tumble days. There was a huge hill looming over the camp so without regard to snakes, spiders, or the ghosts of old convicts, we all climbed the hill to watch the sunset. Such an amazing view of the Indian Ocean. Our guide told us a story of a student on a previous trip who walked up the same hill we did, at four in the morning and couldn't find his way back. He was wandering for an hour before a local farmer picked him up and took him back to camp. Let's just say that was a deterrant to going anywhere at night. Not to mention there's something called a 'coastal death adder' that doesn't exactly sounds too friendly. Sadly, the sunset was almost entirely covered by clouds. It's ok though, cause we all played spoons after dinner and I won.

Day 2: Spent a lot of this day driving, but we did see a lot of really cool stuff. Along the coast there were these huge cliffs close to the town of Kalbarri. We could see humpback whales migrating off the coast and the waves hitting the sides of the cliffs were massive. Such a beautiful stop here. Then we headed off the Kalbarri National Park which is like the Grand Canyon, but a more tame version. Beautiful red rocks and a river running through it. The road to get there was intense though. It was pretty much dirt, gravel, and large rocks on the road for a good 30km. Somehow people still slept on the bus even though it was vibrating the entire time. We got to Hamelin Pool right before sunset, set up tents, and immediately started drinking. It was good though because we played an ice breaker, you know. Name, home country, and most embarrassing moment. Then we did 'cheers' after everyone. So much fun, plsu we all got to know each other's names. I did the story about when I threw a chicken wing on Bridget Lawless at Gorman's.

Day 3: I saw dolphins! We drove to Monkey Mia and spent the whole day on this beautiful beach in Shark Bay. I didn't get chosen to feed the dolphins but my flatmate Carly did. There was a baby dolphin so no one was able to go in the water right by the dolphins. Oh well, they probably smelled like fish anyway. A bunch of us all hired ocean kayaks and paddle boats and went out into the water though. Incredibly blue, beautiful, clear water. I saw a sting ray at the bottom of the ocean floor. After Monkey Mia we stopped off at Eagle Bluff to look for sharks. No shark, but I did cut my foot on a rock, yeah! That's what I get for wearing flip flops on a rocky cliff. After Eagle Bluff we went to Shell Beach, which is exactly how it sounds. A beach with no sand, only small cockle shells. Very surreal. Camp was so fun tonight. The Americans taught the Germans Circle of Death. I felt bad though, a lot of it is word games and English isn't their first language. No mercy though.

Day 4: Best morning so far. We stopped at this tiny roadhouse in the middle of nowhere that had a small bakery. Got an apple strudel...so amazing. We didn't have much driving to do so we got to our place for the next two nights at 3pm, it was this old sheep farm with bunkhouses. We even had a patio with chairs and a fire pit. The guides took us to this amazingly secluded beach with huge waves and really soft sand. There was no one else for miles. We swam and sun bathed for hours. When the sun went down the beers came out and everyone just enjoyed each other's company for a long time. Monty brought a backgammon board and I was so pumped! I haven't played on an actual board since I've been here. I was having withdrawals. I played five games and won every one of them. I even got $5 out of one of the guys. A very good night indeed.

Day 5: Went snorkeling in Coral Bay today. Even though the town is quite touristy I forgot all about it once we got out into the reef in the glass bottom boat. I had never been snorkeling before (not too many places to go in Illinois) and it was incredible. The reef was made up of so many interesting things. A lot of these huge plants that looked like heads of cabbage and trees without leaves. Every now and then one of them would be neon blue. The fish we saw were intense. I think I saw at least half the cast of Finding Nemo. As I was coming onto the boat, the driver was feeding snapper fish and I accidentally put my hand on one. It bit my hand and actually broke the skin. Damn boat driver. We found the only bar in Coral Bay after snorkeling and enjoyed a pint.

Day 6: Our guide, Al, was like a big grumpy bear the entire trip. I mean, he does a ton of these trips for loud, obnoxious college students all the time. We were his 25th trip. Every morning at 6am (sometimes even 5:45) he would walked around and yell 'Wakey wakey!', 'Time to get up!', 'Up by 6 gone by 7'. A very punctual man that's for sure. Today we drove...all day. We had to go like 800km in one day. The only stops we made were long drop toilets in the middle of the outback. We got to Karijini National Park just before sunset. The dirt there was blood red. It's because of the iron ore in the ground that rusts when it rains. The temperature at night was incredible. I skipped sleeping in a tent and slept under the stars. Since Karijini is so secluded there's no running water anywhere. We had to use a long-drop toilet. Here's my first encounter with one: Nature called. I walk to long drop toilet after sunset with flashlight. Enter toilet. Shine flashlight on toilet. I count six cockroaches in and around bowl of toilet. Mental block against 'number two' ensues. I decide to wait until the visitor's centre tomorrow afternoon.

Day 7: Went to the first gorge of Karijini in the morning. It was called Hancock gorge and it was incredibly beautiful. After hiking down inside the gorge we trek along, stopping only to take pictures. We came to a large open area of the gorge that looked like a natural amphitheater. After filling up our water bottles in the clear, perfect water in the waterfalls, we entered the Spider Walk. It's a very narrow section of the gorge with a slippery stream running through it. The best way to traverse it is to spider walk through it with both feet and hands holding on to the rock. So awesome. Only a few people fell. It emptied onto a pool of water in the shadow of the gorge with cliffs on each side. It was called Kermit's Pool. We all took turns jumping into the water, which was the perfect temperature. After about a half hour of cliff jumping we headed back out to another pool in a different gorge. We drove to the pool and it was stunning. It was called Circular Pool in Dales Gorge. It was a giant green pool of water surrounded by black, algae covered rocks with water falls. Standing underneath the waterfalls was just like walking into a warm shower. Again we found cliffs to jump in from. This time a lot higher than at Kermit's Pool. There were other people down there and we quickly became the entertainment by jumping off these cliffs. The water here was so pleasant. After we had our fill of swimming and jumping we went back to camp and I slept under the stars again. I learned this the next day but I was sleep talking. I was next to Craig and and woke up and asked him how to find the Southern Cross. Then, when asked if I was sleep talking I replied with a defensive 'no' and mumbled something about the Southern Cross and went back to sleep. The Outback makes me crazy!

Day 8: Saw a dingo while I was brushing my teeth today! I alerted most of the camp. After breakfast we went to the most beautiful place in the world. Fern Pool. It was stunningly beautiful. The water was like a pane of green glass. Two waterfalls only made it that much more picturesque. If only I could wake up like that everyday, with a 2 hour swim in gorgeous freshwater. We were literally in paradise. If there weren't so many people around it would've been the best place in the world to go skinny-dipping. I have to go back sometime in my life. After Fern Pool we walked a bit to Fortescue Falls. It was nice, but anything after Fern Pool was just a disappointment. We sunbathed and again found more cliffs to jump off. In the afternoon we left Karijini for the long trek back to Perth. I sobbed for hours in mourning of Karijini. We got to our stop for the night, a caravan park in the mining town of Newman. When I opened my tent back to set it up for the night, the world's largest spider was just chilling in there. I proceeded to scream like a girl and jump around. Our guide Craig (the human embodiment of the term 'badass') then picked up said spider and chucked away from camp. Then went back to his business while I was still peeing my pants. Kudos Craig. The night wore on and people got significantly more inebriated. So much so that I was christened with a new nickname. Because of my 'mountain man' like beard and relative uncleanliness, I was given the title of Scragglebeard. Not to mention a whole premise for a TV sitcom involving me, Scragglebeard, and my trusty sidekick, Frank the Friendly Dingo. We solve crime.

Day 9: Woke up outside, somehow. Newman was a crazy night. As we were putting our tents away we noticed two gentlemen watching our camp from a bunkhouse close by. Our Murdoch Rep, a friendly man named Martin, sauntered over to them and made conversation. The two gentlemen were miners who had taken a liking to the females in our group of young travelers. Said they were very beautiful, and if they were willing, would very much like to have relations (my word, not theirs) with one or many of them. Apparently the way the mines work is that men go to work there for 3 weeks, with other men. Then they come to Newman for a week off. Let's just say the women in Newman are hard to come by. Our girls were not impressed with the miners and therefore did not take them up on their offer. After leaving Newman were on the road from dawn til dusk. Got to our final stop for the trip. A sheep farm in the middle of the Outback. We picked the right night because there was a music festival going on. We had dinner and headed over to the shearing shed to watch the bands. There was a trio of percussionists first, but the main event was Dr. Robin Fox who did experimental electronic music. He had a green laser that moved in sync with his beats. The fog machine only added to the trippy-ness. A truly amazing and surreal experience.

Day 10: Our trip finally came to an end. Made it back to Murdoch around 3:30 in the afternoon. It was sad to say goodbye to our buses, guides, new friends and all we had left was pictures and memories. If it was that hard to leave the Northwest, I can't even imagine how hard it will be to leave all of Australia.

Monday, September 22, 2008

What do you mean you've never been to a crayfish party?


As of this past Saturday, the 20th of September, 2008 I can now officially utter the phrase above. I am no longer a crayfish party virgin, like a good percentage of the rest of the world. Apparently, this time of year is crayfish season in Sweden. And what do you do when it's crayfish season? That's right, you have a party! Now, this isn't your average party. This party has hats. Hats with crayfish on them. There's songs too. Songs about crayfish. And bibs. All the bibs have crayfish on them. Are we starting to see a trend within the crayfish party? There's a lot of friggin' crayfish.

The night started out awesomely. I put on my blue and yellow plaid shirt. I had to represent the country where this fine tradition originated. I made it over to my good Swedish friend Martin's flat with the party decorations. We had a crayfish banner and crayfish place mats. We had photocopies of all the crayfish songs. We made Martin's living room into the ultimate crayfish party place. As people started arriving, and putting on their hats you could begin to feel the excitement. The food was brought out and the air was rich with crayfish juice, garlic, and pure, unadulterated joy for the upcoming feast.

The crayfish themselves were kind of creepy. Just like tiny lobsters. They had eyes. stared at you. Always judging. Martin grabbed the first of many crayfish and demonstrated the correct way to gut a crayfish. Each motion made a delicious yet sickening crunching noise. Twist tail. Crunch. Pull tail. Crunch. Insert fork under shell, lift up. Crunch. Remove shell. Crunch crunch. Remove crayfish poo. Squish. Crayfish is now ready for eating. The best way to do it was to put Eyes that it on a piece of bread and smother it in this homemade garlic aioli sauce. It tasted so much better than it sounded. By the end there were heaps of mangled crayfish lying everywhere and everyone reeked of garlic, so you know it was a good party.
I became very fond of the crayfish hats throughout the night. I ended up with two for a good portion of the party. That's me and my friend Karin above, I was rockin' the dual crayfish hats. As the party progressed, if it ever started to die down, one of the Swedes would demand we sing a song. My favorite was called Helan Gar. They tried to translate it and it basically states that if you don't take a shot after singing the song, you're a wuss and no one will like you. That actually seemed to be the gist of all the songs we sang. Hmm...odd. Well let's just say no one was calling me a wuss and everyone loved me by the end of the night. I am a HUGE fan of crayfish parties. SKOAL! (That's 'Cheers!' in Swedish, a helpful word in these situations).

P.S. I won't be posting again until the second week of October because I'm venturing into the Australian outback for a 10 day trip. I'll be sure to post again after that! Adios!

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

"She just smiled and gave me a Vegemite sandwich"

Ah, the land down under. Majestic, with its rolling mountains in the Outback, the trendy urban lifestyle, the accents. It really just makes you want to put a shrimp on the barbie, eh? Hmm, now let's see. I haven't put any shrimp even close to a barbie. In fact, they don't even have shrimp here, only prawns. Hey wait a minute, I haven't been given a ride on a kangaroo either, or fed a koala! Australia is such a ripoff! Ok, maybe if I was completely disillusioned the previous statements might make sense. There seems to be a lot of stereotypes about the Australian culture when it is in fact extremely similar to that of America's. I haven't met anyone even closely resembling, in behavior or dress, Steven Irwin or Crocodile Dundee. I haven't even come close to seeing the Outback (I will in about a week though!). I haven't learned to play the didgeridoo. Nobody has proclaimed 'Crikey!'. The only people who say 'G'Day' are on television. And while I may have met quite a few laid-back Australians, I've met some uptight ones too, and some crazy ones, and some intelligent, and some not so. The point is, people are complex and it's hard to lump a group of them into one file folder in your head, under the label 'Australians'. This goes for any nationality, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation or age. Don't get me wrong I love the song "Down Under" by Men at Work, but no one has yet to offer me a Vegemite sandwich (not that I would take it, Vegemite seems to be an acquired taste, and I don't plan on acquiring it).

So I'll most likely cringe when I return home and the first questions I get are the most stereotypical. "Did you see a kangaroo?" "Did you go surfing?" "Where's your accent?" When the real questions should be about the people I met, the real experiences I had, the undeniable truths I learned about myself and my fellow human beings. I'm not here to be a tourist.

Ok, reading back that all sounds a bit defensive. So, no I haven't seen a kangaroo, yes I have been surfing, and I don't have an accent because I was born in the United States. That makes Q & A a little easier.

Friday, September 12, 2008

In Australia, Footy is king.


Every country has a sport that its residents adore. For most of Europe and Brazil, it's Soccer. In the US it depends on the season, but I think most would consider Baseball to be 'America's favorite past time' (at least that's how it's billed). In Australia, Aussie Rules Football (AKA Footy) is more important than life itself. And now I know why. It's awesome.

I went to my first footy game about 2 weeks ago. A friend got a free ticket so I went to cheer on the Fremantle Dockers. I had seen it on TV and understood a little bit of it. One of my flatmates is a Footy fan and filled me in on some of the rules and game play. Although she's a West Coast Eagles fan so I think I'm supposed to hate her. The game was so fun, so much better than any sport in the US, except Ultimate Frisbee, of course. It's so fast paced and intense that anything can happen in the game, and it usually does. It's basically the love child of American Football and Rugby. The guys who play are super intense. No protection during the game, except maybe a mouth guard (but only if you're a wuss). The goal is to get the ball through the goal to score six points. You can only kick the ball or punch it to your teammates, no throwing. Oh, and you can totally wail on anyone, at anytime. Just no pushing or face shots. Other than that, it's all fair game. Sometimes fights just break out on the other side of the field, nowhere near the ball.


Freo won the game by a lot but didn't make it to the playoffs :( They're going on right now in Melbourne I believe. There's 16 professional teams throughout Australia, with 2 in Perth. I guess each city has about 2 teams and Melbourne is like the Footy capital of Australia with like 9 of the 16 teams being from Melbourne. Watching the news is hilarious because it'll be like 10 minutes of actual news and then 20 minutes of Footy recaps and various news segments about the players. So funny. I guess Australians have their priorities straight.

Friday, September 5, 2008

Only one question comes to mind: How far can you kick a quokka?


Rottnest Island. A refuge for those troubled with life in a big city. Life moves just a little bit slower on Rottnest, and you now what, that's just fine with everyone. No cars on the island means that biking becomes the only mode of transportation. 63 different beaches allow for complete solitude while enjoying the raw beauty of nature. Even a few conveniences from the mainland make their presence known: There's a Subway and a Red Rooster. I know it sounds like utopia and it is! Humans and wildlife even live in perfect harmony...sometimes.

This is the story of how I, Luke Runyon, became a refugee from the island of Rottnest. I'll do my best to do this story justice and give full attention to all details. Here goes.

It was a beautiful day on Rottnest. 75F/24C, not a cloud in the sky. The sun beat down and 13 rowdy university students found themselves in the midst of Eden. My flatmate Amanda was turning 20, a big occasion and we planned to give it its due. With a bottle shop on the island they were practically begging us to drink. Enjoying the company of friends and the euphoric effect of booze, several party goers thought it a great idea to remove their clothing before taking a late night swim. The skinny dippers enjoyed their romp through town at 10:30pm seeing only one conscious soul in their naked journey from the beach to the cottage. After a night of laughter and naked swimming everyone was exhausted and tuckered in for the night, thinking nothing much of the romp through town.


Morning comes. I venture into town, grab some Subway. As I make my way back but what do I see but a Ranger's truck in front of our cottage. "Hmmm...that's odd," I ponder. I walk into the porch to find two large men (one with a beard that says 'Don't mess with me, k?') Bearded man goes on to explain to the group that while they did not approve of our naked romp through the town of Rottnest (which was captured on CCTV) it was merely a slap on the wrist. He also overlooked the fact that we had open containers in public, a girl left her bra on the beach by accident and that we had 13 people staying in an 8 person cabin. The real heart of the matter was that somebody kicked a quokka.
Let me pause for a second to explain the quokka. They're a marsupial. Try to imagine if a rat and a kangaroo had baby. That's what a quokka looks like. I had a few experiences with the furry beasts in the previous day, even stopping for a bit to feed one a eucalyptus leaf, which they love ever so much. I mean, I don't want one for a pet or anything but I would never go out of my way to hurt a quokka, or any living thing for that matter. I feel like the rest of my friends on the island share this sentiment.

Now the ranger tells us of the mysterious "eyewitness". Here's how the quokka-kicking went down according to the witness: A group of 3 people, one male, two female, were walking back from the beach. Females were naked, male was in board shorts. Enter helpless quokka. Male gets a running start and kicks poor, innocent quokka 3 metres over a nearby fence, only after proclaiming, "Let's play some quokka soccer!", in a loud and authoritative voice. Naked group of three then continues to walk away and enter into the cottage. I don't know about you, but this story reeks of bullshit. Apparently the ranger's bullshit detector was broken and our pleas to be heard were not of his concern. Excuse me, but if I'm going to be accused of quokka murder, I want a fair trial. Who is this eyewitness? What did they have to gain from framing us?

Well, we were told we were being "section 60-ed" off the island. That means that we had until 4pm that day to leave the island otherwise we would be arrested. All 13 of us. Not exactly the way I would've liked to have ended my stay on Rottnest. So we try to get on the last ferry from the island at 4pm. It's full. Oh shit, we're going to be arrested for staying on this beautiful island. Oh wait, no, what's that kickass speed boat doing? Really, we get to ride on that? Are you kidding me?! This is awesome! We need to get kicked off islands more often! WOOOO! He's doing donuts in the water! This is amazing!



And thus ends my brief, yet action packed trip to Rottnest Island.

Monday, August 25, 2008

"As days go by, it's the bigger love of the family." Family Matters, anyone?









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They always say that family values are what keep a country together. I'm not sure who 'they' are in that previous sentence but I think they're true to some extent. I don't usually play into that whole 'family values' bullshit that a lot of people are using to keep marijuana illegal or ban gay marriage, but here this household, right here...in flat 21, right smack dab in Perth, we take our family dinners incredibly seriously. When it's family dinner night, you sit your ass down and you enjoy the cooking of your fellow flatmate.

I cooked last Thursday and it was amazing. It was a chicken alfredo pasta bake with spinach, that's right, SPINACH! I made my own friggin' alfredo sauce too! I owned that pasta bake! I started at about 5:15 since everyone wasn't going to be back until 6:30 or so. The recipe said to allow for 45 minutes of prep and cook time, but I wanted to give myself the benefit of the doubt. I cranked up my music and went to work. Dancing around the kitchen, I became one with the food. There was no longer a differentiation between me and the pasta bake, we. were. one. Deep, I know.

The flatmates were treated to a nose feast when they walked in. Garlic, parmesan, herbs, and more garlic. I don't want to brag but this smörgåsbord of flavor would've made you believe in God. I was even a believer, at least until the end of the meal.

We talked about each other's day. Made little family inside jokes. Ragged on Nate, as always. Just enjoyed each other's company. So nice.

So if they are right about all that family values stuff, I'm pretty sure Australia's gonna be just fine cause flat 21's family values are solid. Our blood runs hell deep. Ya dig?

Saturday, August 16, 2008

The Tim Tam Slam: A True Cultural Experience

Who would've thought that I would be meeting very few Australians while living in Australia? The Village is like a little bubble filled with international students and very few Australians (at least that I've met). I keep trying to soak up Australian culture but it's kind of difficult when I don't live with a true-blooded Aussie. One of my flatmates grew up in Perth but has been living a good chunk of her life in the United States so she kind of counts. But still. I yearn for some kind of glimpse into the lives of my temporary fellow countrymen and women! Alas, I've found it! The Tim Tam Slam!

This art of biscuit-soaking is one that requires great skill and determination and perhaps decades to master correctly. I, a humble novice in the art of Tim Tam Slamming, will do my best to outline the correct way to Slam. I took pictures so you can follow along at home. Make sure to ask an adult first though.

1. Prepare your ingredients. You will need a cup of hot liquid, preferably something with flavor. The popular choices are coffee or hot chocolate. However, word on the street is that you can use tea, Milo, or even more daring, a liqueur such as Irish Creme. Then gather up your beloved Tim Tams, the chocolate covered biscuits I have grown to love in three short weeks. One is not sufficient, especially for the true lover of Tim Tams. Two is standard for an evening snack, with a whole carton of Tim Tams acceptable to be consumed as an entire meal. Trust me, they're that good.
2. This is where it starts to get tricky for the novice Slammer. Carefully bite opposing corners of the Tim Tam to be slammed. Essentially, you want the Tim Tam to become a chocolate-y, biscuit-y straw. Make sure to not bite off too much or too little as the entire slam depends on your ability to create enough of a vacuum in the Tim Tam to suck up liquid. Watch out for holes in the biscuit's chocolate coating as they will inhibit the ability to suck. Locate the hole and put your finger over it to allow for maximum suckage.


3. Now it's time for the main event. Clear your head and prepare yourself for the imminent Slamming of the Tim Tam. Keep your hands steady with ample support given to the Tim Tam. Place one of the bitten ends into the liquid (in this case coffee) and suck. Now you don't have much time once the act actually begins. After roughly three or four seconds of solid sucking, the Tim Tam will begin to collapse you only have one chance to get the whole thing in your mouth in one piece. I tend to prefer Double Coat or Caramel Tim Tams as the Double Coat gives more of a external structural support while the Caramel gives an internal support. Either way they ensure a successful slam.

4. The actual act of slamming is quite spiritual. The mind is clear, the body is relaxed and the soul is patient. It's almost an indescribable feeling. Like, the world is good again. I think I saw stars the last time I slammed. Your surroundings become a blur of chocolate-y, caramel-y goodness. Voices become silenced and you get a glimpse of Tim Tam heaven for a couple seconds. "Should I go towards the light?" "Dear God, yes!"

One final tip. Don't do the Slam in the mornings cause it'll make your whole day seem like shit in comparison.

Editor's Note: After reading this post I noticed an ample amount of sexual innuendos peppered throughout the text and even in the images. Comments of a sexual nature on this post will be expected. I totally deserve it.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

So a beach bum isn't the same thing as an actual bum...right?


If only winter was like this everywhere. I mean sure, it's awesome to have to bundle up in a heavy coat, gloves, hat, scarf, and boots anytime you want to go outside in the Midwest, but I think I'd rather just go to the beach. Oh, and not just any beach mind you. We're talking about the one, the only, Cottesloe Beach in Western Australia. Yeah, kind of a big deal. Some of my flatmates and I have made Cottesloe our temporary beach hideaway. How can you say 'no' to a beach that's a 30 minute bus ride away? Answer: YOU CAN'T.





Surfing. One of the most stereotypical activities of Australia. I had to try it at least once while I was here. Well, the stars aligned and a surf board ended up in my lap just a few days ago. Excuse me, but try and imagine this story in the most dramatic way possible: So I gathered up my courage, brushed the sand off my back and walked bravely, with surf board at my side into the welcoming yet foreboding waters of the Indian Ocean. The pounding surf was unrelenting yet I knew I had to master this ancient art of wave riding. I searched myself for the strength to conquer the ocean as I paddled into the vast blue expanse. I turned my board toward the sand, my home, my safety, my friends. I was going to do it. Oh, I feel a wave! Another one! Ok, I'm gonna catch the next one! All my dreams! Coming true! I'm going to be a natural! Hmmmm...I seem to be drifting away from the beach. That's odd. Isn't it surfing when you get closer to the beach? Okay, maybe I should start paddling. Wow...not moving. What's that noise behind me? (This is when the world's biggest wave sucker punched me from behind) (Tumbling, tumbling, water in mouth/nose) Where the hell did that come from?!?! I was supposed to be a natural! All my dreams! Gone! Screw this, I'm gonna go lay on the beach.

That was my debut and retirement from the surfing circuit. I just don't think they could handle how real I was. I'm just too god dammed real.

Monday, August 4, 2008

An Ode to the Wildlife of Murdoch University

What strange and wondrous beasts reside within the hallowed grounds of Murdoch University! I have been here yet a fortnight and still mine eyes and ears buzz with the sights and sounds of creatures unfamiliar to me. A bird, of colors blue, green and orange, perched upon a branch just yonder from my window...Ok I can only write like that for so long. Anyway, there are some crazy birds and animals here! Marsupials galore!

I'll go through a list.

Quenda: Huge rat! Alright, maybe there's a little bit more to it than that. It's also known as the Southern Brown Bandicoot, as in 'Crash Bandicoot', though they look nothing alike. I guess they're really only found in Southern Australia so it's pretty cool that they just run around in my backyard. Although they are slightly unnerving because it looks like somebody just took like an enlarger ray and blasted a regular sized rat and made it huge! Like the size of a rabbit.




Crow: I know what you're thinking. Crows? We have those in the U.S...nothing special. Oh but yes, there is something special. These crows decided not to go with your standard crow noise. You know what I'm talking about, like a 'Caw! Caw!' sort of thing. No, these crows decided to go with something far less sinister and far more annoying. They tend to make the noise of a dying or injured cat. More of a 'Meehehhhh!' sound. Plus, they sometimes undulate their voice, so it becomes this awful drawn out cat dying noise. Just awful. Oh wait, I think I have something that will demonstrate perfectly.




Tiny little black bird (Not the name I just couldn't find it in a list of Australian birds. Yeah, I'm cool, I look at Australian bird lists.): Not really much to say rather than they're very entertaining to watch. Every time they stand still for a little while they do this little thing where they shake their tail feather. Yes, just like the rap song. Anyway, I could watch these things for hours just jump around and then do their little dance.

Australia as a whole is like a crazy fauna haven. It's like the weirdest birds and animals came here and decided to set up camp. I mean marsupials? Whoever came up with that idea must've been on something. "Like they'll be mammals, right? But they don't have babies the regular way...no, no. They're gonna have their babies in a pouch. But it'll be totally groovy because they'll give people a reason to come gawk and take pictures in Australia. Sweeeeeet."

Saturday, August 2, 2008

The Difficulty of Imagining Other People

After 30 hours of continuous travel from one side of the world to the other, I finally made it to Perth on July 24th at approximately 12:30pm WST. I couldn't have been happier, not to mention, smellier, sleepier, and greasier. I hadn't showered in a very long time. I was not prepared for the toll that nonstop movement takes on a person's body. However, after all that, I made it to my new home, Murdoch University Village. I walked into my new flat and breathed in the wonderful aroma of dead air and dust. Of course I was the first one to arrive. I began to unpack and as I did the first of my flatmates arrived. First impression was good. I'm always so bad at first impressions and I don't think I'm immune to them in Australia. More about that later.

Anyway, looking back at my first week in Perth, I really feel like I've grown a lot since coming here. I know that's terribly cliche and talking like that will only turn me into a hypocrite in the end but I don't care. Meeting people from all over the world, with different ideas and opinions has certainly opened my mind. I like to think that I'm an open-minded person, but I think everyone comes equipped with an ethnocentric mind these days. While our world may be becoming a global community there is still huge gaps in the way people think about each other. I know I'm going to be chastised by me fellow Cappies but I think it really is the fact that it is so hard to imagine the lives of other people. When you live in a single culture for a very long time and become acculturated into the thoughts and behaviors of the people around you it becomes very difficult to imagine anyone successfully living a different way. I've noticed that this mindset is incredibly American. However, when I have taken the time to talk to people from Singapore, Malaysia, Italy, Sweden, Germany, Ireland or any other country, it's so much easier to imagine the way other people live. If I can see a person and interact with them on an interpersonal basis, I can more fully understand how they live. I know it sounds like a simple idea, but when a mind is only fed what it is used to, it is bound to think in one dimensional ways.

Ok, that was my soapbox. Well I guess this whole thing is my soapbox since it is my blog. But I've been getting along great with all my flatmates. There's me, 3 other Americans, a Swede and my roommate is from Singapore. They're all great people and I really lucked out from what I hear from other people in the village with crappy flatmates. I've recently been spending heaps of time with my new Swedish friends. We've taken trips into Perth and Fremantle and it's been so nice to visit with people who are mature and thoughtful. We've had a couple really great meals together and have been teaching each other a lot about our respective cultures.

Fremantle, or Freo for short, is such a cool place. It has lots of neat shops, and a beautiful harbor. I hope to spend a lot more time there over the course of the semester. It will be so nice in the Spring once the weather gets nice. Just sit on the cappuccino strip and enjoy a sunset and a glass of wine. Ah, it will be so nice.

Oh yeah, I forgot to explain the whole 'making bad impressions' thing. Well, let's just say that enthusiasm, Australia, Luke Runyon and copious amounts of booze do not mix well.