Life at UNDA!

Hey guys!

I have officially been at school for a week now, so I thought I would update whoever cares to read this.

The first week was hot. And I mean hot. It has been 95+ Fahrenheit every day I have been here, since Monday February 21st. In the shade it isn't so bad but in the sun it is pretty hot. Basically, you walk around with another skin layer that is composed of your sweat, all the time. At least there is one room in our dorm that is air-conditioned, as are the classrooms and the library.

Our dorm building is awesome. It is an old hotel, one of the oldest buildings here in Fremantle, Western Austalia. We are about two blocks of walking distance to the beach, and the ocean water is quite cold. We have gorgeous sunsets, because the sun sets over the ocean. Emily and I's room is quite big, we have plenty of space and we have a door that leads out to the balcony that runs the length of our building! We shall put up pictures hopefully soon.

The first week of school was orientation. We had a few dorm meetings, and had some academic orientation and getting oriented with the community.

My 21st birthday was really fun! In the morning, all 86 of us international students (mostly US) hopped on a train with our group leaders and enacted an Amazing Race around Perth. We had a bunch of clues to get us to certain areas and had questions to answer. It would have been really fun, but, the heat was really intense this day. My group did quite horrible but I think we got most of the right answers.
At night, we went out on the town for the first time. I have to say, alcoholic drinks do not taste good whatsoever. Maybe that'll change with time, who knows. They are also really expensive down here.

We had our first day of class for the semester on Monday, Feb. 28th, the day I am writing this. I didn't have class til 3:30, so Emily and I went to get books, and did a couple other things during the day. I walked to my class and there was this huge group of people standing outside. I soon came to realize that I am in the introductory class to the Biomedical Science major, or one of them. There are 207 people enrolled in my class, mostly in the 17-18 age bracket. So that first class was an experience to say the least. I definitely felt like a number.

We have been eating some good food down here, mostly pasta and tacos that we cook for ourselves. We are trying to not eat horribly which would be so easy to do when you cook everything yourself.

If anyone wants to hear anything more specific or has any suggestions, feel free to comment! Or send me an email at:

lostrox77@yahoo.com