Let's see. The weekend before last was the Tommie Ball. We all got dressed up and headed to the Hilton for the college version of a prom with alcohol. It was a lot of fun, an interesting night to say the least. The next day I woke up for the 8AM football game and for once ND won, yay!
Last week I actually had a ton of work! Mostly because I didn't do anything the previous week or weekend and had to finish everything before Friday morning-- but still I pretty much worked non-stop from Monday to Thursday night, ridiculous.
This past weekend all the ND kids went to the Albany area on our last ND-sponsored trip. On Friday, we left at 730 in the morning to start driving down south. We stopped at a Forest Heritage Center, had lunch at a cute little English-y place, and went to a really interesting integrated Aboriginal and White-culture museum. In the evening, we arrived at the lodge we were staying at in the Porongorups. It was really nice, groups of 4 had Chalets to stay in with lofts and a balcony with a great view of the hills.
On Saturday we spent the day climbing Bluff Knoll in Stirling Range National Park. The views were pretty impressive, it was really cool. The hike was a lot of fun; however, I was really tired (I think from lack of sleep the previous few nights) so I struggled up the seemingly endless stairs quite a bit.
Sunday was another mostly bus day but included some fun stuff too. While the others were at church, a bunch of us helped get rid of some invasive species from the bush, helping out the Australian environment. Later in the day, we did the Tree-Top walk (420-metre-long steel-truss walkway that is 40m above the ground, in the tree-tops), which kind of made me tingle all over. It was built to protect red tingle trees which have their root system very close the surface. They are only found within a 15 kilometre radius of Walpole, so it's a big tourist destination. The view was really pretty, not only of the trees, but in the distance they were doing controlled burning which resulted in a pretty amazing sky. After the walk, we were able to go into the “Ancient Empire” where they have some older tingle trees that have been through a fire. The inside of the trees was burned and only part of the sides, so you could go inside them, which was neat.
Yesterday I took my test and turned in my paper to finish off my massive amount of work. Now I should be all set until next week, though I should get a start on the work I didn't do last week (because I was busy with the stuff due Friday and yesterday) and the stuff that's due next week. Ah, but it's so hard when no one forces you. Today was soo nice out. I skipped my afternoon classes and headed to the beach, which was so nice. The water was quite warm and the waves were massive! They scared me a bit sometimes, and even knocked me over a few times. Also, I learned a few things about my frisbee skills, namely that I don't have any, I should work on that.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Monday, October 1, 2007
A Typical Week
An average week in my life in Australia...
Last Tuesday I planned out a productive day filled with tutorials, tracking epidemic simulations, analyzing the miss ratio for different computer cache sizes, and Body Balance. After dinner, a bunch of us headed over to the Inter-College Arts show, where some people for Tommie more played some music. There was some interesting acts like a gymnast with crazy sticks he swung around and techno dancers in silly clothing.
Wednesday was also pretty filled with work, so nothing too exciting. I don't have any classes on Wednesdays, but somehow was quite busy. I got pumped up with Body Pump and then spent the day reading lecture notes, doing lab work, and tracking some more epidemic simulations.
On Thursday morning I went to the fitness center for the first time. I've been to a lot of the exercise classes, but I've never just worked out using the machines in the fitness center part. And then I had a pretty relaxing morning while trying to get some work done before starting class at 1. I just had two classes (45 min each) and then an optional lab. After dinner, I went on a café crawl with people from my residential college. It was so much fun. It was only a few dollars and we got a bus ride to a cute little port town and free items at each of the three cafés. At the first place, I got a milkshake and tasted lots of little cakes mmm. And then we went to Baskin Robbins and I got Quarterback Crunch ice cream because I thought it was funny that it was American-themed. It was delicious though, vanilla ice cream with chocolate coated rice crispies and caramel on a cone... was soo good to have real ice cream. And then lastly, we went to Dome café- it's a chain that is all over the place. I got some tea in this cute little tea pot :-). The night was really great- it was relaxing and fun to hang out with everyone that went.
Friday I just had one class in the morning and then quick little meeting. After lunch, Christina and I went to Subiaco (a nearby town) to do some exploring and shopping. It was really nice, the day was absolutely beautiful. We went to the markets, the official sports shop at the footie stadium, the grocery store to get some essentials, and an amazing bakery. When we returned, we wrapped ourselves in toilet paper in preparation for an "Anything but Clothes" party. We made the "outfits" in the shape of dresses, and I think we did a pretty decent job. Other people had interesting costumes like caution tape, saran wrap, garbage bags, leaves, newspaper, etc. The newspaper dresses were super cute with fringed skirts. The night was great fun -- nights gets pretty amusing when the college provides free alcohol for everyone haha.
Even though I went to bed at 1AM on Friday, I woke up at 6AM on Saturday. I was reading up on Green Tea today (which I had for the first time on Friday) and I discovered today that Green Tea "possibly interacts" with the medication I took on Friday (which already has kind of odd effects on me, and I hadn't taken it Mon-Thurs)... so that was probably why that happened. So I was jumping around all morning, trying to occupy myself while the rest of the college was sleeping. A few of us went to Body Pump and then I went to Body Balance and boy was a kind of sore after all that. In the afternoon, some of us girls went to Kings Park and explored a bit. We climbed to the top of the "DNA Tower" to see a great view of Perth, went to the botanic gardens to experience the fullness of wildflower season, and did the tree top walk (pretty sweet bridges over the trees). The day was incredibly beautiful, high seventies, dry and sunny. After that, I attempted to nap to no avail, I could totally still feel the effects of something that felt like caffeine keeping me awake (even though I hadn't had any that day). At 9:30 I went to bed, because I felt like I should make up some sleep, and so that I could wake up at 1:30 to watch the second half of the game. However, I accidentally set my alarm for 1:30PM, whoopsie, so I slept until 6AM Sunday morning.
Sunday was filled with entirely too much work for a Sunday. I did some work in the morning and then went to Body Combat. Combat is kind of hard to follow, and some of the people are so intense and into the moves, it's kind of amusing. And then after lunch Dan and I worked on Comp Arch Lab from 1-3 and then break from 3-4 (because 2 hours of straight work is clearly too much), and then work again 4-5:30, whew. And then after dinner Dan, Ed and I put our report together for like an hour. Haha it's so crazy how my concept of "too much work" has so drastically changed, I think I'm going to die next semester.
Kim and I went for a run this morning. We ran like a mile away along the river, which was really beautiful and we saw a dolphin! And then stretched a bit and ran the mile back. Even though that is practically nothing for most people, I was really proud of myself, because for me, that was a pretty big accomplishment. Freshman year I started running and set a goal of being able to run for 20 min without stopping and I think I only did that maybe once. But I think I could do that now :-). The rest of my day has been good-- classes and such. And then Net Ball after dinner. Net Ball is a funny game with so many rules, but after my third time playing, I think I'm getting used to it a bit more. And despite my lack of ability to play, it's a lot of fun. And now I am avoiding my homework, I think I'm done for the night. I get to talk to Mike in 15 min and then I think I'll go to bed since I'm going to 6:15 Body Balance tomorrow.
Last Tuesday I planned out a productive day filled with tutorials, tracking epidemic simulations, analyzing the miss ratio for different computer cache sizes, and Body Balance. After dinner, a bunch of us headed over to the Inter-College Arts show, where some people for Tommie more played some music. There was some interesting acts like a gymnast with crazy sticks he swung around and techno dancers in silly clothing.
Wednesday was also pretty filled with work, so nothing too exciting. I don't have any classes on Wednesdays, but somehow was quite busy. I got pumped up with Body Pump and then spent the day reading lecture notes, doing lab work, and tracking some more epidemic simulations.
On Thursday morning I went to the fitness center for the first time. I've been to a lot of the exercise classes, but I've never just worked out using the machines in the fitness center part. And then I had a pretty relaxing morning while trying to get some work done before starting class at 1. I just had two classes (45 min each) and then an optional lab. After dinner, I went on a café crawl with people from my residential college. It was so much fun. It was only a few dollars and we got a bus ride to a cute little port town and free items at each of the three cafés. At the first place, I got a milkshake and tasted lots of little cakes mmm. And then we went to Baskin Robbins and I got Quarterback Crunch ice cream because I thought it was funny that it was American-themed. It was delicious though, vanilla ice cream with chocolate coated rice crispies and caramel on a cone... was soo good to have real ice cream. And then lastly, we went to Dome café- it's a chain that is all over the place. I got some tea in this cute little tea pot :-). The night was really great- it was relaxing and fun to hang out with everyone that went.
Friday I just had one class in the morning and then quick little meeting. After lunch, Christina and I went to Subiaco (a nearby town) to do some exploring and shopping. It was really nice, the day was absolutely beautiful. We went to the markets, the official sports shop at the footie stadium, the grocery store to get some essentials, and an amazing bakery. When we returned, we wrapped ourselves in toilet paper in preparation for an "Anything but Clothes" party. We made the "outfits" in the shape of dresses, and I think we did a pretty decent job. Other people had interesting costumes like caution tape, saran wrap, garbage bags, leaves, newspaper, etc. The newspaper dresses were super cute with fringed skirts. The night was great fun -- nights gets pretty amusing when the college provides free alcohol for everyone haha.
Even though I went to bed at 1AM on Friday, I woke up at 6AM on Saturday. I was reading up on Green Tea today (which I had for the first time on Friday) and I discovered today that Green Tea "possibly interacts" with the medication I took on Friday (which already has kind of odd effects on me, and I hadn't taken it Mon-Thurs)... so that was probably why that happened. So I was jumping around all morning, trying to occupy myself while the rest of the college was sleeping. A few of us went to Body Pump and then I went to Body Balance and boy was a kind of sore after all that. In the afternoon, some of us girls went to Kings Park and explored a bit. We climbed to the top of the "DNA Tower" to see a great view of Perth, went to the botanic gardens to experience the fullness of wildflower season, and did the tree top walk (pretty sweet bridges over the trees). The day was incredibly beautiful, high seventies, dry and sunny. After that, I attempted to nap to no avail, I could totally still feel the effects of something that felt like caffeine keeping me awake (even though I hadn't had any that day). At 9:30 I went to bed, because I felt like I should make up some sleep, and so that I could wake up at 1:30 to watch the second half of the game. However, I accidentally set my alarm for 1:30PM, whoopsie, so I slept until 6AM Sunday morning.
Sunday was filled with entirely too much work for a Sunday. I did some work in the morning and then went to Body Combat. Combat is kind of hard to follow, and some of the people are so intense and into the moves, it's kind of amusing. And then after lunch Dan and I worked on Comp Arch Lab from 1-3 and then break from 3-4 (because 2 hours of straight work is clearly too much), and then work again 4-5:30, whew. And then after dinner Dan, Ed and I put our report together for like an hour. Haha it's so crazy how my concept of "too much work" has so drastically changed, I think I'm going to die next semester.
Kim and I went for a run this morning. We ran like a mile away along the river, which was really beautiful and we saw a dolphin! And then stretched a bit and ran the mile back. Even though that is practically nothing for most people, I was really proud of myself, because for me, that was a pretty big accomplishment. Freshman year I started running and set a goal of being able to run for 20 min without stopping and I think I only did that maybe once. But I think I could do that now :-). The rest of my day has been good-- classes and such. And then Net Ball after dinner. Net Ball is a funny game with so many rules, but after my third time playing, I think I'm getting used to it a bit more. And despite my lack of ability to play, it's a lot of fun. And now I am avoiding my homework, I think I'm done for the night. I get to talk to Mike in 15 min and then I think I'll go to bed since I'm going to 6:15 Body Balance tomorrow.
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