Hey there loyal followers!

If you still bother to read this, you must be one of those people that really cares about me, because I've been gone for just about four months now!  Also, I haven't written about anything SUPER exciting for quite awhile, so that means you folks must be really interested in my daily activities (or I just do a good job of making them seem interesting).  At any rate, I've got a few new happenings to report since the last time I blogged.  First of all, our netball team finally got our first official win!  We won a game by forfeit earlier in the season because the other team didn't show up, but this one was the real thing!  We won 23-19 over a team of Australians that was A LOT bigger than us, so I figure that means we must have out-hustled them by quite a bit :)  The season is over now (sadly), and we ended up finishing 7th out of 10 teams, which I consider pretty good for a team that had never heard of the sport before this semester.  Unfortunately for us, the inter-residence hall competitions haven't been going quite as well as the netball season.  We've had two competitions between the three international residence halls so far this semester, and our building has been on the losing end of both unfortunately.  The most recent competition was a bake-off in which we finished in third place by like 3 points.  That said, we got to try some pretty incredible desserts, so it wasn't all bad.  Our next competition is tomorrow, and it's a relay race at the campus recreation center.  Wish us luck, we could really use a win!  Moving on from that, I've got some big time news...I got Brenna to go golfing for the first time!!!  Two Fridays ago, the two of us went to the local course in Fremantle and Brenna played the first round of her life.  I never thought I would be able to get her out golfing with me, but it was actually her idea, and she said afterward that she liked it!  Also, she was really good for her first time out, much better than I expected.  She hasn't admitted that this is going to become a regular thing once we get back to the U.S. just yet, but she did say she wants to get out one more time before we leave Australia, so I'm thinking it's just a matter of time.  The day after we went golfing, Brenna and I decided to go into Perth for the day and get a better idea of where it is that we've been living for the past few months.  We checked out Kings Park (only a small part of it because it's absolutely enormous), and stopped at a place called London Court, which is basically a tiny shopping strip in Perth that looks like a medieval marketplace.  It was a really cool experience, even if we weren't there for long.  Here's what London Court looks like for those interested:




After a long day of walking around Perth, which is a huge city, we decided to find a place to grab some dinner.  After an hour of searching for a place that would be both affordable and different, we became to hungry and frustrated in our inability to find a place that we just went to Subway.  It was possibly the best Subway I've ever had.  After dinner, we grabbed a quick ice cream cone before hopping back on the train to Fremantle.  I feel much better for having spent some reasonable time in Perth, since I figure that's what most people are going to ask about when we get back since it's a bigger and more recognizable city than Fremantle.  Since I realize there's a possibility they may be reading this, I better give a shout-out to the Milands for the package they sent Brenna and I.  It was great to have some American candy that we can't get around here (especially twizzlers pull n' peel which is one of my favorites).  Thanks guys!  I also got a letter from my mom recently, which I really enjoyed as well.  It definitely made me even more excited to get home and see her and the rest of the family.  Recently, a group of us walked down to the jetty (which is basically the Australian term for a man made peninsula) and watched the sun set.  Even though we've seen plenty of sunsets during our time here, this was the first one I've seen from out on the jetty, so it was a pretty cool experience.  From the end of the jetty, we could not only see the sunset, but also had a great view of the Western Australian Maritime Museum and the boats that were coming into the harbor for the night.  After watching the sunset, Brenna and I decided to grab some dinner.  The problem was, we both needed to go grocery shopping and were pretty much out of food.  Can you guess where we went??  If you guessed Subway, you win the prize!  What's the prize, you ask?  You get to feel good about yourself, congratulations!  I only bring up this Subway dinner because it had its own special twist that made it unique.  Because it was so packed at Subway and at the dorm kitchen, we decided to eat in one of the classrooms on the main floor of our building.  We made a tablecloth out of napkins, sat on opposite sides of a desk, and made a date of it.  We're cool, we know.  This past weekend, a number of Bennies and Johnnies (Brenna included) got up and participated in the annual "Run for a Reason" in Perth.  The each donated $31 to run a 4k, and got to pick a cause that they were running for.  A few of us got up early as well to go support them, and it was an incredible event to be at.  25,000 people ran in the race, and the atmosphere was fantastic.  If I enjoyed running even slightly, I would have been disappointed that I didn't participate as well.  That said, I wasn't disappointed because I STRONGLY dislike running.  Give me a bike any day.  One last thing that we've done recently is go to our study abroad director's apartment here in Australia for her stepson's 17th birthday.  We got to know her and her family pretty well when we went on our excursion up to Shark Bay, so we were all more than willing to go congratulate Sam (her stepson) on his big day.  Our director's husband ended up grilling up some burgers to go along with the drinks they provided and the cake and chips we brought, and it made for one excellent evening.  As far as the future goes, we have 3 days left in our last week of classes here in Australia, then study week, followed by 2 weeks of finals before we head home.  I may have already mentioned this, but a group of us are planning on sticking around the Fremantle/Perth area over study week and seeing what we can find to do locally.  At this point, the Perth zoo and the Perth mint have been raised as possibilities (and I suppose some studying wouldn't hurt either).  I would expect to hear about the things we do over study week, but otherwise I'm not anticipating blogging too many more times while we're here, unless I get really bored during one of our layovers on the way home.  That's all I have for now, I'm sorry if I rambled but I'm getting a little tired (it's just about bed time over here).  I'll see you all next time!

Joe

That's right, I have a blog!!

Juuuuuuuuust kidding, I didn't forget about you guys, it's just that I've literally done nothing but schoolwork for the past month (or so it seems), and so I haven't had anything too exciting to report.  They really don't warn you about all the work you're going to have to do while you're here, but I guess it's always good to learn things while you're in school. :P  Like I said, there have only been a few noteworthy things that have happened since the last time I posted, so I'll give you all the rundown of those.  A couple weekends ago, a group of us went to the local aquarium for the day.  We'll just say it was unlike any aquarium that I've ever been to.  I won't go into detail about the types of creatures they had there, because anyone who's interested can always go on facebook and see pictures, which will be MUCH more interesting I'm sure.  One thing they did have at this aquarium that was really cool was a moving sidewalk thing that went around in a circle, with only a glass tube separating us from every kind of aquatic critter you could think of.  We literally had sharks swimming within inches of our faces, and giant rays flying right over our heads!  The aquarium also had a really cool gift shop, where I bought an authentic Aboriginal boomerang as a souvenir.  A short walk down the boardwalk, there were shops and restaurants that we visited during lunch time, and a number of us got burritos, in honor of it being cinco de mayo.  The day after the aquarium, a group of guys from Notre Dame, the University of Portland and Saint John's went to the local course here in Fremantle for an afternoon of golf.  There was rain in the forecast, and we weren't sure if we were going to be able to get a round in, but we ended up having some extremely nice weather, and everyone seemed to have a really good time.  This past weekend turned out to be a pretty enjoyable one as well.  For starters, it was the first weekend in a long time (for a lot of us anyway) that we didn't have giant assignments due the next week, so we FINALLY had the opportunity to relax.  On Saturday, six of us went out with our Australian History professor (who happens to be a well-renowned archaeologist) to one of his excavation sites.  Apparently, it was an area that had been occupied by at least 500 British settlers when the west coast of Australia was first colonized in 1829.  For this reason, he expected us to have a lot of success finding artifacts, and we were definitely not disappointed.  We were constantly pulling things out of the site throughout the day, including clothing buttons, game pieces, shoe leather, gun flints, musket balls, and a number of partially intact glass bottles.  It was my expectation coming into the experience that an exciting day at an archaeological site would involve coming across one or two loosely distinguishable artifacts.  For this reason, I was blown away by how much we were finding, and it really made for a fantastic experience for all of us.  For lunch, we walked to a restaurant just down the street and got burgers.  I ordered one with "the works", which ended up including egg, beetroot, tomato, lettuce, bacon, and ketchup.  It was absolutely delicious.  After we were done for the day, Shane (our professor) asked us if we were in any hurry to get back to Fremantle, to which we all responded that we were not.  He then proceeded to take us to a local pub and buy us all drinks as a thank you for helping him out for the day.  This was a really strange concept for me at first, as I haven't come across any professors that I would do this with back home, but before long we were all talking and laughing like we had known each other for years.  Saturday was a really great day.  As great as Saturday was, however, Sunday definitely gave it a run for its money.  On Sunday, a big group of us caught the train to the local Australian rules football stadium and watched the Fremantle Dockers take on the Port Adelaide Power.  It turns out that "footy", as it is known here in Australia, is an extremely entertaining sport to watch.  There were over 30,000 people at the game, and it made me miss going to Twins games back home (even though the Twins suck this year).  We sat in the third row at field level, so we had a great view of what was happening on the field.  At one point, there was even a streaker that got tackled by the security officers.  Apparently, some things are the same in Australia as they are at home.  Ultimately, our boys from Fremantle proved too much for Port Adelaide to handle, and the Dockers won the game 87-47.  All things considered, this past weekend may have been one of the best I've had since I started this trip, which is really saying something.  Now it looks as though I'll have a couple of relaxing weeks before I have a couple papers due, and then I'll need to start studying for finals.  A group of us are planning on sticking around Perth for study week and seeing the things in the area that we haven't seen since we've been here, so I'll be sure to let you all know how that goes.  Other than that, I can't promise too many more blog posts, mostly because I'll be home before you know it!  I believe we have somewhere between five and six weeks left now, and my goal the rest of the way is to make the most of the time we have here, because I honestly don't know if I'll ever be back (which is a little bit sad).  That being said, I'm SO excited to get home and see my family and friends, and I even get to go straight from Australia to the annual Pekarna family vacation in Wisconsin!  The fun just never ends!  Until next time, a quote that I plan to live by for the rest of my time here, and something to think about in all of our lives:

"Much may be done in those little shreds and patches of time which every day produces, and which most men throw away."~ Charles Caleb Colton