Western Australia Road Trip

Day 1 (Beginning of our Adventure)

Brief Overview

-Before we left, I had my human movement water polo class. I scored the 2 goals my team made. We won!

- There were some car problems at the rental place. Instead of getting a Toyota Corolla, which we ordered, we received a Hyundai Getz. Hyundai Getz is a very small car with limited trunk space. Some how we fit 5 people worth of luggage and 5 people in the car.



-I got a chance to drive for an hour. The turning signal is opposite than the cars in the state so I kept getting confused and turning on the window wipers.



- Drove to Geraldton, a small town by the beach that has very few people.

- We went on the beach for a little. We met up with Russel , Noam and Long Kwan who are on the road trip themselves.




- We met up with Stevie, a friend from Currie Hall. Her hometown is Geraldton and she happened to be in town. She invited us to go over to her house for an Aussie BBQ. She lives on a small hobby farm with sheep, crops, and some doggies. Twice a year her parents burn all the branches they cut from the trees around their farm and burn it in a huge bon fire. We were lucky to be there to see her parents light the giant bon fire. It was intense!!!!!



- We had a Australian BBQ. It was awesomeeeee.







-We left Stevie’s house around 9 to leave for Kalbarii where we planned to stay for the night.

-I hate kangaroos. They are so stupid. At night, they lie around the side of the road and run in front of cars. As we were driving to Kalbarii, I saw more than 10 dead kangaroos and 15 kangaroos that we almost ran over. I swear they are suicidal kangaroos. Its like they wait on the side of the road until they see a car so they can throw themselves at it. Now I know why Australians think so lowly of Roos. They are retarded.



-When we got to our hostel, the other 5 people in our room for 10 were already sleeping so we just went to bed.


Day 2 (Kalbarri to Monkey Mia)

- To get to the hiking trail in Kalbarri we had to take a very bumpy road. It was so bumpy that it felt like our door was about to fall off.

- We went on a deadly hike called Nature’s Window. At the beginning of the hike there is a rock formation that looks out into the canyon, hence the name Nature’s Window. The hike took 3 and ½ hours and was 6 miles long. It was freakin tiring and also really annoying because there were flies following us the whole freakin time…. I mean…. A billion flies on our faces…for 3 and ½ hours. At the end of the trail Leslie had an asthma attack but in the end everything turned out okay. Yay!!!!







- After the hike, we left Kalbarri to Monkey Mia dolphin resort. This place was heaven!!!! There were tons of young people, a pool, bar, and a little village in the resort which had a restaurant, supermarket, and massage clinic. AWESOME. For dinner we made pasta in the community kitchen and after we all bought a drink from the bar and played cards.

- The resort made a mistake by booking a room for 4 people instead of 5 people so they upgraded our rooms to 2 ocean view rooms! They were awesomeee! The rest of the resort was also pretty amazing. There was a bar, pool, and a resort village, which included a restaurant, supermarket, souvenir shop, and massage clinic. There were lots of people at the resort so it was a lot of fun!!!!




Day 3 (Monkey Mia to Carnarvan)

-First thing at 7:45 AM we went to watch the wild dolphins get fed. WILD Dophinsss!!! CRAZZYYY. We all gathered around the shore and watched the dolphin feeders pick people to feed the dolphins. I was not picked. = ( But any who, the dolphins just came up to the shore and was not afraid of the people. Throughout the day, I would see the dolphins come up to the shore and poke different people. Dolphins are one of my new favorite animals.






- After watching the dolphins get fed, we ate a free breakfast at the resort beachfront restaurant. They gave us free breakfast because our room did not have hot water. The food was amazing. I had a veggie omelet with toast and OJ. Yummyy in my tummy.



- Soon after our deliciously free brekkie, we went kayaking!!!!




- Then we hung out on beach and I collected some really crazy shells.

-We left Monkey Mia at 2PM to head over to Carnarvan. Our place was a little trailer that had 2 rooms and the kitchen was in 1 of the rooms. Instead of breakfast in bed, it was like…a kitchen in bed.

- I made dinner, it sucked. = ( HGAHAHhaha


Day 4 (Carnarvan to Coral Bay to Exmouth)

- We left Carnarvan at 8:00AM
- Visited the NASA satellite dish
- Leslie and I drove to Coral Bay
- Snorkeled in the Bay, it was not that good. The coral looked dead and there were not many fish.
- But the beach was amazing and we spent the day floating around in the ocean.
- We left at 3:00 PM to drive to Exmouth
- I drove to Exmouth. On our drive, we saw a lot of huge ant mounds. The ants here are disgustingly big. They should not be aloud to exist.
- Our hostel has bar, pool, and restaurant. We got a room made for 7 people all to ourselves. We took advantage of the 2 extra beds and made them into a drying rack and put the mattresses on the floors as chairs.
- We had dinner at burger joint truck outside our hostel. I got a chicken solvaski. It was to die for.
- After we all played drinking games.

Day 5 (Day in Exmouth)

Today we went to Turquoise Bay. It was definitely the most beautiful beach I have ever seen. The water did its name justice and was a crazy beautiful clear blue. We went snorkeling again but this was way better than Coral Bay. There were a billion more fish, which were a lot more colorful and prettier. The coral also looked a lot healthier and livelier. I saw zebra fishes, rainbow fishes, bright yellow fishes, neon blue fishes, and sea cucumbers. I also walked along the beach collecting pieces of washed up coral and some shells. Man o man… I am sooo dark now!!!!!! After we drove back to our hostel and almost hit a stupid kangaroo. I swear… they are so stupid. It jumped out of the bush and basically ran in front of our car. I really do not like kangaroos. When we got back to the hostel, we had a BBQ. We ate grilled everything. Grilled corn, grilled steak, grilled potatoes, grilled onions, you name it! I also went as far as grilling some celery. A nice couple from Switzerland gave me their left over lettuce head and some salad dressing, which they were not going to use since they were leaving the next day. That absolutely made my day because I miss eating my daily salads!!!!!!!! Any who, we celebrated Matt’s birthday a day earlier because the next day we would be driving all day to our next destination. We ate ice cream with cake and went to the bar and hung out for a bit. It was pretty fun. I really enjoyed staying at the hostel in Exmouth, Potshot.

Day 6 (Exmouth to Karijini National Park & Tom Price & Matt’s Birthday)

- We made a delicious breakfast in honor of our Matty’s 23rd birthday. We ate chocolate chip pancakes, blueberry pancakes, and sunny side up eggs. It was delicious!

-After we drove for 5 to 6 hours to Tom Price,which is an hour away from Karijini national park. On the drive, Leslie, Matt and I drank in the back of the car and played 20 questions. They said I was not playing right because I kept picking too specific topics but I totally think I picked awesome topics.

- The cost to stay at the motel was $70 per night. Leslie and I could not afford that so we slept in the car! It was scary but exciting! We put blankets and towels around the windows to no one could see us. Randomly in the middle of the night we would turn on the air conditioning because it was so hot. Good times good times.

Day 7 Karijini National Park

- On day 7 we went to Karijini National Park and went hiking. We hiked Dales Gorge to Fortesque Falls. The hike was ten times easier than the stupid hike at Kalbarri because there were lots of trees and a river, and the hike was way shorter. Once we got to the waterfall we went cliff jumping, way scary but really fun.

- After hiking Fortesque Falls we went to the Circular pool which was really pretty and…. circular… hahaah yah. We jumped off more rocks into the water but it was only 3 feet high. The hike back out of the gorge was a pain in the butt. I got a good butt and leg workout out of it.

- Oxar lookout was whatever. It was just a place where the four rivers met. Whoopdie doo

- Apparently we really like the water because after we drove back to Tom Price, we went to the public pool and swam around.

-Leslie and I slept in the car again. Since we slept in the car the night before, we were super professional in how to put up our fort. No one could see in our car so we felt pretty safe. I slept a lot better the 2nd night in the car and barely woke up in the middle of the night.

Day 8 Drove all day to Broome
- We woke up at 5am and headed out on the road by 6 am. We drove for 10 hours to Broome. During the car ride we watched movies on my Mac book and slept. The ride really was not that bad.

- Broome was so hot and humid! I was sweating like a pig and was really sticky. Soo gross. We checked into our hostel and it was disgusting. There were a bunch of drunken guys running around acting like ding dongs. The hostel was set up kinda like a college party scene. There were lots of tropical trees, a pool in the middle of the rooms, and a dirty/sick kitchen that felt like a furnace.

-Leslie, Alyssa, and I shared a room with this other girl. She was really gross and left her clothes all over the floor. The room was really hot, sticky, and super smelly. We couldn’t stand being in the hostel so we left to go find something else to do.

-We went to Cable Beach to watch the sunset, which was beautiful! I have never seen a sunset as crazyyyyyyyyy.

-For dinner we went to China Town and ate Thai food. We bought it to go and ate it on curb in front of a bar. The bar had a live band playing so we ate our dinner with a free show! Hahaha

-After dinner we went to the beach and hung out. We just stared at the stars and talked. Its mad how many stars there are.

Day 9 Broome

- I went for a run along the beach in the morning. It is amazing how hot and humid it is at 6 AM in the morning! I did not put sun block on because I did not think the sun was strong so early but I was wrong. I got a little burned on my face. WAAAAAAHHHH!

- In the morning, we went to the city’s weekend outdoor marketplace. It was interesting looking at all the different booths and handmade crafts.

- After the marketplace, we walked around the Broome and went souvenir shopping. I cannot believe how dead cities are in Western Australia. It makes me realize how many people live in Los Angeles and San Diego. I miss busy cities!

- For the rest of the afternoon we went to the beach. I was really disappointed with the beach. Everyone told me that Broome has beautiful beaches but I do not agree. We were unlucky and went on a day that there was some sort of algae bloom in the water. There was a bunch of green gunk floating around the water, which made it brown. Not so nice.
- For dinner we made stir fry and fried potatoes. We ate by the pool like a big familyyyyy! Lots of fun.

- We went to the world’s biggest outdoor movie theatre and watched the movie Salt. But ya.. Holy crap. The world’s BIGGEST?! Awesome. Sitting outside watching a movie on a big screen is a whole new experience. I found myself looking at the stars during some parts of the movie.

- For our last night we all wanted to just hang out and enjoy the end of our road trip. We bought some beers and wine and went on the beach to drink. It was a lot of fun especially since Sam and Alison, 2 girls from the other group of 5 from Currie Hall, joined us.

Day 10 Broome

- The Camel ride was one of my favorite parts of our trip. My road trip group and the other 5 girls went to ride camels on the beach. The camel that Leslie and I rode was named Kahlooie (AKA George Clooney). He is nicknamed that because he is the best looking camel out of all the other ones. I found myself talking to him a lot during our ride. Hahaha. He is sooo cute and nice. I want a camel. They are way better than kangaroos.

- For the rest of the bummed out at the hostel. We were all sick of the beach and the sun so we decided to not go to the beach.

- Broome’s airport is absolutely dead. Aren’t international airports suppose to be big?!

Self Reflection

The 10-day road trip is a life experience I will never forget. I have never gone on a road trip or even been on a trip for that long! Seeing different part of Western Australia was quite the experience. But what really made the trip was the people I experienced it with. I feel so lucky to have traveled with a group of people that are very kind, smart, considerate, fun and absolutely amazing.

Margaret River

A couple of weekends ago, my friends and I took our first Australian road trip! We went south of Western Australia to a place called Margaret River. It was so much FUN!!! We left Perth at 5AM in the morning.

It was a mission getting up early because a lot of us went out to a club the night before. On the first day, we went hiking along the Indian Ocean on this trail called Cape to Cape. I do not know if it is just me, but the Indian Ocean is a lot prettier than the Pacific Ocean. I have never seen the water so blue!!!!! It looks even prettier than Hawaii’s. On our hike, we saw wild kangaroos! They were so cute. I waved at them but they just stared at me and hopped away. Rude. Later on we saw a mommy kangaroo with her baby. After our 3 hour hike, we went on this tour to see this underground cave. We had to walk down a billion stairs to get down to the cave but it was worth it. The cave was really pretty!!!! There were lots of stalagmites, those icicles like things hanging from the ceiling, and an underground lake. At the end of the tour they did a little light show in the cave and at one point they turned off all the lights. If I ever was left alone in a cave… I WOULD DIE OF FEAR. Yah soo… do not leave me in a cave.After we explored the cave, we went on a drive through a forest. It was very peaceful, so peaceful that I ended up falling asleep. For dinner, we ate at a burger place. It was yummy. I have not had a burger since I was back in the states. Our food for the whole trip basically consisted of peanut butter and banana sandwiches. I think I ate about 6 peanut butter and banana sandwiches during the 2 day trip. YUMMMYYYY!After dinner, we checked into our hostel. All 7 of us shared a room. It reminded me of a giant slumber party! I would not let anyone sleep because I wanted to talk. MAHAHAHAHAhaha.Anyways, the next day we went to 3 different wineries. I did not like any of the wines, probably because I was sick. I ended spitting out most of it or dumping it in the waste barrel.After wine tasting, we went to a chocolate factory. I bought lots of chocolate for friends and a chocolate ice cream cone. OH MAN….. IT WAS AWESOMEEEE. Next we went to a cheese factory and a brewery. As you can tell, the second day was a whole lot of going to factories and getting free stuff. It took 3 hours to get back to Perth. After Leslie and I cleaned the rental car, my friend Matt, from the east side of Australia, let my friend Leslie and I drive the car to the gas station. It was my first time driving on the other side of the road. It was crazyyy!!! I drove it there and she drove it back. At first I had a hard time driving and I think I scared the crap out of Matt because I kept driving towards the left. But eventually, I kind of got the hang of it. Yah, so that was my trip.
WA BAM!

Uni

I have failed miserably at keeping my blog updated. I shall try to attempt to remember everything that has happened in the past 3 weeks.


College at the University of Western Australia

Differences

-Class is not arranged in a predictable pattern. Unlike the states where a class would be on Mon Wed Fri at 1:00PM, classes are at different times on different days and sometimes the lecture is not given every week. My Human Movement course is on Monday at 10AM, Wednesday 10AM, and Thursday at 1PM while the lab component is every other Tuesday at 9AM. Except for the lectures given on Mondays and Thursdays, my classes are in different places. And that is only for 1 class! It takes a while to get use to remembering when you have class and where your class is located. It took me 4 weeks. HAHA. I already embarrassed myself twice for going to the wrong class. The first time, I walked into a class that was having a tutorial filled with a 20 Asian students. A tutorial is a small class where students from a giant lecture are divided up so they can discuss what they learned. I was a little weirded out because I did not remember having that many Asian students in my lecture. The class seemed to have already started so I figured I was late and just took a seat in the back of the room. Once I took a seat, the teacher stopped the class and looked at me. She asked me, “ Are you okay?” I just stared at her because I did not think she was talking to me. The whole class turned around and stared at me. The tutorial leader asked me again if I was okay and I gave her a weird look and told her I was fine. She told me that I was in a private class and that it was some art class on who knows what. I wasn’t really listening because I was too embarrassed. I left right after. ARGghhhhhhhh.. sooo embarrassing. The second time was when I went to my Human movement lab and my teacher did not call my name so I raised my hand and asked him why. Once again I was the retarded girl having an one-on-one conversation with the teacher in front of a classroom of students. I found out my lab was only every other week and that I already did my lab the week before. URggghhhh… I’m so lame.

-There are no general education classes. Students study courses for their degree from the beginning. Students think it is very strange that I am taking 4 different classes from different subjects. I am taking Intro to Drawing, Human Movement, International Relations, and Population Nutrition. Its really cool seeing the different types of people in my classes. My intro to drawing class has a lot of artsy fartsy people. They have cool hair and they put their clothes together in ways I would never think of but it looks good. My human movement class has a lot of HOT athletic people. At first I was a little overwhelmed with the amount of good-looking people but it does not phase me anymore. HAHAHA My international relations class has a lot of intelligent looking students that wear more business like clothing but that is just a generalization. My population nutrition class reminds me of any other class back in the states. There is a good mix of people so I cannot really give a general description. I feel like the underdog in all of my classes because everyone has already taken similar classes and actually have a strong interest for the subjects since it’s their focus of study. After a while, it gets tiring pretending to know what you are talking about. BLahhhhhhh. Oh well, I shall prosper!!!

-Living in the dorms is not common. Most of the Australian students commute to school. The average travel time is around an hour! That surprised the crackers out of me. I will never complain about my 10 min bus ride to UCSD ever again! Anywho, the dorms are usually filled with international students. I love getting to know different people from different parts of the world. It’s an eye opening experience.

Australian School terminology


Tutorial (tut)= discussions
Uni = college
Units = classes
College = dorm

Pictures of UWA

Day 8,9,10

Day 8 Enjoying Australia like the Aussies

Today my American friends and I went to out to buy Australian drinks. Stevie, one of the members of the Res Club of Currie Hall, was nice enough to take us. Aussies are super nice. I love them. Any who, we ended up buying some Australian beers and other stuff I have no idea what it was. In Aussie, they sell already mixed drinks, which are super convenient. Stevie invited us over to her place in Currie Hall. It was so nice. She has a full apartment. It reminded me of my apartment back in San Diego. Stevie is a bartender so she made us some really yummy drinks! Yum yum yum. Sindre, friend from Norway, joined us and we played a couple of games of King’s cup. Fun fun fun. I really suck at that game because I had a hard time remembering what the rules were. Sigh* After king’s cup, we went with the Aussies and other exchange students to a bar/club called Captain Sterling and just hung out. It was my first time taking public transportation in Aussie! I like the bus system they have here. All you have to do is push your bus card against some sensor and it charges it. I likey. I am not sure if clubs and bars here are normally like the one I went to but it was a lot classier than bars and clubs in the US. Everyone was really mature. Maybe it has something to do with the legal drinking age being 18. I guess by the time everyone is around 21, they are over the whole crazy drinking thing. Who knows, I am not sure. Maybe my Aussie friends here are more mature than the typical Aussie. … But what is the typical Aussie? Once again, I have no idea.






Day 9 Kings Park/ Beach/ Fremantle

Feeling lazy today. Going to summarize what I did. Took a bus with abroad students to a really popular park called Kings Park. Walked around looking at pretty views, monuments, and different types of plants.








Had morning tea. Ate Tim Tams. It is a heavenly dessert. Went back on the bus. Went to beach. Almost got thrown in ocean by Billy, friend from London. Watched people who have never seen the ocean react to the feel of water. Made me happy. I never realized before how blessed I am to live in California and to have the opportunity to see the ocean.









Back to bus. Went to Fremantle, another city in Western Australia. Went to farmers market. My group of friends got split and we lost each other. I looked for a tall 6’4 dude, my friend Russel. He was easy to spot. Group of friends united. Ate fish and chips. Fish and chips are the big thing here. Attacked by birds. Talked about Korean BBQ to a German friend who has never had it before. Thought about how I miss food from the states. Went home.


Went for a run around Kings Park with my friend Noam, friend from states. Went to downtown Perth. It was deserted. Perth is an isolated city and stores tend to close early. On Saturdays, the mall closes around 5 PM! Okay, back to my summary. Watched the movie Inception. Fell asleep three times. Movie was too crazy. Didn’t get it. After movie, we went to find a Taxi to take us home. Saw 12 and 13 year old kids out at midnight. They are called the “ Rave kids” They pop pills. Where are their parents? Passed by the “bar street” on our way to get a Taxi. Saw some of our friends. Got in Taxi and went home. Blah. The end

Day 10 Church

First time going to Church in another country!

Today I went to church with Alyssa, and 2 of my Singaporean friends, Long Kuan and Tim. I really liked the church here and I feel really lucky to have found an awesome church so soon. I plan to go every Sunday with my friend Alyssa and Long Kuan. The church is located in a city calle Subiaco. I love Subiaco! There are lots of restaurants and shops. When church was done, my friends and I walked around and enjoyed our afternoon in Subi, which is what the locals call Subiaco. Australians tend to shorten everything they say.

Other shortened words and statements:

Breakfast→ brekkie
How are you doing→ Howyadawin?
American→ Yanks
Fremantle (a city)→ Freo