Having a "Gaytime" here in Aussie

So I may be slightly immature... but does anyone else find this advertisement amusing? ha Every time I see it I can't help but chuckle to myself. It is an advertisement for a "golden gaytime," which is a type of ice cream bar and shake. They couldn't have picked a better slogan in my opinion. Speaking of "gaytimes" I had one of them, a shake from KFC, (yes they have KFC here) and it was quite splendid. My friend Mel and I enjoyed one together... so I guess it's true, it's hard to have a gaytime on your own. ;)

Moving on... we are having a gay time here in Australia, ok I'll stop now with the gay time... But we are having "heaps" of fun (another fun Australian word). We met a young couple in our ward, Jacob and Mel, who are our ages, and they have been amazing to us. They have been so friendly and helpful, with getting us acquainted in the new city/country. They have taken us on various tours around the city, shown us the hot spots around town, helped us look for places to live, and introduced us to the Australian culture. I have learned a whole new vocabulary in these past short couple of weeks. it is fascinating, how even though we speak the same language, we say things completely different. Here are some of the fun words I've learned thus far.... a rubbish bin is a garbage can. Lolly stands for any kind of candy, and usually is referring to something with chocolate in it. They call red heads "rangas" (like orangutans), similar to how we call blonds toe heads, although I'm not sure how that term came across. They are found of using the word reckon... as in I reckon so, or what do you reckon. If you call someone trailer trash, you would say they are so "derrow", that could be an actual word, I'm not really sure. Here's a great one, they can say damnit and hell all they want and it's not considered a swear word. Just to clear this up... you may have heard that fanny is a swear word in Australia, which is actually false. As our friends so kindly put it, fanny mean the front end of a girls bum, but is not really offensive to say. ha But they don't use the term fanny pack... so we're going to have to say bum bag from now on. I thought this was humorous... this is particularly for the Reese family, who enjoy potty humor. :) I was enrolling for my classes this week, and a lovely Aussie woman was helping me, as she pulled up my schedule she said "oh you have a tute" ummmm excuse me?? "tute" is short for tutorial, which is a session where students go and ask questions, and refresh their memory on the past lecture. I thought this was pretty funny. They like to shorten words, much like the term uni (short for university) they say brekky for breakfast, and Mackers for Mcdonalds. There are so many other fun terms I've learned, but I'm spacing them at the moment. I'll make sure to write them down next time I hear them, so I can pass it along. Now if any of you fellow readers ever come to Aussie you'll be pros at their lingo.

Mel and Jacob are trying to teach us how to speak "Aussie" and Brandon and I are teaching them how to speak "American". They think we say our "r's" funny, and that we lengthen our words out more than them. I'm trying my best to acquire the Australian accent, but so far it is just coming out British sounding.. but with some good coaching, hopefully I'll make some improvements. They also think Americans have amazing teeth. lol

Miss you all. have a lovely weekend!!!

Bushwalking through Kings Park

Brandon had meetings all day today, and I had the day free from orientation, so in a search of something to do to pass the time, I decided to take a walk up to Kings Park. It is about a thirty minute walk from our hotel. It was a perfect way to spend my afternoon. I was able to walk through the beautiful Botanic Gardens, and familiarize myself with some of the local plants and animals that live in the bush, as well as get an amazing view of the city. Great view of Perth; such a beautiful city!

Ipod check, sunscreen check, sunglasses check.... ready for bushwalking

The bushwalking begins.... This is a loop trail that goes all around Kings Park. The loop didn't have the best directions, and at one point I wasn't sure which way to go and ended up literally in the bush. I was all of a sudden on a dirt trail scrambling through the bushes, searching for the way out. This may be sound like an adventure... but knowing what I know now about dangerous creatures in the bush, I wasn't too thrilled. I am currently reading In a Sunburned Country, by Bill Bryson, which is a humerus account of his experience traveling through Australia. (I highly recommend it) Although this book tends to dramatize things, it still has left me slightly paranoid... As I was walking through the bush, all I could think about was Bill Brysons account of all the deadly creatures that live there. In Bill Brysons words, "Out of the worlds ten most poisonous snakes, all are Australian. Five of it's creatures the funnel web spider, box jelly fish, blue ringed octopus, paralysis tick, and stonefish are the most lethal of their type in the world. If you are not stung or pronged to death in some unexpected manner, you may be fatally chomped by sharks or crocodiles, or carried helplessly out to sea by irresistible currents, or left to stagger to an unhappy death in the baking outback... it's a tough place." So Although I knew I was safe from any aquatic creatures at this point, I was very cautious at to where I was walking on the trail, to make sure I didn't run across a friendly snake sunning itself on a nearby rock (which has happened to me before in Salt Lake.)

Beautiful view of South Perth


This was my favorite part of Kings Park; a walk in the treetops. It had amazing views of the city!

Walking in the trees!

Another beautiful view of the swan river and city.

Tomorrow... Kayaking! :)

We miss you all so much! We are having a blast, but wish our family and friends were here with us to share the experience.

Freemantle

On Saturday morning we took a boat tour up the swan river to Freemantle. Freemantle is a cute beach side town, that has a lot of personality. Freemantle is the "hang out" place for young people on the weekends. There are fun shops and restaurants up and down the beach. There are tons of people out surfing, sun bathing, walking their dogs, and enjoying the warm weather.

For lunch we went to a restaurant on the beach called Little Creatures. Rebecca from Executive Step (the woman helping us find a place to rent in Perth) highly recommended it, so we thought we'd give it a try. It's a popular brewery in town, known for having the best beer, and great food. Although we did not try the beer the food was great! We ordered oysters as an appetizer, which I took a picture of because I thought they looked pretty cool.

One thing we have learned about Australia is that coffee and alcohol is a huge part of their culture. There are coffee shops everywhere, and Australians are very particular about their coffee. I was told by an Australian that Australia has the best coffee in the world. Perth is also known for their wine... So in a way we stick out like a sore thumb since we don't drink coffee or alcohol. The woman probably thought we were pretty strange going into a brewery and ordering water.... but hey this time the water was free, so we were happy about that!
Every weekend Freemantle has a market with fresh spices, fruits, vegetables, and fish. There are also different little booths with people selling homemade things. It reminded me a lot of the flea markets they have in Europe. We bought mango's, nectarines and snapper. (Brandon cooked the snapper tonight and it was delicious!) We really enjoyed Freemantle, and plan on visiting regularly.

Things are going great on our end. We are just trying to get in the groove of things. I started orientation on Monday, a two week process (love how relaxed the Aussies are over here), and Brandon started work on Monday as well. Brandon has been doing orientation and leadership training and is loving his job so far. I am having a good time going to Uni (this is what they call university.... they don't say "college" I said "college" once and they looked at me like I was a crazy American.) Today I went to a presentation called creating connections... which basically taught me how to communicate with people, make friends and avoid isolation. Phew glad I didn't miss that presentation or I'd be in BIG trouble. Tomorrow there will be a presentation on Australian culture, and then booths around campus to sign up for different clubs. It's all pretty relaxed so far.. it will be interesting to see what uni is like when I actually start my classes. I met a girl from Canada who will be in the program with me... Yay we'll both have accents together. I also met a girl from Singapore who told me her friend from China is doing her masters at Curtin in Speech Language Pathology.. looks like we'll have a pretty diverse class.

That's all for now!

Curtin University

On Thursday Brandon and I took a bus to Curtin University, to meet my advisor and walk around the campus. I start orientation on Monday! I was informed that orientation goes for two weeks, so I won't actually be starting classes until March 1st. That's good I suppose, it gives me more time to relax and ease into things before school starts. The campus is so beautiful. There are huge trees and plants everywhere... There seems to be a lot of student activities, so I'm looking forward to getting involved. Here are some pictures of the campus!

The library is off to the right in this picture

This picture was taken from the Library Cafe overlooking the campus

Me with my orientation papers! yipee

Perth

We finally made it to Perth, after thirty or so hours of traveling... we are definitely as far away as you can possibly get. We left on Feb. 8 @ 5:00 pm and arrived in Perth on Feb. 10 @ 12:00 pm. In the process of traveling we lost a whole day, to us Feb. 9th never existed. We are still trying to recover from jetlag. It is a 15 hour time difference in Perth from Utah.
Perth is amazing! It is such a beautiful city. It has a very European/America feel. There are cute little shops all up and down the streets, and people walking every where. Our hotel is located in the heart of downtown Perth, which is pretty neat. It is fun to watch all the people busseling to work. Nobody drives to work here, because it is too expensive to park. Everyone either takes public transportation, rides their bikes or walks to work. People in Australia seem to be very outdoorsy. The pictures below are of a running trail that wraps around the swan river, a five minute walk from our hotel. From morning to evening it is full of people running and riding bikes. This inspired us to be more active, so yesterday morning and this morning we went running. we are definitely out of shape, and the climate difference doesn't help. We have gone from freezing temperatures and snow, to 90-100 degree weather with high humidity. This morning I went running at around 7:00 am, which you would think would be early enough to avoid the heat, not so my friends... I went running for an hour, nearly passed out from heat stroke and came back with a sunburn. ha The Aussies are out there running all hours of the day, and it doesn't seem to phase them, so apparently we're just not acclimatized yet.
Today we went on a tour around Perth and looked at some areas to rent. Our favorites areas are South Perth, Como, and Applecross. They are close to Curtin University, and to Brandons office. We also saw an LDS church in Como!
We love Perth! We are having a great time immersing ourselves in Australian culture and exploring this beautiful city. In the short three days we've been here, we have learned some valuable lessons. 1. how are you going, means how are you? 2. Do not ask for water at a restaurant. They do not serve tap water here, and it will cost you a shiny penny for bottled water. We spent $16.00 dollars in bottled water the other night when we went out to dinner, yes you read right, $16.00. When we got the check all we could do was laugh... definitely won't fall for that again. 3. The whole town shuts down at 6:00pm, seriously. If you need some milk from the store, and it's 6:05 you are tough out of luck. They do this because they want people to go home to their families.
Well that is all for now. More pictures to come!
Miss you all

View of Perth and the Swan river

Swan River

Down town Perth