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!